This chapter argues that literary accounts of visions in some Mahāyāna sources (often referred to as samādhis) possess characteristics that are strikingly similar to reports of actually visionary experiences that individuals have undergone while their psychologies and physiologies were profoundly altered in some way. Moreover, some of the methods used to induce actual visions also parallel...
The phenomenon of "human consciousness" is considered on the basis of the full electronic interpretation of brain functioning proposed earlier. In the second part of the work the following phenomena are considered on the basis of the developed theory of con- sciousness: creative thinking, self-healing, altered states of consciousness, free will, and also prospects of the supermind are analyzed....
Objective To explore whether psilocybin with psychological support modulates personality parameters in patients suffering from treatment‐resistant depression (TRD). Method Twenty patients with moderate or severe, unipolar, TRD received oral psilocybin (10 and 25 mg, one week apart) in a supportive setting. Personality was assessed at baseline and at 3‐month follow‐up using the Revised NEO...
Prominent theories highlight the importance of bodily perception for self-consciousness, but it is currently not known whether this is based on interoceptive or exteroceptive signals or on integrated signals from these anatomically distinct systems, nor where in the brain such integration might occur. To investigate this, we measured brain activity during the recently described 'cardio-visual...
June 14, 2018Scott L. Lipp, Carman S. Gill, Ryan D. Foster2 citations
This chapter explores the development of transpersonal counseling by expounding upon its early foundations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. From a spiritual perspective, the authors review the concepts of those who influenced the development of transpersonal theory, including Carl Jung, William James, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof, Stanley Krippner, and Ken Wilber. Next, the authors describe...
Journal of Music TherapyJune 7, 2018Shelley Snow, Nicolò Francesco Bernardi, Nilufar Sabet-Kassouf et al.
Toning is a form of vocalizing that utilizes the natural voice to express sounds ranging from cries, grunts, and groans to open vowel sounds and humming on the full exhalation of the breath. Music therapists are increasingly utilizing toning in their clinical practice for a variety of therapeutic aims. Yet the effects of toning are not widely understood, with limited research to date. To gather...
This chapter summarizes contemporary research on the psychological traits of those who identify as being “Spiritual but Not Religious” (SBNR). Individuals who identify as SBNR are overall higher than others in intelligence, openness to experience, the capacity for both self-forgetfulness and transpersonal identification, and a strong valuation of personal intuitions and subjective experience....
In the vast literature on William James, it is hard to find books that stand out, but Krister Dylan Knapp’s new contribution is carefully researched and revelatory, examining a less-studied side of James—namely, his work as a psychical researcher. Knapp uses a variety of primary sources to understand James’s lifelong preoccupation with psychical research and to contextualize it within tectonic...
This chapter discusses the significance of opium during the early nineteenth-century and its relationship to Romanticism. While the chapter is organized around the influential work of Thomas De Quincey, particularly his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, it also discusses the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It discusses Romantic theories about the significance of dreams and their...
Chapter 4 introduces the field of consciousness studies and training, which includes exercising the attention function with such practices as meditation (concentration on a single object) and mindfulness (attention paid to the whole field of awareness). We then apply the concept of training the attention function to actor training as described in earlier chapters and look at how this activity...