Hallucinogens: Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, Mescal Buttons, and Dr. Hofmann’s Problem Child

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerrold Winter
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The University ◽  
Paranoid Psychosis ◽  
Unusual Problem

There are about 400,000 species of plants in this world. Only a small fraction, perhaps 100 in number, contain hallucinogenic chemicals. Nearly a century ago, Lewis Lewin, professor of pharmacology at the University of Berlin, in speaking of drugs he called phantasticants, said “The passionate desire which . . . leads man to flee from the monotony of daily life . . . has made him discover strange substances (which) have been integral to human evolution both societal and cultural for thousands of years.” An unusual problem presents itself to me in writing about these drugs: They straddle the worlds of science and mysticism. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines mysticism as the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them. Science I am comfortable with; mysticism not so much. Yet in our exploration of the agents found in this chapter, we will encounter many persons speaking of drug-induced mystical experiences. I have attempted to get around my unease by first providing the history and the pharmacology of these agents and then touching only lightly on mysticism, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. What shall we call these chemicals? Hallucinogen, a substance that induces perception of objects with no reality, is the term most commonly encountered and the one that I have settled on for the title of this chapter. However, it comes with a caveat. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, our prototypic hallucinogen, has pointed out that a true hallucination has the force of reality, but the effects of LSD only rarely include this feature. Two additional terms that we will find useful are psychotomimetic and psychedelic. We have already considered the former, an ability to mimic psychosis, in our discussion of amphetamine-induced paranoid psychosis in chapter 4 and the effects of phencyclidine in chapter 6. A psychedelic was defined in 1957 by Humphrey Osmond, inventor of the word, as a drug like LSD “which enriches the mind and enlarges the vision.”

Hinduism and Counseling

2019 ◽  
pp. 211-222
Author(s):  
Devi Venashinee Muruges
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Mental Health Practitioners ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Indian Psychology ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
The Mind

Indian psychology lays enormous importance on the research of religious experiences and the expansion of approaches by which to accomplish them. In addition to that, it also provides understanding of the different states of consciousness. Hence, it is undeniable that Indian psychology will be able to make a definite therapeutic contribution to many psychological problems. For mental health practitioners dealing with Hinduism, there are teachings within various texts that directly strengthen counseling and mental services. Some of the examples include perceiving the conscious and the unconsciousness aspects of the mind, utilizing meditation to support people with mental health issues, yoga exercises to curb anxiety and stress, and many others. Therefore, this chapter intends to elucidate the application of Hinduism in therapy.

Hinduism and Counseling

2021 ◽  
pp. 567-578
Author(s):  
Devi Venashinee Muruges
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Mental Health Practitioners ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Indian Psychology ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
The Mind

Indian psychology lays enormous importance on the research of religious experiences and the expansion of approaches by which to accomplish them. In addition to that, it also provides understanding of the different states of consciousness. Hence, it is undeniable that Indian psychology will be able to make a definite therapeutic contribution to many psychological problems. For mental health practitioners dealing with Hinduism, there are teachings within various texts that directly strengthen counseling and mental services. Some of the examples include perceiving the conscious and the unconsciousness aspects of the mind, utilizing meditation to support people with mental health issues, yoga exercises to curb anxiety and stress, and many others. Therefore, this chapter intends to elucidate the application of Hinduism in therapy.

Between Heymann Steinthal and Adolf Tobler

1978 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yakov Malkiel
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
Intellectual Milieu ◽  
The One ◽  
The University ◽  
Romance Philology

Summary This bio-bibliographical account of Georg Cohn (1866–194?) essays to sketch out the life of a Berlin Privatgelehrter at the end of the 19th and the early period of the 20th century. It characterizes the intellectual milieu of time and place, both inside and outside the vistas of Romance philology at the University of Berlin, and traces in particular the influence on Georg Cohn of scholars such as the general linguist, philosopher, and psychologist of language, Heymann Steinthal (1823–99), on the one hand, and the Romanist Adolf Tobler (1835–1910), on the other. In addition, a detailed analysis is offered of Cohn’s most important contributions to Romance scholarship.

scholarly journals Characterizing the Dynamical Complexity underlying Meditation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anira Escrichs ◽  
Ana Sanjuan ◽  
Selen Atasoy ◽  
Ane López-González ◽  
César Garrido ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Dynamical Regime ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Dynamical Complexity ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Over Time

