Tracing evidence of mind-altering substances across a diverse range of ancient cultures, this collection explores how and why past civilizations harvested, manufactured, and consumed drugs. Case studies examine the use of stimulants, narcotics, and depressants by hunter-gatherers who roamed Africa and Eurasia, prehistoric communities in North and South America, and Maya kings and queens. Offering perspectives from many different fields of study, contributors illustrate the wide variety of sources and techniques that can provide information about materials that are often invisible to archaeologists. They use advanced biomolecular procedures to identity alkaloids and resins on cups, pipes, and other artifacts. They interpret paintings on vases and discuss excavations of breweries and similar sites. Uncovering signs of drugs including ayahuasca, peyote, ephedra, cannabis, tobacco, yaupon, vilca, and maize and molle beer, they explain how psychoactive substances were integral to interpersonal relationships, religious practices, and social cohesion in antiquity.

First published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This unique book is the first of two volumes that describe a new, transpersonal model for therapeutic work on dreams. Dream Sociometry, a form of Integral Deep Listening (IDL) life drama and dream character interviewing, contributes to the fields of application of the sociometric methods of J.L. Moreno and the use of sociometry in therapy, to support and direct personal development. The book describes an experiential, multi-perspectival integral life practice through accessing "emerging potentials," or perspectives that integrate, transcend, and include one's current context and predicament. Dream Sociometry provides a thoroughly phenomenological approach, suspending interpretation as well as assumptions about the reality and usefulness of synchronicities, mystical experiences, waking accidents, dreams, and nightmares, in favour of listening to dream characters and personifications of important life issues in a respectful and integral way. It thereby provides an important doorway to both causal and non-dual awareness by accessing perspectives that personify both, and will open doors for those interested not only in dream research, but in reducing anxiety disorders, such as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorders, and seeing through the often literal and concrete interpretations that we often give both physical and mental illness as well as mystical experiences. Offering a fresh and unique approach to both dreamwork and self-development through sociometric methodologies, this book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of psychodrama, sociometry, group psychotherapy, transpersonal, experiential and action therapies, as well as postgraduate students studying psychology and sociology.

In this engaging book, diverse phenomena associated with death, such as apparent after-death communication and near-death experiences, are examined through a scientific lens and evaluated for the degree to which they offer evidence for the survival of consciousness after death. Is death the end of everything? Is life after death really possible? Considerable scientific support has emerged in recent years for the idea that death is best described as an altered state of consciousness. This survival hypothesis contrasts with predominant materialist thinking, which holds that there is only oblivion upon death. Chapters in this book investigate scientific evidence for mediumship, instrumental transcommunication, near-death experiences, after-death communication, and past-life experiences, among other anomalous death-related occurrences, and a framework is presented for understanding the nature of a potential afterlife. The phenomena described in this book will broaden the perspective of consciousness researchers, and fill an educational need for caregivers, grief counselors, and all who are interested in this understudied and misunderstood area.   

Consciousness concerns awareness and how we experience the world. How does awareness, a feature of the mental world, arise from the physical brain? Is a dog conscious, or a jellyfish, and what explains the difference? How is consciousness related to psychological processes such as perception and cognition? The Science of Consciousness covers the psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience of consciousness. Written for introductory courses in psychology and philosophy, this text examines consciousness with a special emphasis on current neuroscience research as well as comparisons of normal and damaged brains. The full range of normal and altered states of consciousness, including sleep and dreams, hypnotic and meditative states, anesthesia, and drug-induced states, as well as parapsychological phenomena and their importance for the science of consciousness is covered, as well as the 'higher' states and how we can attain them. Throughout the text attempts to relate consciousness to the brain.

Today, hypnotism is recognized as an effective therapeutic tool and its importance is growing. This book shows how hypnotism reached its present status of acceptance, through two centuries of pioneering effort by several fascinating personalities. Special emphasis is placed on the life and work of Dr. Milton H. Erickson, the foremost mid-20th century exponent of hypnotism and the acknowledged father of modern hypnotherapy. This is the first book to provide a thorough narrative and biographical account of hypnotism's progress from 1775 to the present day. In addition to the history of hypnotism from its shamanistic origins to the modern clinical applications of today, this book looks forward to still greater advances in the use of hypnosis for the relieving and blocking of pain, and in enhancing the human immune system.

