PURPOSE: Approaching death seems to be associated with physiological/spiritual changes. Trajectories including the physical-psychological-social-spiritual dimension have indicated a terminal drop. Existential suffering or deathbed visions describe complex phenomena. However, interrelationships between different constituent factors (e.g., fear and pain, spiritual experiences and altered...
In English we use the word “invention” in two ways. First, to mean a new device or process developed by experimentation, and designed to fulfill a practical goal. Second, to mean a mental fabrication, especially a falsehood, designed to please or persuade. In this paper I argue that human consciousness is an invention in both respects. First, it is a cognitive faculty, evolved by natural...
A rock engraving site at Kalabasput in the Upper Karoo, South Africa, includes an unusual set of engravings featuring vultures. In relation to the ‘frequently depicted’ subject matter of South African rock art – such as eland and ostrich – images of vultures are rare. The site provides an opportunity for considering these unusual images relative to a background of “shared, transcending beliefs...
Conscious perception relies on interactions between spatially and functionally distinct modules of the brain at various spatiotemporal scales. These interactions are altered by anesthesia, an intervention that leads to fading consciousness. Relatively little is known about brain functional connectivity and its anesthetic modulation at a fine spatial scale. Here, we used functional imaging to...
The focus of this research paper is to evaluate independent effects of the yogic breathing exercise, alternate nostril breathing (ANB), on human physiological and cognitive functions. Currently, there is developing interest in using alternative and complementary therapies to manage chronic ailments and debilitating diseases. Among alternative and complementary therapies, yoga is widely used to...
E. Maupin had ordinary subjects focus on breathing for several sessions. These subjects’ meditation experiences were rated on a five-point scale by “blind” judges. A discrete altered state of consciousness is a radically different way of handling information from the physical, intrapersonal, and interpersonal environments, yet the discrete altered state of consciousness may be as arbitrary as...
Meditation, if it is to be considered an empirically effective clinical strategy, needs to be subjected to the same scientific scrutiny as any other psychotherapeutic strategy. One of the primary weaknesses in meditation studies thus far has been the lack of a clear theoretical rationale linking the independent variable and the selection of the dependent variable. Careful consideration should...
This chapter provides one perspective: a systems framework, involving several dimensions, which may be helpful in providing further clarity and precision when researching meditation, whether as a self-regulation strategy or as an altered state of consciousness. Most of the empirical research on meditation in Western settings has been concerned with looking at physiological and/or behavioral...
The weakening of the repression barrier that occurs in sleep and in other altered states of consciousness, such as free association during the process of psychoanalytic therapy, may be produced in a relatively simple fashion during transcendental meditation. An impressive aspect of this phenomenon is that, during the meditation, the intense emotional affect that would ordinarily accompany this...
In this chapter, the authors present the results of their experiments in detail and discuss some of the electrographic characteristics in which the mental state in Zen-sitting will be reflected. In clinical practice, electroencephalogram often becomes a good neufophysiological method to find out the disturbance of consciousness. According to the instructions of Zen meditation, the regulation of...