The longstanding juncture between science and religion in psychedelic research is mediated most notably by the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ). The MEQ is a psychometric survey for assessing mystical experiences, and it relies on the work of philosopher Walter Stace for its typology and philosophy of mysticism. Yet there is an under-investigated influence from Vedantic Hinduism that...
Abstract Ecstatic epilepsy is a rare form of focal epilepsy, so named because the seizures' first symptoms consist of an ecstatic/mystical experience, including feelings of increased self-awareness, mental clarity, and “unity with everything that exists,” accompanied by a sense of bliss and physical well-being. In this perspective article, we first describe the phenomenology of ecstatic...
Expansion of psychoactive hallucinogens in mental health continues to be a major trend. Several psychoactive molecules including psilocybin and MDMA continue to move through the FDA approval process with clinical trials.1 In the meantime, off-label ketamine medically supervised programs and indigenous plant ceremonies continue to expand.2,3 This study explores the potential benefits of High...
Introduction. The common version that mystical experience reveals the deep unity of religious traditions, hiding behind the external facade of their differences, seems controversial. Theoretical analysis. It is justified that the similarity between different traditions of mysticism does not express the quintessence of religiosity, as such, but only convergence in a certain phase of the...
This study compares the critical neural correlates of two altered states of consciousness: near-death experience (NDE) and spiritual contemplative experience (SCE), a.k.a. mystical experience. For Centuries NDE and SCE have been reported by all faiths, including Abrahamic religious contemplatives: Christian mystics, Muslim Sufis, and Jewish Kabbalists. Their anecdotal reports show that both NDE...
Introduction: We have recently recorded, processed, and published preliminary research (Part I) on brain activity by quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) tomography (QEEGt), comparing separate subjects remembering their near-death experiences (NDEs) and mystical experiences (SCE). Several reports have affirmed that NDE and SCE are related to important functional changes in the autonomic...
This paper examines the epistemic value of non-religious mystical experiences. By taking a non-religious angle, it adds a complementary perspective to the context in which mystical experiences are generally discussed, i.e., the context of theological questions or perspectives informed by the philosophy of religion. While I am pessimistic about the possibilities of such experiences providing...
We recently recorded, processed, and published brain activity by quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) and quantitative electroencephalography (QEEGt), comparing separate subjects remembering their near-death experience (NDE) and mystical experience. Our studies refer to a mystical experience as a spiritual contemplative experience (SCE). We found neural and Greyson Scale (GS) correlations...
A large body of research in the field of psychology currently points to a variety of therapeutic outcomes derived from psychedelically occasioned mystical experience. Moreover, additional research suggests that such benefits to mental and emotional well-being may depend directly upon the subjective mystical experience itself, rather than upon the substances that triggered it; for instance,...
Arguably the most influential Sufi thinker in Islam, Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn ʻArabī (d. 638/1240), views revelatory knowledge and mystical experience, what he terms ‘spiritual unveiling’ (kashf), as a form of continuing divine revelation that is bequeathed to the spiritual elite or saints (awliyā’). As the self-proclaimed ‘Seal of Saints’ (Khātam al-awliyā’), who is the mystical heir to the wisdom of...