This paper explores the phenomenology of mystical experiences and its philosophical implications. The focus will be on defending Alston’s view that there are perceptual kinds of mystical experiences, a view that has been historically prominent. In Christian mystical tradition the most influential discussions on spiritual senses were led by Origen and respected theologians like Karl Rahner and...
These two cases highlight the utility of a focused, structured clinical phenomenological interview in measuring treatment effectiveness in subjective experience. Two male patients, aged 35 and 27, of Serbian ethnicity with treatment-resistant depression were treated with nasal esketamine, with clinical progress monitored using both the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and the...
Temsilcilik, çağdaş zihin felsefesinde çok sayıda taraftarı olan bir yaklaşımdır. Genel olarak zihnin yönelimsel karakterini öne çıkaran temsilcilik, yönelimselliğe en az kendisi kadar büyük önem atfeden eylemcilik ve buyrukçuluk gibi alternatif yaklaşımlar karşısında birlikli bir tutum sergiler. Ancak bu durum temsilciliğin birbirlerinden ayırt edilmesi gereken farklı bakış açılarına izin...
Since the late 1970s, phenomenology has been widely used in nursing, education, psychology, and other disciplines. As one should have expected, its increasing popularity made this methodology vulnerable to criticism. Various authors began to question the credibility and usefulness of phenomenological research. Among the arguments, the vagueness of central concepts is the most notable. Indeed,...
A significant share of meditation research relies on trait psychometric measures of mindfulness, which neglect the complex and dynamic unfolding of experiential processes entailed by meditation over time. However, there have been a few attempts to capture ongoing changes in experience during meditation. In this study, we integrated and expanded on 3 of these previous approaches to create a...
The phenomenology of psychedelic experiences has been a long-standing point of interest to researchers. However, internal experience has been relatively relegated, with much work done on the clinical outcomes of psychedelic therapies. Our reflexive thematic analysis revealed that structurally, people on fora write about their experiences sequentially, considering factors prior to (preparatory),...
Studies on the electrophysiological and phenomenological aspects of dream experiences provide insight on consciousness during sleep. Whole night polysomnography (PSG) studies were conducted among 29 healthy young participants with high dream recall abilities. Dreams reports were collected during the second night by multiple awakening protocol. On the third night, participants were presented...
According to a widely shared belief, an explanation of phenomenal experience in terms of neural mechanisms is impossible in principle. The reason for this "Explanatory Gap" is supposed to be a basic incompatibility between phenomenal and neuroscientific knowledge: while the latter is framed in terms of functional relationships, it is impossible to capture phenomenal experience in functional...
The psychopathology of schizophrenia is a complex amalgamation of features that span across different dimensions. These dimensions range from the experience of altered time and space through self-disorders to perceptual, positive, and negative symptoms. The relationship between these different psychopathological dimensions remains unclear. Addressing this gap was the aim of our study. We...
The science of consciousness has been successful over the last decades. Yet, it seems that some of the key questions remain unanswered. Perhaps, as a science of consciousness, we cannot move forward using the same theoretical commitments that brought us here. It might be necessary to revise some assumptions we have made along the way. In this piece, I offer no answers, but I will question some...
The philosophies of Edmund Husserl and the mystical insights of Ibn 'Arabi are the main subjects of this essay, which examines the idea of the self from the twin views of Islamic Sufism and Western phenomenology. Phenomenology emphasizes the self as the pure consciousness that constitutes the world through intentionality, while Sufism views the self (nafs) as something to be purified on the...
In this article I have dealt with the salient features of the Mind and the Body, the Mind-Body Relationship; Dualism and Interactionism , the Relationship between the Mind and the Machine through the lens of Functionalism, Computational Functionalism and Mind and lastly the chapter will be emphasized on the conceptual orientations, argumentations with regard to determining the gap of Research...
When we say that a theory is able to account for our subjective experience, we simply mean that if this theory were true—e.g., if our brain were as this theory stipulates—then our subjective experience would be indeed as we experience it. A scientist would formulate this idea using the notions of observation and prediction: A theory is able to account for our subjective experience if and only...
Preprints.orgJune 20, 2025Lida‐alkisti Xenaki, Nikos C. Stefanis
preprint
Psychosis constitutes a profound alteration in the individual's relationship with the self and the world, expressed through symptoms signalized by loss of reality testing. Mainstream psychiatric approaches often rely heavily on descriptive psychopathology, which may overlook the multifaceted subjective experiences of affected individuals. This paper outlines an integrative framework to enhance...
Consciousness is traditionally viewed as a by-product of neurophysiological processes. This work proposes an alternative hypothesis: consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of the brain, but a manifestation of a universal spiritual field — the soul of the Universe. The study integrates concepts from quantum physics, information theory, phenomenology, and transpersonal psychology to offer a...
Recent studies intensively explore psilocybin's antidepressant potential, but variables like previous experience, repeated use, setting, and sex remain underexplored. This study examines acute and long-term effects of psilocybin in healthy individuals. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study included 40 healthy participants (20 females, mean age 38). Each received two doses of...
Computational phenomenology has emerged as a powerful framework for investigating advanced meditation states and stages, and meditative development and endpoints. Various models have been proposed to mechanistically explain the diverse experiences associated with these practices, including enhanced well-being, attentional shifts, and defabrication, as well as minimal phenomenal experiences and...
The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) has long served as a paradigm for understanding multisensory integration and body ownership. Traditional interpretations emphasize neural mechanisms and cognitive suggestibility, but they fall short of identifying the illusion’s fundamental cause. This paper proposes the Soul-Drift Hypothesis (SDH), a novel conceptual framework that attributes the RHI not to...
In his book, A Phenomenological Approach to Quantum Mechanics: Cutting the Chain of Correlations, Steven French argues that quantum mechanics, understood through the phenomenological lens of London and Bauer, turns physics into a "genuine science", and thus completes the project Edmund Husserl had started in his last major publication, The Crisis of European Sciences. What makes quantum...
Abstract This chapter reviews the history of psycho-physical parallelism with a concentration on the context and unfolding of Freud’s 1895–1896 Project for a Scientific Psychology and later on genetic phenomenology. Contextualization includes Herbart’s “reduction” of acts of consciousness to dynamic, mathematizable units; Mach’s bodies approached in their worlds; and Brentano’s approach to time...