ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the twentieth century, William James noted that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted by it from the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are all there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their fields of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question-for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness.
