Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2023
Marjorie Woollacott, Anne Shumway-Cook, John Renesch
Scientists have spent considerable time and effort studying and mapping the geography of the brain, with the expectation that this understanding will lead to insights related to the nature of the mind. This article discusses evidence that, while the mind utilizes sensory information processed by the brain, awareness is not limited to these structures. Research studies give evidence supporting...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2023
Marjorie Woollacott, Anne Shumway-Cook, Natasha Tassell-Matamua
Research suggests that worldviews define our relationship to the environment, including our responsibility to the environment and our planet. This paper examines two specific worldviews and their potential environmental impact: the materialist worldview, considered to be the dominant worldview of Western society, and the so-called post-materialist worldview. We believe that changing the...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2022
Marco Aurélio Vinhosa Bastos, Paulo Roberto Haidamus Oliveira Bastos, Geraldo Barbosa Foscaches Filho et al.
6 citations
Evidence indicates that highly hypnotizable subjects may have larger area of the rostrum of the corpus callosum (CC). Mediumship can be defined as the alleged ability to communicate regularly with deceased personalities, and self-hypnosis is postulated as an underlying mechanism for this ability. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the CC area, hypnotic susceptibility, self-reported...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2022
José I Latorre, María Y Vellisca
Thousands of people throughout the world are convinced that they have been abducted by aliens. We aimed to assess the emotional reaction to such an implausible event and propose some explanations alternative to severe psychopathology. A total of 19 individuals who reported memories of having been abducted by aliens were compared to a control group of 32 participants. We employed a battery of...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2022
Elizabeth Schmitt Freire, Alexandre Caroli Rocha, Victor Scio Tasca et al.
Mediumship is understood as a kind of spiritual experience in which a person (i.e., a medium) claims to be in communication with, or under the control of, spiritual beings. In the last decades there has been a resurgence of studies on psychological, psychiatric and neuroscientific aspects of mediumship, as well as studies assessing the claim that mediums can obtain anomalous information from...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2021
Marjorie Woollacott, Yvonne Kason, Russell D Park
33 citations
There is a paucity of research examining the phenomenology and energetic effects of spiritually transformative experiences with an energetic component, often referred to as kundalini awakenings (KAs). This limits our ability to understand and support individuals who have these often unexpected and powerful experiences. This study aimed to explore not only the nature of these experiences but...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2021
Jeff Levin
This article, the first of a two-part series, explores the subject of Western esoteric healing. First, conceptual background is offered on Western esotericism and traditions of esoteric healing. Second, the concept of therapeutic knowledge, which emerged from the philosophy of medicine and medical anthropology, is introduced and described in detail, including its application to the study of...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2020
Helané Wahbeh, Bethany Butzer
24 citations
Historical records suggest that channeling has existed globally, in a variety of cultures, for thousands of years, and recent research suggests that channeling is more prevalent than most people realize. The present study used an online survey to explore mental health factors, personality characteristics, subjective experiences, and the impact of channeling on 83 participants who...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2020
Gioacchino Pagliaro, Renato Pelati, Domenico Signorini et al.
The positive effects of meditation on individual well-being have been extensively investigated in the last few decades. The impact that meditation can have on the surrounding environment, including on the well-being of nearby non-meditators, has been mainly studied in regards to Transcendental Meditation and, more recently, through the purported phenomenon of "distant healing". The aim of the...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2019
William van Gordon, Edo Shonin, Thomas J. Dunn et al.
38 citations
Wisdom-based Buddhist-derived practices (BDPs) are concerned with transmuting suffering by cultivating insight into the ultimate nature of both the self and reality. Arguably the most important wisdom-based BDP is emptiness (Sanskrit: śūnyatā) that implies that although phenomena are perceptible to the human mind, they do not intrinsically exist. Despite its significance in Buddhism, emptiness...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2019
Stephan A. Schwartz
8 citations
This paper discusses the ancient anthropological linkage of water and wine with sacred rituals after these substances have been the focus of nonlocal perturbation. The paper reports the changes produced can be both physical, as well as a subjective aesthetic reaction arising when individuals have a sensorial interaction with such treated substances. In making this argument the paper presents...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
November 1, 2018
Marco Aurélio Vinhosa Bastos, Paulo Roberto Haidamus de Oliveira Bastos, Maria Lucília Dos Santos et al.
6 citations
Mediumship is the alleged ability to communicate with deceased personalities. Previous studies have suggested that the endogenous psychotomimetic molecules bufotenine (BT) and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) may play a role in the pathogenesis of psychotic disorders. Distortion of perceptions observed during spiritual experiences could supposedly relate to these substances. To compare the presence of...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2018
Helané Wahbeh, Amira Sagher, Wallis Back et al.