Straightforward and concise, Clinical Hypnotherapy: A Transpersonal Approach, covers all the bases of hypnotherapy. Learn about altered states of consciousness and the four levels of mind that the great modern mystic, Edgar Cayce, utilized in his readings. Includes information on induction; trance depth; client interview; suggestion; regression; the collective unconscious; the superconscious mind; and past life memories. An ideal body, mind, spirit oriented text for the student of hypnotherapy, or those considering hypnotherapy for themselves. The author has written two other books in holistic health. He lives in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Using Guided Imagery and Hypnosis in Brief Therapy and Palliative Care presents a model for effective single-session therapy. Chapters include more than a dozen case studies with transcripts and commentary. Readers will learn how to use an adapted model of Remen's healing circle for preparing patients for surgery, and guided imagery and other approaches are presented for enhancing palliative care. Extensive appendixes provide a wide variety of valuable tools that psychotherapists can use with clients concerned with end-of-life issues.

When "The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense" was first published in German in 1936 it was at once recognized as a major contribution to psychoanalytic psychology, and its translation into English quickly followed. More than half a century later it enjoys the status of a classic. Written by a pioneer of child analysis, and illustrated by fascinating clinical pictures drawn from childhood and adolescence, it discusses those adaptive measures by which painful and unwanted feeling-states are kept at bay or made more bearable.Anna Freud's arguments have a clarity and cogency reminiscent of her father's and the work is remarkable undated. Nothing stands still, but "The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense" has unmistakably passed the test of time.

This book is a collection of selected writings by Dr. Sidney Rosen that aim to demystify the work of the leading clinical psychiatrist, Dr. Milton Erickson, and illustrate Erickson's unconventional and life-changing hypnotic techniques and strategic therapy. An essential reading for those who seek to learn essential elements of psychotherapy, this collection elucidates fundamental aspects of Erickson's approaches and outlines factors effective in all forms of psychotherapy. It contains core teachings of many central elements in psychotherapy and stresses the importance of techniques such as therapeutic trance and hypnosis. As a student and close friend of Dr. Erickson, Dr. Rosen shares his own personal insights about Erickson's teaching methods in a direct and straightforward manner that allows readers easy access to Ericksonian philosophy and techniques. Many therapists, both psychoanalytic and others, will find both Rosen's and Erickson's approaches compatible with their own and far removed from their preconceptions about hypnosis. Providing guidelines for providers of individual and group therapy, this book is an excellent guide to Ericksonian hypnotherapy.

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Our dreams are the diaries of our lives: as personal and unique as fingerprints, they are a record of our subconscious. More often than not, they are everything we never confess out loud, not even to ourselves. We all sleep every night. We don't always remember what we dreamed about and we almost never wonder why we have these dreams. But dreams can be a map of the things we want in the future, they can cure past neuroses and help us to understand the present. That's why they are so important. That's why they can be critical to our lives. The Book of My Dreams is a personal secret diary. It is a guide to drawing, outlining and identifying the motives and reasons behind the adventures that you experience each night. But mostly, it is like a writing manual that allows you to put down on paper the ultimate diary - one that comes from the fears, desires and joys that inspire your dreams. It also acts as a guide to understanding them and understanding yourself. The Book of My Dreams is unique. Like your dreams. Like you.

Ever dream that you were flying? Or being chased? Do you wake up and wonder 'what did that mean'? Decoding your dreams can offer incredible insight into yourself and your life. Every night, your dreaming mind is gently and subtly counselling, guiding and inspiring you. This journal is the perfect tool to recall and interpret your dreams, giving an incredible opportunity for personal growth. The Dream Decoder Journal gives you instructions and helpful tips on how to recall your dreams, as well as tools to decipher their meanings, including interpretations of 60 of the most common dreams, explaining what your unconscious mind is telling you, and what events or situations in your waking life might inspire certain dreams. This improved self-awareness can be used as a tool to deal with challenging emotional situations or life choices. This book is the companion to Dream Decoder, a set of cards that pairs archetypal dreams with common interpretations. Author Theresa Cheung has been researching and writing about spirituality and personal transformation for over 20 years. She has written two Sunday Times top 10 bestselling books about dream interpretation.

