The Mind in the Cave — the Cave in the Mind: Altered Consciousness in the Upper Paleolithic

Abstract

This brief overview argues that the evidence of the images themselves, as well as their contexts, suggests that some Franco‐Cantabrian Upper Paleolithic cave art was, at least in part, intimately associated with various shamanic practices. Universal features of altered states of consciousness and the deep caves combined to create notions of a subterranean spirit‐world that became, amongst other ritual areas, the location of vision quests.