Spirituality

2021 ◽  
pp. 196-204
Author(s):  
Chris Letheby
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Ordinary Sense ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Temporary Suspension ◽  
Philosophical Project ◽  
Psychedelic Research

‘Spirituality’ examines the import of psychedelic evidence for the philosophical project of naturalising spirituality. This chapter argues that psychedelic research vindicates the claim that there are transformative experiences and practices that can legitimately be called ‘spiritual’ and are compatible with adherence to a naturalistic worldview. The existential transformation afforded by some psychedelic experiences provides a paradigm for naturalistic spirituality: the temporary suspension of our default, self-referential mode of cognition, making available experiences of connectedness and feelings of wonder and awe. Jerome Stone (2012) has reviewed recent philosophical work on naturalistic spirituality and extracted some core ideas: notably (i) that spirituality is about connection, aspiration, and asking the Big Questions, and (ii) that these are all ways of overcoming the limitations of the ordinary sense of self. This chapter argues that psychedelic evidence supports these claims, as well as the further claim that such experiences and practices are independent of non-naturalistic metaphysical ideations.

Understanding attendees’ transformative experiences following Tony Robbins’s Unleash the Power Within seminars

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Sue Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
American Life ◽  
Transformative Experiences

Tony Robbins is an American life coach and entrepreneur who claims his motivational workshop, Unleash the Power Within (UPW) can transform people’s lives. This article is based on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of eight participants who had attended different UPW seminars and explored their experiences of transformation. Eight themes were identified: (1) a change in their sense of self, (2) the development of new skills, (3) changes in lifestyle, (4) transformation/conversion, (5) changes in relationships, (6) permanency of change, (7) feelings of fear versus anticipation and (8) loss versus gain. The research concluded that participants had undergone transformation involving significant, valued and enduring changes centred on new meaning in their lives. Further research was suggested to examine both a wider and more in-depth approach, as personal development workshops offer a large and potentially rich field of transpersonal study focused on human meaning-making and change.

Paternity, Enframing, and a New Revealing: O'Brien's Philosophy of Reproduction and Heidegger's Critique of Technology

Hypatia ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Markotic
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Reproductive Technology ◽  
Human Reproduction ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Metaphysics Of Presence ◽  
The Way

This article seeks to demonstrate the importance of the philosophical work of Mary O'Brien. It does so by showing how O'Brien's work counters Heidegger's strict differentiation between the ancient Greek metaphysics of presence and modern technological thinking. O'Brien's ideas indicate two critical lacunae in Heidegger's interpretation of the ancient Greeks: the latter's attempt to secure paternity and their overlooking of birth as a form of unconcealment. According to O'Brien, the way in which we understand and experience human reproduction influences both our sense of self and our sense of continuity. According to Heidegger, the way in which things are brought forth or unconcealed is fundamental to our being‐in‐the‐world. Neither O'Brien nor Heidegger lived to see the current advancements in reproductive technology, but both would consider them significant and meaningful beyond their social, political, and even ethical implications. Furthermore, recent reproductive technology draws attention to birth as revealing—although as increasingly Enframed. Rapid changes in reproduction may reveal Enframing as Enframing, and also show that technology is not something that we can simply master. But for this to occur, we must take into account the radical critique and rethinking of Heidegger's philosophy implied by O'Brien's thought.

Prosocial correlates of transformative experience at secular multi-day mass gatherings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Alexander Yudkin
Keyword(s):  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Self ◽  
Transformative Experience ◽  
Moral Orientation ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
The Us ◽  
Over Time

For millennia, humans have sought out experiences that dissolve, transcend, or change their sense of self. Such experiences are frequently associated with participation in mass gatherings such as festivals or pilgrimages, and are thought to be epistemically and personally transformative. By weakening the boundary between the self and others, such transformative experiences may lead to enduring changes in moral orientation, such as increased generosity and an expanded circle of moral regard (“moral expansion”). Here we investigated the nature of transformative experiences and their prosocial correlates at multi-day mass gatherings by studying participants before (n = 600), during (n = 1,217), 0-4 weeks after (n = 1,866), and 6 months after (n = 710) they attended a variety of secular, multi-day mass gatherings in the US and UK. Transformative experiences at mass gatherings were self-reported as common, increased over time, and characterized by increased feelings of social connectedness. We observed high levels of generosity at mass gatherings, but generosity onsite was unrelated to transformative experience and did not increase over time. Meanwhile, participants’ moral circle expanded with every passing day spent at mass gatherings, an effect mediated by transformative experience and social connectedness. Immediately and six months following event attendance, self-reported transformative experience persisted and predicted both generosity and moral expansion. The nature of transformative experience and its prosocial correlates did not depend on whether event norms were communal or market-based. These findings characterize the psychological nature of transformative experience at secular mass gatherings and highlight how these experiences may be associated with lasting changes in moral orientation.

scholarly journals The Social Functions of College Drinking: Pregaming, Priming, and Protecting the Liminoid Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-91
Author(s):  
Celine Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Drinking Alcohol ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Temporary Suspension ◽  
Potential Risks ◽  
Harvard School

The Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study has concluded that, on average, one in three college students abuses alcohol regularly. However, while highlighting potential risks, academic literature largely neglects the social functions students derive from consuming alcohol. College represents an important milestone in an individual’s life and is characterized by what Turner (1969) called liminoid experiences, which involve a temporary suspension of social status, at bars, clubs, concerts, festivals, and college parties, often closely connected to alcohol consumption. This paper explores how women students’ practice of “pregaming,” that is, drinking alcohol in smaller groups before attending a social event such as a party, enables individuals to achieve the liminoid state while also providing opportunities to resist potential negative consequences of intoxication. College women use pregaming to build a support network with close friends, enabling them to ensure their physical safety. Beyond the integrity of their bodies, women also ensure that their actions during the liminoid experience of a college party are consistent with ideas they have of their personal identity. Although they temporarily suspend their social and personal identities during college parties, women prevent unwanted permanent changes of their sense of self by holding each other accountable to rules they establish during the pregame.

