ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic research, this paper describes select views and experiences of a Sufi schoolteacher pressured at work into silence about her interpretation of Islam. At Tafsīr Islamic Academy (TIA), unity was broadly construed as achieved through conformity to mainstream Sunni belief and practice. Salihah, one of its teachers and a practicing Sufi, portrayed unity as an...
This article investigates the relationship between a neglected strand of western esotericism – Laeveticism – and practices of experimental creative adaptation. The article first summarizes the Laevetic tradition and its adaptive resonances, before discussing a series of historical adaptations. Many of these exist only as traces in other works, but they establish a tradition of Laevetic...
Background: Psychedelic therapies are gaining attention as tools to alleviate anxiety and depression across various clinical populations. However, the mechanisms behind psychedelics' therapeutic efficacy and the potential differences in how patients with certain diagnoses experience their subjective effects remain unknown. One commonly suggested mediator of positive outcomes across psychedelics...
The issue of the manifestation of the divine epiphany in the mystical thoughts of the Baytajies is crucial and has a deep esoteric meaning because it was part of their life, which developed through this principle.
The rapid expansion of psychedelic research has opened significant pathways of opportunity in treating mental health disorders. Participants in recent clinical trials consistently report mystical-type experiences during dosing sessions, and some scholars posit that such experiences themselves help mediate clinical improvements in depression, PTSD, anxiety, and substance use disorders. These...
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate and elucidate the fruitfulness of Alfred North Whitehead’s doctrine of non-sensory perception for exceptional forms of experience. I begin by introducing Whitehead’s work, influence, and some of the characteristic ideological transitions associated with his thought. I then draw attention to his methodology as a form of radical empiricism beyond that...
The Open Data initiative Altered States Database (ASDB) collects psychometric questionnaire data on the subjective experiences of pharmacologically and non-pharmacologically induced altered states of consciousness. The ASDB is updated annually and can be utilized by both researchers and non-scientists to access information or conduct further analyses. The current update adds data published in...
This article develops a phenomenological foundation of mystical anthropology through a dialogue between contemporary Spanish philosophy and the sixteenth-century Castilian mystical tradition. Taking Juan Martín Velasco, Miguel García-Baró, and Teresa of Ávila as its main interlocutors, it explores the anthropological structure of the encounter with Mystery as an essential possibility of human...
Psychedelic-assisted therapies (PATs) can produce rapid and sustained antidepressant effects, yet variability in response remains substantial. Identifying predictors and moderators is essential for optimising patient selection, preparation, and delivery. To map and synthesise the evidence on the predictors of antidepressant response to classic/serotonergic psychedelics administered with...
The Book of Psalms (Sefer Tehillim) stands at the center of Jewish devotional life, shaping religious psychology, liturgy, and spiritual imagination for over two millennia. Psalms are simultaneously literary, musical, therapeutic, communal, mystical, and theological. This essay argues that Psalms constitute a uniquely Jewish mode of prayer that transforms emotional life into sacred language,...