22/09/2026
Kviečiame dalyvauti paskaitoje!
„Why do spirits possess some of us, and leave others alone? Why do some of us see visions, while others never will?” Moving Beyond the Doors of Perception: How Cultures Inspire and Explain Extraordinary Experiences
The VMU Centre for Social Anthropology (Faculty of Social Sciences), the V. Kavolis Transdisciplinary Research Institute and Choreomundus (Faculty of Humanities) invite you to a public lecture „Why do spirits possess some of us, and leave others alone? Why do some of us see visions, while others never will?” Moving Beyond the Doors of Perception: How Cultures Inspire and Explain Extraordinary Experiences by Prof. Dr. John R. Baker (Moorpark College, USA; President of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness).
Date – 30 October 2026 at 3 PM.
Language – English.
Venue: Room 103, V. Putvinskio str. 23, Kaunas.
About the lecture
For over a century, anthropologists have been investigating the ways in which cultures induce, suppress, and interpret different states of consciousness. While early studies were largely limited to providing (often skeptical) descriptions of such phenomena as trance, visions, and possession states, later work has focused on accepting these experiences as real and understanding them as expressions of our biology and psychology. Just as some people may have „natural” athletic abilities and others may be musically „gifted,” it seems reasonable to expect that some individuals may be prone to visions while others are not.
Just as our cultures provide guidelines and explanations for what we should eat, how we should structure our families, and what the world means, cultures also provide explanations for extraordinary experiences. But which came first: the experiences or the explanations? To address this question, we shall consider the example of Carlos Castaneda, the controversial figure whose „anthropological” writings appealed to a generation in search of new meaning.
We will also address some deeper questions as well: Why do cultures differ so profoundly in the states of consciousness they encourage, prohibit, or simply ignore? What can the anthropological study of perception and consciousness tell us about „reality”? And why does a discipline devoted to human diversity keep returning to the question of what makes us all alike?
The lecture is open to everyone — no background in anthropology required.
About Prof. Dr. John R. Baker
John R. Baker, Dr. phil. (Universität Hamburg, Germany), is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Moorpark College, California, and President of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, a section of the American Anthropological Association. Co-author of Supernatural as Natural: A Biocultural Approach to the Study of Religion (2010), he has spent four decades exploring consciousness, rituals, and religion in various cultures.
This event is one of the activities of the project “Strengthening of R&D activities of the Vytautas Kavolis Transdisciplinary Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities (SOCMTEP)”. The project is financed by the Research Council of Lithuania and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of the Republic of Lithuania, contract no. S-A-UEI-23-13 (12/27/2023).
