About
Altered States of History
Altered States of History is an interdisciplinary initiative to explore the role of direct mystical experience in human history and culture. The goal is simple: bring the toolkit of scholarly research beyond the currently prescribed domains of knowledge. Why? Because what we take to be the natural limits of human understanding, are in many ways our own projections onto nature. What makes us human and what makes history is a far richer story than we as academics have so far been able to tell, but we can start to tell it now, with Altered States of History. Isn't it time we really dared to know?
Coming Fall 2026
If you are a researcher working on subject matter that relates in some way to extended consciousness phenomenon, we would love to hear from you. The goal of Altered States of History is to make interesting viewer content based on rigorous academic research and informed speculation. This is a bridge between audiences and academics, but also a way to bring different researchers and research protocols into a single, productive conversation with one reliable standard of knowledge. This is not just a re-examination of history and historical practices; it is a reconsideration of human experience itself - a matter equally for history, anthropology, psychology, the physical sciences, and really, every human being. The point here is not to go around peer review (freely speculating to unsuspecting audiences), but work with it, building redundancy into facts that can be maintained and challenging claims that fail that test. And above all, extending the reach and relevance of secular knowledge. Join the cause and the conversation. Let us know what you are working on!
If you have had an experience and are willing to share your first-hand account, please email. Your information will be made available to researchers whose area of study intersects with the phenomenon you describe. Additionally, you may be invited to appear in an Altered States of History production. Any documentation you can provide, or potentially provide, increases the potential research utility of your experience. However, anything shared with integrity is of value. We all know someone who experienced something somewhere sometime etc. etc. - but how do we take these atomized anecdotes and aggregate them into something more like a solid body of evidence? By working together. Your submission can either be archived privately (available only to researchers) or publicly (available to any visitors to the website) per your request and your identity will be withheld from all published materials. Reach out!