This article examines William James’s philosophy of science through his pragmatic response to epistemic fallibilism, emphasizing how actionability rather than evidential certainty underwrites both scientific and religious practices. While James explicitly drew comparisons between science and Abrahamic scriptures, my account highlights resonances with non-Western traditions, particularly...
BMC PsychologySeptember 26, 2025Mahir Akbudak, Hasan Belli, Hasan Gökçay
This study is concerned with relationships between childhood trauma history, dissociative experiences, clinical phenomenology of Jinn-Possession Psychosis (JPP), and schizophrenia in an Islamic cultural context. Researchers have contacted local traditional and spiritual healers based in a city in the Southeast region of the Republic of Turkey. Traditional healers have contacted us with patients...
Introduction: In biomedicine, entity experiences are conceptualised as compound hallucinations featuring living beings. The term "experience" suggests that these have an objective basis in reality, as those perceiving them may maintain. So-called jinn encounters, typically described by Muslims with and without a psychiatric diagnosis, involve the multimodal perception of a spirit that, as...
Abstract Vipassana, an ancient mindfulness practice with its origin in Buddhism, has come out as a valuable approach for enhancing attention and emotional well-being. The applications of Vipassana in academia, particularly in enhancing attention and improving academic performances in students, have been explored in this paper. This conceptual articlesynthesizes an integrated literature from...
Advanced meditation offers a powerful lens for investigating consciousness and for understanding how sustained training may contribute to human flourishing. In the spirit of neurophenomenology, we combine first-person reports with model-free empirical analyses and formal whole-brain modeling to investigate the mechanisms underlying advanced meditative states and minimal phenomenal experience...
Contemporary theories of consciousness offer a range of explanatory perspectives. Global Workspace Theory emphasizes cognitive access, Higher-Order Theories focus on metacognitive representation, Integrated Information Theory centers on intrinsic experience, and Predictive Coding Theory models cognitive processes as probabilistic inference. While each theory provides valuable insights, they...
ABSTRACT This essay explores the conceptual and philosophical complexities surrounding ayahuasca use, focusing on its ability to reveal ghosts through the lens of hauntology. Ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew traditionally used in shamanic rituals, is known to evoke profound experiences involving spirits, mystical entities, and transformative states of consciousness. The brew's active compound,...
Abstract Rationale: Individual variability in psilocybin response is a major challenge for psychedelic-assisted therapy, with structural brain features potentially serving as predictive biomarkers. Lewis et al. (2020) reported that rostral anterior cingulate cortex thickness predicted emotional experiences under psilocybin, suggesting cortical morphometry as a marker of psychedelic...
This paper explores the philosophical thought of Ti Ni Da Luu Chi (Vinītaruci), widely recognized as the first patriarch who laid the foundation for the organized Zen tradition in Vietnam. Drawing on core Mahayana doctrines, Prajnaparamita, Tam Luan, and elements of Tantric Buddhism, the Ti Ni Da Luu Chi Zen sect developed a distinctive philosophical system addressing ontology, epistemology,...
Abstract Patients undergoing general anesthesia are often assumed to be unconscious. However, it is known that conscious experiences in the form of dreams occur even in unresponsive states induced by anesthetics. Here, we recorded resting state electroencephalography (EEG) as well as EEG combined with TMS perturbations in 20 healthy participants during propofol sedation. Participants were...