Both psychedelic substances and meditation have been proposed to facilitate personally meaningful and transformative experiences, with insights playing a central role. However, previous research has mainly relied on questionnaires, limiting the range of insights that can be identified. In this study, we recruited participants who provided narrative reports of insights in personally meaningful...
The article examines approaches to understanding the subject in traditional Indian and European philosophy. The author draws on concepts from Advaita Vedānta, Yoga, Sāṁkhya, Vaiśeṣika, and Buddhism, highlighting their common cultural core. The article notes that in most classical Indian systems, the subject (ātman, puruṣa) was considered as strictly separated from the external world, the...
“RELIEF OCEAN” is a poetic rumination on the spiritual/mystical possibilities that swim alongside affective states experienced during depression and sickness, but also in psychedelia, art, queer love and friendship, and in grief. This essay begins with a reflection on the writer’s artistic collaboration with his late ex-boyfriend Billy, who died in December 2024 after a multiyear battle with...
Building upon previous analyses of medical heresy as secularized religious orthodoxy enforcement, this study examines how Jewish mystical traditions particularly Kabbalistic antinomianism and Sabbatian theology illuminate deeper dimensions of the heresy-orthodoxy dialectic in contemporary medical practice. Through analysis of figures like Sabbatai Zevi, Jacob Frank, and their theological...
Background: Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) is a promising treatment for various psychiatric disorders. However, the exact biological and psychological mechanisms of action of PAP remain to be determined. Examining predictors of PAP outcomes may help identify necessary processes for positive treatment outcomes. Mystical experiences are considered a key aspect of the subjective effects...
This study explores the dual theme of complaint and hope in modern Arabic poetry, portraying it as a profound human voice that expresses emotional and spiritual experience in moments of fragility and reflection. Complaint is not treated merely as a lament or expression of suffering, but as a contemplative and artistic mode that elevates personal pain into a search for transcendence and light....
This essay explores the profound parallels between the Talmudic concept of the talmid chacham who is nokem v'noter "like a snake," the dual nature of venom as both poison and medicine, and the Torah's characterization as either sam chayim (elixir of life) or sam mavet (deadly poison).Drawing from classical Jewish sources, particularly the Degel Machaneh Ephraim's mystical interpretation, we...
Pesugihan is a mystical ritual carried out by individuals in secret and unreasonable to obtain wealth involving mystical rituals of shamanic practices. The purpose of this research is to find out the psychological dynamics and how to interpret an individual who performs the pesugihan ritual. Data exploration was carried out by analyzing the basic motivations, both intrinsic and extrinsic, from...
This article recounts my experiential engagement with the Call of the Time (COTT) dialogue, a collaborative initiative between the Brahma Kumaris (BK) and Minhaj University Lahore’s Shaykh-ul-Islam Spiritual Studies Centre (SISS), facilitated by the Department of Religion and Philosophy. Framed within Brahma Kumaris’ cyclical cosmology and SISS’s mission to synthesise Islamic spirituality with...
The article present critically examines the dynamic intersection of gender, spiritual devotion, and indigenous epistemologies within Indian mystical traditions. Through an analysis of the works of key mystic poets such as Kabir, Mirabai, Akka Mahadevi, Lalla, and the women poets of the Therigatha, it explores how mystic poetry operates as both a literary and philosophical repository of...