Summary Forty-five cases of psychotic patients with admission urinalysis positive for cannabis were compared with psychotic controls without evidence of cannabis use. Cases and controls were matched for age, sex and year of admission, and were compared for socio-demographic data, circumstances of admission, diagnosis, and symptoms at admission. Three differences were found: cases were more...
Article matching phenomena associated with the passage into otherworlds as reported during out-of-body and near-death experiences, with imagery associated with the passage into otherworlds as depicted in classic modern fantasies and fairy tales.
This is a review of psychological approaches to out-of-body experiences (OBEs) since the 19th century. Some of the work discussed includes explanations of OBEs based on imaginal processes, telepathic hallucinations, and psychodynamic factors. Particularly important for their detail and empirical orientation are recent OBE theories of Blackmore, Irwin, and Palmer, and survey and experimental...
The article outlines reasons why the field of transpersonal psychology arose and some of its current theoretical and experimental frontiers. These frontiers include full-spectrum models of development that encompass transconventional stages, possible integrations among different psychological schools, new understandings of contemplative practices and altered states of consciousness, and...
An analysis is made of adolescent hallucinogenic plant ingestion during initiation rituals among Australian Aboriginal males, Tshogana Tsonga females and among Chumash youth of Southern California. This use pattern contrasts with abusive patterns of drug abuse found among American adolescents. Findings indicate the existence of managed altered states of consciousness in the tribal societies...
The present study tries to find an answer to the question, whether the consumption of cannabis can cause flashbacks, and, if so, under what circumstances they occur. This is of interest for the treatment, prognosis and also from the legal viewpoint. The definition of a flashback is often unclear. Empirical investigations are often not sufficiently comparable, the supplementary data are very...
In these essays Stephen White examines the forms of psychological integration that give rise to self-knowable and self-conscious individuals who are responsible, concerned for the future, and capable of moral commitment. The essays cover a wide range of basic issues in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, moral psychology, and political philosophy, providing a coherent, sophisticated, and...
This paper reviews some of the evidence indicating that hallucinogens or psychedelic substances have therapeutic effects. The general character hallucinogen use in non‐ Western societies is briefly reviewed to present data about the characteristic beliefs and uses associated with these substances. Evidence for therapeutic effectiveness is addressed from several perspectives: the findings from...
This paper discusses two recent speculations within the field of neural networks about the purpose of Rapid Eye Movement sleep, the time of sleep during which most vivid dreams occur.These theories are part of the information-processing view of REM sleep and are based on the finding that the mnemonic efficiency of neural networks is increased if the networks are programmed to periodically enter...
298 The Henry James Review Courtney Johnson, Jr. Henry James and the Evolution of Consciousness: A Study of "The Ambassadors." East Lansing: Michigan State U P, 1987. 171 pp. $15.00. Courtney Johnson sets out to demonstrate die appUcability of Transcendental Meditation and twentieth-century physics, particularly Unified Field Theory, to defining the special state of elevated consciousness die...