The Church Father Epiphanius' description of the Tascodrugite practice of placing the forefinger on the nostril during prayer call be plausibly interpreted as a strategy for inducing an altered state of consciousness (ASC). Anthropological and neurophysiological research on how this human gesture achieves such an effect which is a pan-human potential suggests a similar plausible interpretation...
This brief survey and analysis of the statements made by Paul about his experience of God calling him to be an apostle in Galatians 1:15-16; 1 Corinth 15:8-9; 2 Corinth 4:6; and Philippians 3:12 were chiefly conducted from an intentionally limited social science perspective. The article argues that the investigator can gain deeper insights into Paul’s statements “in his own words” by submitting...
Luke reports more than twenty altered states of consciousness experiences in Acts of the Apostles. These are common and normal human experiences in approximately ninety percent of contemporary cultures. In the ancient Circum-Mediterranean world, it seems to have been common and normal in about eighty percent of those cultures. Insights from psychological anthropology, cultural anthropology and...