In his contribution to psychoanalysis, Jacques Lacan introduces three orders according to which every psychoanalytic phenomenon can be described. These three orders are the imaginary, the symbolic and the real. The imaginary is the order in which the subject thinks of everything as his/her own. For the subject there is no distinction between the other and the subject itself. In the symbolic...
This article aims to clarify two traditions of understanding time, namely the rationalistic, which includes the scientific (in the West, going back to the ‘Physics’ of Aristotle) and philosophical (going back in the West to Augustine), and mystical (the most methodically sustained is the Yogic tradition of Classical India and Sufism). The article contains several sections: Introduction raises...
In her later career, the British woman writer Doris Lessing (1919-2013) becomes interested in Sufism, which “believes itself to be the substance of that current which can develop man to a higher stage in his evolution”[^1]. This interest in Sufi philosophy provides a template for the protagonists’ reconstructive journey in Doris Lessing’s novels. In fact, the heroines transcend the limits of...
The Sufi term “tasting” (dhawq) and its semantic cognates “drinking” (shirb / shurb) and “quenching of thirst” (riyy) appear frequently in the Sufi writings of the ninth — eleventh centuries AD to denote a mystical experience of the true reality of God and the divine creation. Originally referring primarily to the mystic's psychological or somatic state (hal), in later Sufi literature and oral...
This study focuses on a particular form of positive transformation taking place in the wilderness, defined here as peak transformative experience. A large number of studies have been conducted on the negative transformative effect of a single traumatic event, while very little research has focused on positive transformational events. We addressed this lacuna by studying a unique case of quick...
This contribution identifies and exemplifies the specific resources of inspiration and motivation that educators who live the spirituality of unity can exploit for their commitments in the field of education; that is, to create pedagogical relational spaces in particular.
ABSTRACT In religious individuals, spontaneous mystical experiences (SMEs) tend to reinforce pre-existing beliefs and are associated with enhanced wellbeing, mediated by adaptive interpretive frameworks and accepting social environments. The meaning-making and outcomes of SMEs among atheists have not been investigated to date. Using a grounded theory approach, the present study found that the...
BACKGROUND: While cannabis has a long history of spiritual use, its normalization in Western societies during the last decades has led to more recreational use. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of spiritual cannabis use as compared to recreational use and to the use of psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin. METHODS: The study employed a mixed methods research design that...
There are many adaptive functions of music listening (AFML) that are relevant for understanding wellbeing. Functions relating to mood and emotion regulation dominate general measures of music listening functions. Eudaimonic functions of music listening (FML) have been identified, but no scale has been developed to measure these functions. The current study reports on the development of a new...
September 4, 2020Edward Hoffman, Shan Jiang, Yan Wang et al.
Humanistic psychology has pioneered in investigating travel as a contributor to personality growth. In this study, 182 native Chinese undergraduates responded to a survey inquiring if they had ever experienced “wonderful happiness” while engaged in tourism, and if so, to indicate the purpose of their travel, how recently and where their peak-experience occurred, whether they were alone or with...
Esketamine was recently licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Drug Agency (EDA) for use in treatment resistant depression (TRD), and further research indicates ketamine as a possible treatment in other mental health conditions. While the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, it has been hypothesised that ketamine's acute psychoactive effects may be associated with...
August 7, 2020Olga V. Mitina, М.а. Винникова, А. Н. Решетилов et al.
preprint
## AimInvestigate accounts from breath-holding freedivers about high efficiency in coping with adversity and pain, immediately quitting addictions, attaining harmonious meaningful life, becoming perspicacious and compassionate, getting spontaneous religious experience. ## Findings Full Mystical Experience is confirmed to happen in freediving, i.e. it is the same Mystical experience found in...
Although both psilocybin and dextromethorphan (DXM) produce psychedelic-like subjective effects, rates of non-medical use of psilocybin are consistently greater than DXM. New data are presented from a study of psilocybin and DXM relevant to understanding the features of psilocybin subjective effects that may account for its higher rates of non-medical use. Single, acute oral doses of psilocybin...
In recently received event invitations and articles in online tech publications such as Wired, Futurism and The Verge,1) I have noticed an interesting pattern of a kind of “spiritual” attention being paid towards new digital immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). I attended one such event (in which an acquaintance, a “ritual designer”, was involved) and my...
ABSTRACT The psychological and pathological correlates of mystical experience have been debated since the early days of the psychology of religion. In the present study the association between mystical experience and emotional wellbeing was tested among 1,266 Australian church leaders who completed the Eysenck Neuroticism Scale alongside the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale. No...
Studies combining psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs (PsiDs) have demonstrated positive outcomes that are often associated with PsiDs' ability to induce 'mystical-type' experiences (MTEs) - i.e., subjective experiences whose characteristics include a sense of connectedness, transcendence, and ineffability. We suggest that both PsiDs and virtual reality can be situated on a broader spectrum of...
The neural substrates of religious belief and experience are an intriguing though contentious topic. Here, we had the unique opportunity to establish the relation between validated measures of religiosity and gray matter volume in a large sample of participants (N = 211). In this registered report, we conducted a confirmatory voxel-based morphometry analysis to test three central hypotheses...
Despite their acutely inebriating and sometimes unpleasant effects, some people report positive changes in life satisfaction, well-being, or mental health after taking psychedelic drugs. One explanation may be the ability of psychedelics to trigger mystical-type experiences. We examined the validity, reliability, and factor structure of a novel Finnish translation of the Revised Mystical...
Abstract: Despite their different etiologies, three types of spiritually transformative experiences (STEs)--near-death experiences, psilocybin experiences, and meditative experiences of cosmic consciousness--appear to have attributes that are common to a broad range of mystical experiences, including an experience of expanded awareness. In addition, all three appear to be associated with...
This essay provides an anthropological account of a neuroepistemological account of mystical experience. We commence by outlining the various qualities of mystical experience (e.g. time-consciousness and space-consciousness distortion). Subsequently, we analyse the epistemology of mystical experience with special reference to the constructivist versus decontextualist debate. Next, we formulate...