Transpersonal Experiences in Childhood: An Exploratory Empirical Study of Selected Adult Groups

A questionnaire was developed to assess adult recall for a range of transpersonal experiences throughout childhood and adolescence (mystical experience, out-of-body experience, lucid dreams, archetypal dreams, ESP), as well as nightmares and night terrors as indicators of more conflicted, negative states. In two exploratory studies this questionnaire was administered to subjects with high estimated levels of early transpersonal experiences and practising meditators, with respective undergraduate controls. A cognitive skills/precocity model of early transpersonal experience was contrasted with a vulnerability of self model by comparisons of these groups on questionnaire categories, imaginative absorption, neuroticism, and visual-spatial skills, with some support found for both models depending on experience type, age of estimated recall, and adult meditative practice.

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Near-Death and Other Transpersonal Experiences Occurring During Catastrophic Events

American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® ◽

10.1177/1049909116631298 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

pp. 486-492 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Madelaine Lawrence

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

World War I ◽

Vietnam War ◽

Catastrophic Events ◽

Body Experience ◽

Loved One ◽

Out Of Body Experience ◽

Transpersonal Experiences ◽

Death Experience ◽

Seriously Ill Patients

The purpose of this article is to describe examples of near-death and other transpersonal experiences occurring during catastrophic events like floods, wars, bombings, and death camps. To date, researchers have limited their investigations of these transpersonal events to those occurring to seriously ill patients in hospitals, those dying from terminal illnesses, or to individuals experiencing a period of grief after the death of a loved one. Missing is awareness by first responders and emergency healthcare professionals about these transpersonal experiences and what to say to the individuals who have them. Some responders experience not only deaths of the victims they assist, but also deaths of their colleagues. Information about these transpersonal experiences can also be of comfort to them. The examples in this article include a near-death experience during the Vietnam War, an out-of-body experience after a bomb explosion during the Iraq War, a near-death visit to a woman imprisoned at Auschwitz, and two after-death communications, one from a person killed in Auschwitz and another from a soldier during World War I. Also included are interviews with two New York City policemen who were September 11, 2001 responders. It is hoped the information will provide knowledge of these experiences to those who care for those near death, or dying, or grieving because of catastrophic events, and encourage researchers to further investigate these experiences during disasters.

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NEUROSCIENCE, WORLD WIDE WEB AND READING CURRICULUM

Problems of Education in the 21st Century ◽

10.33225/pec/12.46.66 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 66-73

Author(s):

Metka Kordigel Aberšek

Keyword(s):

World Wide Web ◽

New Media ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

World Wide ◽

Deductive Reasoning ◽

Spatial Skills ◽

Online Reading ◽

Reading Curriculum ◽

Literature Reading ◽

Visual Spatial

Neuroscience has proved a malleable nature of our brain. The way of thinking is changing lifelong and not only in early childhood. New media as television, video games, and the Internet change students’ cognitive skills. New visual-spatial skills, such as iconic representation and spatial visualization are developed. But parallel to these changes new weaknesses occur. Those are in higher-order cognitive processes, as abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination (Greefield, 2009). Those are the reasons why reading curriculum in contemporary educational system should focus on two groups of aims: deep online reading and linear literature reading. By deep reading is meant the sophisticated processes that propel comprehension and that include inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. By linear literature reading is meant primarily reading of fiction, which develops the imagination, inductive analysis, critical and abstract thinking Key words: cognitive skills, linear reading, neuroscience, reading curriculum, reflexive reading of fiction, World Wide Web.

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Unexpected findings in a study of visual perception during the naturalistic near-death out-of-body experience

The Journal of near-death studies ◽

10.1007/bf01074256 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 155-163 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Janice Miner Holden

Keyword(s):

Visual Perception ◽

Body Experience ◽

Out Of Body Experience ◽

Unexpected Findings

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Letters to the Editor: Out-of-body experience and epilepsy

Journal of Neurosurgery Pediatrics ◽

10.3171/2014.8.peds14425 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 224-225

Author(s):

Robert Hoepner ◽

Christian Brandt

Keyword(s):

Letters To The Editor ◽

Body Experience ◽

Out Of Body Experience

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Out of Body Experience Induced by Hypnotic Suggestion. Part 1: Phenomenology and Perceptual Characteristics.

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2443719 ◽

2014 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Patrizio E. Tressoldi ◽

Luciano Pederzoli ◽

Patrizio Caini ◽

Alessandro Ferrini ◽

Simone Melloni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Body Experience ◽

Out Of Body Experience ◽

Hypnotic Suggestion ◽

Perceptual Characteristics

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Raise your hand if you’re spatial

Gesture ◽

10.1075/gest.7.1.05hos ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 73-95 ◽

Cited By ~ 74

Author(s):

Autumn B. Hostetter ◽

Martha W. Alibali

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Spatial Visualization ◽

Semantic Fluency ◽

Spatial Skills ◽

Verbal Skill ◽

Spatial Skill ◽

Phonemic Fluency ◽

Representational Gestures ◽

Gesture Production

Individuals differ greatly in how often they gesture when they speak. This study investigated relations between speakers’ verbal and spatial skills and their gesture rates. Two types of verbal skill were measured: semantic fluency, which is thought to index efficiency with lexical access, and phonemic fluency, which is thought to index efficiency with organizing the lexicon in novel ways. Spatial skill was measured with a visualization task. We hypothesized that individuals with low verbal skill but high spatial visualization skill would gesture most often, due to having mental images not closely linked to verbal forms. This hypothesis was supported for phonemic fluency, but not for semantic fluency. We also found that individuals with low phonemic fluency and individuals with high phonemic fluency produced representational gestures at higher rates than individuals with average phonemic fluency. The findings indicate that individual differences in gesture production are associated with individual differences in cognitive skills.

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