AbstractOver the past 2,500 years, contemplative traditions have explored the nature of the mind using meditation. More recently, neuroimaging research on meditation has revealed differences in brain function and structure in meditators. Nevertheless, the underlying neural mechanisms are still unclear. In order to understand how meditation shapes global activity through the brain, we investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics across the whole-brain functional network using the Intrinsic Ignition Framework. Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that different states of consciousness differ in their underlying dynamical complexity, i.e., how the broadness of communication is elicited and distributed through the brain over time and space. In this work, controls and experienced meditators were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during resting-state and meditation (focused attention on breathing). Our results evidenced that the dynamical complexity underlying meditation shows less complexity than during resting-state in the meditator group but not in the control group. Furthermore, we report that during resting-state, the brain activity of experienced meditators showed higher metastability (i.e., a wider dynamical regime over time) than the one observed in the control group. Overall, these results indicate that the meditation state operates in a different dynamical regime than the resting-state.

Bonhoeffer the Academic Theologian

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Peter Frick
Keyword(s):  
Theological Interpretation ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
The World ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

Bonhoeffer was not only a spiritual mentor and political resistor but even more so an academic theologian. Not only did he write more academic than spiritual works, but he was also actively involved in the teaching of theology, primarily at the University of Berlin and as director of the underground seminary in Finkenwalde. Bonhoeffer attempted to articulate ‘genuine theological concepts’ that would adequately capture the reality of fallen humanity in the one reality of the world in Christ. Based on rigorous exegesis and theological interpretation of biblical texts, he articulated his basic theological category, namely that of Christology, as the centre of this theology from which he developed all other theological topoi including church and ethics.

scholarly journals The Common Root of Philosophy and Theology in Lectures on Dialectics of F.D.E. Schleiermacher

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 476-487
Author(s):  
A. V. Belyaeva
Keyword(s):  
Common Root ◽  
Concept Of God ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
Religious Feeling ◽  
The World ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The University ◽  
Theology And Philosophy

Schleiermacher is a philosopher and theologist, widely known in Protestant society, whose philosophy, after the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, has only just begun to be rediscovered in Russia nowadays. One of the central works of Schleiermacher is the lecture on dialectics, which he read at the University of Berlin. In these lectures on dialectics Schleiermacher presents his system of philosophy. He tries to unite the world of action and the world of science, revealing their common root, and give us his own view on the solution of the problem of post-Kantian philosophy. Action and cognition, writes Schleiermacher, are not two different worlds irreducible to each other in which a person is ought to live, but they are only two different views on reality, and since they can be described in the same concepts, dominance of one or another side depends from which of the concepts common to both “worlds” exceed. Moreover, in these lectures one can see how Schleiermacher understands the connection between theology and philosophy. Theology, the validity of the ground of which are confirmed by the obviosity of a religious feeling - the revelation of the Absolute - and philosophy, which gradually goes back to the Absolute, describing it as a higher concept, which has no opposition, therefore, which the mind cannot determine, has its common foundation in the Absolute or God, who is given to us in feeling, and implied to every act of being and thinking. So, Schleiermacher's “Dialectics” can rightfully be considered not only an exposition of his philosophical system, but also a key to understanding the interconnectedness of philosophy and theology and their connection through the concept of God.

Fundamental Research into Thin Films in a Developing Country

1972 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 500-501
Author(s):  
J.A. Eades ◽  
E. Grünbaum
Keyword(s):  
Thin Films ◽  
Growth Process ◽  
Empirical Process ◽  
Nucleation And Growth ◽  
Research Groups ◽  
Film Research ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Controlled Deposition ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

In the last decade and a half, thin film research, particularly research into problems associated with epitaxy, has developed from a simple empirical process of determining the conditions for epitaxy into a complex analytical and experimental study of the nucleation and growth process on the one hand and a technology of very great importance on the other. During this period the thin films group of the University of Chile has studied the epitaxy of metals on metal and insulating substrates. The development of the group, one of the first research groups in physics to be established in the country, has parallelled the increasing complexity of the field.The elaborate techniques and equipment now needed for research into thin films may be illustrated by considering the plant and facilities of this group as characteristic of a good system for the controlled deposition and study of thin films.

