Altering Consciousness: Volume 1

Altering Consciousness: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Volume 1: History, Culture, and the Humanities.
Editors: Etzel Cardenas & Michael Winkelman.
Praeger. 2011. ISBN: 9780313383083
 
Altering Consciousness, Volume 1 is the first of a two-volume scholarly survey on altered states of consciousness. It focuses on altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in historical, cultural, and humanistic contexts rather than on biological or strictly psychological mechanisms.  It brings together international contributors to examine how ASCs have been understood and used across different epochs, societies, and symbolic systems, often as stable and meaningful states rather than mere epiphenomena or pathology. The chapters address ASCs as they appear in:

• History and evolution of human societies (e.g., prehistoric ritual, ancient divination, religious movements).
• Culture and ritual practices such as shamanism, ceremonial rites, drumming, dance, and trance.
• The humanities, including literature, philosophy, and the visual and performance arts, exploring how altered consciousness shapes symbolic expression and meaning-making.

Illustratively, the volume situates experiences like visionary trance or mystical union alongside artistic creation, showing how both can be read as culturally patterned explorations of non-ordinary states.
 
Etzel Cardeña
Etzel Cardeña (born 9 November 1957) is a Mexican-born psychologist who holds the Thorsen Chair in psychology (including parapsychology and hypnosis) at Lund University, Sweden.  He directs the Centre for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP), where his work focuses on anomalous experiences, altered states of consciousness, dissociation, trauma, and their neurophenomenology.
 
Cardeña completed his initial studies at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico, then an MA in clinical psychology at York University in Canada, followed by an MA and PhD in personality psychology at the University of California, Davis, with postdoctoral work at Stanford University.  He has served as president of the Society of Psychological Hypnosis (APA Division 30), the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, and the Parapsychological Association, and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.  His publications exceed 300 works, including the edited volumes Varieties of Anomalous Experience and the two-volume Altering Consciousness, and his contributions have received numerous academic awards.  Alongside his academic work, he has also been active as a theatre director, actor, and writer in Mexico, the United States, and Sweden.
 
Michael Winkelman
Michael Winkelman is a medical and psychological anthropologist whose work centres on shamanism, altered states of consciousness, and traditional healing systems.  He received his BA from Rice University (1976), his PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Irvine (1985), and an MPH in community health practice from the University of Arizona (2002).  Winkelman has been a faculty member in anthropology at Arizona State University, serving as Associate Professor (later retired) in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and directing ethnographic field schools in Mexico.
 
His research integrates neurotheological and psychophysiological perspectives on shamanism, ritual, magico-religious healing, and intercultural relations, with a regional focus on North America and Mesoamerica.  Winkelman has authored several books, including Shamans, Priests and Witches, Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing, and works on ethnic relations and culture and health, which collectively argue for the evolutionary and biopsychosocial significance of shamanic and other altered-state practices.