103 citations
Across cultures and throughout history, transcendent states achieved through meditative practices have been reported. The practices to attain transcendent states vary from transcendental meditation to yoga to contemplative prayer, to other various forms of sitting meditation. While these transcendent states are ascribed many different terms, those who experience them describe a similar unitive,...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2018
Fatemeh Torkamani, Alireza Aghayousefi, Ahmad Alipour et al.
Based on existing psychoneuroimmunological insights, the present study aimed at investigating possible effects of a single-session group mantra-meditation on salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and affective states. A controlled pretest-posttest study enrolled 30 healthy women (mean age 44 ± 3 years) through a multi-stage random sampling method from yoga clubs in Shiraz (Feb-Dec, 2016). Subjects...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2017
Helané Wahbeh, Lauri Shainsky, Angela Weaver et al.
13 citations
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious health concern. Current evidence-based treatments for PTSD are efficacious; however, they are not appropriate or tolerated by everyone who needs them. Alternative treatment approaches are needed. Shamanic healing is one such therapy that may potentially be beneficial but no systematic research has been conducted on it for PTSD. The objectives of...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2017
Enrico Facco, Daniela Lucangeli, Patrizio Tressoldi
Consciousness has been one of the most important and tantalizing issues ever since the origin of philosophy and medicine. The concept of consciousness and the so-called "hard problem" (i.e., the mind-brain relationship) are highly complex topics that have yet to be elucidated, involving the realms of both science and philosophy with profound epistemological implications. In the lively debate on...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2017
Emmylou Rahtz, Sian Bonnell, Sarah Goldingay et al.
Dramatic self-change is a familiar concept within religious experience and is recognized within psychotherapy and some fields of nursing. However, it has been given limited consideration in wider health research, including healing research. We sought to explore the phenomenon of "healing moments". Alternative medicine practitioners attending a continuing professional development course for...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2016
Edward J Modestino
15 citations
A research participant came to our lab with self-proclaimed, ecstatic, Kundalini meditative experiences. Using neurophenomenology and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we were able to identify brain activation in the left prefrontal cortex [primarily in left Brodmann׳s areas (BAs) 46 and 10, but also extending into BAs 11, 47, and 45] associated with this experience. The...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2016
Roxane Raffin Chan, Rebecca H Lehto
Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exhibit high levels of comorbid anxiety that severely worsens their sensation of dyspnea and is associated with high levels of avoidance of essential activities resulting in an increase morbidity and mortality. Increasing meditation and mind/body practices have been shown to decrease anxiety, and improve intrapersonal and interpersonal...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2016
Teresa Maria Dos Santos, Elisa Harumi Kozasa, Isabel Sampaio Carmagnani et al.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to effectively mitigate the negative effects of stress among nursing professionals, but in countries like Brazil, these practices are relatively unexplored. To evaluate the effects of a Stress Reduction Program (SRP) including mindfulness and loving kindness meditation among nursing professionals working in a Brazilian hospital setting. Pilot study with a...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2016
Olivier Brabant
Commonly accepted models of human consciousness have substantial shortcomings, in the sense that they cannot account for the entire scope of human experiences. The goal of this article is to describe a model with higher explanatory power, by integrating ideas from psychology and quantum mechanics. In the first part, the need for a paradigm change will be justified by presenting three types of...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2015
Jamie Marich, Terra Howell
24 citations
An extensive review of both quantitative and qualitative literature reveals numerous connections between mindfulness practice and psychological well-being. Dancing Mindfulness, as a holistic wellness practice, is a creative approach to mindfulness meditation that draws on dance as the vehicle for engaging in the ancient practice characterized by non-judgment, loving kindness, and...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2015
Kathi J Kemper, Daniel Powell, Christine Carlisle Helms et al.
Meditation is associated with lower blood pressure, but little is known about how loving-kindness meditation affects nitric oxide (NO) metabolism, a key mediator of cardiovascular physiology associated with vasodilation. We studied seven inexperienced and five experienced healthy meditators at one study visit, after they refrained from eating nitrate-rich foods for at least 12h. Participants...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2015
Vernon M Neppe, Edward R Close
We argue that "non-local" events require further descriptors for us to understand the degree of non-locality, what the framework of the observer describing it is, and where we humans are located relative to the ostensible non-locality. This suggests three critical factors: Relative to, from the framework of, and a hierarchy of "to what degree?" "Non-locality" without the prefix "relative"...
Explore (New York, N.Y.)
2013
Amit Sood, David T Jones
Human attention selectively focuses on aspects of experience that are threatening, pleasant, or novel. The physical threats of the ancient times have largely been replaced by chronic psychological worries and hurts. The mind gets drawn to these worries and hurts, mostly in the domain of the past and future, leading to mind wandering. In the brain, a network of neurons called the default mode...