"This volume of essays combines research from neuroscience, consciousness studies, performer training systems, modes of creating a staged narrative, Asian aesthetics, and post-modern theories of performance in an examination of the relationship between consciousness and performance. Written by actors, directors, dancers, historians and theorists, the essays participate in the paradigm shift in the humanities and the arts from the textual to the performative. It is precisely that experience that is at the centre of the shift in the scientific study of consciousness. This collection of essays brings together a representation of this paradigm shift and the increasing body of research emerging at the intersections of consciousness and performance from theories of performance training to explorations on the role of performance in the construction of cultural aesthetics and community consciousness"--