The Carlos S. Alvarado papers contain audio-visual materials, awards, bibliographies, book project files, booklets, brochures, certificates (copies), conference documents, correspondence, curriculum vitae, diaries, flyers, journal articles, typed letters, lecture outlines, notebooks, pamphlets, photographs, postcards, questionnaires, reprints, resumes, surveys, technical proposals, tests, and published and unpublished articles.

Subjects covered include the American Society for Psychical Research, animal magnetism,apparitions, aura vision, brain hemispheres, consciousness, dissociation, dreams, psi experiences and synesthesia, psychophyics, psychophysiology, mediumship, multiple personalities, and near-death experiences.