In the last 30 years, the most prevalent and deadly form of armed conflict in the world has been violent conflict within states. However, the continued prevalence of so-called ‘intrastate’ collective violence indicates standard approaches to the prevention of collective violence—such as mediation, negotiated settlements and peacekeeping operations—have often provided little more than temporary...
The nature of consciousness and its relationship to physical reality remain among the most profound scientific and philosophical challenges. This paper presents a novel framework that integrates consciousness with fundamental physics, proposing that consciousness is not an emergent property of neural processes but a foundational aspect of reality. Building upon insights from quantum field...
Our thoughts often drift away from the tasks at hand. Various factors influence this phenomenon, including changes in the external environment, individual cognitive characteristics, and fluctuations in bodily reactions. This study investigated the relationship between fluctuations in cardiac activity and thought state transitions, focusing on individual differences such as cardiac...
Dissociation is a psychological response to stress that impairs mental integration, identity, and consciousness and manifests itself in the form of detachment and compartmentalization. Such symptoms are common in psychiatric disorders and reflect altered brain connectivity. In this study, EEG connectivity at rest, before and after activation of the attachment system, was analysed in relation to...
Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry embodies a profound synthesis of spiritual philosophy and artistic expression, where the essence of Sufism becomes a central lens to understand his vision of divine love and unity. This paper explores how Tagore’s poetic universe resonates with Sufi concepts of Ishq (divine love), Fana (self-annihilation), and Tawhid (oneness of being), revealing an intense quest...
The spiritual correspondence of St. Theophan with O. S. Burachok, E. A. Arnoldi, N. V. Elagin, and the Kugushevs family gives us extraordinary examples of pastoral ascetics. St. Theophan, from the standpoint of Hesychast spiritual practice, mentors the laymen, gradually introducing them to spiritual practice, each in his own measure. Another example of St. Theophan’s pastoral ascetics is...
Abstract This article argues that early Buddhist discourse in the Sutta Piṭaka construes peace not as mere emotional calm or social quietism but as the pacification (upasama) that culminates in nibbāna, the unconditioned. Reading key formulae “nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ,” “stilling of all formations” (sabbasaṅkhārasamatho), and epithets such as santi (peace) and khema (security) the study...
Hindu rituals in Bali are not only religious in nature but also embody holistic health values, encompassing both physical and spiritual dimensions. This study aims to examine the relationship between the practice of Balinese Hindu rituals and efforts to maintain and improve community health. The method employed is a qualitative approach through literature review and in-depth interviews with...
bioRxiv Preprint ServerOctober 31, 2025Tomas Hampejs, David Tomecek, Stanislav Jiricek et al.
preprint
Understanding how spontaneous, rather than experimentally induced, thoughts relate to brain activity remains a major challenge. We combined simultaneous fMRI and EEG recordings with Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) to link momentary, naturally occurring experiences to their neural signatures during rest. Using machine-learning classification of 240 time-locked samples from eight...
What is consciousness, and how can we tell who—or what—has it? Consciousness is the ability to have experiences, such as seeing, feeling, thinking, or knowing that you exist. Scientists believe it depends on the brain, but they still do not fully understand how it works. Studying consciousness is difficult because it is personal and cannot be directly measured. Researchers use tools like brain...