THE SHAMAN’S MIND
One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is that our normal consciousness, rational consciousness, is but one special type of consciousness whilst all round it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence, but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question—for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open regions though they fail to give a map.
—William James 177