Catatonia, long viewed as a motor disorder, may be better understood as a fear response, akin to the animal defense strategy tonic immobility (after G. G. Gallup & J. D. Maser, 1977). This proposal, consistent with K. L. Kahlbaum's (1874/1973) original conception, is based on similarities between catatonia and tonic immobility ("death feint") as well as evidence that catatonia is associated with anxiety and agitated depression and responds dramatically to benzodiazepines. It is argued that catatonia originally derived from ancestral encounters with carnivores whose predatory instincts were triggered by movement but is now inappropriately expressed in very different modern threat situations. Found in a wide range of psychiatric and serious medical conditions, catatonia may represent a common "end state" response to feelings of imminent doom and can serve as a template to understand other psychiatric disorders.

"Scared stiff": catatonia as an evolutionary-based fear response.

Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion

Historically, religious scriptures are defined as holy texts that are considered to be beyond the abilities of the layperson to interpret. Their content is most frequently analyzed by clerics who do not question the underlying political or social implications of the text, but use the writing to convey messages to their congregations about how to live a holy existence. In Western society, moreover, what counts as scripture is generally confined to the Judeo-Christian Bible, leaving the voices of minorities, as well as the holy texts of faiths from Africa and Asia, for example, unheard. In this innovative collection of essays that aims to turn the traditional bible-study definition of scriptures on its head, Vincent L. Wimbush leads an in-depth look at the social, cultural, and racial meanings invested in these texts. Contributors hail from a wide array of academic fields and geographic locations and include such noted academics as Susan Harding, Elisabeth Shussler Fiorenza, and William L. Andrews. Purposefully transgressing disciplinary boundaries, this ambitious book opens the door to different interpretations and critical orientations, and in doing so, allows an ultimately humanist definition of scriptures to emerge."

Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism

Responding to disasters within the Christian tradition, with reference to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes

The doctrine of karma and rebirth is often praised for its ability to offer a successful solution to the Problem of Evil. This essay evaluates such a claim by considering whether the doctrine can function as a systematic theodicy, as an explanation of all human suffering in terms of wrongs done in either this or past lives. This purported answer to the Problem of Evil must face a series of objections, including the problem of anylackofmemoryofpastlives,the lack of proportionality between wrongdoing and the observed suffering in the world, the problem of infinite regress of explanation, and the problem of compatibility of free will with karmic determinism. These objections, either separately or taken together, provide (it is argued) sufficient reason to doubt whether the doctrine of karma and rebirth can in fact provide a satisfactory theodicy.

Karma, Rebirth, and the Problem of Evil

Theo-monistic mysticism : a Hindu-Christian comparison

Evil and the mystics' God

Kundalini Yoga in 3HO/Sikh Dharma is regarded as an essential spiritual practice. It involves a multitude of meditation sets that include various breathing techniques, body postures and movements, hand positions, mental and devotional foci, and reverent chanting – with each set intended to transform a specific aspect of a person's physical, emotional, and spiritual makeup. Following the direction of Yogi Bhajan, members of Sikh Dharma are also involved in relatively traditional Sikh beliefs and practices, and regard themselves as orthodox Sikhs. This connection of Kundalini Yoga to Sikhism has come under criticism by certain Punjabi Sikhs and western critics. In light of these concerns, this paper will clarify key features of the practice, theory, transformative processes, and ideals of 3HO Kundalini Yoga, attending especially to questions about the possible connections and significance of it to traditional Sikhism.

3ho kundalini yoga and sikh dharma

Critical reflections on the paranormal

Some philosophers of mysticism stress the dependence of mystical experience upon the conceptual categories of the mystic. This has been referred to as an intentionalist or constructivist view, where the mystic ‘constructs’ the framework of mystical encounter, or experiences that which was ‘intended’ at the outset of the mystical path. Steven Katz, for example, insists that the beliefs, values and concepts of mystics directly affect the nature of their mystical experiences. He says, ‘the ontological structure(s) of each major mystical tradition is different and this pre-experiential, inherited structure directly enters into the mystical occasion itself’.1 In contrast to essentialist theories which hold all mystical experience to be phenomenologically the same though subject to varying interpretations,2 this constructivist view interprets the tremendous differences in mystical descriptions to be evidence of differences in experience type.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0034412500021417

Constructivist Epistemologies of Mysticism: a Critique and a Revision

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