Near-death experiences (NDEs) cannot be defined merely as a collection of phenomenal features. An accurate definition needs to describe what NDEs essentially are, that is, what lies behind the phenomenal features. The definition would describe what happens in the experience to account for the different features; this can only be fully described in the context of an underlying theoretical...
This study examines a body of engaged “ritual magic practitioners” to understand their methods and techniques for facilitating putative parapsychological outcomes in everyday life, as well as outcomes on a computerized test of putative psi. We hypothesized that the combination of meditation, visualization, and related mental exercises at the core of magical practice relates to both invoked...
This chapter begins with contextualisations of the primary research site then summarises uses of contemplative inquiry in research, providing an overview of its origins (Breede and Davis 2018). Its applications in philosophical and religious traditions are briefly discussed, followed by a discussion of its burgeoning usages within educational and therapeutic settings. Exemplifying one use of...
The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce Embodied Spiritual Inquiry (ESI) as a novel participatory research method in the context of spiritual and contemplative studies. ESI applies Albareda and Romero's interactive embodied meditations (Ferrer 2003) in the context of a participatory research paradigm inspired by Cooperative Inquiry (CI; Heron 1996) in order to access multiple human...
This chapter presents the Cooperative Inquiry (CI; Heron 1996) research approach in the context of spirituality and contemplative studies. CI is an experiential and participatory approach to research, learning, and psychospiritual growth (Sohmer 2020a, 2020b; Heron and Sohmer 2019). Founded by John Heron (1996) and elaborated with Peter Reason (Heron and Reason 1997, 2006), CI is a radically...
Abstract In Jylkkä's ( Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience , Bloomsbury Academic, New York, 2022) Mary on Acid: Experiences of unity and the epistemic gap, the author contends that psychedelic experience, by inducing unitary—nondual—experiences of subject–object dissolution, brings to light the epistemic gap between unitary knowledge, constituted by experience,...
Theological education faces the task of forming leaders and scholars with the capacity for personal and social transformation. This effort requires a deeper understanding of habit formation as both problem and potential. Utilizing the example of how racism functions through embodied habits, this article emphasizes bodily awareness and repeated practice as necessary components for theological...
Abstract In this paper, I aim to interpret the mind-body-land connection that Christianity and Buddhism suggestively teach as a three-stage extension process of the field of experience, which proceeds accordingly as the three-step movement of our experience develops. Drawing on the Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitaro, I first show why the mind or one’s subjective consciousness deserves to be...
The specific, as well as holistic, effects of practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique have been thoroughly documented. Findings associated with the practice have included a range of physiological, psychological and sociological benefits, but have also encompassed measures of general health, well-being and human development. However, few if any indigenous test instruments have been...
One of the central questions for contemporary philosophy of mind can be considered to be the question of the status of what is commonly called phenomenal consciousness or qualia. Any theory of consciousness must offer an explanation of phenomenality, which poses hard problem for researchers. However, it is not hard to see that such a formulation of the problem may be biased toward theories that...