Analysis of recreational psychedelic substance use experiences classified by substance

Rationale and objectives Differences among psychedelic substances regarding their subjective experiences are clinically and scientifically interesting. Quantitative linguistic analysis is a powerful tool to examine such differences. This study compared five psychedelic substance report groups and a non-psychedelic report group on quantitative linguistic markers of psychological states and processes derived from recreational use-based online experience reports. Methods Using 2947 publicly available online reports, we compared Ayahuasca and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT, analyzed together), ketamine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), psilocybin (mushroom), and antidepressant drug use experiences. We examined word frequencies related to various psychological states and processes and semantic proximity to psychedelic and mystical experience scales. Results Linguistic markers of psychological function indicated distinct effect profiles. For example, MDMA experience reports featured an emotionally intensifying profile accompanied by many cognitive process words and dynamic-personal language. In contrast, Ayahuasca and DMT experience reports involved relatively little emotional language, few cognitive process words, increased analytical thinking-associated language, and the most semantic similarity with psychedelic and mystical experience descriptions. LSD, psilocybin mushroom, and ketamine reports showed only small differences on the emotion-, analytical thinking-, psychedelic, and mystical experience-related language outcomes. Antidepressant reports featured more negative emotional and cognitive process-related words, fewer positive emotional and analytical thinking-related words, and were generally not similar to mystical and psychedelic language. Conclusion This article addresses an existing research gap regarding the comparison of different psychedelic drugs on linguistic profiles of psychological states, processes, and experiences. The large sample of experience reports involving multiple psychedelic drugs provides valuable information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. The results could inform experimental research into psychedelic drug effects in healthy populations and clinical trials for psychedelic treatments of psychiatric problems.

Construing the scene in Julian of Norwich’s “A Revelation of Love”

Julian of Norwich’s “A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman” and “A Revelation of Love” are texts which present two accounts (short and long, respectively) of her mystical experience. Julian was an anchoress whose work is known for its vivid imagery and bodily resonance it provokes in the reader. New research on Julian’s work has focused scholarly attention on the significance of embodied cognition for the exploration of the mystic’s writing. The present paper identifies a gap in this research in that cognitive-linguistic aspects of the anchoress’s text are still largely ignored. The article discusses the connection between perception and cognition and its potential role in structuring Julian’s longer text, “A Revelation of Love”. The Cognitive Linguistic analysis focuses on selected excerpts from the long version portraying scenes from Julian’s visions, where visualisation is particularly significant for meaning construction. Providing a link between recent findings from cognitive science and current cognitively-oriented studies of Julian’s texts, the paper draws on the concept of construal pertinent to the fact that the language user may conceive and present some conceptual content (an apprehended scene) in alternate ways. The Cognitive Linguistic investigation connects Julian’s work to the visual and material culture of her day, revealing how the mystic transforms the familiar imagery into vivid, dynamically unfolding images. It is concluded that cognitively-informed research is likely to shed new light onto long-standing issues in scholarship on Julian, particularly those that concern the interplay of language, culture and cognition.

Religious Experience

This Element looks at religious experience and the role it has played in philosophy of religion. It critically explores the history of the intertwined discourses on mysticism and religious experience, before turning to a few specific discussions within contemporary philosophy of religion. One debate concerns the question of perennialism vs. constructivism and whether there is a 'common core' to all religious or mystical experience independent of interpretation or socio-historical background. Another central discussion concerns the epistemology of purportedly theophanic experience and whether a perceptual model of religious experience can provide evidence or justification for theistic belief. The Element concludes with a discussion of how philosophy of religion can productively widen its treatment of religious experience in the service of creating a more inclusive and welcoming discipline.

