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Cognitive Models and Spiritual Maps

Interdisciplinary Explorations of Religious Experience

Edited by Jensine Andresen and Robert K.C. Forman
 
This volume throws down a methodological challenge to the field of religious studies. It offers new and exciting approaches whereby our understanding of religion and religious experiences may be enhanced by reference to methods stemming from cognitive science, neuropsychology, developmental psychology, philosophy of mind, anthropology, and the myriad other fields that have joined together to investigate the phenomenon of consciousness. Because consciousness plays such a central role in the creation of human experience, and because the field of consciousness studies is growing more mature by the year, it only makes sense that we should learn what we can about the functioning of consciousness from the myriad disciplines that have deigned to place it under their scopes. It is time for religious studies to explore how consciousness functions and how it may play a role in the constitution of reality, in spiritual experience, in the generation of doctrine, and in ritual and meditative life. Originally published as a special double issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (Vol.7, No. 11/12, 2000), this collection has been widely adopted for class room use.

"A thoroughly gripping read . . . to review a book that presents such a range of perspectives on the psychology of spiritual experience is a tough job. I cannot possibly do justice to the complexity and sophistication of the positions on offer." Jo Nash, Human Nature Review

Table of Contents

  • Jensine Andresen and Robert K.C. Forman, "Methodological Pluralism in the Study of Religion: How the Study of Consciousness and Mapping Spiritual Experiences can Reshape Religious Methodology"
  • Jensine Andresen, "Meditation Meets Behavioural Medicine: The Story of Experimental Research on Meditation"
  • Arthur Deikman, "A Functional Approach to Mysticism"
  • Stanley Krippner, "The Epistemology and Technologies of Shamanic States of Consciousness"
  • Phillip H. Wiebe, "Critical Reflections on Christic Visions"
  • Ken Wilber, "Waves, Streams, States and Self: Further Considerations for an Integral Theory of Consciousness"
  • Christian de Quincey, "The Promise of Integralism: A Critical Appreciation of Ken Wilber's Integral Psychology"
  • James H. Austin, "Consciousness Evolves When Self Dissolves"
  • Brian L. Lancaster, "On the Relationship Between Cognitive Models and Spiritual Maps: Evidence from Hebrew Language Mysticism"
  • Andrew B. Newberg and Eugene G. d'Aquili, "The Neuropsychology of Religious and Spritual Experience"
  • Robert H. Sharf, "The Rhetoric of Experience and the Study of Religion"
  • · ISBN 0-907845-13-4 · Published in 2001 by Imprint Academic · Paperback · 287 pages · $29.90 ·

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