scholarly journals High on God: Religious Experience and Counter-Experience in Light of the Study of Religion

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 388
Author(s):  
Matthew Kruger

Taking as its foundation a religious experience of my own, this paper explores the impact of the study of religion on the interpretation and significance of experience. My experience will be analyzed in relation to the work of William James, followed by a movement into neuroscientific research on null experiences, before turning to philosophic and theological treatments of experience in Nishida Kitaro and Meister Eckhart especially. These accounts of religious experience are then explored in terms of the potential connection they suggest with drug use in and out of religious settings. Finally, I will turn to a fundamental questioning of experience as seen in the work of Martin Heidegger and Jean-Luc Marion, all of which sets up a tentative conclusion regarding our approach to religious experience, whether as an object of study or our own.

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
Stephen Bush

This essay, in response to Michael Kaler and Philip Tite, examines several theoretical issues about mystical experience in the Nag Hammadi texts. First is the problem of whether experiences can be an object of study at all, and I argue that they can, so long as we attend to the causes of the experiences. Attending to the causes of experiences, however, means that neo-perennialists must articulate and defend an account of the cause(s) of the cross-culturally universal experiences that they suppose occur. As for the attempt to apply contemporary psychologists' attachment theory to the experiential knowledge described in the Nag Hammadi texts, questions remain about the relation between attachment to the divine figure purportedly experienced and the experiencer's attachment to his or her religious community.


Author(s):  
Kristina A. Bannova ◽  
Nurken E. Aktaev ◽  
Yulia G. Tyurina

Digital technologies have changed the relationship between the society and business entities, taxpayers and the state. Ceteris paribus, the ability to effectively manage financial flows and make administrative decisions depends on the correct and established interaction between the state and taxpayers. This study aims to form and develop a taxpayer’s understanding of the digital age with all its features and opportunities for information and communication technologies, including mathematical modeling methods that form the basis of the digital economy for building and sustaining business development, improving the systemic vision of business processes. The research hypothesis is that the further development of economic entities management in the digital context, as well as the coordination of these entities’ interests, is possible only in the partnership of the key economic participants, with the taxpayer at the forefront. That will allow identifying the areas for improving tax trajectories. Using polynomial approximation, the authors have obtained the models of tax trajectories of companies that allow predicting tax burden. The data for approximations are obtained using the previously constructed mathematical model of the optimal tax path. The main input data of the model are fixed assets and human resources, the totality of which form the production function. The analysis of the transformation of tax paths shows ways for achieving a balance of interests between both the state and the taxpayers. Finding this balance will help to overcome the crisis of confidence in the authorities, the development of adaptability and creativity of Russian society to new tax changes. A number of parameters determines the scale of this task. They include the complexity of the object of study, the long-term and multi-aspect nature of the impact which modeling the digital economy has on adaptation to the new digital realities of the state and taxpayers, as well as the absence of significant analogues of the solution to this problem in global and Russian economics.


Perspectiva ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 961-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Sérgio Coutinho Matos ◽  
Marcus Vinicius Cunha

Este artigo analisa as concepções educacionais de William James no livro Talks to teachers on psychology, de 1899, no qual se encontra a noção de ensino como arte. Para ampliar o entendimento dessa noção, recorre-se às reflexões feitas por James no livro The varieties of religious experience, de 1902. O artigo tem por objetivo revitalizar as concepções jamesianas visando a contribuir com autores que discutem criticamente as tendências dominantes hoje na educação.


Author(s):  
Emina Mehanović ◽  
Federica Vigna-Taglianti ◽  
Fabrizio Faggiano ◽  
Maria Rosaria Galanti ◽  
Barbara Zunino ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose Adolescents’ perceptions of parental norms may influence their substance use. The relationship between parental norms toward cigarette and alcohol use, and the use of illicit substances among their adolescent children is not sufficiently investigated. The purpose of this study was to analyze this relationship, including gender differences, using longitudinal data from a large population-based study. Methods The present study analyzed longitudinal data from 3171 12- to 14-year-old students in 7 European countries allocated to the control arm of the European Drug Addiction Prevention trial. The impact of parental permissiveness toward cigarettes and alcohol use reported by the students at baseline on illicit drug use at 6-month follow-up was analyzed through multilevel logistic regression models, stratified by gender. Whether adolescents’ own use of cigarette and alcohol mediated the association between parental norms and illicit drug use was tested through mediation models. Results Parental permissive norms toward cigarette smoking and alcohol use at baseline predicted adolescents’ illicit drug use at follow-up. The association was stronger among boys than among girls and was mediated by adolescents’ own cigarette and alcohol use. Conclusion Perceived parental permissiveness toward the use of legal drugs predicted adolescents’ use of illicit drugs, especially among boys. Parents should be made aware of the importance of norm setting, and supported in conveying clear messages of disapproval of all substances.


