This paper introduces the background to the debate addressed by the papers of this Special Issue of Pragmatics & Cognition. Starting with a definition of consciousness it traces some ways in which the term is applied; from clinical medicine, where it relates somewhat crudely to responsiveness to external stimuli, to more cognitive and philosophical aspects such as higher order consciousness and...
FOR MANY YEARS several pharmacologically similar drugs—lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25), psilocybin, and mescaline, among others—have been of special scientific interest. In volunteer subjects, they have been known to produce a variety of intense and unusual psychic effects. These include bizarre visual phenomena, ranging from a heightening of the apparent brightness or beauty of colored...