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Eastern Approaches To Altered States Of Consciousness, Jonathan Shear

Philosophy Publications

Eastern civilizations have traditionally placed much greater emphasis on altered states of consciousness than the civilizations of the West. Altered, "higher" states are crucial to the major Eastern religions. They play an important role in the practice and content of cultural activities from poetry, painting, and dance to traditional martial arts throughout much of Asia. And their existence is taken for granted, and often emphasized, in popular mythology. So it is only natural that Eastern civilizations over the centuries have paid a great deal of attention to analyzing the nature of these states and developing techniques to produce them as …