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Altered States of Consciousness and Religious Behavior

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... It is rather evil daemons posing as divinities who have preyed on the worst predilections of human naturenamely, greed, lust, ambition, and gluttony-to create a ritual arrangement that feeds both malign spirits and rapacious humans. 67 In the course of making this argument, Porphyry outlines an intriguing genealogy of evil daemons, wherein these spirits were once good daemons that had somehow gone off the rails. He describes this genealogy in the following passage: ...
... He is a villain pure and simple, and he eventually burns to death in an accidental, but highly symbolic, fire. 67 Thomas Hardy, subsequently raising the standard of the novel of rural life and, like Forfar, tactfully setting his tales in an era one or two generations before his own time, also gave folk magicians little credit. They generally appear on the sidelines of his plots, abetting superstitious beliefs and fears. ...
... Drunkenness, especially when combined with malnutrition and hunger, could also result in the altered states of mind that the subjects experienced, as alcohol induces a slowing of the alpha frequencies, the emergence of theta brain wave frequencies, and the synchronization of cortical discharges. 67 Several narratives suggest that the experience occurred after shared labor, which tended to conclude with drinking parties; this could also explain the prevalence of men as subjects of these experiences. 68 A dreaming state could also possibly account for these experiences, as could perhaps an episode of somnambulism (sleepwalking), which occurs in deep sleep during which a person presents transient nonresponsiveness but partially preserves arousal and semipurposeful behavior such as walking, 69 especially when the experience involved transportation to another location. ...
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The article discusses the experience of being “carried by witches” narrated to me repeatedly during my field research in rural eastern Slovenia in 2000–2001. The experience, which was ascribed to the agency of witches who “enchanted” their victims and led them astray, typically occurred in the forest at night and implied disorientation, sometimes (but not necessarily) the vision of light(s) that people followed or were drawn to, and a shift of consciousness. The article argues that particular neurological conditions (out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences) may have provided a basis for the experience of at least some of the subjects in the memorates, and that various cultural concepts explaining the experience, and cultural patterns of structuring narratives about it, may have been adopted by people in order to cope with and make sense of what they experienced in a society that does not grant cultural value to altered states of consciousness.
... The problem is, as Craffert (2010:128) notes, that ordinary consciousness itself is not stable but subject to many different definitions and descriptions. Winkelman (1997) addresses the evidence for the universality of ASCs as an origin of religious experience and as the foundation for some manifestations of religious behaviour. According to Winkelman (1997:395), ASCs 'in a religious behaviour is widely reported, perhaps a universal of human societies'. ...
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The specific aim of this article is to interpret Ntsikana’s kraal vision by considering the vision narratives or experiences found in Acts of the Apostles. In 1987, J.B. Peires interpreted this vision as a mere ‘hallucination’ and further argued that there was nothing Christian about it, stating that Ntsikana had experienced a mystical vision, like any other heathen diviner. This article partly differs from this interpretation, and an argument is pursued that in South African church history vision narratives have led to ‘conversion(s)’ of many church leaders, including Ntsikana, and have subsequently shaped the direction of the church, especially the African indigenous churches. It is noted that the writer of Acts employed visions more frequently than any other author in the New Testament and that at strategic places throughout his work, Luke reported epiphanies in which God, or a divine agent, appeared and guided the course of events. These experiences, as reported by Luke, are not far from what Ntsikana experienced and should therefore be read as constituting the act of God in an African context. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The study has significance for Church history, African traditional religion and the New Testament. It is undertaken within (intra-) the African traditional and Christian religions discourse, with an interest in Church History that combines philosophical and theological approaches, especially with reference to South African sociopolitical and ecclesiastical contexts. The research builds on the existing Church history and New Testament discourses.
... Ede Frecska and Zsuzsanna Kulcsar illustrate how communal rituals elicit attachment bonds and other psycho-socio-physiological mechanisms that release endogenous opiates and produce psychobiological synchrony in a group of people. Shamanic rituals release endogenous opiates through a variety of mechanisms, including austerities, fasting, water restriction, strenuous exercise, and emotional hyperstress (Winkelman, 1997). Shamanic rituals elicit responses from the brain's opioid systems by tapping into social attachment and conditioned cultural symbols (Frecska and Kulcsar, 1989). ...
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A brief overview of research supporting Eliade's idea of a cross-cultural concept of the shaman based on systematic ethnological (holocultural) data analysis.
... Drunkenness, especially when combined with malnutrition and hunger, could also result in the altered states of mind that the subjects experienced, as alcohol induces a slowing of the alpha frequencies, the emergence of theta brain wave frequencies, and the synchronization of cortical discharges. 67 Several narratives suggest that the experience occurred after shared labor, which tended to PN 7.1_03_Mencej.indd Page 68 14/12/17 1:47 PM conclude with drinking parties; this could also explain the prevalence of men as subjects of these experiences. ...
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This chapter discusses the narratives about night-time visions of witches and experiences ascribed to night witches, closely related to European legends on supernatural beings, possible realities of night experiences, and uses of narratives on night witches.
