Felicitas D. Goodman (1914–2005) was an American linguist and anthropologist. Felicitas Goodman made two major contributions to the field of anthropology: one concerned “glossolalia” or “speaking in tongues;” the other concerned religious ecstatic trance. Goodman’s research, publications, and decades of experience in religious ecstatic trance are her major contribution to anthropology.

Felicitas recognized two dimensions to reality: consensual and alternate. Consensual reality is the arena of common, ordinary, human experience. Alternate reality is parallel to consensual reality. It is the abode of the spirits, the ancestors. Felicitas believed that the spirit world (the abode of the deity and the deity’s entourage) could be accessed by humans, and this chiefly in an alternate state of consciousness (ASC). With her students at Denison University, she developed a ritual to enter the ASC and make contact with the spirit world. Ritual is essential to this contact.

In 1978, Dr. Goodman founded the Institute which today is known as Cuyamungue: The Felicitas D. Goodman Institute which continues her research into altered states of consciousness and holds workshops about the postures which are one of the doors to the alternate reality.