Charles T. Tart (April 29, 1937 – March 5, 2025) was an American psychologist and parapsychologist known for his psychological work on the nature of consciousness (particularly altered states of consciousness), as one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology, and for his research in parapsychology.

Life and career

Charles Tart was born on April 29, 1937, in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. He was active in amateur radio and worked as a radio engineer (with a First Class Radiotelephone License from the Federal Communications Commission) while a teenager. As an undergraduate, Tart first studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before transferring to Duke University to study psychology under J. B. Rhine. He received his PhD in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963, and then completed postdoctoral research in hypnosis under Ernest R. Hilgard at Stanford University. He supported Joseph McMoneagle's claim of having remote viewed into the past, present, and future, and having predicted future events.

As well as a laboratory researcher, Tart was a student of the Japanese martial art of Aikido (in which he holds a black belt), of meditation, of George Gurdjieff's work, of Buddhism, and of other psychological and spiritual growth disciplines. Tart believes that the evidence of the paranormal is bringing science and spirit together. His primary goal is to build bridges between the scientific and spiritual communities, and to help bring about a refinement and integration of Western and Eastern approaches for knowing the world and for personal and social growth.

In his 1986 book Waking Up, he introduced the phrase "consensus trance" to the lexicon. Tart likened normal waking consciousness to hypnotic trance. He discussed how each of us is from birth inducted to the trance of the society around us. Tart noted both similarities and differences between hypnotic trance induction and consensus trance induction. He emphasized the enormous and pervasive power of parents, teachers, religious leaders, political figures, and others to compel induction. Referring to the work of Gurdjieff and others he outlines a path to awakening based upon self-observation.

Tart died at home on March 5, 2025, at the age of 87.

OBE experiment

In 1968, Tart conducted an Out-of-body experience (OBE) experiment with a subject known as Miss Z for four nights in his sleep laboratory. Miss Z was attached to an EEG machine and a five-digit code was placed on a shelf above her bed. She did not claim to see the number on the first three nights but on the fourth gave the number correctly.

During the experiment Tart monitored the equipment in the next room, behind an observation window, however, he admitted he had occasionally dozed during the night. The psychologists Leonard Zusne and Warren Jones have written that the possibility of the subject having obtained the number through ordinary sensory means was not ruled out during the experiment. For example, when light fell on the code it was reflected from the surface of a clock located on the wall above the shelf. The subject was not constantly observed and it was also suggested she may have read the number when she was being attached to the EEG machine. Martin Gardner has written the experiment was not evidence for an OBE and suggested that whilst Tart was "snoring behind the window, Miss Z simply stood up in bed, without detaching the electrodes, and peeked." Susan Blackmore wrote: "If Miss Z had tried to climb up, the brain-wave record would have showed a pattern of interference. And that was exactly what it did show."

The experiment was not repeated at the laboratory. Tart wrote this was because Miss Z moved from the area where the laboratory was located.

Reception

Tart drew criticism from the scientific community for his comments on a failed psychokinesis (PK) experiment. The targets from the random number generator that were used in the experiment were not random. Tart responded by claiming the nonrandomness was due to a PK effect. Terence Hines has written that a procedural flaw in the experiment itself was used by Tart as evidence for psi and that

this is an example of the use of a nonfalsifiable hypothesis in parapsychology.

In 1980, Tart claimed that a rejudging of the transcripts from one of Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff’s remote viewing experiments revealed an above-chance result. Targ and Puthoff refused to provide copies of the transcripts and it was not until July 1985 that they were made available for study when it was discovered they still contained sensory cues. The psychologist David Marks and Christopher Scott (1986) wrote "considering the importance for the remote viewing hypothesis of adequate cue removal, Tart’s failure to perform this basic task seems beyond comprehension. As previously concluded, remote viewing has not been demonstrated in the experiments conducted by Puthoff and Targ, only the repeated failure of the investigators to remove sensory cues."

Tart has also been criticized by the skeptic Robert Todd Carroll for ignoring Occam's razor (advocating the paranormal instead of naturalistic explanations) and for ignoring the known laws of physics.

Tart's book about marijuana On Being Stoned has received mixed reviews. Harris Chaiklin wrote that the book rejected medical evidence and laboratory experiments in favor for the opinions of marijuana users and probability statistics were inappropriately used.

In 1981, Tart received the James Randi Educational Foundation Media Pigasus Award "for discovering that the further in the future events are, the more difficult it is to predict them."

Publications

  • Altered States of Consciousness (1969), editor.
  • Transpersonal Psychologies (1975)
  • On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study of Marijuana Intoxication (1971)
  • States of Consciousness (1975)
  • Symposium on Consciousness (1975) With P. Lee, R. Ornstein, D. Galin & A. Deikman
  • Learning to Use Extrasensory Perception (1976)
  • Psi: Scientific Studies of the Psychic Realm (1977)
  • Mind at Large: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Symposia on the Nature of Extrasensory Perception (1979, with Harold E. Puthoff and Russell Targ)
  • Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential (1986)
  • Open Mind, Discriminating Mind: Reflections on Human Possibilities (1989)
  • Living the Mindful Life (1994)
  • Body Mind Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality (1997)
  • Mind Science: Meditation Training for Practical People (2001)
  • States of Consciousness (2001).
  • The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together (2009)

Awards

  • Distinguished Contributions to Scientific Hypnosis, The Society of Psychological Hypnosis (Division 30 of the American Psychological Association), 2001.
  • Abraham Maslow Award (given to an individual for an outstanding and lasting contribution to the exploration of the farther reaches of human spirit), The Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32 of APA), 2004.
  • Charles Honorton Integrative Contributions Award, Parapsychological Association, 2008.

References

  • Charles T. Tart, Home Page and Consciousness Library Online
  • T.A.S.T.E. Online journal of transcendent experiences that scientists have reported.

<!--* Biographical information, as well as the text of many of Professor Tart’s publications. This link is commented out because as of 9-15-2011 it is reported by Google as downloading dangerous software into a visitor's computer -->

  • Full text of selected articles by and about Tart
  • Professor Tart's blog

Audio interviews

  • Audio Interview Series on Buddhist Geeks
  • Renée Scheltema's film "Something Unknown" (2009) features interviews with Charles Tart