Some years ago I myself made some observations on this aspect of nitrous oxide intoxication, and reported them in print. One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time, and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.
We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question…
from James, W. (1902, 1982). The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Penguin.
Krippner (1972) identified 19 states of consciousness in addition to the everyday, waking state:
– the dreaming state
– the sleeping state
– the hypnogogic state
– the hypnopompic state
– the hyperalert state
– the lethargic state
– states of rapture
– states of hysteria
– states of fragmentation
– regressive states
– meditative states
– trance states
– reverie
– the daydreaming state
– internal scanning
– stupor
– coma
– stored memory
– expanded conscious states (e.g., peak experience, satori (bliss), cosmic consciousness, union, mystical consciousness)
What other alternative states might we add?
– absorbed states
– epileptic aura and absence
– “locked in” states
– minimally conscious state
from McGovern, K. (2022, January 12). Perception, Attention, and Consciousness. Cognition and Emotion – Winter 2022, Wright Institute.
Krippner, S., Hickman, J., Auerhahn, N., & Harris, R. (1972). Clairvoyant perception of target material in three states of consciousness. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 35(2), 439–446.
Matthew M. Sholler, Psy.D. 
