Automatic intuitions and deliberate reasoning, sourcing internal representations of our personal norms and values, contribute to our beliefs of what is right and wrong. We used fMRI to directly compare moral (M) and non-moral (NM) decision-making processes using scenarios requiring conscious deliberation, whereby the main character declared an intention to take a course of action. Furthermore,...
March 6, 2012Pehr Granqvist, Berit Hagekull, T. Ivarsson
Abstract In this article, the authors argue that mystical experiences are linked to disorganized attachment via a proposed mediator—the propensity to enter altered states of consciousness (absorption). Using a sample of predominantly religious/spiritual participants (N = 62), they report that disorganized attachment, as identified with the Adult Attachment Interview, predicted lifetime...
The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) has the longest empirical track record as a valid measure of trait mindfulness. Most of what is understood about trait mindfulness comes from administering the MAAS to relatively homogenous samples of Caucasian adults. This study rigorously evaluates the psychometric properties of the MAAS among Chinese adolescents attending high school in Chengdu,...
This paper is an overview of recent discussions concerning the mind-body problem, which is being addressed at the interface between philosophy and neuroscience. It focuses on phenomenal features of consciousness or "qualia," which are distinguished from various related issues. Then follows a discussion of various influential skeptical arguments that question the possibility of reductive...
To document the narratives of nursing staff in a Thai rehabilitation centre where complementary therapies are used and to discuss perceived progress of these complementary therapies on stroke patients. Specific complementary therapies used at this rehabilitation centre include Thai massage and herbal therapies. In Thailand, there is cultural acknowledgement of a range of traditional therapies...
Surgeons, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasize the importance of managing symptoms and improving the quality of life of cancer survivors. A 2008 meta-analysis of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) concluded that this technique might improve patients' adjustment to their disease. However, randomized controlled trials using standardized measures for...
Sleep paralyses are viewed as pure motor phenomena featured by a dissociated state in which REM-related muscle atonia coexists with a wakefulness state of full consciousness. We present a 59-year-old man diagnosed with narcolepsy experiencing sleep paralysis, who failed to establish the boundaries between real experience and dream mentation during the paralysis: the patient's recall was indeed...
Sleep research is also about the fascination with dreams and consciousness. The current issue of the Journal of Sleep Research contains papers relevant to evolving research trends in this area. Collecting dream reports after induced or spontaneous awakenings is a standard approach in dream research. This approach has established that dreams occur primarily, but not exclusively, during...
We mathematically model Ignacio Matte Blanco's principles of symmetric and asymmetric being through use of an ultrametric topology. We use for this the highly regarded 1975 book of this Chilean psychiatrist and pyschoanalyst (born 1908, died 1995). Such an ultrametric model corresponds to hierarchical clustering in the empirical data, e.g. text. We show how an ultrametric topology can be used...
The science and media had opened great space for meditation, showing especially the physical and mental benefits into mechanic daily life of our age. Although it is not possible to deny these benefits, the meditative practice, especially the Master Dōgen’s Zazen, has indeed much more to do with a little less visible and attractive side. In the place of quick benefits, there is pain and the...