"There's much to be said for being open and flexible about examining our own beliefs, any beliefs, testing them rather than letting them become rigid."
Biography
Charles T. Tart, PhD, is one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology. He has had more than 250 articles published in professional journals and books, including lead articles in such prestigious scientific journals as Science and Nature. His two classic books, Altered States of Consciousness (1969) and Transpersonal Psychologies (1975), were widely used texts that were instrumental in allowing these areas to become part of modern psychology. He received his PhD in psychology, with research on influencing night time dreams by posthypnotic suggestions, from the University of North Carolina in 1963, and then received postdoctoral training in hypnosis research at Stanford. He is a Core Faculty Member at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now called Sofia University) in Palo Alto, CA and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Davis campus of the University of California.
He consulted on the original remote viewing research at Stanford Research Institute. His books include On Being Stoned: A Psychological Study of Marijuana Intoxication (1971), and Open Mind, Discriminating Mind: Reflections on Human Possibilities (1989) and Living the Mindful Life (1994). His third mind training book, Mind Science: Meditation Training for Practical People (2001) presents mindfulness training in a way that makes sense for science professionals. His most recent book on using proper science to provide a foundation for spirituality is The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together (2009). He has been a student of Aikido (in which he holds a black belt), of meditation, of Gurdjieff's Fourth Way work, and of Buddhism. 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.
He shares a remarkable experience worth reading, on the AAPS website, part of their archive of transcendent experiences that scientists have reported.
By Charles Tart

The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal Is Bringing Science and Spirit Together
by Charles T Tart
New Harbinger Publications, 2009