Religion is fraught with stories and myths of otherworldly journeys. There are a variety of reasons; however, the two main ones one may notice are humans’ innate pattern recognition, and our necessity to define and understand the world in which we live. These otherworldly excursions, out-of-body-experiences OBEs, near-death-experiences NDEs, and altered-states-of-consciousness ASCs are side effects of trauma rather than real experiences. In this paper ASC will be the basic reference unless otherwise noted. Therefore, it is prudent to explore those examples of forced ASCs, the causes, and the impacts on the society. An ASC experience within a religion may serve an important purpose in the belief system, yet it is a personal experience of the mind and not a legitimate experience in the real world.
The world is not what it appears to humans, but there are things that may be recorded, repeated, and experienced by others. Though each person is different, it is believed that we all experience the world in the same way more or less. Touch, taste, sight, smell and sound are the ways we interpret our environment. However, from time to time people have experiences that occur beyond those five senses and defy explanation as anything other than an otherworldly. Those experiences became a large part of religion, yet the manner in which most occur begs the question – why?
There can be any number of reasons why people would have otherworldly journeys. However, the results have had similar outcomes which is the reason they are still important today. Each of the following otherworldly journeys was recorded, disseminated, believed, and ultimately had vast impacts on the cultures or religions in which they occurred. The problem though, is that those...
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... philosopher reviewed the history of brain, mind, soul, and body. What these things were and how they were perceived through the ages and now through science. His research indicates, that through certain stimuli on the brain any number of things may be experienced. Also, that in the cases of brain damage the mind suffers, which returns to the point of ASCs being real or not. No doubt people have had experiences, but science tells us those can only occur in the brain (perhaps beyond the rational portion), and that ASCs may occur from trauma. To that end, whatever a person experiences is their own, it cannot be rationalized beyond their own mind, for it is an experience of which only their mind may have. Otherworldly journeys are themselves a characteristic of the human mind, but more than that is that in many cases they are deliberately caused by some form of trauma.
Throughout all texts discussed, there is a pervasive and unmistakable sense of journey in its unmeasurable and intangible form. The journeys undertaken, are not physically transformative ones but are journeys which usher in an emotional and spiritual alteration. They are all life changing anomaly’s that alter the course and outlook each individual has on their life. Indeed, through the exploitation of knowledge in both a positive and negative context, the canvassed texts accommodate the notion that journeys bear the greatest magnitude when they change your life in some fashion.
Mankind has always fostered an unquenchable affinity with all things otherworldly and supernatural. We are equally terrified by it whilst simultaneously enthralled; dissuaded yet inspired. Many of histories literary masters and great composers derived profound inspiration from the ethereal.
The presence and function of pilgrimage in both the worlds New Age and Judeo-Christian religious landscape is incredibly important as it often provides individuals with an opportunity to exemplify and extended their spiritual beliefs and understandings and gives them a chance to create a meaningful, life changing and life affirming spiritual experience. New Age Pilgrimage in particular creates a chance for New Age adherents to explore the choices they made through encountering deep spiritual journeys and experiencing sacred energies through a range of different experiences. We will discuss the appeal of New Age pilgrimage with reference to two sites in particular, the vortex experience in Sedona, Arizona in the United States and the Ayahuasca rituals and journeys that occur all over the Amazon Rainforest in South America. These sites are worthy of looking at because they market two completely different spiritual experiences, but upon closer inspection seem to be important and appealing to the New Age community for similar reasons. The sites are similar because pilgrimages to these areas do not pertain to one strict site or one dogma of spiritual understanding; in fact they do the opposite by providing a large landscape in which individuals can create their own pilgrimage experience. Indeed it seems that the two most enticing factors about both these sites is the fact that they both feed and satisfy every individual’s desires and provide individuals with a chance to make sense of and answer the larger questions about life and the world that people struggle to answer. However both these sites also offer something that is unique to their pilgrimage alone, in Sedona that being the accessibility and ease of choice pertaining to practis...
In the first two chapter of the book, Freud explores a possible source of religious feeling. He describes an “oceanic feeling of wholeness, limitlessness, and eternity.” Freud himself is unable to experience such a feeling, but notes that there do indeed...
