OBJECTIVES: Despite the gains made by current first-line interventions for major depressive disorder (MDD), modest rates of treatment response and high relapse indicate the need to augment existing interventions. Following theory and initial research indicating the promise of mindful yoga interventions (MYIs), this study examines mindful yoga as a treatment of MDD. METHODS/DESIGN: This...
Although many researchers in psychology, religious studies, and psychiatry recognize that there is overlap in the experiences their subjects recount, disciplinary silos and challenges involved in comparing reported experiences have left us with little understanding of the mechanisms, whether biological, psychological, and/or sociocultural, through which these experiences are represented and...
In this paper, the author attempts to show some structural changes in the adolescent mind in modern Japan through examination of our quantitative research of the dreams of university students. Two questionnaires, Scale of Anthropophobia Mentality and Scale of Sense of Self, were administered while asking students about the contents of their 'impressive dreams' in childhood as well as their...
Abstract Objectives Recent preliminary evidence suggests that mindfulness-based programmes may be beneficial in the treatment of patients suffering from current depression. Due to the heterogeneity of patients with this diagnosis, a specialisation in treatment concepts for subgroups of patients may be beneficial. Methods This randomised controlled pilot study investigated the effectiveness of...
Gurdjieff was fundamentally a mystic in that his system was designed to come into a state where the lower centers or “brains” (mind, feeling, organic instinct) are made healthy and are harmonised together and are aligned with the higher “centers”. In Gurdjieff’s teaching, the higher centers receive the impressions which are the content of mystical experiences, but the lower centers, being...
This paper aims at demonstrating how a first-order logic reasoning system in combination with a large knowledge base can be understood as an artificial consciousness system. For this we review some aspects from the area of philosophy of mind and in particular Tononi's Information Integration Theory (IIT) and Baars' Global Workspace Theory. These will be applied to the reasoning system Hyper...
We review neuroimaging research investigating self-referential processing (SRP), that is, how we respond to stimuli that reference ourselves, prefaced by a lexical-thematic analysis of words indicative of "self-feelings". We consider SRP as occurring verbally (V-SRP) and non-verbally (NV-SRP), both in the controlled, "top-down" form of introspective and interoceptive tasks, respectively, as...
This paper focuses on Buddhism in America, an neglected area of inquiry in anthropological study. There is a need for modern ethnographic studies to shed light on historical issues, paradigms for comparative inquiry, and thus, explore the impact of Buddhism on modern American society (Glazier, 1997). The enormous growth of Buddhism in the last quarter century (Smith, 2002) makes this an...
This work contrasts the concept of the philosophical zombie, p-zombie, with its conception as found in Haitian ontology, zonbi, to understand the material nature of consciousness constitution in the multiverse. Whereas the former is utilized to substantiate the mind-body dualism; the latter as I see it negates the dualism to offer a complete materialist understanding of consciousness...
BACKGROUND: Medicinal cannabis has received increased research attention over recent years due to loosening global regulatory changes. Medicinal cannabis has been reported to have potential efficacy in reducing pain, muscle spasticity, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and intractable childhood epilepsy. Yet its potential application in the field of psychiatry is lesser known. METHODS:...