"The Altered Animal" by David Peña-Guzmán (San Francisco State University)

Abstract: Interest in altered states of consciousness (ASCs) dates back at least 30,000 years, when our ancestors made use of music, dance, ritual, and psychoactive plants to alter their experience of the world and, in the words of William James, revamp their “accounts with reality.” This ability of the human mind to bring about its own dis-location has even been hailed by some philosophers and anthropologists as the key to our “humanity,” the secret to our more-than-animal essence. The problem with this humanist view of ASCs is that nonhuman animals are no strangers to mind alteration. From dreaming to hallucinations, and from perceptual illusions to the use of naturally occurring psychoactive compounds, many nonhuman animals alter the parameters of their own experience. In this presentation, we will consider the significance of nonhuman ASCs, paying attention to intentionally as well as unintentionally triggered ASCs. What do nonhuman ASCs teach us about the nonhuman psyche? And how might contemporary theories of animal consciousness have to change in order to give a better account of the varied accounts other animals have with reality?