Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Anticipatory Set and Setting: Stress Incongruities as Elicitors of Mystical Experience in Solitary Nature Situations, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1978), pp. 279-287
The author reviews the literature on hallucinations that occur as a result of acute and chronic administration of cocaine. He examined the phenomenology of cocaine hallucinations in a group of 85 recreational cocaine users, 15 of whom reported hallucinatory experiences in visual, tactile, olfactory, auditory, and gustatory modalities. He discusses a new phenomenon of "snow lights" in terms of...
This experiment tested the hypothesis that demand characteristics, as outlined by Orne (1962), may affect dream content. Twelve subjects, allocated to two matched groups balanced for age and sex, were selected on the basis of good dream recall from 94 volunteer psychology I students. Subjects were involved in the study for 15 consecutive nights, three of which were laboratory recording nights,...
THE LOSS OF THE ORIGIN IN SOTO ZEN AND IN MEISTER ECKHART SEVERAL JAPANESE AUTHORS who have come into contact with the Western tradition have underlined similarities between key concepts in Zen Buddhism and in Meister Eckhart.1 Sometimes their statements, for instance Suzuki's, betray a rather superficial acquaintance with the schools of thought that intersectinEckhart'shighly syncretistic...
Some of the difficulties of trying to establish an animal model of schizophrenia are first considered. Then, after a review of the evidence on the experimental psychopathology of schizophrenia, particularly that concerned with attention and arousal, it is concluded that the core feature which needs to be modeled in animals is some aspect of "input dysfunction." It is argued that, of the...
29 subjects attempted, over a period of 10 nights, to influence their dreams using techniques described in Garfield's book, Creative Dreaming (1974). A target suggestion was selected from a list of six suggestions compiled by, or for, each subject. Subjects kept daily records during the experiment both of their efforts at dream influence and of the dreams they recalled. Four judges attempted to...
This paper represents a reanalysis of data from earlier studies sup porting the hypothesis that cultural patterning of altered states of con sciousness (trance) conforms to a monothetic general evolutionary scale of sociocultural behavior. Global correlations using holocultural method ology show trance type to be positively correlated with four selected evolutionary variables, two related to...
James's "Ether Mysticism" and Hegel DANIEL J. COOK THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE, James was a persistent critic of Hegel and Hegelianism . Very often he attacked Hegel with derision as well as earnest argument. One attitude that has been cited as evidence of James's light-hearted and cavalier treatment of Hegel concerns his comments on Hegel while under the influence of nitrous oxide (N20). In this paper...
This essay examines the complementary functions of biopsychology and phenomenology in the interpretation of the religious significance of altered states of consciousness. Two physiological models of consciousness are examined and correlated with phenomenological theories of interpretation. The first model charts consciousness along a continuum of central nervous system arousal. The second model...
Two cases of the schizophrenia are reported with phenomenological discussion of their religious experiences of Christian nature that appeared in the course of the illness. These experiences are so similar to the conversion and continue in the subsequent spiritual life of these patients and exert influences deeply upon the healing process of the illness. Their experiences of Christian nature...