Eco-poetry as a modern literary theory is a branch of ecocriticism which focuses on the relationship between man and the physical world. Using the Latin American Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda’s selected poetry, this paper sets out to explore the themes of mystical and spiritual consciousness through eco-poetical evidence. This study utilizes the theoretical framework of eco-poetry to...
After a two-decade moratorium on psychedelic research in the United States, new studies on psychedelic assisted psychotherapy have shown promising results in the treatment of psychiatric disorders and the betterment of well people. Little has been written in contemporary psychoanalytic journals about the possible use of psychoanalytic theory as an underpinning for this research. This paper...
AbstractThis article proposes an exposition and analysis of perceptions intrinsic to rituals carried out with the use of the jurema plant, especially when mixed with Syrian rue (juremahuasca) in contexts of contemporary esoteric re‐actualizations in Brazil. These rituals are conducted by people who look at jurema as a spiritual path, once acquainted with its psychedelic properties. We highlight...
Der Begriff ›Near-Death Experience‹ bzw. ›Nahtoderfahrung‹, wurde als generischer Begriff von Raymond A. Moody 1975 geprägt. er sollte jene Erfahrungen zusammenfassen, die Menschen aus Zuständen der Todesnähe berichten. Ein genauerer Blick auf die Ideen- und Ereignisgeschichte der frühen 1970er Jahre zeigt allerdings, wie verschiedene Ströme der Konzeptualisierung von religiösen Erfahrungen –...
This paper discusses the concept of New Age healing. Its emergence into popular culture in the 1980s can be traced to burgeoning interest in human potential and holistic health in the 1960s and 1970s. These phenomena in turn, were rooted in the appearance of Theosophy, New Thought, and spiritualism in the 19th Century. Rather than a social movement, or even a singular phenomenon, the New Age is...
Both psychedelic drug experiences and near-death experiences can occasion changes in perspectives on death and dying, but there have been few direct comparisons of these phenomena. This study directly compared psychedelic occasioned and non-drug experiences which altered individuals’ beliefs about death. Individuals who reported an experience that altered their beliefs about death occasioned by...
Ecstasy (literally, ‘standing outside’), that is, the sense of being outside or beyond the ordinary modes of consciousness, seems to be a universal trait of human existence. Among the many forms of ecstasy is religious, or ‘supra-normal’, ecstasy, which is seen as coming from the action of a higher source, or divinity. This essay examines the forms of religious ecstasy and related terminology...
The mode of 'comparison' is essential, especially when it comes to the contemplation of Marguerite Porete and Hadewijch, the French and Dutch Beguine mystics from 13th century; Their notoriously enigmatic mysticism, by which radical and unique meditations on indistinct union with Divine are expressed in erotic and ecstatic manner, may discover a counterpart in nondualist tantric traditions of...
ReligionsJuly 27, 2022Michael E. Asbury3 citations
The transfer of Sufism as a lived tradition to the Euro-American sphere, which first began in the early twentieth century, is a notable modern development that has been the subject of increasing academic interest in recent decades. Yet much of the literature on this topic to date has focused more on what has changed during the process of transfer, rather than on what has remained the same. It...
How a positive naturalist understanding of mystical experiences is possible and how these experiences and accompanying practices can be incorporated into a secular mysticism are discussed. Philosophical issues related to such a secular mysticism are also raised: is a truly secular mysticism possible? Are mystical experiences cognitive of transcendent non-natural realities? Can secular mysticism...
Abstract The aim of this essay is to elaborate structural epistemological and ethical equivalences between mysticism and psychoanalysis. This allows us to make the central concerns of mysticism accessible to contemporary secular thought. The article is driven by two intentions: on the one hand, not to misunderstand mysticism as a moral enterprise of self-perfection, and on the other hand, to...
Sufism predates Romanticism by over 900 years and has an arresting similarity with British Romanticism and American transcendentalism. The faith in an immortal afterlife, the consideration of death as a gateway to eternity, and the belief in the unity of the creator and the creation make the two philosophical genres very close to each other. John Keats, being one of the greatest British...
Abdur Rahman Baba, a Pashto Poet, has not been discussed in international literature, very little. The aim of this study is to look deep into the poetry of Abdur Rahman Baba, to find out Islamic Mystical elements like love and subjugation towards Allah, devotion towards Prophet Muhammad, the last messenger, then love, care and concern for humanity. Few characteristics and thoughts from the...
ABSTRACT This article presents ideas long considered to be almost exclusively Rand’s, in connection to their expression in the literature of mysticism. The author argues that these ideas, far from being unique to Rand, are hallmarks of mysticism.
This paper proposes to study mystical experience by contrasting it with “ordinary” experience, i.e., with standard consciousness. It emphasises the construed nature of standard consciousness and the role that the mutual connectedness of mental contents plays in its construction. It then shows that removal of the factors that are responsible for the “making” of standard consciousness accounts...
Abstract Mystical experiences frequently precede decreases in human suffering or increased functioning. Therapies that include the ingestion of psychoactive substances in supportive environments often lead to improvements that correlate with the magnitude of the mystical experiences generated. A close look at these phenomena from a philosophy of science perspective might put empiricists in a...
It seems that the controversies over the nature of the beloved in classical Persian mystic poetry (also known as Sufi poetry) as an earthly or ethereal phenomenon would never end. Those in favor of the celestial reading of it consider their counterparts to be narrow-minded. The adherents of terrestrial love, though, see mystical readings dogmatic and outdated, prevailed by traditionalists. The...
ABSTRACT “Meister Eckhart’s Mysticism in Comparison with Zen Buddhism” originally appeared as the concluding section of Ueda Shizuteru’s first book, Die Gottesgeburt in der Seele und der Durchbruch zur Gottheit: Die mystische Anthropologie Meister Eckharts und ihre Konfrontation mit der Mystik des Zen-Buddhismus. It was first published in 1965 as an expanded version of Ueda’s doctoral...
When the moon is in the Seventh HouseAnd Jupiter aligns with MarsThen peace will guide the planetsAnd love will steer the starsThis is the dawning of the age of Aquarius–‘The Age of Aquarius’, 5th ...
The current study will evaluate the role of ‘irfān [the inner perception of knowledge; combining elements of philosophy, theosophy, mysticism and Shi’i thought] within the Islamic Republic of Iran as a significant component of Iran’s cultural heritage. It will focus on several prominent clerics and intellectuals who represent the regime’s diverse political factions. This article will...