Courses

During the 2024–25 academic year, I am teaching the following courses:

Fall Semester 2024–25

Psychology 2011a Section 570: Altered States of Consciousness. Introduction to altered states of consciousness. Reading Alterations of Consciousness (2nd edition). In-person only, in-class tests.

Psychology 3177F Section 650: Consciousness. We spend much of the time in this course establishing the nonlocal properties of consciousness so as to have an adequate evidential basis for trying to understand the nature of consciousness. Reading Transcendent Mind and Radical Transformation. Online only, weekly essays.

Psychology 3120F Section 650: Altered States of Consciousness: Selected Topics. The selected topic is death as an altered state of consciousness. Reading Death as an Altered State of Consciousness. Online only, weekly essays.

Winter Semester 2024–25

Psychology 3120G Section 570: Altered States of Consciousness: Selected Topics. The selected topic is death as an altered state of consciousness. Reading Death as an Altered State of Consciousness. In-person only, weekly quizzes.

Psychology 3772G Section 650: Psychology of Religion and Spirituality: Selected Topics. We start off by considering religion and spirituality in a scientific light. One important early lesson will be about authenticity and the tendency toward compliance. We will look at the notion of inner wisdom and then the idea of transcendence, that it is possible to rise above the human condition. That's when it gets crazy, because Jeffery Martin found ways to use mental exercises and meditation to induce states of enlightenment. We will consider what those states are like. One of my thesis students checked to see whether or not the people who have completed his training program really are in transcendent states of consciousness. The answer is yes. We will read her paper, as well as a technical paper by Jeffery, in addition to a more readable book by him. But it gets crazier. There are ways of using sonic sculpting, i.e., transcranial ultrasound, in order to achieve those states. So we will look at the booming trans tech movement. This will include a look at the currently popular use of ayahuasca, an Amazonian psychedelic, to achieve similar states. Then I bring this all back down to the ground with Steve Taylor's new book The Adventure: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Awakening, which provides a practical approach to transcendent states of consciousness. Online only, weekly essays.