Philosophy Commons^™

Introduction To Special Topic Section: Parapsychology, Sean Avila Saiter, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Trauma And Transformative Passage, Reed A. Morrison Private Practice

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The strategic introduction of stressors to intentionally produce targeted psychological states

has a long history among indigenous peoples. Rites of passage ceremonies commonly involve

subjecting individuals to controlled violence to attain desired transformative outcomes. In

this context, violence is held to be sacred and generative, ritually introducing distress in

the service of loosening orientation and preparing the individual for spiritual advancement

and the acquisition of a new identity. Traditional ritual initiation ceremonies are typically

tripartite and characterized by stages of Separation, Ordeal, and Return. This article suggests

that accounts of the experiences of initiates in Separation and Ordeal stages bear …

Transpersonal Psychology, Parapsychology, And Neurobiology: Clarifying Their Relations, Douglas A. Macdonald, Harris L. Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Neurobiological advances have resulted in growing interest in many psychological phenomena

heretofore resistant to scientific scrutiny, including within transpersonal psychology and

parapsychology. These advances perhaps can resolve longstanding tensions between these

two psychological subdisciplines, which have generally been treated as disparate. To

implement such a rapprochement requires more than just additional empirical findings,

as theoretical development is also needed. Consequently, we identify some important

theoretical problems, such as conventional assumptions about scientific naturalism and

materialism that potentially undermine substantive advances in further understanding

such phenomena through neurobiology. We also discuss links between parapsychology and

transpersonal psychology that can be forged …

The Scale For Existential Thinking, Blake A. Allan, Branton Shearer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This study introduced the construct of existential thinking, which we defined as the tendency

to explore the fundamental concerns of human existence and the capacity to engage in a

meaning-making process that locates oneself in respect to these issues. We also assessed

the psychometric properties of the 11-item “Scale for Existential Thinking” (SET). In two

studies, we found the SET to have unidimensional factor structure and good reliability

diagnostics in both student and adult samples. Moreover, the SET showed construct validity

by correlating with meaning in life, curiosity, and other existential variables. Furthermore,

we found meaning in life to mediate …

Mental Health And The Paranormal, Simon Dein

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

To date, there has been a dearth of work examining the relationships between paranormal

experiences and mental health. After defining paranormal experience and its prevalence,

I examine a number of areas related to paranormal experience and psychopathology: psi

and the unconscious, dissociation and fantasy proneness, schizotypy, transliminality and

reality monitoring, child abuse, reasoning and information processing, and transpersonal

psychology. Finally, I discuss the clinical implications of these findings.

Is The Reincarnation Hypothesis Advanced By Stevenson For Spontaneous Past-Life Experiences Relevant For The Understanding Of The Ontology Of Past-Life Phenomena?, Sergei Slavoutski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A significant volume of scientific evidence, uncovered by reincarnation research in the last

50 years, supports the reincarnation hypothesis advanced by Ian Stevenson for spontaneous

past-life experiences (PLEs). However, at this time this evidence cannot provide an

unquestionable proof of the existence of past-life phenomena, nor can it assert that

reincarnation is not possible. This paper suggests that the reincarnation hypothesis, being

reasonably parsimonious and relatively exhaustive, may provide a plausible explanation for

spontaneous PLEs. Also, based on the probability of the same ontology of spontaneous and

hypnotic PLEs, it may be argued that this hypothesis might also be relevant …

How Should Therapists Respond To Client Accounts Of Out-Of-Body Experience?, Alexander De Foe

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

During an out-of-body experience (OBE) a person experiences their center of consciousness

from a spatial location that is distinctly different to their physical body. Prior research has

suggested that psychologists and psychotherapists may be reluctant to discuss the content

of their clients OBE accounts due to a lack of understanding about the nature of these

experiences. Yet, other research has highlighted the substantial value of discussing OBEs

in the therapeutic process. This paper examines the literature in order to assess the value of

utilizing person-centered dialogue and guided visualisation as counselling approaches for

working with clients who have had OBEs.

Psychoactive Substances And Paranormal Phenomena: A Comprehensive Review, David Luke

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal

phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory

perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences

(OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences,

and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related

to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no

means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany,

phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly

neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models …

(2012) "I Must Change My Life": A Review Of Mathew Lipman’S A Life Teaching Thinking, David K. Kennedy

Collected Papers of David Kennedy

Born in 1923 and recently deceased after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, Matthew Lipman wrote this brief but detailed autobiography just before his illness made it impossible to write any more. It begins with memories of earliest childhood and his preoccupation with the possibility of being able to fly, moves through the years in which his family struggled with the effects of the Great Depression, through his service in the military during World War II, his discovery of the joy and beauty of philosophy, his quick academic rise at Columbia University, his sojourn in Paris, and his early and …

Goodness, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

And what does the Lord require of me? To love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God. -Micah 6:8

