Religions
July 31, 2021
Raquel Vilanova Araújo, A. F. C. Fernandes, R. I. C. Campelo et al.
A randomized controlled trial tested whether Raja yoga meditation reduces distress and anxiety in women with breast cancer. Twenty-five patients attended four group meditation sessions over one month, while 25 controls took part in an educational activity on the same schedule. The meditation group showed a significant reduction in distress and anxiety. The effect of meditation was average in reducing distress, anxiety, depression, and vital signs, and also had an average effect on increasing peripheral oxygen saturation. Meditation reduced distress and anxiety more effectively than usual care.
Religions
April 19, 2021
L. Kendall
Korean shaman practice involves a wide array of material things—from mountains and landscapes to everyday objects and specialized paraphernalia—that are vested with soul stuff (yŏng) and become sacred through human agency. The author argues that while the concept of animism can open a deeper inquiry into these phenomena, it must be used with clarity, precision, and caution. Most sacred objects are not inherently numinous but are inducted or appropriated by mobile, mutable spirits through human acts. This ontology, in which even gods in landscapes can be affected by human agency, underlies the adaptability of shaman practices in contemporary, highly commercialized South Korea.
Religions
March 21, 2021
Ngar-sze Lau
In contemporary Chinese Buddhist communities, transnational meditation practices such as vipassanā and mindfulness are being adapted as a trendy way to heal depression. Based on an ethnographic study of a meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery in South China, the paper describes how monastics promoted a hybrid approach combining embodied Buddhist meditation, mindfulness exercises from secular programs, and psychoanalytic exercises to treat depression in lay people. The author argues that this hybrid mode reflects younger-generation Buddhist communities responding to a societal yearning for individualized bodily practices and a subjective turn toward self-reflexivity, re-contextualizing meditation within Chinese Buddhism.
Religions
February 10, 2021
Joe Markowski
In Dōgen's Zen, awakening or enlightenment is not ineffable but is embedded within language, not transcendent from it. Dōgen's 'realizational' philosophy of language, as characterized by Hee-Jin Kim, conditions a practice of words and letters that is effortless, akin to non-action (wu-wei). This perspective is developed through the practice of non-thinking (hi-shiryo) in zazen and through the use of kōan, particularly the logic of nonduality. Dōgen's approach highlights a non-anthropocentric perspectivism and, despite his commitment to emptiness (śūnyatā), allows for the expression of value judgments and normative prescriptions both on and off the meditation cushion.
Religions
January 29, 2021
Steven Heine
Dōgen, the founder of Sōtō Zen, developed a distinctive approach to language that overcomes conventional binary oppositions—such as delusion versus insight, truth versus untruth, or speech versus silence—by using creative and perplexing expressions to reflect the state of non-thinking attained through unremitting seated meditation (just sitting, or shikan taza). This paper argues that Dōgen's basic hermeneutic standpoint is non-hierarchical, realization-based, and flexible, enabling what the author calls "just saying" to express self-realization. Dōgen's paradoxical teaching holds that entangled vines are disentangled using nothing other than entwined creepers, exemplified by statements like "the eyes are horizontal, and the nose is vertical."
Religions
December 5, 2020
Pavel Nosachev
The television series Supernatural constructs a new theology by blending Christian demonology with occult and charismatic Protestant ideas. Drawing on C. Partridge's theory of occulture and U. Eco's semiotic narrative model, the article argues that the show's popularity stems from its bricolage of Western personified evil with abstract Eastern spirituality. Over 15 seasons, Supernatural evolved from a story of two brothers hunting evil into a global panorama of demonology, angelology, and eschatology, engaging themes of theodicy and the nature of God. The show's narrative draws on third-wave charismatic spiritual warfare theology and Emmanuel Swedenborg's occult system. The author concludes that classical monotheistic mythology, in both orthodox and heterodox forms, remains highly attractive to modern audiences, and occulture makes it flexible enough to meet diverse demands.
Religions
November 4, 2020
Ray Buckner
Gender dysphoria in transgender people may involve traumatic, gendered remembrances—'sustained traumas'—not merely distress. Within Sōtō Zen meditation, such acute gender dysphoria can make concentration and realization challenging and potentially harmful. Meditation may exacerbate panic and traumatic remembrance of the body and mind, leading to embodied and philosophical struggles. Rather than opening to emptiness and non-duality, trans, gender dysphoric practitioners may experience heightened disconnect, separation, and a deepening into a solid, suffering 'self.' The paper argues meditation can deepen traumatic remembrance, posing corporeal and philosophical problematics for gender dysphoric practitioners in this tradition.
Religions
October 31, 2020
Arpita Mitra
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṁsa's religious orientation is best understood as Vedāntic but not sectarian or exclusive. He used different states of consciousness to explain varying attitudes toward the Divine, harmonizing diverse streams within Vedānta. He taught that as long as one has I-consciousness, one operates within the jurisdiction of śakti and must accept it as real; only in the state of samādhi, where I-consciousness disappears, is there neither One nor many. The article argues that Rāmakṛṣṇa was probably not as distant from the Advaita Vedānta philosopher Ādi Śaṁkara as previously claimed.
