This essay explores two questions: what happened to the interest in psi and anthropology that led to the founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC), and what is the relationship between the anthropology of consciousness and transpersonal psychology. The answers provide insight into SAC's historical origins and its relationship with the Association for Transpersonal Psychology.
The founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC) arose from a cultural and intellectual heritage, particularly a series of 1974 symposia that confronted the challenge posed by Carlos Castaneda. Castaneda argued that understanding the shamanic worldview requires becoming a shaman, because much of it is experiential and cannot be conveyed by an informant. Two central insights from his thesis are relevant to SAC: an aspect of human consciousness exists independent of time and space and is subject to volitional control, and all life forms are interconnected. The SAC represents a Kuhnian response to the reassessment Castaneda forced on anthropology.