Religions - The Consciousness Library

Religious and Spiritual Changes After Near-Death Experience: A Survey-Based Study Among Urban Indonesians

Religions March 12, 2026 Rena Latifa, Maryam Abidah Masykuroh, Stefan Huber

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are profound psychological events known to catalyze significant spiritual transformation, though most research has been conducted in Western contexts. This study investigated perceived changes in spirituality or religiosity following NDEs among adults residing in Jakarta, Indonesia (N = 402 NDErs; 70% female; Mage = 23, SD = 7.93). This population is crucial as...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030355 Religiosity Spirituality Transformative learning Population +4

Detachment and Affectivity as Structures of Openness: Meister Eckhart’s Contribution to Situated Ethics Read in the Light of the Young Heidegger

Religions March 6, 2026 María Luisa Brantt

Contemporary ethical reflection is undergoing a crisis of its traditional normative foundations, which have proven difficult to reconcile with the affective, vulnerable and situated nature of moral experience. In this context, this article examines Meister Eckhart’s thought in light of Martin Heidegger’s early phenomenology–hermeneutics in order to reconsider the place of affectivity in ethics....

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030336

Introduction to the Special Issue “Imagining Ultimacy: Religious and Spiritual Experience in Literature”

Religions March 5, 2026 Matthew Wickman

Scholars who study religious and spiritual experiences often describe them as full, profound, meaningful, and enlightening: “special” experiences, Ann Taves calls them; for Paul Tillich, they are matters of “ultimate concern [...]

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030323 Religious experience Spirituality Meaning existential Action physics +1

Technologies of Hypnagogia: Altered Perception and Religions in Avant-Garde Electronic Music

Religions March 5, 2026 Jason Bivins

One important element of twentieth-century avant-garde composition is the intersection between advances in technology and transformations in religious consciousness and experience. This piece argues that the lineage from John Cage through Pierre Schaeffer, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, Eliane Radigue, and William Basinski make for a compelling addition to the study of religion and sound/music.

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030324 Perception Consciousness Element criminal law Intersection aeronautics +6

Śrīmad Rājcandra’s Spiritual Biophilia from a Jain Perspective

Religions March 2, 2026 Cogen Bohanec

This interdisciplinary study expands the concept of biophilia by integrating a mystical dimension—spiritual biophilia—through an in depth exploration of biophilic themes in the works of modern Jain Ācārya Śrīmad Rājcandra. This paper aims to expand the concept of biophilia by incorporating a mystical aspect—spiritual biophilia—to emphasize the holistic nurturing of both the planet and the human...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030310 Mysticism Spirituality Perspective graphical Value mathematics +8

“Science” in Huayan Buddhism: The Apologetic Discourse of Zhong Maosen (b. 1973)

Religions March 2, 2026 Saiping An

This study addresses a lacuna in Buddhist modernism scholarship, which has extensively examined Buddhists’ employment of science as an instrument for Buddhist apologetics across Theravada, Yogacara, Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, yet has largely neglected Huayan Buddhism. Taking an influential contemporary Buddhist adherent, Zhong Maosen (b. 1973), as a case study, it analyzes his...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030309 Buddhism Mysticism Apologetics Pejorative +11

The Human Being in Exposure to Mystery: Phenomenological Foundations of a Mystical Anthropology

Religions February 26, 2026 Angélica Morales Arizmendi

This article develops a phenomenological foundation of mystical anthropology through a dialogue between contemporary Spanish philosophy and the sixteenth-century Castilian mystical tradition. Taking Juan Martín Velasco, Miguel García-Baró, and Teresa of Ávila as its main interlocutors, it explores the anthropological structure of the encounter with Mystery as an essential possibility of human...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020173 Full text Phenomenology Mystical anthropology Exposure Miguel garcía-baró +2

Subjective Perceptions of South Korean Meditation Teachers on Meditation Teaching Competencies in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Religions February 25, 2026 Myoung Jin Hong, Song Yi Lee 1 citation

This study investigates how South Korean meditation teachers conceptualize core professional competencies in digitally delivered and AI-mediated contemplative contexts, addressing a gap in prior research that has emphasized effectiveness and technological scalability over teachers’ own understandings of authority and professionalism. Using Q methodology, the study identified shared subjective...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030286 Attunement Discernment Contemplation Embodied cognition +8

Animals, Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, and Karma: Religious Ecological Mechanisms in Chinese Morality Books of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Religions February 24, 2026 Junhui Chen, Xinfeng Kong