Can problems be solved by setting them aside or by sleeping on them? Incubation, the process of stopping conscious work on problems for a set period of time, is an integral part of the creative problem solving process. Providing an overview of the main issues, findings and implications of cognitive research on incubation effects in problem solving and creativity, this book argues that incubation is an effective strategy for tackling problems that do not yield to initial solution attempts. Gilhooly reasons that unconscious work is automatic and explores the underlying processes involved in incubation, providing evidence to showcase the major role of unconscious processing in problem solving. Incubation in Problem Solving and Creativity concludes with a discussion of the implications of unconscious work theory for enhanced problem solving, positioning incubation as an effective and important stage in creative problem solving. This book is an invaluable resource for students and researchers of problem solving, creativity and thinking and reasoning as well as for students from all disciplines taking problem solving modules.

Presents findings on the effects of hypnosis in reducing anxiety and pain in children with cancer and suggests that hypnotherapy offers real promise of pain relief without drugs.First published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

DO YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT? HAVE YOU TRIED DIETS AND FAILED? DO YOU WANT A COMPLETELY NEW APPROACH? A Gastric Band is a radical, surgical operation that reduces the available space in the stomach. Paul McKenna's Hypnotic Gastric Band is a psychological procedure that can help to convince the unconscious mind that a gastric band has been fitted, so the body behaves exactly as if it were physically present. HOW DOES IT WORK? Along with the book, the system contains a free audio hypnosis session and video download instructions to provide complete support for physical and psychological change whilst you lose weight. There's no physical surgery, no scarring and no forbidden foods. Just follow all the instructions and let Paul help you lose weight.

This book focuses on Free Church pastors in Germany and their perceptions of spirit possession and mental illness. To explore Free Church pastors' understanding of spirit possession and mental illness is critical in light of the overlap of symptoms. Misdiagnosis may result in a client receiving treatment that may not be appropriate. Interviews with Free Church pastors were conducted. The results were analysed and four themes were identified. Based on these interviews conclusions could be drawn which ultimately made it clear that the German free church pastors' theological training needs to be supplemented in the area of psychology and that the pastors are unable to cope in the area of "spirit possession or mental illness".

Big dreams are rare but highly memorable dream experiences that make a strong and lasting impact on the dreamer's waking awareness. Such dreams can include vivid imagery, intense emotions, fantastic characters, bizarre elements of form and content, and an uncanny sense of being connected to forces beyond one's ordinary dreaming mind. These types of dreams have played significant roles in religious and cultural history, and even today people still experience them and find them intriguing and thought-provoking. Because of their infrequent occurrence and fantastical tendencies, however, big dreams have rarely been studied in light of modern science. While we know a great deal about the religious manifestations of big dreams through history and around the world, we have not yet integrated that cross-cultural knowledge with new scientific research on their psychological roots in the brain-mind system. In this volume, Kelly Bulkeley provides the first full-scale cognitive scientific analysis of highly memorable dreams, with an original theory about their formation, function, and meaning. He draws upon evidence from religious studies, psychology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience to build a very specific argument: big dreams are a primal wellspring of religious experience. They represent an innate, neurologically hard-wired capacity of our species that regularly provokes greater self-awareness, creativity, and insight into the existential challenges and spiritual potentials of human life.

Following tenets set out by Milton Erickson, Therapeutic Interventions in Three Sentences: Reshaping Ericksonian Hypnotherapy by Talking to the Brain and Body presents an array of short, effective commands which have been developed for use in connection with a wide range of mental and psychosomatic disorders. Examining in detail the basic building blocks which must be in place in order for someone to send an effective command to his or her sub-conscious mind, the book presents an elegant way of using informal variations of Ericksonian hypnotherapy in awake states and transferring these principles to a variety of therapeutic settings. The methods described follow specific rules derived from hypnotherapy but can be integrated into any other form of counselling or therapy and can be used in short sessions, in telephone consultations and with patients in critical states, as well as conversations of a therapeutic nature by non-therapeutic professionals. The book explains why and how these interventions work, their general structure, and how they can be used to tackle specific needs such as trauma, depression, and anxiety disorders. The book will be of great interest to counsellors, doctors and therapists of different orientations who are looking for therapeutic methods that can be used in short sessions or with patients in critical states, as well as non-therapeutic professionals who engage in conversations of a therapeutic nature, such as social workers, pastors, nurses, carers and teachers (including SEN teachers).

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES, HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND 'It's a trip - engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering' New Statesman 'Fascinating. Pollan is the perfect guide ... curious, careful, open minded' The Guardian Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs - opium, caffeine and mescaline - and throws the fundamental strangeness of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos. In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. This ground-breaking and singular book holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds and our entanglement with the natural world.