Al-Rasm al-ʿUthmānī: Towards Correct Pronunciation and the Preclusion of Ambiguity

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-171
Author(s):  
Nāṣir Al-Dīn Abū Khaḍīr
Keyword(s):  
Specific Pattern ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Correct Pronunciation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind

The ʿUthmānic way of writing (al-rasm al-ʿUthmānī) is a science that specialises in the writing of Qur'anic words in accordance with a specific ‘pattern’. It follows the writing style of the Companions at the time of the third caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān, and was attributed to ʿUthmān on the basis that he was the one who ordered the collection and copying of the Qur'an into the actual muṣḥaf. This article aims to expound on the two fundamental functions of al-rasm al-ʿUthmānī: that of paying regard to the ‘correct’ pronunciation of the words in the muṣḥaf, and the pursuit of the preclusion of ambiguity which may arise in the mind of the reader and his auditor. There is a further practical aim for this study: to show the connection between modern orthography and the ʿUthmānic rasm in order that we, nowadays, are thereby able to overcome the problems faced by calligraphers and writers of the past in their different ages and cultures.

Dialogues

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-59
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
New Spain ◽  
American Art ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
State Building ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Political Space ◽  
California Missions ◽  
The University

The California missions, whose original church spaces and visual programs were produced by Iberian, Mexican, and Native artisans between 1769 and 1823, occupy an ambiguous chronological, geographical, and political space. They occupy lands that have pertained to conflicting territorialities: from Native nations, to New Spain, to Mexico, to the modern multicultural California. The physical and visual landscapes of the missions have been sites of complex and often incongruous religious experiences; historical trauma and romantic vision; Indigenous genocide, exploitation, resistance, and survivance; state building and global enterprise. This Dialogues section brings together critical voices, including especially the voices of California Indian scholars, to interrogate received models for thinking about the art historical legacies of the California missions. Together, the contributing authors move beyond and across borders and promote new decolonial strategies that strive to be responsive to the experience of California Indian communities and nations. This conversation emerges from cross-disciplinary relationships established at a two-day conference, “‘American’ Art and the Legacy of Conquest: Art at California’s Missions in the Global 18th–20th Centuries,” sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and held at the University of California, Los Angeles, in November 2019.

36. Practicing medicine and music II: Ophthalmology and music

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
L. P. Hwi ◽  
J. W. Ting
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Johann Sebastian Bach ◽  
Active Member ◽  
Active Researcher ◽  
Silver Medal ◽  
Medical Career ◽  
The One ◽  
The University ◽  
Over 40 Years

Cecil Cameron Ewing (1925-2006) was a lecturer and head of ophthalmology at the University of Saskatchewan. Throughout his Canadian career, he was an active researcher who published several articles on retinoschisis and was the editor of the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. For his contributions to Canadian ophthalmology, the Canadian Ophthalmological Society awarded Ewing a silver medal. Throughout his celebrated medical career, Ewing maintained his passion for music. His love for music led him to be an active member in choir, orchestra, opera and chamber music in which he sang and played the piano, violin and viola. He was also the director of the American Liszt Society and a member for over 40 years. The connection between music and ophthalmology exists as early as the 18th Century. John Taylor (1703-1772) was an English surgeon who specialized in eye diseases. On the one hand, Taylor was a scientist who contributed to ophthalmology by publishing books on ocular physiology and diseases, and by advancing theories of strabismus. On the other hand, Taylor was a charlatan who traveled throughout Europe and blinded many patients with his surgeries. Taylor’s connection to music was through his surgeries on two of the most famous Baroque composers: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and George Frederick Handel (1685-1759). Bach had a painful eye disorder and after two surgeries by Taylor, Bach was blind. Handel had poor or absent vision prior to Taylor’s surgery, and his vision did not improve after surgery. The connection between ophthalmology and music spans over three centuries from the surgeries of Taylor to the musical passion of Ewing. Ewing E. Cecil Cameron Ewing. BMJ 2006; 332(7552):1278. Jackson DM. Bach, Handel, and the Chevalier Taylor. Med Hist 1968; 12(4):385-93. Zegers RH. The Eyes of Johann Sebastian Bach. Arch Ophthalmol 2005; 123(10):1427-30.

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