Assessment of Mental Health, Religion and Culture
September 13, 2016
R. E. Sears, R. Hood
ABSTRACT This study examines the responses of Nepali Christians and Hindus to the newly developed Dreaming Mysticism Scale (DMS). Factor breakdowns of the DMS for Christians and Hindus were basically identical, and together they and the factor breakdown of the combined sample suggest an interpretation–extraversion–interpretation typology that corresponds to the typical finding of studies...
Veritas
September 1, 2016
En el mbito de la situacin presente de crisis de lo humano, as como de la efusin actual del fenmeno mstico, esta reflexin se aproxima a la experiencia mstica contempornea a travs de uno de sus testigos: Etty Hillesum. El acercamiento a la trama narrativa de su diario hizo posible que el decir del ser, el decir sobre lo humano en la experiencia mstica se abriera paso a travs de un ejercicio...
Journal of Analytic Theology
May 6, 2016
Sameer Yadav
50 citations
Apophaticism in mainstream analytic theology and philosophy of religion has come to denote a metaphysical and semantic thesis: that, due to divine transcendence, God is ineffable, inconceivable, or incomprehensible. But this conception fails to properly take account of the central claim of apophaticism as a special type of mystical theology. As such, the apophatic commitments to divine...
Existential Analysis: Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis
2016
Georgia Feliou
In this paper, the nature of spiritual or mystical experiences is discussed. An effort to sketch phenomenological criteria for differentiating these experiences from psychotic and depressive episodes is also provided, based on Jean-Luc Marion’s phenomenology and on Anthony Steinbock’s analysis. Key words Spiritual or mystical experiences, Dark Night of the Soul, mysticism, schizophrenia,...
Neuropsychologia
November 26, 2015
Irène Cristofori, Joseph Bulbulia, John H. Shaver et al.
104 citations
Mystical experiences, or subjectively believed encounters with a supernatural world, are widely reported across cultures and throughout human history. Previous theories speculate that executive brain functions underpin mystical experiences. To evaluate causal hypotheses, structural studies of brain lesion are required. Previous studies suffer from small samples or do not have valid measures of...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
October 6, 2015
Frederick S. Barrett, Matthew W Johnson, Roland R. Griffiths
634 citations
The 30-item revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) was previously developed within an online survey of mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin-containing mushrooms. The rated experiences occurred on average eight years before completion of the questionnaire. The current paper validates the MEQ30 using data from experimental studies with controlled doses of psilocybin. Data...
Unisia
October 1, 2015
Dini Rahma Bintari
1 citation
This paper discusses how empowerment can be triggered by mystical experiences, byfocusing on mystical experience of the first revelation of Islam to Muhammad PBUH. Only fewliterature on empowerment in mainstream psychology, specifically discuss how empowermentcan be achieved through personal mystical or spiritual experiences. Transpersonal studies giveexplanations of human mystical experiences...
Anthropology of Consciousness
September 1, 2015
Lucinda Carspecken
Abstract: In early visits to Lothlorien—which is a loosely Pagan community of environmentalists in Indiana—I was confounded by attempts to categorize either the place or the people. As one of the founders said, “I tend to run from labels so I don't know what I am. It's safer that way.” In this paper I explore four members’ narratives about the emotional high points in their lives, where they...
Consciousness and Cognition
September 1, 2015
John M De Castro
23 citations
Contemplative practices can have profound effects on mindfulness and on physical and sensory and mystical experiences. Individuals who self-reported meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, or a combination of practices and their patterns of practice were compared for mindfulness, kundalini effects, and mystical experiences. The results suggest that the amount of practice but not the pattern and...
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
July 27, 2015
David B. Yaden, Johannes C. Eichstaedt, H. Andrew Schwartz et al.
68 citations
Mystical experiences are often described as “ineffable,” or beyond language. However, people readily speak about their mystical experiences if asked about them. How do people describe what is supposedly indescribable? In this study, we used quantitative linguistic analyses to interpret the writings of 777 participants (45.5% female, 51.0% male) who recounted their most significant spiritual or...