The article examines the religio-ecological framework articulated in Ming–Qing morality books 勸善書, focusing on how animals, Ledgers of merit 功過格, and karmic 業報 are integrated into a system of moral causality. Within this framework, actions such as killing or saving animals are directly linked to karmic reward and punishment, generating a dual mechanism that combines moral technology with an...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030276 Morality Articulation sociology Economic justice Mechanism biology +10

Between Sleep and Liberation in Indian Traditions: Lucid Dreaming, Out-of-Body Experiences, and the Architectures of Liminal Consciousness

Religions February 24, 2026 Youngsun Yang

This article examines the theoretical and practical frameworks surrounding liminal states of consciousness—specifically lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences (OBEs)—within Indian religious and philosophical traditions. Through a comparative analysis of Vedāntic, Yogic, Buddhist, and Jain systems, the article argues that these states are not merely anomalous psychological events but...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17030279 Meditation Lucid dream Buddhism Liminality +11

Spirituality, Meaning, and Well-Being: A Role in the University Classroom

Religions February 20, 2026 Mark A. Thurston

In recent years, for higher education—especially in the United States—spirituality has emerged as a prominent topic on campus, both in curricular and co-curricular formats. Historically, religion has played a large role in the foundations and even missions of many universities, but in the modern era, especially for public universities, personal spirituality has become the frequent way in which...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020261

Creative Thought and the Divine Word: An Examination of the Mythological Expression of Cosmic Consciousness

Religions February 17, 2026 Merve Günaltay Başak, Aynur Koçak

This article adopts a comparative mythology framework in order to situate creation myths within a broad cultural context. It examines how different societies conceptualize the emergence of the universe through the interconnected notions of thought and word. The study demonstrates that, despite cultural diversity, these narratives articulate shared principles concerning the mental and linguistic...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020245

Neuroscience and the Non-Elimination of Theology

Religions February 15, 2026 Paul C. Knox

The scientific activity and outputs of the neurosciences are fascinating and, for the most part, uncontroversial. However, there have been sustained claims that neuroscientific findings represent a powerful challenge to historic, orthodox Christian teaching concerning human ontology. While philosophers had long debated the “mind/brain” problem, the rise of “eliminative materialism” (in the...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020236 Dualism Physicalism Monism Proposition +7

Ecosufism in the Thought of Ibn ʿArabī and Rūmī: Unity, Nature and Ecological Ethics in Sufi Metaphysics

Religions February 15, 2026 Büşra Çakmaktaş

This article examines the ontological and ethical foundations of ecosufism through the views articulated by Muḥyiddīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638 AH/1240 CE) and Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672 AH/1273 CE) in their major works. Its central argument is that these two foundational figures of Sufi metaphysics offer a coherent, theocentric account of the human–nature relationship grounded in the...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020237 Metaphysics Anthropocentrism Virtue Humility +11

Navigating Sacred Soundscape in the Post-Secular Age: A Critical Analysis of the (Re)Production and Consumption of Digital Non-Traditional Religious Music Among Chinese Youth

Religions February 13, 2026 Wenwei Long

This research explores how Chinese youth, most of whom lack formal religious beliefs or affiliations, engage with digital non-traditional religious music, such as electronic adaptations of the Great Compassion Mantra chant, on platforms such as Bilibili. A total of 15 interviews and one year of digital ethnography were conducted to examine how various music mediators, such as music, technology,...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020230 Meditation Ethnography Soundscape Spirituality +10

The Blessing of the Monkeys, the Whisper of Enchanted Stones: A Case Study of Indigenous Ecology in the Sacred Groves of Kerala (India) and Nagarkot (Nepal)

Religions February 12, 2026 Maciej Karasinski, Prasad Erancheri

This comparative study sheds light on the agency of nature and provides a lens through which to examine the intersection of ritual, ecology, and indigenous environmental consciousness in South Asia. The paper argues that the sacred groves are not just passive backdrops for human rituals, but dynamic spaces in which fauna, flora, rocks and other natural entities are actively involved in...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020224 Shamanism Indigenous Blessing Ethnography +13

Forgetting in Dōgen

Religions February 10, 2026 Yuichiro Tsujiguchi

This paper examines the philosophical and ethical significance of “forgetting” in Dōgen’s thought. It argues that the deepest form of forgetting—“forgetting oneself”—is not a psychological loss but a transformative practice through which a self-centered mode of existence is relinquished, allowing access to a multi-dimensional world in which beings appear across different ontological and...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020211 Forgetting Monism Plural Transformative learning +8

Buddhist Meditation and the Skillful Integration of Self: Buddhist Pedagogy and Scientific Models of Mind

