ABSTRACT
Ancient art, artifacts and texts provide hints of the human penchant to affect one’s own state of consciousness. This is not surprising, considering the suggestive evidence that prehistoric humans (and various non-human animals) engaged in mind-altering activities, some of which were central for later cultural developments. To better understand altered consciousness in antiquity, a multi-pronged, interdisciplinary approach is needed. This chapter introduces some of the current psychological and neurocognitive theories and findings about various types of alterations of consciousness, which can vary from one individual to the next and are anything but static. Topics of discussion include the importance of clarifying terminology and distinguishing between different varieties of altered consciousness and their characteristics, the role of personality and cognitive individual differences in determining who is more likely to experience altered consciousness, and the dynamic changes that can occur even within the same experience.
