What is the highest state of consciousness? St. Paul called it “the peace that passeth understanding” and R. M. Bucke named it “cosmic consciousness.” In Zen Buddhism, the term for it is satori or kensho, while in yoga it is samadhi or moksha, and in Taoism, “the absolute Tao.” Thomas Merton used the phrase “transcendental unconscious” to describe it; Abraham Maslow coined the term “peak experience”; Sufis speak of fana. Gurdjieff labeled it “objective consciousness” while the Quakers call it “the Inner Light.” Jung referred to individuation, and Buber spoke of the I-Thou relationship.

In this anthology John White brings together a diverse collection of writings by contemporary thinkers such as Aldous Huxley, P.D. Ouspensky, Alan Watts, Kenneth Wapnick, Richard Maurice Bucke, Abraham Maslow, and many more, and asks the question; What is the Highest State of Consciousness?

1. Altered States of Consciousness
STANLEY KRIPPNER

2. The Search for Ecstasy 
From MIND ALIVE

3.  The Supra-Conscious State
KENNETH WALKER

4. States of Consciousness
ROGER W. WESCOTT

5. Visionary Experience
ALDOUS HUXLEY

6. The Perennial Philosophy
ALDOUS HUXLEY

7. From Self to Cosmic Consciousness
RICHARD M. BUCKE

8. Self-Transcendence and Beyond
ROBERT S. DE ROPP

9. Transcendental Experience
R. D. LAING

10. Mystical States and the Concept of Regression
RAYMOND PRINCE and CHARLES SAVAGE

11. The Mystical Experience: Facts and Values
CLAIRE MYERS OWENS

12. Mysticism and Schizophrenia
KENNETH WAPNICK

13. On Creative, Psychotic and Ecstatic States
ROLAND FISCHER

14. Psychotherapy and Liberation
ALAN W. WATTS

15. Zen Buddhism: A Psychological Review
EDWARD W. MAUPIN

16. The Psychology of Mysticism
U. A. ASRANI

17.The Ecstasy of Breaking-Through in the Experience of Meditation
LAMA ANAGARIKA GOVINDA

18.Drugs and Mysticism
WALTER N. PAHNKE

19. LSD and Mystical Experiences
G. RAY JORDAN, JR.

20. Transcendental Meditation
STUDENTS INTERNATIONAL MEDITATION SOCIETY
and DEMETRI P. KANELLAKOS

21. The Experimental Induction of Religious-Type Experiences
JEAN HOUSTON and ROBERT E. L. MASTERS

22. Meditation and Biofeedback
DURAND KIEFER

23. Trance Dance
ERIKA BOURGUIGNON

24. Transpersonal Potentialities of Deep Hypnosis
CHARLES T. TART

25. The “Core-Religious” or “Transcendent” Experience
ABRAHAM MASLOW

26. In Search of the Miraculous
P. D. OUSPENSKY

27. Introduction to the Tao Te Ching
ARTHUR WALEY

28. Death and Renewal
RICHARD WILHELM

29. The Resurrection of the Body
NORMAN O. BROWN

30. The Mystic Union: A Suggested Biological Interpretation
ALEXANDER MAVEN

31. This Is It
ALAN W. WATTS

32. From The Magus
JOHN FOWLES

33. Postscript: Psychical Research in Relation
to Higher States of Consciousness
W. G. ROLL

JOHN WHITE is an internationally known author in the fields of consciousness research and higher human development. He has authored 15 books, including The Meeting of Science and Spirit, A Practical Guide to Death and Dying, Pole Shift and the forthcoming Enlightenment 101. He was also General Editor of Omega Books (published by Paragon House), which is devoted to works about the nature of ultimate reality and higher human development.

His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Reader’s Digest, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Esquire, Omni and San Francisco Chronicle.

John was born in 1939, served four years as a naval officer, was director of education at The Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, to study the human mind for personal and planetary transformation. Holds a bachelors from Dartmouth (1961), a masters from Yale (1969), and taught English and journalism at college levels.  He and his wife Barbara have been married for more than 50 years. They have four children and five grandchildren and live in Cheshire, Conn., USA