Religions February 10, 2026 Brian D. Somers

This article aims to show how scientific interpretations of the mind can be integrated with traditional Buddhist models of the mind that maintain no-self in light of modern Buddhist meditation practices. Building on David McMahan’s work, it compares two models of mind, the Theater-of-the-Mind and the Ten Ox Herding Pictures (C. Shíniútú; K. Sibudo 十牛圖). The former places the self at the center...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020208 Buddhism Meditation Mindfulness Impermanence +8

Cultivating the Meditative Mind: The Philosophical Integration of Śamatha and Vipaśyanā in Early Yogācāra Thought

Religions February 6, 2026 Feifei Yan, Zhanguo Peng

This study examines the systematic development and philosophical “finalization” of śamatha (止 tranquility) and vipaśyanā (觀 insight) within the foundational texts of the Yogācāra tradition. Central to the transmission of Buddhism to East Asia was the categorization of practice (修行 caryā) through the lenses of concentration (三摩地 samādhi) and wisdom (般若 prajñā). This paper focuses on two pivotal...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020200 Meditation Buddhism Metacognition Categorization +4

Incorporating Daoist Practices into Zen: Hakuin Ekaku’s Adaptation of Inner Alchemy and Its Cross-Cultural Impact

Religions January 28, 2026 Ruda Lin

Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴, the reviver of the Japanese Rinzai school 臨濟宗, introduced Chinese Daoist cosmology and views on the body through the narrative persona of the immortal Hakuyūshi 白幽子 in works such as Yasen Kanna 夜船閑話 (Chats on a Night Boat). He elaborated on specific techniques of Daoist internal alchemy (nèidān 內丹), such as focusing the mind on the dāntián 丹田 (elixir field) and regulating the...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020152 Alchemy Vitality Narrative Indigenous +10

The Wooded Mountains, Ancestral Spirits and Community: Yi Religious Ecology in the “ꑭꁮ” (xiō bū) Ritual

Religions January 27, 2026 Hao Zhang, Hua Cai

Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mianning County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture between 2023 and 2024, this paper analyzes the “xiō bū” (ꑭꁮ) ritual of the Liangshan Yi people. Framed within contemporary approaches to religious anthropology and social memory theory, the study explores how this ritual constructs Yi ecological ethics, social integration, and cultural...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020143 Shamanism Ethnography Identity music Narrative +5

Beyond Religious “Death with Dignity”: Understanding Jain Meditative Death (Samādhimaraṇa) Through Contextualization of Sallekhaṇā, Śukladhyāna, and Samudghāta

Religions January 27, 2026 Youngsun Yang

In Indian religious traditions, the attainment of death with full conscious awareness has long been idealized, reflecting the deep ontological connection posited between death and liberation (mokṣa). Within this framework, Jainism—grounded in a rigorous soul–matter dualism—developed highly systematized practices that aim to separate consciousness from both the body and karma not only at the...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17010048 Full text samādhimaraṇa sallekhaṇā śukladhyāna samudghāta +2

Avataṃsaka Meditation in Khotan: Samādhi, Visualization, and the Cult of Buddha Images

Religions January 25, 2026 Imre Hamar

This article examines Khotan’s role in the transmission and reception of Avataṃsaka/Huayan Buddhism, arguing that the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra’s exceptional prestige and royal protection in Khotan provided favourable conditions for the circulation—and possibly the redaction—of large Mahāyāna compilations. It then analyses two Avataṃsaka-group meditation texts translated by the Khotanese monk...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020135 Meditation Gautama buddha Repentance Contemplation +16

The Hexagram of Contemplation 觀卦 (guan gua) and “Using the Divine Way to Give Instruction” 神道設教 (shen dao she jiao) in Early China

Religions January 24, 2026 Zhiping Yu

Most primitive religions originated from the devout worship of celestial deities, earthly spirits, and ghosts. In oracle bone inscriptions, rituals related to praying for rain, temple worship, river deity worship, and the worship of great deities were referred to as “fang” 方 or “yi fang” 以方. The Supreme God was the paramount deity of the Yin Shang Dynasty people; by the early Zhou Dynasty, the...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17020132 Mysticism Contemplation Heaven Worship +23

Embodiment, Divinity, and New Theological Directions in William James and Ralph Barton Perry

Religions January 10, 2026 Walter Scott Stepanenko

In his innovative and creative attempt to reconcile empiricism and religion, William James made the case for finite theism and a pluralistic conception of the cosmos involving overlapping minds of several scales. In doing so, James also cautioned against abandoning functional psychology in favor of what he called entitative points of view. In his work, Ralph Barton Perry critiqued James for...

DOI: 10.3390/rel17010079 Embodied cognition Theism Character mathematics Empiricism +4

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