Frontiers in Psychology
2026
Conor H. Murray, Kafui Dzirasa, Dana W. Sawyer et al.
What consciousness is, and how it relates to the body and nature at large, are among the most enduring questions in human history. Notable thinkers have long grappled with its definition, mechanisms, and purpose. In this review, we examine both historical and contemporary perspectives on consciousness across philosophy, science, medicine, and practice. By integrating diverse perspectives and...
Religions
December 22, 2025
Dana W. Sawyer
For more than four decades, the emphasis in the academic study of world religions has been on differences over similarities, and comparative analyses allowing for commonalities have become increasingly rare. This article argues that similarities nonetheless exist and should be studied. After disclaiming the judgment of other scholars that Aldous Huxley attempted to describe the “core” or...
Religion Compass
December 29, 2023
Dana W. Sawyer
This article redacts certain sections of the author's recent book on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. Specifically, it offers an updated overview—based on earlier studies—of the TM movement's development and what led to its enormous success, while also providing analysis of the movement using metrics gleaned from the academic study of new religious...
January 31, 2023
Dana W. Sawyer, Cynthia Humes
This Element provides a comprehensive overview of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Movement and its offshoots. Several early assessments of the as a cult and/or new religious movement are helpful, but are brief and somewhat dated. This Element examines the TM movement's history, beginning in India in 1955, and ends with an analysis of the splinter groups that have come along in the past...
Religions
November 4, 2022
Dana W. Sawyer
4 citations
A large body of research in the field of psychology currently points to a variety of therapeutic outcomes derived from psychedelically occasioned mystical experience. Moreover, additional research suggests that such benefits to mental and emotional well-being may depend directly upon the subjective mystical experience itself, rather than upon the substances that triggered it; for instance,...
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
July 12, 2021
Dana W. Sawyer
7 citations
This essay reinvigorates the Huxley/Osmond theory that psychedelic drugs can occasion a cross-cultural mystical experience characterized by a sense of “unity with ultimate reality.” It offers a long-overdue rejoinder to the position of Constructivist authors such as Steven T. Katz, Hans Penner, and Stephen Prothero that Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy is a defunct position. Specifically,...