This quote from the Hebrew Bible has been one of my favorite quotes from sacred scripture in the Judea-Christian tradition for a very long time. It well summarizes how we should live. It well articulates how to live a good life. In this brief and simple statement in response to what God wants of us, it makes clear that there are three things that we should do throughout our lives if we want to follow the dictates of the God …

Development And Hope: Comments On Thomas Mccarthy's Race, Empire, And The Idea Of Human Development, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Thomas McCarthy’s Race, Empire, and the Idea of Human Development is an intriguing and important book; moreover, despite its heavy themes and its fine scholarship, it is extremely readable. And it is very timely. The questions it takes up are some of the most pressing of our age: globalization, international distributive justice, and sustainable economic development in particular. Its central problematic concerns the detrimental effects of developmental thinking as a core feature of modernity. The book seeks, says McCarthy, to make “a contribution to the critical history of the present” (2), but it does not stop with critical analysis; McCarthy …

The Origin Of A Sense Of Self In Women, Kimberly Dewing Robbins

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This phenomenological study focuses on how a strong sense of self in women changes social precepts and gender stereotypes empowering women to define themselves instead of being defined by society. A sense of self may be defined as the ability to distinguish one’s own values from those of any outside persuasions, and to do so well enough to be able to protect those ideals from unwanted external influence. Is a sense of self, realized at a young age, an innate feeling or developed over time through adversity and the maturation process? This study will specifically look at what influences can …

The Wounded Healer: Finding Meaning In Suffering, Garret B. Wyner

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In modern history, no event has more profoundly symbolized suffering than the Holocaust. This novel “Husserlian-realist” phenomenological dissertation elucidates the meaning of existential trauma through an interdisciplinary and psychologically integrative vantage point. I use the testimony of a select group of Holocaust witnesses who committed suicide decades after that event as a lens to examine what their despair may reveal about an unprecedented existential, moral, and spiritual crisis of humanity that threatens to undermine our faith in human history and reality itself. By distinguishing what they actually saw about our condition from what they merely believed about reality, I show …

Attention And Olfactory Consciousness, Andreas Keller

Publications and Research

Understanding the relation between attention and consciousness is an important part of our understanding of consciousness. Attention, unlike consciousness, can be systematically manipulated in psychophysical experiments and a law-like relation between attention and consciousness is waiting to be discovered. Most attempts to discover the nature of this relation are focused on a special type of attention: spatial visual attention. In this review I want to introduce another type of attention to the discussion: attention to the olfactory modality. I will first clarify the position of attention to smells in a general taxonomy of attention. I will then review the mechanisms …

Levels Of Altruism, Martin Zwick, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human sociocultural realm. This paper sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that span these two realms and are grounded in an ever-expanding sense of "self." Discussion of this framework notes difficulties associated with altruisms at different levels. It links scientific ideas about the evolution of cooperation and about hierarchical order to perennial philosophical and religious concerns. It offers a conceptual background for inquiry into societal challenges that call for altruistic behavior, especially the challenge of environmental and social sustainability.

Psychological Assessment: What Will The Future Bring?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the (de)valuation of psychological assessment from various perspectives.

What Is A Human Person? An Exploration & Critique Of Contemporary Perspectives, Emmanuel Cumplido

Senior Honors Projects

What is a Human Person? An Exploration and Critique of Physicalist Perspectives

Emmanuel Cumplido

Faculty Sponsor: Donald Zeyl, Philosophy

Answers to the question “What is a human person?” that have garnered the allegiance of people throughout millennia fall under two broad categories: “physicalism” and “dualism”. One of the earliest renditions of physicalism was the philosophy of the ancient Greek atomists. In their view, all of reality could be explained through two principles: atoms and empty space. As a consequence, people were thought to be nothing but assemblages of atoms in space. Plato’s Phaedo presents one of the earliest philosophical endorsements …

Love: A Biological, Psychological And Philosophical Study, Heather M. Chapman

Senior Honors Projects

The concept of love has been an eternally elusive subject. It is a definition and meaning that philosophers, psychologists, and biologists have been seeking since the beginning of time. Wars have been waged and fought over it, while friendships have been initiated and have ended because of this idea. But what exactly is love, and why is it important to define this enigma?

In order to help define this idea of love, several books and numerous research articles were consulted, and interviews were conducted with faculty of The University of Rhode Island. Dr. Nasser Zawia was interviewed, in order to …

Signs And Symbols: Art And Language In Art Therapy, Malissa Morrell

Journal of Clinical Art Therapy

This paper is a preliminary attempt at theory building by exploring the use of art and language in art therapy through a theoretical inquiry model. Inductive and deductive processes are used to explore literature from the fields of psychology, art philosophy (particularly aesthetics), and linguistics. Concepts common to each of these disciplines are then further explored through the lens of bilingual therapy. Practical applications are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

Attitudes Of Counselors Regarding Ethical Situations Encountered By In-Home Counselors, Justin Douglas Lauka

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This survey study explored the attitudes of in-home and outpatient counselors in Virginia regarding ethical situations encountered by in-home counselors. Differences in responses were examined across several variables to identify any relationships among those constructs that are salient to in-home counseling and ethics. Of 108 participants, no significant differences were found between the two groups. One variable was found to predict counselors' responses: the percent counselors provide counseling services compared to case management. The item seen as most ethical involved telling a client to apply for needed services, surprising, given its directive nature that runs counter to the counseling profession. …

Taking It Off In The Mideast, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author explores the concept of democracy and the impact of financial, moral, and sexual corruption in the Middle East.