A History of Dissociative Identity Disorder. (n.d.). Specialized catholic web about possession and exorcism. Retrieved December 1, 2011, from http://www.fortea.us/english/psiquiatria/history.htm
Roszell, Calvert. The near-death experience: in the light of scientific research and the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1992. Print.
Historically journeys were seen as the physical movement of a group of people migrating from one place to another. Additionally, journeys were usually only found throughout the history of civilization and religion. Despite this, journeys come in all aspects and are found in a variety of mediums. Specifically, two journeys that are found in the literary works of The Epic of Gilgamesh and Monkey: A Journey to the West are physical and intellectual. These two stories exemplify what a journey consists of by construction the plots around each protagonist participating in both journeys.
Smith, Andrew. "Chapter Nine: Life After Death." 2014. A Secular View of God. 12 May 2014 .
One of H.P. Lovecraft’s many short stories, “The Outsider” has been praised since its publication as his most profound and meaningful. This story has been interpreted many different ways, varying from an autobiography of Lovecraft himself to several different philosophical analyses. One such interpretation, by Dirk Mosig compares the plot and settings of “The Outsider” to Lovecraft’s own doubtful views of religion and an afterlife. Mosig supports his interpretation with many facts from the story, I believe he pinpoints one very possible meaning of the story. His argument successfully uses the plot and details to convince the reader that his hypothesis is correct.
You identified several nursing diagnosis for the patient in question, I’d like to add that each of these diagnosis will require interventions with short and long term goals. For example, as you mentioned “The altered mental status would also impact this patient’s perception of danger and his own related to his hip fracture". Altered mental status is a common chief complaint among older patients, with this patient the altered mental condition is most likely age related. A short term goal example for this patient could be as follows: after two hours of nursing intervention, the patient will be calm and report improvement with his ability to cope with is confused state. Along term goal example could be that within 12 hours
After decades of tests, documentation, and research, some scientists believe that consciousness can prevail even after the body has died. A near-death experience (NDE) is an unusual experience that takes place on the brink of death (Greyson, 2000) and usually involves an out-of-body experience or a vision of a tunnel of light. Although it can be difficult to prove that a near-death experience has occurred, there are tests that provide undeniable evidence that an NDE has taken place. An unbelievable 3% of the world’s population has had an NDE (Choi, 2011). That is an incredibly high percentage when considering that 7 billion people inhabit the Earth. A lot of those people have recounted their experiences and provided absolute proof that their experience took place. These reports have only strengthened the argument that NDEs actually happen and supports the most significant question about NDE research: Can consciousness survive bodily death? Science has proven most phenomena that occurs in everyday life, and has also, for centuries, concluded that nothing occurs after one dies, when in fact, consciousness can prevail, even after the body has experienced conventional death. This can be proven by research conducted to determine what a near-death-experience is, documentation on these experiences by their experiencers, and tests to verify that these experiences have actually taken place.
Whether these worlds are the realms of the afterlife is unknown, but what is clear is that sometimes…
...n out of body experience by enduring pain until their mental state alters. And there
In the dawn of the modern age, the western European society that had once revered mysticism and allowed it to shape and recreate Christianity began to see mystics as a hostile force against reason and science. While many ideas held by the medieval mystics echo still in many protestant and even some Catholic churches, much of society has dismissed the revelations and visions seen by these mystics as nonsensical and a likely result of several psychological disorders. Those who experience the abstract, fantastic visions and spiritual phenomenon in today’s world are subject to much more scrutiny than those of medieval Europe, as the general individualistic populace cannot quite comprehend the idea of the experiential union between God and man that
The world is a magnificent place that’s full of life and new places. Places that are waiting to be walked upon and viewed by the eye’s of travelers. To make new memories and go places that is beyond the walls of reality and new pathways of life. To truly experience the wonders that the world has to offer can be expressed by the life of one single person, setting off into the world to gain a higher purpose about the world. Traveling individually enables people to broaden their minds and accumulate new ideas and new experiences both nationally and internationally. By setting off into the world a person has the ability to learn so many new things, but also find so much about themselves while in the process of traveling.