States of Consciousness

This is a classic, and has been one of the most important books on states of consciousness for 30 years. It is (to my limited knowledge) the first serious work on this subject, and one that launched an entire new field of science.Altered states of consciousness

This book was written in the 1970s and is very dated and not useful for a description of conscious states. Much needed updates in psychology, neurobiology, philosophy, and transmitter chemistry should have been made to this book to improve its outlook and make it more appealing to younger, more educated audiences with more advanced backgrounds in neuroscience.

This book contains an amazing amount of 'food for contemplation' for anyone trying to grapple with questions regarding consciuosness. Although this 'field' has lots of material devoted to it, Tart combines a Western (rational and scientific) approach with hands-on knowledge of experimentation. To any high-level practitioner of 'internal arts' such as Taoist meditation there should be many sections in this book. Particularly relevant are the sections on the systems approach as well as his diagrams of the mind in general. There is an inherent simplicity in his scientific explanations that is quite elegant. To an advanced practitioner, the explanations are grounding and relatively satisfying for explaining the purely cognitive state one may attain from practice. Excellent and sure to be widely referenced in the future.

Mr. Tart has again written a most facinating work on a most facinating topic: our consciousness and it's path of evolution. Any person, regardless of past experience with the topic, will find this book a focused and rather addictive piece of literature. You'll learn a lot, so it's well worth your time to pick up a copy and jump in.