1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Inciardi ◽  
Dorothy Lockwood ◽  
Judith A. Quintan

Although there seems to be a consensus that “drugs are in every prison,” and that “prison drug use is widespread,” little is really known about the prevalence and patterns of drug use in prison. What appears in the academic and research literature is at best anecdotal, suggesting only that drug use and trafficking exist in correctional settings, and that the control of drugs by inmates is in part related to prison violence. Similarly, press reports descriptive of drug use in prison typically focus on trafficking networks and the complicity of prison personnel, rather than on prevalence and patterns of use. Within this context, this article addresses the nature of drug use in prison, based on systematic interviewing and drug testing in the Delaware correctional system. Some conclusions and implications are offered relative to the impact of prison drug use on corrections-based therapeutic initiatives.


Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-255
Author(s):  
Calvin D. Ullrich

AbstractThis article seeks to distill key moments in the early work of the philosopher John D. Caputo. In considering his early investigations of Martin Heidegger, it argues that an adequate account of the trajectory of his later theological project requires a refraction through a crucial double gesture in these earlier writings. To this end, the article follows Caputo’s relationship with Heidegger where the optics of ‘overcoming metaphysics’ are laid bare (the first gesture). In these deliberations, alongside Neo-Scholastic Thomism, it is clear that what constitutes (theological) metaphysics for Caputo is any thinking which fails to think that which ‘gives’ the distinction between Being and beings. The second gesture, then, reveals ‘a certain way’ (d’une certaine maniére) of reading that allows him not only the unique possibility to re-read Scholastic Thomism by way of Meister Eckhart, but also the delimitation of the mythological construal of Being in the later Heidegger himself. The article’s methodological argument is that this transgressionary impulse gleaned from Heidegger, constitutes the ‘origins’ of Caputo’s move into the ethical-religious paradigm of deconstruction and, therefore, is also axiomatic for his later radical theology of ‘religion without religion.’


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinikka L. Kvamme ◽  
Michael M. Pedersen ◽  
Kristine Rømer Thomsen ◽  
Birgitte Thylstrup

Abstract Background The use of cannabis as medicine (CaM) both prescribed and non-prescribed has increased markedly in the last decade, mirrored in a global shift in cannabis policy towards a more permissive stance. There is some evidence that cannabis functions as a substitute for prescription drugs, particularly opioids; however, more knowledge is needed on the motives of substitution users, their patterns of use, and perceived effects of substitution use. Aims To explore who substitutes prescription drugs with cannabis, the type of prescription drugs substituted and the type of cannabis used, and the impact that substitution with cannabis has on prescription drug use as well as the motives for substitution in terms of experienced effects and side effects. Methods A self-selected convenience sample was recruited through social media, public media, and patient organizations to take part in an anonymous online survey. Inclusion criteria were 18 years or older and use of cannabis (prescribed or non-prescribed) with a medical purpose. Results The final sample included 2.841 respondents of which the majority (91%) used non-prescribed cannabis, and more than half (54.6%) had used CaM with the purpose of replacing a prescribed drug. Compared to non-substitution users, substitution users were more likely to be women and to use CaM in the treatment of chronic pain and other somatic conditions. Pain medication (67.2%), antidepressants (24.5%), and arthritis medication (20.7%) were the most common types of drugs replaced with CaM. Among substitution users, 38.1% reported termination of prescription drug use, and 45.9% a substantial decrease in prescription drug use. The most frequent type of cannabis used as a substitute was CBD-oil (65.2%), followed by ‘hash, pot or skunk’ (36.6%). More than half (65.8%) found CaM much more effective compared to prescription drugs, and 85.5% that the side effects associated with prescription drug use were much worse compared to use of CaM. Conclusion CaM is frequently used as a substitute for prescription drugs, particularly opioids. More research is needed on the long-term consequences of use of CaM, including the impact from low and high THC cannabis products on specific somatic and mental health conditions.


Author(s):  
Marek A. Motyka ◽  
Ahmed Al-Imam

Drug use has been increasing worldwide over recent decades. Apart from the determinants of drug initiation established in numerous studies, the authors wish to draw attention to other equally important factors, which may contribute to augmenting this phenomenon. The article aims to draw attention to the content of mass culture, especially representations of drug use in mass media, which may influence the liberalization of attitudes towards drugs and their use. The role of mass culture and its impact on the audience is discussed. It presents an overview of drug representations in the content of mass culture, e.g., in film, music, literature, and the occurrence of drug references in everyday products, e.g., food, clothes, and cosmetics. Attention was drawn to liberal attitudes of celebrities and their admissions to drug use, particularly to the impact of the presented positions on the attitudes of the audience, especially young people for whom musicians, actors, and celebrities are regarded as authorities. Indications for further preventive actions were also presented. Attention was drawn to the need to take appropriate action due to the time of the COVID-19 pandemic when many people staying at home (due to lockdown or quarantine) have the possibility of much more frequent contact with mass culture content, which may distort the image of drugs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document