Religions
October 29, 2020
Elpine M. de Boer
An out-of-body experience (OBE) is an intense form of bodily self loss where the self seems located outside the body. Among 171 respondents who reported having had an OBE, anxiety was not related to self loss with a relational component, such as mystical or positive spiritual experiences. However, significantly more anxiety occurred in those who experienced ego loss or deconstruction, had difficulty turning attention to internal bodily states (low mindfulness), or lacked self-concept clarity. Respondents who failed to make sense of their OBE reported more anxiety, more ego loss, lower mindfulness, and higher self-unclarity. The article also examines how respondents explain their OBE using medical, spiritual, or psychological explanations and why some succeed or fail in making sense of the experience.
Religions
June 12, 2020
Elsa Lau, Clayton H. Mcclintock, Marianna Graziosi et al.
Spirituality is lived differently across the United States, India, and China, though certain themes appear universally. Analyzing responses from 6,112 participants (41% women, mean age 29, range 18–75) and focusing on a subset of 900, the study identified five major thematic categories: religion, contemplative practice, ancestors, the natural world, and metaphysical phenomena. The metaphysical category included extrasensory perception, psychokinesis, survival-related experiences (near-death and out-of-body experiences, apparitions), and faith or energy healing. Cultural context shapes both the prevalence and specific forms these spiritual experiences take.
Religions
June 10, 2020
Robert Kritzer
The Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, an Indian Buddhist sutra from the first half of the first millennium, contains in its seventh chapter an unusually detailed meditation on the body, focusing on anatomy, especially bones, as well as internal worms and winds that destroy them at death. Unlike typical Buddhist body meditations, this text does not emphasize impurity or repulsion but instead guides a dispassionate, scientific observation of the body and external world, designating elements like rivers and mountains as the "external body." The sutra includes several unique features not found in other Buddhist texts.
Religions
May 29, 2020
Hyun Gong Moon
Buddhist meditations on death, such as mindfulness of death (maraṇasati) and meditation on impurity (asubhānupassin), may have positive educational applications similar to those of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Terror management theory (TMT) has shown through numerous experiments that contemplating death can trigger psychological changes, such as prioritizing internal values like meaning of life and happiness over external values like wealth and fame, and increasing prosocial behavior. The article argues that these Buddhist meditations can cultivate an acceptance of death and be applied in education either as standalone meditation or combined with death-related education topics like the meaning of death, dying process, near-death experiences, and grief education.
Religions
December 25, 2019
Mira Niculescu
Since the late 1990s, the term 'Jewish Mindfulness' has become common in Jewish community centers and synagogues across America, Israel, and the Western diaspora. This secular meditation technique, originally from Buddhism and popularized through Western therapeutic culture, is increasingly used in Modern Orthodox Jewish settings. The article analyzes how American Modern Orthodox rabbis describe their use of Mindfulness in religious teachings, comparing their discourses online and in print. It identifies three types of use—through, and, or as Judaism—to show how Orthodox educators employ Mindfulness both as a technique and a spiritual mindset, reshaping Jewish religious teaching. This reveals processes of cultural appropriation, translation, and religious change within boundary maintenance in cosmopolitan cultures.
Religions
November 12, 2019
Chae Young Kim
This essay examines whether Daisaku Ikeda can be considered a Jamesian psychologist of religion. It first identifies a shared concern between William James's psychology of religion as a distinct movement and Ikeda's view of religion in a secular world. It then articulates Ikeda's notion of self and the role of mediating symbols in religion, discourse, and the arts, relating these to James's psychology of religion. Finally, it raises critical questions for further development of the thesis.
Religions
May 16, 2019
Juliana Dresvina
Julian of Norwich's visions, described in her Revelations or Showings, likely drew on familiar everyday devotional objects such as Psalters, Books of Hours, and rosary beads. The article approaches her text through neuromedievalism, blending textual analysis with findings from clinical psychology and neuroscience. This perspective highlights the embodied nature of Julian's visions and devotions, contrasting with the more apophatic, or negative, mystical approach typically expected.
Religions
March 28, 2019
Veena R. Howard
The Santmat tradition of Bihar, largely unstudied by scholars, synthesizes Vedic, rural Hindu, and esoteric elements drawn from medieval Sant poetry. Maharishi Mehi, a twentieth-century Sant, defines the tradition's goal as śānti—a state of deep stillness, equilibrium, and unity with the Divine, equally available to all people regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, or status. He outlines a systematic path involving moral observances and detailed esoteric practices, including divine light (dṛṣti yoga) and sound (surat śabda yoga) meditation. This paper examines four structural principles—Guru, dhyān, satsaṅg, and sadācār—showing how they reorient practitioners from the mundane world toward the sacred inner experience of śānti.