Attempt at philosophy out of the Slavic spirit. Biographical and historical aspects of Bronisław Ferdynand Trentowski's philosophical work in Baden

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 195-205
Author(s):  
Gabriela Brudzyńska-Němec
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
German Language ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Philosophical Thought ◽  
Philosophical System ◽  
Philosophical Project

Bronisław Trentowski, a former officer in the November Uprising, was given the opportunity to study and work in the field of philosophy in Freiburg, Baden, after 1831. He set himself the ambitious task of creating an original Polish philosophical system with a universal dimension. Its source was to be a combination of western philosophical thought and tradition with the poetic Slavic spirit. The person of the philosopher himself, especially the language and style of his writings, was the medium and the coherence here. Trentowski intended to philosophize polish, using, at least at the beginning, the German language. It was the issue of language that became the focal point, but also the most problematic point of his philosophical career and personal biography. The article sketches, mainly in the biographical and historical context, the genesis of this ambitious philosophical project, its evaluation and controversy that it aroused, both among Polish and German compatriots of the philosopher.

Saying What One Means

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-178
Author(s):  
Joseph Swenson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Philosophical Writing ◽  
Philosophical Project ◽  
Style Of Writing ◽  
Literary Quality

Few would dispute that Nietzsche writes differently than most philosophers, especially when judged by the standards of contemporary philosophical writing. There is plenty of dispute, however, about why Nietzsche has chosen to present his thinking in the ways that he does. When one turns to much recent Nietzsche scholarship, it would appear that the literary quality of his writing is often treated as something that is merely accidental rather than integral to his philosophical project. Here one finds a working assumption that it is possible to paraphrase Nietzsche’s unconventional style of writing into more conventional forms of philosophical prose without losing sight of the philosophical goals that he is trying to achieve. This paper argues that this working assumption underappreciates the fact that Nietzsche’s chosen style of writing is intended to perform a variety of functions within his philosophy. One underappreciated function of Nietzsche’s writing, I will argue, aims to promote a radical disruption and revaluation of his readers’ basic habitual attitudes towards their experience of their own lives. Such therapeutic and transformative experiences, I conclude, are not only basic to Nietzsche’s philosophical project but are also intimately connected to the literary quality of his writing and cannot easily survive philosophical paraphrase.

Negative Dialektik als geistige Erfahrung?

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laszlo Tengelyi
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Husserlian Phenomenology ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
Philosophical Modernity ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Lecture Courses ◽  
Philosophical Project

Adorno describes Bergson and Husserl as the proper originators of philosophical modernity. What is characteristic of the initiatives these thinkers take is, according to him, an essay in breaking out both from the philosophical systems of idealism and from neo-Kantian formalism. It is shown in the present paper that Adorno’s own project to elaborate a negative dialectics can be understood as a continuation, or re-enactment, of this Ausbruchsversuch of his great predecessors. Moreover, in one of his lecture courses given in the early sixties of the last century, Adorno makes it clear that his main philosophical project is mediated by Husserlian phenomenology and Heideggerian ontology. On the other side, however, the justification of a negative dialectics relies, to a large extent, on a criticism of Bergsonian intuitionism, as well of Husserlian phenomenology and Heideggerian ontology. The upshot of these conflicting tendencies in Adorno’s later philosophical work is a tragic feature, which, in the present paper, is exhibited and highlighted on the ground of an enquiry into the idea of a spiritual experience put forward by Adorno in one of his lecture courses from the sixties, as well as in the Introduction to his main philosophical work Negative Dialectics.

Lessons Learned From Coaching Postsecondary Students With Traumatic Brain Injury

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-96
Author(s):  
Mary R. T. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Traumatic Brain Injury ◽  
Brain Injury ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Sudden Onset ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Exhaustive List

Purpose The purpose of this clinical focus article is to provide speech-language pathologists with a brief update of the evidence that provides possible explanations for our experiences while coaching college students with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Method The narrative text provides readers with lessons we learned as speech-language pathologists functioning as cognitive coaches to college students with TBI. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather to consider the recent scientific evidence that will help our understanding of how best to coach these college students. Conclusion Four lessons are described. Lesson 1 focuses on the value of self-reported responses to surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. Lesson 2 addresses the use of immediate/proximal goals as leverage for students to update their sense of self and how their abilities and disabilities may alter their more distal goals. Lesson 3 reminds us that teamwork is necessary to address the complex issues facing these students, which include their developmental stage, the sudden onset of trauma to the brain, and having to navigate going to college with a TBI. Lesson 4 focuses on the need for college students with TBI to learn how to self-advocate with instructors, family, and peers.

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