What is it about?
Altered states of consciousness are hard to classify. This article reviews a new system that organizes them without oversimplifying. It shows that these experiences overlap in meaningful ways, offering clues about how consciousness works.
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Why is it important?
This work is timely because many people across science, medicine, and culture are trying to understand unusual states of consciousness - from meditation and hypnosis to psychedelics and spiritual experiences. Yet researchers have lacked a shared language to describe them. What makes this contribution important is that it analysis a recently proposed common framework that brings order to a very messy field without oversimplifying it. It helps different disciplines talk to each other, compare findings, and build cumulative knowledge. At the same time, it brings a new perspective by acknowledging that altered states don’t fit neatly into fixed boxes, which is exactly why they can teach us something essential about how consciousness works.
Perspectives
For me, the value lies in creating a shared foundation that different disciplines can actually build on when dealing with nonordinary or altered states of consciousness, while still honoring the ambiguity that makes these experiences so fascinating.
Dr. Alexander A Fingelkurts
BM-Science
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Can we really taxonomize the nonordinary? Reflections on a consensus classification for altered states of consciousness., Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice, February 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/cns0000459.
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