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Tranceund Besessenheitszustände sind weltweit verbreitete Formen veränderter Bewusstseinszustände. Heute kommen sie am häufigsten in nicht-westlichen Kulturkreisen vor. Sie können je nach kulturellem Kontext in religiöse oder weltliche Riten eingebunden sein und vielfältige soziale und kommunikative Funktionen erfüllen. In anderen Fällen kann die Besessenheit durch Geister oder Dämonen mit hoher subjektiver Belastung und Leiden für die Betroffenen verbunden sein. Zusammenhänge mit psychosozialen Belastungen, intrapsychischen oder interpersonellen Konflikten und traumatischen Erfahrungen sind meist evident. Ein erhöhtes Vorkommen maligner Besessenheitserfahrungen findet sich speziell in Kriegsund Nachkriegsregionen. Nicht selten manifestiert sich das Störungsbild der dissoziativen Identitätsstörung als Besessenheitstrance. Unter dem Blickwinkel einer kulturell angemessenen Gesundheitsund Sozialversorgung ergibt sich die Notwendigkeit einer Sensibilisierung für die mit pathologischen Formen von Besessenheit einhergehenden psychischen Beeinträchtigungen und die sich abzeichnenden Zusammenhänge mit psychischen Traumatisierungen.
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This study investigates eight case reports of spontaneously emerging, brief episodes of vivid altered states of Selfhood (ASoSs) that occurred during mental exercise in six long-term meditators by using a neurophenomenological electroencephalography (EEG) approach. In agreement with the neurophenomenological methodology, first-person reports were used to identify such spontaneous ASoSs and to guide the neural analysis, which involved the estimation of three operational modules of the brain self-referential network (measured by EEG operational synchrony). The result of such analysis demonstrated that the documented ASoSs had unique neurophenomenological profiles, where several aspects or components of Selfhood (measured neurophysiologically and phenomenologically) are affected and expressed differently, but still in agreement with the neurophysiological three-dimensional construct model of the complex experiential Selfhood proposed in our earlier work (Fingelkurts et al. in Conscious Cogn 86:103031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.103031, 2020).
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Ibogaine is a psychoactive alkaloid contained in the West African plant Tabernanthe iboga. Although preliminary, evidence suggests that ibogaine could be effective in the treatment of certain substance use disorders, specifically opioid use disorder. This narrative review concentrated on the pharmacological, cultural and psychological aspects of ibogaine that contribute to its reputed effectiveness with a specific focus on the ibogaine state of consciousness. Although the exact pharmacological mechanisms for ibogaine are still speculative, the literature highlighted its role as an NMDA antagonist in the effective treatment of substance use disorders. The cultural aspects associated with the use of ibogaine pose questions around the worldview of participants as experienced in the traditional and western contexts, which future research should clarify. From a psychological perspective, the theory that the ibogaine state of consciousness resembles REM sleep is questionable due to evidence that indicated ibogaine supressed REM sleep, and contradictory evidence in relation to learning and memory. The suggested classification of the ibogaine experience as oneirophrenic also seems inadequate as it only describes the first phase of the ibogaine experience. The ibogaine experience does however present characteristics consistent with holotropic states of consciousness, and future research could focus on exploring and potentially classifying the state of consciousness induced by ibogaine as holotropic.
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Nobody has done more than John Pilch to popularize the use of an ASC model for understanding the visions, sky journeys and other ecstatic experiences reported in biblical texts. He is to be credited for pointing out the ethnocentrism in traditional biblical research that do not take visions, soul journeys and the like seriously as culturally plausible human phenomena. He introduced the notion of alternate states of consciousness (ASCs), a well-known category in anthropological research, to biblical interpretation in an attempt to avoid the ethnocentrism that considers such reports as either nonhistorical or fictional. However, while avoiding ethnocentrism at this point he reintroduced it in two other ways. The first is by rejecting the so-called Western view of ASC experiences and secondly, by claiming that ASCs represent actual events that provide access to alternate reality—something that he considers to be absent from the reductionistic view of reality of Western cultures.
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Das Phänomen des Schamanismus gilt seit langer Zeit gerade in der populärwissenschaftlichen und neoreligiösen Literatur als bevorzugt behandeltes Thema, das angeblich auf weit zurückreichende Wurzeln in der ethnologischen Forschung zugreifen kann. Dabei wurde der Schamanismus wissenschaftlich erst seit Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts überhaupt bekannt und durchlebte seitdem eine zunehmende Stereotypisierung im Rahmen verschiedener Zeitströmungen. Nichtsdestotrotz fi nden sich auch in der Archäologie Interpretationsmodelle des Schamanen dann, wenn sich ein Befund durch ungewöhnliche Umstände von der Norm abhebt. Es handelt sich daher um ein verbreitetes Muster zur Deutung archäologischer Sonderbestattungen. Dabei hat die archäologische Forschung in der Vergangenheit jedoch meist nur auf ein Konstrukt zurückgegriffen, das ein Resultat aus 300 Jahren ethnologischer Forschung darstellt, ohne diesen Terminus Technicus jemals genau zu hinterfragen. In dem vorliegenden Buch wird der Begriff des Schamanen als Bezeichnung einer Gruppe religiöser Spezialisten in seiner zeitlichen und sozialen Variabilität vorgestellt, wobei der Fokus vor allem auf der archäologischen Nutzbarkeit der einzelnen Facetten dieses vielschichtigen Kultpraktikers beruht. Neben Kriterien wie beispielsweise „Ekstase“, „Kosmologie“ oder der sozialen Stellung stehen dabei vor allem die materielle Kultur und die beobachteten Bestattungsriten vor allem sibirischer und asiatischer Schamanen im Vordergrund. Auf der Grundlage dieser Vorstellung dient ein überarbeiteter Begriff als methodischer Ansatz um der Frage nachzugehen, ob wir auch die von der Norm abweichenden Bestattungen des Endneolithikums und der Frühbronzezeit Mitteleuropas als Schamanen ansprechen dürfen, oder ob es nicht vielleicht besser wäre, diesen als „gefährlich“ und „vage“ bezeichneten Begriff zu umgehen.
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