Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)March 16, 2020Nicholas J M Popiel, Sina Khajehabdollahi, Pubuditha M. Abeyasinghe et al.
Integrated Information Theory (IIT) posits that integrated information ( Φ ) represents the quantity of a conscious experience. Here, the generalized Ising model was used to calculate Φ as a function of temperature in toy models of fully connected neural networks. A Monte-Carlo simulation was run on 159 normalized, random, positively weighted networks analogous to small five-node excitatory...
Research into the basic effects and therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs has grown considerably in recent years. Yet, pressing questions remain regarding the substances' lasting effects. Although individual studies have begun monitoring sustained changes, no study to-date has synthesized this information. Therefore, this systematic review aims to fill this important gap in the...
Frontiers in PsychologyMarch 12, 2020Scott Sinnett, Joshua Jäger, Sarah Morgana Singer et al.
Improved perception during high performance is a commonly reported phenomenon. However, it is difficult to determine whether these reported changes experienced during flow states reflect veridical changes in perceptual processing, or if instead are related to some form of memory or response bias. Flow is a state in which an individual experiences high focus and involvement in a specific task,...
This research aims at understanding the dynamic interface between psychoanalytical clinical practice and studies within the field of mysticism, through the perspective that these areas of human knowledge offer a vast potential of mutual contributions and corrections.In such regard, the research intends to approach both the ways in which mystical studies broaden the ethical and ontological...
5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) is a potent, fast-acting psychedelic. Anecdotal reports from 5-MeO-DMT users suggest that they employ a variety of benefit enhancement (BE) strategies aimed to increase positive effects and decrease any potential challenging effects of the substance, but no empirical study has investigated this claim. We examined the prevalence of BE strategy use...
AbstractThe authors, both anthropologists who study alternative states of consciousness (ASC), explore the psychodynamics of mystical experience (ME). An affect that is a key factor for and integral to the phenomenology of ME is what they term “mystical love.” In many respects, ME refers to ASC that is diametrically opposite to everyday ego‐centered, materialist consciousness. In this article...
Статья посвящена часто обсуждаемой в современном религиоведении проблеме типологизации религиозных переживаний. Автор фиксирует ситуацию методологического плюрализма в вопросе компаративных исследований религиозного опыта, (учеными используются разные основания и критерии для типологизации, они преследуют различные задачи, исходят из различных философских позиций). Целью статьи является...
This chapter asks what the Church has to learn from, and what it can offer to, the contemplative turn in contemporary culture. It begins with one particular aspect of this phenomenon, namely the interreligious spirituality of persons who find themselves caught up ‘between’ the wisdom of established traditions and their pursuit of an authentic personal practice. Thomas Merton and Swami...
For certain Christians, the word theosis raises red flags. The very mentioning of theosis inevitably conjures up images of Zeus or Thor, as well as many other mythological themes and stories that blur the boundary between the divine and the human. A closer look at the history of Christian thought will reveal that theosis is very closely linked to the basic question that Jesus himself posed:...
Believing that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, Christians have found themselves engaging in theology, conceived as faith in search of understanding, in order to reflect upon and better respond to God’s initiative. This chapter offers a theological account of why mystical theology is at the heart of the Christian theological life. Understood in its ancient expansive sense,...