Ever wondered what dreams, visions, psychedelics, and hallucinations have to do with religion? If so, this course is for you. Across cultures and throughout history, altered states of consciousness have played a central role in shaping humanity’s spiritual imagination. In this lecture series, we ask where religious beliefs truly come from and whether the strange, symbolic stories found in myths and sacred traditions reflect deeper experiences of the human mind.

We begin in the Paleolithic—the Old Stone Age—where the earliest evidence of religion and spirituality emerges. From there, we trace a continuous line into the beginnings of recorded history, showing how visionary experience predates doctrine, scripture, and organized belief. A central focus of the course is the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, whose trance dances, healing rituals, and rock art provide one of the clearest windows into living shamanic traditions. Through their practices, we explore dreams, visions, and altered states of consciousness as sources of meaning, healing, and social cohesion.

This course is the first in a larger lecture series produced by Enlighten University. The program is designed to help students understand the psychological and spiritual roots of mysticism, and to cultivate a contemporary form of spiritual insight grounded in history, anthropology, and lived experience. The ultimate aim is healing—psychological, emotional, and spiritual—through understanding the deep origins of human consciousness and belief.