TASTE Submissions and Guidelines
Submissions
Scope: Anyone Can Read, Scientists Can Contribute. Prof. Tart accepted accounts only from scientists for several reasons. He says, “First, scientists are my community, my peers. Second, because we are usually well-trained to be careful observers and to not confuse observation with theory and belief, I think accounts from scientists are of an especially high quality for research purposes. And third, this is my way of letting my community express these important experiences.
“I’ve been helped by people who listen seriously; I want to perform that service for others. I hope people in other professions will set up similar websites for their colleagues. All are welcome to read the accounts here, but submissions will only be from scientists.”
Guidelines:
Many, if not all, transcendent experiences are “ineffable,” i.e. the experiencers feel that ordinary language is inadequate at conveying the full scope and vitality of the experience. But words can have a reminding function or a pointing function: the words resonate with something in the reader’s own experiential knowledge and direct attention. The challenge to the submitters is to use their words as best they can to be both accurate and communicative. If this results in some scientists waxing poetic, so be it! And some of what seems ineffable at first glance can be communicated well as we work at it.
Related words which describe the kinds of experiences we are soliciting for posting on this TASTE site are spiritual, mystical, psychic or paranormal, all imprecise ways of describing experiences which seem to transcend the ordinary limits of the physical world.