Religions
February 28, 2019
Perundevi Srinivasan
In south India, pox afflictions are understood as the goddess Mariyamman arriving in the person. The Tamil term 'ammai' means both pustules or 'pearls' of poxes and mother/goddess. Drawing on songs, narratives, ethnographic sources, and classical Tamil texts, the author argues that identifying the pox-afflicted body as the goddess is not simply a matter of possession by an external agent. Instead, this identification is facilitated by an imagistic relationship between the afflicted body and an agricultural field, conventionally regarded as feminine in Tamil culture. This framework helps explain the benevolence associated with pox-affliction and challenges prevalent scholarly characterizations of such affliction as possession.
Religions
February 22, 2019
Travis Dumsday
The author argues that methodological naturalism—the principle that science should only invoke natural explanations—should not be a universal rule in science. By reviewing thought experiments, the author shows how metaphysical naturalism (the belief that only natural things exist) could be empirically falsified. This undermines the case for always requiring naturalistic explanations. The author then discusses recent experimental research on near-death experiences that may soon provide such empirical evidence against metaphysical naturalism.
Religions
November 15, 2018
Manuel Lopez
Doxographies—classifications of views—were used in Tibetan Buddhism not merely to organize diverse contemplative practices but to construct new systems. Focusing on Nupchen Sangyé Yeshé's 10th-century text, the Lamp for the Eye in Meditation, the article argues that the doxographical genre served as a tool for creating the original Tibetan Buddhist practice known as the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen). The work also reflects on how definition, comparison, and classification create and articulate religious difference, honoring religious studies scholar Jonathan Z. Smith.
Religions
August 27, 2018
Kenneth S. Sacks
In his 1837 oration 'The American Scholar,' Emerson called for American intellectual and cultural independence from Europe, urging scholars to engage directly with nature, action, and life rather than rely on secondhand books and traditions. He argued that true scholarship requires active, original thinking rooted in personal experience and moral purpose. The speech became a foundational text in American cultural nationalism, defining the scholar's role as a 'Man Thinking' who contributes to society through self-reliance and creativity.
Religions
April 18, 2018
Pavel Nosachev
The article examines how Western esotericism shapes computer game plots, using the game "Gray Matter" by J. Jensen as a case study. Jensen employs occultural bricolage, mixing elements from Stephen King, the Society for Psychical Research, parapsychology, and neuropsychology. The game presents three competing explanations for paranormal events: a magician who denies the supernatural, a neurobiologist who sees mind as objectifiable energy, and a psi-specialist who affirms super-abilities and an afterlife. The authors argue that Jensen promotes the last perspective, making it the game's central thesis.
Religions
March 22, 2018
Brooke Schedneck
Since the 1960s, non-Buddhist women have published memoirs detailing their personal experiences in vipassanā meditation retreats. Early writers like Marie Byles and Jane Hamilton-Smith traveled to Asia, intertwining accounts of the practice with life in Asian cultures. Later memoirists, such as Raji Lukkoor and Jennifer Howd, wrote after the mindfulness craze of the late 2000s, focusing more on personal transformation than travel, as retreats became widely available outside Asia. These writings show that although the women view vipassanā as a nongendered practice, their experiences remain embodied and gendered, with each reacting differently to gender issues on retreat—from outrage at discrimination to acceptance, and from judging female teachers to revealing a more feminine self.
Religions
March 15, 2018
Alison T. Smith
The Camino de Santiago has seen a surge in walkers, causing concern among traditionalists who view many contemporary pilgrims as lacking authentic religious or historical understanding. The author argues that the Buddhist practice of walking meditation, as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh, can help pilgrims of all backgrounds become more present and mindful. By incorporating this practice, pilgrims may find common ground and deepen their experience, potentially bridging the gap between serious and superficial approaches to the pilgrimage.
Religions
March 14, 2018
Kerry Skora
The essay explores how aesthetics and Tantra intertwine in the worldview of the Hindu Tantric visionary Abhinavagupta (ca. 975–1025 C.E.) and his tradition. It shifts focus from ultimate experience to the life of a liberated being, arguing that Abhinavagupta's blending of aesthetics and Tantra follows from his view of liberation, which reintegrates the body and senses into religious life and affirms the reality of the material world. The author recovers Abhinavagupta's humanness and boundedness as a way to understand liberation, drawing on hymns, rituals, and metaphors from his tradition, and engaging with thinkers like Richard Schechner and James Austin. The essay concludes by reflecting on similarities between the Trika model of Self and lucid dreaming.
Religions
November 3, 2017
Lee Irwin
Reincarnation theories in America have evolved from the 1680s to the present, drawing from Native American traditions, Western Esotericism, Christianity, Judaism, missionary Hinduism and Buddhism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Rosicrucianism. Current theories increasingly rely less on religious support and more on direct personal experience, paranormal research, and new therapeutic models. The paper surveys these historical currents and concludes with reflections on the complexity of reincarnation theory, raising questions about its future development.