A study of contemporary concepts of Jesus' human knowledge

The question of the knowledge of Jesus is one of the most vividly debated issues in Christology today. The dynamics of this debate is caused by the lack of dogmatic declarations, the modern discoveries of human sciences and critical approach to the concept of omniscience resulting from the beatific vision (visio beatifica) of Jesus, which for many centuries was adopted almost on a par with dogma. The article compares contemporary theories of Jesus' knowledge cross-sectional, points to theologians' mutual inspirations, and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the most important concepts. The primary role in the article is played by the historical-critical method, which makes it possible to show and analyse the changes in the ideas of Jesus' knowledge, which gradually abandoned the attribution of omniscience to Him. The theologians of the Reformed Churches, who were the first to recognise the paradoxes of Christ's omniscience as part of kenotic considerations, had a particular share in these developments. They wondered why, if the Incarnate God renounces His divine attributes, He would not also relinquish omniscience. Their reflections and the progressive development of the human sciences were an inspiration for many Catholic theologians, who in the 20th century also gradually began to notice the limitations of Thomas Aquinas' theory ascribing omniscience to Jesus. They have developed new ideas drawing on recent anthropology, philosophy, psychology and the human sciences. The most interesting of the theories are the hypotheses based on the mystical experiences of Jesus, which, without undermining the dogmas of His fully human nature, try to explain how He was able to contact the Father and gain knowledge of His mission. The development of new theories of Christ's knowledge by Catholic theologians, on the one hand, made it possible to approximate positions on this issue with the theologians of the Reformed Churches. On the other hand, it paradoxically opens up prospects for dialogue with some defenders of the visio beatifica concept, who allow its reinterpretation through the category of mystical experience.

The effect of encounter in the experimental novel : (A stylistic study in Jamal Al- Ghitani’s Tajalliyat novel): أثرُ التقابل في الرواية التجريبية (دراسة أسلوبية في رواية التجليات لجمال الغيطاني)

The point of the analysis that the researcher intends to study the effect of convergence in the novel (Al- Tajjayat) as an experimental novel that relied on the amazing Sufi experience is to reveal the style of Jamal Al- Ghitani from the face that distinguishes him from others. Correspondence, during the analysis of samples of the texts of the novel, and after the research examined the contrast in the main elements of the novel (the narrator's discourse, characters, and time It was found that correspondence in (Al- Tajjayat) is one of the components of style in building the miraculous world in this novel, and its effectiveness in producing meaning, and highlighting the mystical experience, so that this stylistic component contributes to the transition from the eloquence of the sentence to the eloquence of the text. At the end of the research, the researcher recommended studying other exquisite components in the novel (Al- Tajjayat) to reveal the role of exquisite composition in the construction of the method in this novel.

The Exploration of mystical experiences among religious preachers

The current qualitative study aimed to explore the Mystical Experiences among religious preachers. A Purposive sampling technique was employed to select a sample of (n=10) religious preachers who had encountered at least one mystical experience. The transcendental phenomenological approach was used to capture the essence of the mystical experiences, through in-depth semi structured interview guide which was developed based on five domains namely exploration of mystic features, beliefs, impact on life, sharing of mystical experiences as well as the religious and cultural oriented explanations. Initially, a pilot study was conducted to assess the feasibility of the semi-structured in-depth interview guide and also to finalize the road map for the main study. The main study was conducted after incorporating changes in the pilot study. The modification of Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen’s model by Maustakas (1994) was employed for data analysis followed through a series of steps such as bracketing, horizonalization of data, grouping of significant statements to constitute themes (triggers, perceptual experience, symbolism and derived meanings, significant figures, reaction, and the cultural explanation of mystical experiences), textural description (‘what’ happened during a mystical experience) and a structural description (‘how’ this experienced occurred) with verbatim examples was developed. Both these descriptions were combined to write a composite description that reflected the ‘essence’ of the mystical experiences and highlighted the causes, characteristics, perceptual experiences, beliefs, and its impact. The findings highlighted the subjective nature of the mystical experiences and the need to develop an indigenous formal criterion for the identification of such experiences.

Królestwo Boże (Józefa Czapskiego podróż do Hiszpanii w roku 1930)

The author of the article describes a trip to Spain made by Józef Czapski in 1930. This outstanding painter and essayist, witness to the Katyń massacre, co-creator of the Parisian magazine "Kultura" [Culture] and Polish intellectual life in exile, at the time of visiting Madrid and its nearby areas for nearly two months was still a young artist, looking for the painting poetics closest to his soul. The visits to the Prado brought him two great discoveries: the works of El Greco and Goya. For Czapski, El Greco is a captivating example of religious painting and simultaneously – fidelity to the vision, the way of seeing the world. Goya fascinated Czapski with the thematic and stylistic range of his art – from “official” court portraits to dramatic records of nearly surreal visions, reflecting the artist’s fundamental belief in human depravity. The trip to Spain also had another meaning for Czapski – it was in a way a journey in the footsteps of St. Teresa of Avila, broadly: a reflection on the role of mystical experience in the spiritual life of man. From these two perspectives: artistic and religious, the encounter with the Spanish culture appears to be one of the more important and fateful episodes in the biography of Józef Czapski.