This book seeks to foster the debate about how altered states of consciousness (ASC) are investigated, interpreted, and applied across diverse healing traditions and contemporary clinical settings. Bringing together scholars from psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, anthropology, religious studies, philosophy, semiotics, and hypnosis research, the volume addresses the methodological, epistemological, and cultural challenges involved in studying subjective and transformative experiences. The chapters explore a wide range of phenomena, including hypnosis, trance, mediumship, anomalous experiences, sleep-related experiences, psychedelics, spiritual healing practices, and psychotherapeutic interventions. Contributors critically examine qualitative, mixed methods, neurophenomenological, ethnographic, phenomenological, semiotic, and clinical research approaches, highlighting both their strengths and limitations. Rather than seeking a single explanatory model, the volume advances a pluralistic framework for the study of consciousness and healing. Particular attention is given to the relationships among subjective experience, cultural context, embodiment, meaning-making, therapeutic change, and scientific inquiry. Across philosophical, clinical, and community-based perspectives, the contributors consider how methodological choices shape what can be known about altered states and their relevance for health and wellbeing. By fostering dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, Altered States of Consciousness and Healing: Methodological Approaches provides a contemporary overview of methodological issues in consciousness studies and offers researchers, clinicians, and graduate students a critical resource for investigating altered states of consciousness, spirituality, hypnosis, healing practices, and related phenomena in both clinical and cultural contexts.
