Introduction

The study of consciousness is currently popular, trying to put human experience into more concrete, cogent, less poetic and metaphorical terms. More than 2000 publications can be found in PsychLit journals, Journals, such as Journal of Consciousness Studies and Consciousness and Cognition have appeared and many books in this area have recently been published. The University of Arizona has an Institute of Consciousness Studies, organising conferences which attract large numbers of participants and a new section for Consciousness and Experiential Psychology has just been established within the British Psychological Association. Consciousness cannot be defined in isolation from the body, and vice versa. Concepts of the mind–body relationship are vital in assessing theories of acting, because the body has increasingly been regarded as the actor’s main tool of training and of influencing an audience.