Mysticism Mind Consciousness

Author : Robert K. C. Forman
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 143840302X
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness written by Robert K. C. Forman and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1999-06-03 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an exploration of mystical texts from ancient India and China to medieval Europe and modern day America, Robert K. C. Forman, one of the leading voices in the study of mystical experiences, argues that the various levels of mysticism may not be shaped by culture, language, and background knowledge, but rather are a direct encounter with our very conscious core itself. Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness focuses on first-hand accounts of two distinct types of mystical experiences. Through examination of texts, recorded interviews, and courageous autobiographical experiences, the author describes not only the well-known "pure consciousness event" but also a new, hitherto uncharted "dualistic mystical state." He provides a thorough and readable depiction of just what mysticism feels like. These accounts, and the experiences to which they give voice, arise from the heart of living practices and have substance and detail far beyond virtually any others in the literature. The book also reexamines the philosophical issues that swirl around mysticism. In addition to examining modern day constructivist views, Forman argues that the doctrines of Kant, Husserl, and Brentano cannot be applied to mysticism. Instead he offers new philosophical insights, based on the work of Chinese philosopher of mind Paramartha. The book concludes with an examination of mind and consciousness, which shows that mysticism has a great deal to tell us about human experience and the nature of human knowledge far beyond mysticism itself.

Author : Robert K. C. Forman
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791441695
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness written by Robert K. C. Forman and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenges the prevailing view that mystical experience is shaped by language and culture and argues that mystical experience is a direct encounter with consciousness itself.

Author : Robert K. C. Forman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195355113
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Problem of Pure Consciousness written by Robert K. C. Forman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are mystical experiences formed by the mystic's cultural background and concepts, as ""constructivists"" maintain, or do mystics sometimes transcend language, belief, and culturally conditioned expectations? Do mystical experiences differ throughout the various religious traditions, as""pluralists"" contend, or are they somehow ecumenical? The contributors to this collection scrutinize a common mystical experience, the ""pure consciousness event""--The experience of being awake but devoid of intentional content--in order to answer these questions. Through the use of historical Hindu, Buddhist,

Author : Daniel Goleman
Publisher : Ardent Media
ISBN 13 : 9780891976486
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.85/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Consciousness, the Brain, States of Awareness, and Alternate Realities written by Daniel Goleman and published by Ardent Media. This book was released on 1979 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : B. Les Lancaster
Publisher : Palgrave
ISBN 13 : 9780333912751
Total Pages : 341 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Approaches to Consciousness written by B. Les Lancaster and published by Palgrave. This book was released on 2004-05-05 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness, and the relation between mind and brain, is a topic of contentious debate, and increasing interest amongst both academics and students of psychology. In this text, Lancaster takes a refreshingly balanced look at consciousness, bringing in approaches from neuroscience, cognitive science, depth psychology, philosophy and mysticism. With a distinctive 'transpersonal' orientation, this text will be an invaluable authoritative overview of this subject, integrating scholarship and research from diverse areas.

Author : Jerome Kroll
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113429767X
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mystic Mind written by Jerome Kroll and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-06-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating collaboration between a medieval historian and a professor of psychiatry, this enthralling book applies modern biological and psychological research findings to the lives of medieval mystics and ascetics. Drawing upon a database of over 1,400 medieval holy persons and in-depth studies of individual saints, this illuminating study examines the relationship between medieval mystical experiences, the religious practices of mortification; laceration of the flesh, sleep deprivation and extreme starvation, and how these actions produced altered states of consciousness and brain function in the heroic ascetics. Examining and disputing much contemporary writing about the political and gender motivations in the medieval quest for a closeness with God, this is essential reading for anyone with an interest in medieval religion or the effects of self-injurious behaviour on the mind.

Author : Andrew B. Newberg, Eugene G. D'Aquili
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 9781451403749
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Mystical Mind written by Andrew B. Newberg, Eugene G. D'Aquili and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does the mind experience the sacred? What biological mechanisms are involved in mystical states and trances? Is there a neurological basis for patterns in comparative religions? Does religion have an evolutionary function? This pathbreaking work by two leading medical researchers explores the neurophysiology of religious experience. Building on an explanation of the basic structure of the brain, the authors focus on parts most relevant to human experience, emotion, and cognition. On this basis, they plot how the brain is involved in mystical experiences. Successive chapters apply this scheme to mythmaking, ritual and liturgy, meditation, near-death experiences, and theology itself. Anchored in such research, the authors also sketch the implications of their work for philosophy, science, theology, and the future of religion.

Author : Evelyn Underhill
Publisher : Library of Alexandria
ISBN 13 : 1465516913
Total Pages : 1046 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mysticism: a study in the nature and development of man's spiritual consciousness written by Evelyn Underhill and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 1930-01-01 with total page 1046 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Evelyn Underhill
Publisher : Courier Corporation
ISBN 13 : 9780486422381
Total Pages : 548 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mysticism written by Evelyn Underhill and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of a noted British authority on mysticism, it is divided into two parts: the first provides an introduction to the general subject of mysticism and its relation to metaphysics, psychology, theology, magic, and symbolism. The second and longer part contains a detailed study of the nature and development of spiritual or mystical consciousness, including such topics as the awakening of the self, the purification of the self, voices and visions, introversion, ecstasy and rapture, the dark night of the soul, and the unitive life. An interesting appendix provides a historical sketch of European mysticism from the beginning of the Christian era to the death of Blake.

Author : Morgan Shipley
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 149850910X
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Psychedelic Mysticism written by Morgan Shipley and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-11-12 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concerned with scholarly, popular, and religious backdrops that understand the connection between psychedelics and mystical experiences to be devoid of moral concerns and ethical dimensions—a position supported empirically by the rise of acid fascism and psychedelic cults by the late 1960s—Psychedelic Mysticism: Transforming Consciousness, Religious Experiences, and Voluntary Peasants in Postwar America traces the development of sixties psychedelic mysticism from the deconditioned mind and perennial philosophy of Aldous Huxley, to the sacramental ethics of Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner, to the altruistic religiosity practiced by Stephen Gaskin and The Farm. Building directly off the pioneering psychedelic writing of Huxley, these psychedelic mystics understood the height of psychedelic consciousness as an existential awareness of unitive oneness, a position that offered worldly alternatives to the maladies associated with the postwar moment (e.g., vapid consumerism and materialism, lifeless conformity, unremitting racism, heightened militarism). In opening a doorway to a common world, Morgan Shipley locates how psychedelics challenged the coherency of Western modernity by fundamentally reorienting postwar society away from neoliberal ideologies and toward a sacred understanding of reality defined by mutual coexistence and responsible interdependence. In 1960s America, psychedelics catalyzed a religious awakening defined by compassion, expressed through altruism, and actualized in projects that sought to ameliorate the conditions of the least advantaged among us. In the exact moments that historians and cultural critics often locate as signaling the death knell of the counterculture, Gaskin and The Farm emerged, not as a response to the perceived failures of the hippies, nor as an alternative to sixties politicos, but in an effort to fulfill the religious obligation to help teach the world how to live more harmoniously. Today, as we continue to confront issues of socioeconomic inequality, entrenched differences, widespread violence, and the limits of religious pluralism, Psychedelic Mysticism serves as a timely reminder of how religion in America can operate as a tool for destabilization and as a means to actively reimagine the very basis of how people relate—such a legacy can aid in our own efforts to build a more peaceful, sustainable, and compassionate world.