Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Kaj Björkqvist
The biological study of man is one of today's most rapidly advancing sciences. There is no reason for not utilizing these methodologies of research and the knowledge already gained when studying ecstasy and other similar religious phenomena. Drugs have been used in all parts of the world as an ecstasy technique. Since mental states and physiological correlates always accompany each other, it is...
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Gunnel André
When speaking of prophets in our culture, we usually have the Old Testament classical prophets in mind. At the mention of prophetic ecstasy the immediate reaction is often, "That would be Saul and the asses or Elijah and the prophets of Baal". A sharp distinction is often made between the so-called primitive prophets and the classical prophets. Bearing in mind that the Chronicles mention...
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Göran Ogén
The purpose of this essay is to shed some light on the phenomenon of religious ecstasy as met within Islamic mysticism and there particularly during its classical period. In this case, the expression "classical Sufism" refers to the period of Sufi history from about 850 A.D. until circa 1100 A.D. In the Sufi vocabulary there is even a rather differentiated terminology concerning these ecstatic...
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Anna-Leena Siikala
21 citations
Changes in the field of observation and body image, attenuated grasp of reality and self-control, which may lead to identification with authority in the case of the shaman with supranormal powers, are all identifying features of shamanic ecstasy. It also appears that some of the basic elements of the shamanic tradition can be explained on the basis of typical marks of identification of altered...
NeuroQuantology
January 14, 2019
A. Pletcher
Neuroscience has theorized the ”two minds” model of the human brain from research on post-surgery ”dual consciousness” of split-brain patients. This article attempts to explain the functioning role of oppositional consciousness dynamics, and how it interacts with quantum mechanics. This article proposes that consciousness is an interactive process of polarizing an observed source of higher...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
January 11, 2019
Tf. Varley, Robin Carhart-Harris, Leor Roseman et al.
8 citations
preprint
Abstract Psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin and LSD, represent unique tools for researchers in-vestigating the neural origins of consciousness. Currently, the most compelling theories of how psychedelics exert their effects is by increasing the complexity of brain activity and moving the system towards a critical point between order and disorder, creating more dynamic and complex patterns of...
Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature
January 4, 2019
Douglas S. Duckworth
This chapter discusses various interpretations of self-awareness, including its meaning as the beginning and culmination of Mind-Only’s phenomenological analysis. It also discusses the ways this notion has been criticized as simply another conceptual construct. Self-awareness can refer to an intransitive cognition and an intrinsic property of all awarenesses. It can also take the form of an...
Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature
January 4, 2019
Douglas S. Duckworth
This chapter begins with a discussion of emptiness and introduces two broad streams of interpretation of the import of negation. The “enframed” interpretation emphasizes the value of language and thought in the discovery of ultimate truth, while the “unenframed” interpretation emphasizes the way that language and thought impede this discovery. Both interpretations claim to represent the view of...
Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature
January 4, 2019
Douglas S. Duckworth
This chapter shows the ways that Madhyamaka and Mind-Only can be seen to offer distinct depictions of the world, framed in terms of a relationship between ontology and phenomenology. The perspectives offered by ontology and phenomenology can be understood as taking their starting points in object-oriented and subject-oriented modes of inquiry, respectively. Mind-Only highlights the subjective...
Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy of Mind and Nature
January 4, 2019
Douglas S. Duckworth
2 citations
This chapter considers tantra, and the contemplative practices in Tibet informed by Mind-Only and Madhyamaka, where language plays a more explicitly creative and liberating role. Tantric traditions, including the Great Perfection and Mahāmudrā, resonate deeply with Mind-Only. In significant ways, these traditions can even be said to be iterations of Yogācāra, as extensions of its contemplative...