Symposium on Consciousness

SOME REFLECTIONS ON MY — Symposium on Consciousness. New York: Viking Press, 1975 (With Lee, P., Ornstein, R., Galin, D., & Deikman, A.). (Not currently listed on Amazon)

Symposium on Consciousness (book cover front)

There still weren’t many scientists and academics interested in altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in the 1970s, but the tide was flowing and growing.  My 1969 Altered States book helped a lot.  Some people mistakenly credit me with coming up with the term altered states of consciousness: it was two of the chapter contributors to the Altered States book, but the book did spread the ASC term through the culture, and courses were started on ASCs in colleges and universities now that a textbook, the ASC book, was available.  Symposium on Consciousness is another breakthrough as my colleagues Robert Ornstein, David Galin and Arthur Deikman and I were able to give lectures on ASCs to an overflow crowd at the heart of the establishment, the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Ornstein discussed how to create a science of consciousness, Galin reported on the fascinating findings with split brain patients apparently having two relatively independent minds, Ornstein and Galin noted physiological clues underlying consciousness, and Deikman presented his pioneering analysis of bimodal consciousness and the mystic experience.  Still all highly relevant to understanding the mind…

– CTT

Symposium on Consciousness (book cover back)
Symposium on Consciousness (book cover back)