On The Need For Embodied And Dis-Embodied Cognition, Guy Dove

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This essay proposes and defends a pluralistic theory of conceptual embodiment. Our concepts are represented in at least two ways: (i) through sensorimotor simulations of our interactions with objects and events and (ii) through sensorimotor simulations of natural language processing. Linguistic representations are “dis-embodied” in the sense that they are dynamic and multimodal but, in contrast to other forms of embodied cognition, do not inherit semantic content from this embodiment. The capacity to store information in the associations and inferential relationships among linguistic representations extends our cognitive reach and provides an explanation of our ability to abstract and generalize. This …

The Giffords Shooting: Who’S The Fall Guy?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author explores the concept of ‘the fall guy’ from a political philosophical perspective.

Review: Moral Psychology: Historical And Contemporary Readings, Audrey L. Anton

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

Moral Psychology: Historical and Contemporary Readings is a much-needed collection of essays on issues of moral psychology. The aim of the book is to present the reader with a comprehensive view of both the history and foundations of moral psychology as well as the discipline's position in academia and its relationship with other disciplines, such as psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, all of which involve empirical investigation of human capabilities and behavior. This collection is well organized into five distinct parts. Each part has a helpful editorial introduction that not only summarizes the main themes of the debate assigned to …

Encounters With The Outcast : The Ethical Relation In Wordsworth And Lacan, Heewon Kang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the ethical importance of the moments in William Wordsworth's poetry when language verges on silence or presents experience as finally unintelligible, and explores the ethical dimension of outcast figures intimately connected with the problem of this void in signification, on the basis of Jacques Lacan's insights concerning psychoanalytic ethics. The question that orients the examination of the ethical issues embodied in Wordsworth's poetry is how one should encounter or represent the outcast figure as a rupture in meaning. And the ethics of subjectivity which Lacan explores in terms of his theories of the gaze, feminine jouissance, and …

Editor's Introduction, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment For Incarcerated Youth: A Mixed Method Pilot Study, Sam Himelstein

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The current study investigated the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based substance use intervention

on self-reported impulsiveness, perceived drug risk, and healthy self-regulation in a sample of 60

incarcerated youth. Forty-eight participants completed questionnaires pre and post intervention.

Additionally, 16 participants from two of the final 8-week cohorts were interviewed in focus groups

about their experience of the program immediately following its completion. A mixed-method

embedded model was used, in which qualitative data was used in support of quantitative data. Paired

t-tests revealed a significant decrease (p < .01) in impulsiveness and a significant increase (p < .05)

in perceived risk of drug use from pretest to posttest. No …

Why Altered States Are Not Enough: A Perspective From Buddhism, Igor Berkhin, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal psychology has at times employed Buddhist terminology in ways that do not

reflect distinctions that underlie these tightly defined terms. From a Buddhist perspective,

attempts to equate Buddhist terms with language from other traditions are misdirected, and

produce results that no longer represent Buddhism. For example, it is an error to translate

certain Buddhist terms as referring to a shared universal consciousness; Buddhism explicitly

rejects this idea. Nor is it appropriate to assume that the generic, cross-traditional altered

state of nondual awareness postulated in some transpersonally-related circles is in any way

related to nirvana or other advanced states described …

Rethinking Prayer And Health Research: An Exploratory Inquiry On Prayer’S Psychological Dimension, Adrian Andreescu

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A brief literature review of cancer survival trials is employed by the author to raise questions

on their design and to bring speculatively into discussion concepts such as “worldview”,

“intentional normative dissociation”, and “psychosomatic plasticity-proneness”. Using prayer’s

psychological dimension as a way to unite such elements opens new fertile perspectives on

the academic study of prayer and health. In this context, it is suggested that a consistent

interdisciplinary research agenda is required in order to understand those biopsychosocial

factors interconnected within the process and outcome of prayer before attempting to

decipher the big answers laying dormant probably within the transpersonal …

On A Physical Scientific Approach To Transperson Al Psychology, Alan Haas

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal psychology involves an approach to behavior and the self that transcends

ordinary states of mind as well as extends to the larger environment as a whole. Treating

the individual, their mind, and behavior in relation to others and the larger natural system

utilizing properly developed and practically applicable concepts from physics, chemistry, and

biology may provide a successful interpretation that may be more powerful than the standard

views of psychology. For instance, basic concepts such as charge pair attraction‑repulsion,

bonding, and synchronous behavior may be transformed into highly effective and even

“spiritual” concepts that can add sophistication to human …