Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
November 1, 2006
Michelle R Lofwall, Roland R. Griffiths, Miriam Z Mintzer
57 citations
Ketamine is a noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist. Given the purported role of the NMDA receptor in long-term potentiation, the primary purpose of the present study was to further understand the dose-related effects of ketamine on memory. The study was also designed to provide information about the relative effects of ketamine on memory versus nonmemory effects and to more...
October 18, 2006
Arthur J. Magida
This chapter discusses the experience of Ram Dass at his bar mitzvah. Ram Dass or Richard Alpert is the epicenter of America's spiritual searchings, a teacher, eloquent guide, and agile translator of Eastern thought into American practice. Since the 1960s, he has helped shape Americans' attitudes toward consciousness, faith, drugs, religion, and mysticism, giving them perspective and a...
Journal of Religion & Film
October 1, 2006
Abstract Recognized as a masterpiece of French cinema, Robert Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest (1951) dramatizes a young priest's encounters with grace during the months he spends in his first parish in the rural village of Ambricourt. During this time, the priest keeps a journal in which he records both the outer events of his life in Ambricourt and his inner experiences of a transcendent...
Neuroscience Letters
July 27, 2006
Mario Beauregard, Vincent Paquette
338 citations
The main goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to identify the neural correlates of a mystical experience. The brain activity of Carmelite nuns was measured while they were subjectively in a state of union with God. This state was associated with significant loci of activation in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right middle temporal cortex, right inferior...
Psychopharmacology
July 7, 2006
Roland R. Griffiths, William A. Richards, U. Mccann et al.
1,684 citations
RationaleAlthough psilocybin has been used for centuries for religious purposes, little is known scientifically about its acute and persisting effects.ObjectivesThis double-blind study evaluated the acute and longer-term psychological effects of a high dose of psilocybin relative to a comparison compound administered under comfortable, supportive conditions.Materials and methodsThe participants...
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
July 1, 2006
Charles Savage
4 citations
The book is a collection of interviews and the distilled wisdom obtained between late 1996 and mid-1998, updated and edited by eminent psychiatrists, Professors Roger Walsh and Charles Grob. The alliteratively poetic title in lower case, in green and blue with a colorful psychedelic logo, contrasts with the ashen photographs of all the participants. The book will evoke nostalgia in anyone who...
The Journal of Psychology
July 1, 2006
Pehr Granqvist, Marcus Larsson
31 citations
M. A. Persinger (2002) claimed that transcranial magnetic stimulation with weak, complex magnetic fields evokes mystical experiences. However, in a double-blind experiment, P. Granqvist, M. Fredrikson, P. Unge, A. Hagenfeldt, S. Valind., et al. (2005) found no effects of field exposure on mystical experiences (N = 89), though a minority of participants reported spontaneous mystical experiences....
Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science
June 2, 2006
Bruce Greyson
91 citations
Abstract. Some individuals when they come close to death report having experiences that they interpret as spiritual or religious. These so‐called near‐death experiences (NDEs) often include a sense of separation from the physical body and encounters with religious figures and a mystical or divine presence. They share with mystical experiences a sense of cosmic unity or oneness, transcendence of...
Religious Studies and Theology
February 15, 2006
Manijeh Mannani
The central focus of my article is a comparative study of the Persian Sufi poet, Jalal al-Din Rumi (1212-1273), and the English Metaphysical poet, John Donne (1572-1631). In this article, I have analyzed the two schools of thought to which these poets belong as well as their individual world-views to elucidate the different dimensions of the shared philosophy governing their poetry. Mine is, in...
Archive for the Psychology of Religion
2006
Antoon Geels
The author suggests a new model for interpretation of mystical experience, based on a fruitful combination of cognitive psychology and depth psychology. Offering a rather wide definition of mystical experience, the author then turns to two basic assumptions—a general systems approach and an organismic-holistic view of development. Hans Loewald's analysis of primary process cognition is combined...