Devils in the Ink

Aries ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-211
Author(s):  
Tommy P. Cowan

Abstract This paper explores some of the myriad connections between geometric visuals, magic, and altered states of consciousness, more specifically looking at the colocation of geometric visuals and experiences of intermediary beings. The main focus here is on how geometric visuals relate to the consciousness experiments and magical practices of American author William Burroughs (1914–1997) and his Swiss-English collaborator Brion Gysin (1916–1986). Such an analysis will also dive into the broader intellectual currents that influenced Burroughs and Gysin’s uses of geometry, yielding more abstract conceptions of how geometry relates to altered states of consciousness and intermediary beings. Furthermore, understanding how geometric manipulation of the mind works has important consequences for multiple fields outside of the history of esotericism, including market-oriented disciplines like architecture and industrial design. As such, this essay proposes that the historical study of esotericism can promote and conduct itself as an interdisciplinary space that communicates the value of its data to market-oriented fields through “material approaches” to religion à la Birgit Meyer.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
A.V. Kvitchasty

The article is devoted to the problem of studying and applying the phenomena of suggestion, auto-suggestion and altered states of consciousness in modern sports psychology. A brief excursion into the history of the use of altered states of consciousness in elite sports is given. The advantages, disadvantages, limitations and specificity of different methods using suggestion and auto-suggestion in the framework of psychological support for athletes of various sports are discussed. The article also raises questions about the methods of assessing the effectiveness of psychological and pedagogical interventions with athletes using hypnosis and self-hypnosis, as well as verification of suggestive influences at the psychophysiological level. Finally, the article discusses the ethical aspects of using altered states of consciousness in the framework of psychological support for athletes and the prospects for popularizing sports hypnosis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 769-806
Author(s):  
Peter Goldberg

A psychosomatic model of dissociation is proposed that addresses the ever adjusting mind-body relation—the constant titration of the quality and degree of the psyche’s embeddedness in the sensorial and temporal life of the body. The model highlights the function of hypnoid mechanisms (autohypnosis, distraction, somatic autostimulation) and of altered states of consciousness in facilitating and masking the work of mind-body dissociation. Transient altered states, which enable new and creative forms of mind-body experience in everyday life and in the therapy situation, are contrasted with pathological forms of retreat into alter worlds—rigidly organized, timeless, often inescapable trancelike states of mind-body dislocation. These pathological dissociative structures reshape the life of the mind and of the body, requiring new clinical approaches to these phenomena.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Saad ◽  
Roberta de Medeiros

<em>Mind and body are components of the same entity, with many relations of great importance to health and disease. The next medical frontier will be to answer what are all the mind and body relations, and how it can be explored in clinical practice. In the present manuscript, the authors collected elements that could collaborate to such advancement. The first challenge is to identify how diverse mind-body phenomena, apparently different, may share common grounds, as different manifestations from a unique self-healing mechanism. The range of such spectrum goes from the underestimated placebo effect to the unexplained cure of serious diseases. In such continuum of common and uncommon phenomena regarding mind-body interactions, small daily wonders may be found in the placebo effect and spirituality in health; unusual special marvels may be found in altered states of consciousness; and great rare miracles may be found in trance states and unexplained cures. Some informal mind-body interventions may have the potential to support the clinical treatment and they could be prescribed by every clinician. Finally, the advancement of the self-healing concept could lead to a better clinical exploration of such natural hidden potential.</em>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
ENRICO FACCO ◽  
Fabio Fracas ◽  
Patrizio Tressoldi

Aim of this theoretical paper is to review the ontological status of so-called altered states of consciousness, suggesting a revision of their common interpretation as abnormal, or anyway less-than-normal conditions. The term Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions (NOMEs), is described and emphasized as a new conceptual tool allowing a more comprehensive interpretation of the varieties of the normal albeit non ordinary consciousness experiences and their implications in the mind-body relationship.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
James McHugh

The introduction briefly frames the project in terms of the study of drugs, alcohol, and altered states of consciousness in South Asian history and religions. What sort of evidence exists for writing a history of alcohol in India and what are the limits of this archive? What are the methodological and philological difficulties to be overcome in writing this sort of history of India? This chapter also presents a brief survey of previous scholarship on this topic and raises the question of whether this book should be considered controversial or offensive. The chapter concludes with an outline of the book and an explanation for the organization of topics within the book.


Author(s):  
Andries Van Aarde

Millennialism, eschatology, and apocalypticism. This aricle consists of four parts. Firstly, it describes briefly and elementarily the origins of millennialism as it manifested in the history of theoligy. Secondly, it reflects on some of the new and challenging ways New Testament scholars nowadays study eschatology and apocalypticism from a social-scientific perspecive on the conception of time in the first-century Mediterranean world and from the cultural psychological perspective on altered states of consciousness. Thirdly, the articile aims at applying the social-political results of the study to the interpretation of the expression "one thousand year reign" in Revelation 20:1-10.


2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Northover

The study reappraised Emile Durkheim’s totemic principle in relation to the origins of religion and culture, using, amongst others, speech act theory and recent southern African epistemologies, especially David Lewis-Williams’ theory of shamanism, potency and altered states of consciousness. The study was text-based, qualitative and interpretive, and used key texts from anthropology, archaeology, history of religion, sociology and philosophy. It outlined Durkheim’s theory of the totemic principle and critiqued it, using performativity, cognitive neuroscience and southern African ethnography. Durkheim’s sociological reduction of God and religion to society and his dismissal of individual psychological experience were criticised. Lewis-Williams’ shamanism, both as a general theory and with particular reference to the San, was explored as an alternative to Durkheim’s totemism, animals playing a central but different function in each system. Although his understanding of performativity and sociopolitical relations in religion was inchoate, Durkheim helped demystify religion and establish social constructionism. He overestimated collective affect and sentiments and underestimated the role played by individual altered states of consciousness in the origin of religion.Contribution: The study critically evaluates Durkheim’s reduction of religion to society using current concepts of performativity, Matthias Guenther’s New Animism and David Lewis-Williams’ revised shamanism, particularly its ideas of trance dance, potency and altered states of consciousness, and posits shamanism rather than totemism as the probable origin of religion.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Ambler ◽  
Ellen M. Lee ◽  
Kathryn R. Klement ◽  
Tonio Loewald ◽  
Brad J. Sagarin

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