While commentators continue to disagree on the definition and nature of mysticism, there is
more or less a consensus that any experience appropriately qualified as mystical diverges in
fundamental ways from ordinary conscious awareness and leaves a strong impression of …

Psychotic and religious experiences have been associated since the earliest recorded
history, and undoubtedly before. The Old Testament uses the same term, in reference to
madness sent by God as a punishment for the disobedient, and to describe the behavior of …

The study explored types and incidence of intense experiences reported by normal adults. A
structured question developed by Greeley (1974) and an open-ended question asking
respondents to describe their experiences were completed by 302 young adults. A third of …

Mystical and religious experiences are hypothesized to be evoked by transient, electrical
microseizures within deep structures of the temporal lobe. Although experiential details are
affected by context and reinforcement history, basic themes reflect the inclusion of different …

Main headings: Part 1. Conceptual issues in the empirical study of mysticism.-Part 2. The
measurement of mysticism.-Part 3. The quasi-experimental elicitation of mystical experience.-
Part 4. Mysticism, religious orientation, eroticism and death.-Part 5. Triggers and evaluation …

The concept of self-actualization is central to humanistic psychology. But what is this self that
is to be actualized? Maslow, who introduced the term, thought that it belonged to the realm
of Being, most easily accessed through peak experiences. It was essentially something …

To MOST MODERN, empirically-oriented philosophers the so-called" perennial philosophy"
is likely to appear, at best, as a quaint throwback to an earlier, less scientific age. For its
central notions appear to be based either on empirically ungrounded rationalistic intuitions …

Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences have been linked to persisting effects in healthy
volunteers including positive changes in behavior, attitudes, and values, and increases in
the personality domain of openness. In an open-label pilot-study of psilocybin-facilitated …

A clinical psychiatrist explores the effects of DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics
known.• A behind-the-scenes look at the cutting edge of psychedelic research.• Provides a
unique scientific explanation for the phenomenon of alien abduction experiences. From …

Many of the great mystics and sages in history have told us that their spiritual realizations
began in childhood. Gandhi, Albert Einstein, and Abraham Lincoln are just a few famous
figures who have reported these events. Based on more than five years of interviews, this …