Abstract: Magic is a useful term because it references something real: a set of phenomena stemming from alterations of neural functioning that facilitate heightened access to knowledge and manifestation of human powers. Witchcraft anthropologically defined centers on the potential for one person's ill-will to be communicated and trigger another's illness or accident spontaneously through the...
Every contemplative discipline begins because something in the practitioner requires cultivation. This paper asks what becomes of the practitioner's dependence on the cultivating instrument once cultivation succeeds. It proposes the Ceiling Theorem: a pathway of practice becomes a ceiling when the integration it has helped to cultivate grows increasingly contingent on the preservation of that...
This paper proposes “epistemological function” as a comparative category for reading Sanskrit epic narrative and applies it to two well-known episodes: the Viśvarūpa of Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter XI, and the sustained portrait of Hanumān in the Sundarakāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Both, in different ways, address a single pedagogical difficulty: how a mode of consciousness that exceeds ordinary...
Background: Voluntary breath-holding depends on lung volume, chemical drive to breathe, respiratory muscle function and the ability to endure respiratory discomfort, and these are the very functions that yogic practices aim to train. Aim: This study evaluated whether twelve weeks of integrated yogic practice alters breath-holding capacity (BHC) in male undergraduates. Methods: One hundred and...
To evaluate the effect of a structured 12-week yogic intervention comprising yogic asanas, pranayama and guided meditation on stress, anxiety and sleep pattern among adult male cardiac and diabetic patients. Sixty male patients aged 45-70 years (30 cardiac and 30 diabetic) participated; within each clinical category, 15 were assigned to an experimental group and 15 to a control group. The...
This paper consists of two interconnected parts, both challenging mainstream computational views of mind and intelligence. In the first part, the author argues for a fundamental reconceptualization of cognition. He contends that the success of neural network-based AI and the universal properties of human language expose key limitations of classical computational theories of mind. Instead of...
Psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology (PNEI) provides a framework for understanding the integration of psychological, neural, endocrine, and immune processes, yet it has rarely engaged non-Western models of mind–body regulation. This study examines Zhanzhuang (aka Chan-chuang), a Daoist standing meditation centered on the cultivation of qi, as a potential PNEI intervention. We present the protocol...
Psychopharmacology, once propelled by a series of serendipitous mid-20th-century discoveries, has matured into a field defined by mechanistic diversity, translational neuroscience, and an expanding array of circuit-based interventions. Despite more than 100 approved psychiatric drugs, remission rates for major depressive disorder and other serious mental disorders remain modest, underscoring...
Mindful yoga for depression and possible mediating processes This review article describes a study on the added value of mindful yoga in the treatment of depression. Although existing treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy can help with depression, a large proportion of people with depression do not recover or do not recover sufficiently. Therefore, it is important to develop new...
This case study explores the restorative value of mindful slow experiences in museums at a time when rapid viewing has become increasingly commonplace. Practices discussed under various terms, including mindfulness in museums and therapeutic museums, are encompassed within the concept of “mindful engagement,” which is then combined with “slow experience,” grounded in practices of sustained...