Introduction

Abstract

During the past few years there has been growing interest in psychological concepts and phenomena such as samādhi, satori, meditation, gurus, and others which originated in such Eastern traditions as Yoga and Zen Buddhism. In the West, Yoga is no longer restricted to exercises at the Y.M.C.A., to such popular movements as Transcendental Meditation, or to a few secluded Ashrams run by “gurus” imported from the East. Interest in psychological concepts of Eastern origin is spreading among university students and teachers. Systematic theoretical and experimental work is being published in psychological and medical journals ranging from the Journal of Humanistic Psychology to E.E.G. and Clinical Neurophysiology. Charles Tart’s book, Altered States of Consciousness (1969/1972), which includes several papers on meditation and yogic states, has become popular among students of psychology. This book has been followed by another volume edited by Tart (1975), called Transpersonal Psychologies, which brings together contributions on the psychologies of Yoga, Buddhism, and Sufism. Robert Ornstein’s Psychology of Consciousness (1972) represents a serious attempt to integrate concepts from the East into the mainstream of modern psychology.