Chanting is practiced in many religious and secular traditions and involves rhythmic vocalization or mental repetition of a sound or phrase. This study examined how chanting relates to cognitive function, altered states, and quality of life across a wide range of traditions. A global survey was used to assess experiences during chanting including flow states, mystical experiences, mindfulness,...
Background: Experiences of intoxication elude scientific research because of their immediate and 'inner' nature for the intoxicated individual. In this chapter, we show how 'trip reports' – reports of psychedelic intoxication – from online drug information forums and libraries allow for further understanding the experience of psychedelic intoxication from LSD, DMT and psilocybin by examining...
This article studies the practices of meditation and generosity among Chinese Buddhists in 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak to provide insight into the interplay of religion, faith, well-being, and the pandemic more broadly, as well as to understand the specific ways in which Chinese Buddhists may draw on their faith to combat the ill effects of the pandemic. In particular, we trace the...
This study is a comparative cognitive analysis of the identical symbols of Divine Love in the poetry of the oriental Pakistani poet Omer Tarin and the occidental English poet William Blake. It adopts the Mental Spaces theory in Cognitive Poetics and the theory of Perennialism in Comparative Mysticism as the main theoretical frameworks. The study aims at demonstrating the mental operation of...
Abstract Psychedelics are a unique class of drug that commonly produce vivid hallucinations as well as profound psychological and mystical experiences. A grouping of interconnected brain regions characterized by increased temporal coherence at rest have been termed the Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN has been the focus of numerous studies assessing its role in self-referencing, mind...
This paper provides an autoethnographic accounting and analysis of my own mystical experiences, called connection experiences in this paper. This account, which is structured around a description of my early experiences, attempts to weave together psychological, sociological, historical, and methodological themes into a coherent contribution that advances our understanding of connection...
The phenomenon of emerging spiritualities has a social and cultural nature and is the result of structural changes in the modern world and actors. To study this phenomenon, while paying attention to cultural, social and historical contexts and theirs processes and considering aspects and macro social and cultural conditions, it is necessary to pay attention to the intentions, thoughts and...
E-AcadêmicaOctober 10, 2022Roberto Carlos Moreira Kuligowski, Eduarda Maria Schroeder, João Vitor Pelizzari et al.
Introduction: Studies about alternative medicine have multiplied in several countries such as the United States, Norway and England in recent years. Among them, I highlight psychedelic medicine that through randomized clinical trials, has already shown that psilocybin - substance present in the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom, popularly known as "magic mushrooms" - was able to induce remission of...
Abstract This article focuses on the meeting of faith traditions—interfaith dialogue—from the perspective of mystical consciousness. In doing so, it aims to understand the dynamics and potentialities of interfaith mysticism. The contribution of this article to religious studies, in combination with theological inquiry, is threefold: first, it illuminates how the Trinity is directly experienced...
Psychedelic substances have played important roles in diverse cultures, and ingesting various plant preparations to evoke altered states of consciousness has been described throughout recorded history. Accounts of the subjective effects of psychedelics typically focus on spiritual and mystical-type experiences, including feelings of unity, sacredness, and transcendence. Over the past 2 decades,...