Entering Alternative Realities: Cognition, Art and Architecture in Irish Passage-Tombs

Abstract

This article examines the significance of the passage in Irish passage-tombs. An association between passages and concentric motifs in the engraved parietal art is analyzed, and interpreted in terms of the ‘tunnel experience’ often associated with altered states of consciousness as a means of access between ‘real’ and supernatural worlds. In addition, the implications of the coincidence of tunnel experiences and visions of the dead are considered.