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Chiesa, A. and P. Malinowski (2011). "Mindfulness-based approaches: are they all the same?" J Clin Psychol 67(4): 404-424.
Mindfulness-based approaches are increasingly employed as interventions for treating a variety of psychological, psychiatric and physical problems. Such approaches include ancient Buddhist mindfulness meditations such as Vipassana and Zen meditations, modern group-based standardized meditations, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, and further psychological interventions, such as dialectical behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy. We review commonalities and differences of these interventions regarding philosophical background, main techniques, aims, outcomes, neurobiology and psychological mechanisms. In sum, the currently applied mindfulness-based interventions show large differences in the way mindfulness is conceptualized and practiced. The decision to consider such practices as unitary or as distinct phenomena will probably influence the direction of future research.
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Esmail, A. (2007). "Towards a psycho-anthropological view of religious violence." Int Rev Psychiatry 19(3): 243-251.
"Understanding the phenomenon of religious violence requires a theoretical approach to the task. Ideally, the theoretical framework must integrate (1) the insights of neurobiology and ethnology elucidating the roots of aggression in the organism and its manifestations in animal behaviour, (2) the expression of these in human violence, which requires careful attention to linguistic and other expressions in culture, (3) the special role of religious representations in this connection, and (4) the mechanisms, in time and place, whereby the role of religion in the maintenance of cultural order is reversed, and becomes an ally of violence. Psychological theories, like the psychoanalytic school, have a contribution to make to this end. But they also exhibit limitations. The most compelling anthropological theory to date is Rene Girard's, which focuses on mimetic desire, violence, its resolution through scapegoating and subsequent enactment in ritual. The sacred is seen to lie at the origins of cultural order. But it also harbours a potential for a resurgence of the violence it conceals. Other researchers have shown how certain features of modernity unwittingly fuel violence through the promulgation of stereotypical, group identities. Contemporary Islamist violence (Jihadism) offers a case-study for these theoretical axioms. The example is not peculiar or sui generis. Rather it illustrates, more widely, the nature of the sacred and its relation to history. The Islamic tradition and modern Muslim history also provide a template for an analytic understanding of religious symbols, and their degradation into symbols of a typically modern demand for recognition of ego and group orientated identities. This psychosocial configuration necessarily escapes the attention of the actors, and because of the nominal persistence of old symbols, may also escape the attention of observers. To expose and explain these discrepancies is one of the central tasks of analysis in the proposed theoretical framework." Shahar Arzy, Moshe Idel, Theodor Landis, Olaf Blanke (2005). "Why revelations have occurred on mountains? Linking mystical experiences and cognitive neuroscience." Med Hypotheses 65(5): 841-845.
"The fundamental revelations to the founders of the three monotheistic religions, among many other revelation experiences, had occurred on a mountain. These three revelation experiences share many phenomenological components like feeling and hearing a presence, seeing a figure, seeing lights, and feeling of fear. In addition, similar experiences have been reported by non-mystic contemporary mountaineers. The similarities between these revelations on mountains and their appearance in contemporary mountaineers suggest that exposure to altitude might affect functional and neural mechanisms, thus facilitating the experience of a revelation. Different functions relying on brain areas such as the temporo-parietal junction and the prefrontal cortex have been suggested to be altered in altitude. Moreover, acute and chronic hypoxia significantly affect the temporo-parietal junction and the prefrontal cortex and both areas have also been linked to altered own body perceptions and mystical experiences. Prolonged stay at high altitudes, especially in social deprivation, may also lead to prefrontal lobe dysfunctions such as low resistance to stress and loss of inhibition. Based on these phenomenological, functional, and neural findings we suggest that exposure to altitudes might contribute to the induction of revelation experiences and might further our understanding of the mountain metaphor in religion. Mystical and religious experiences are important not only to the mystic himself, but also to many followers, as it was indeed with respect to the leaders of the three monotheistic religions. Yet, concerning its subjective character, mystical experiences are almost never accessible to the scholars interested in examining them. The tools of cognitive neuroscience make it possible to approach religious and mystical experiences not only by the semantical analysis of texts, but also by approaching similar experiences in healthy subjects during prolonged stays at high altitude and/or in cognitive paradigms. Cognitive neurosciences, in turn, might profit from the research of mysticism in their endeavor to further our understanding of mechanisms of corporeal awareness and self consciousness." |
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Special Packages Click Here Follow Kim on Social Media Kimberly Burnham, PhD NerveWhisperer@gmail.com (860) 221-8510 (PST) Kimberly Burnham, PhDWith a PhD in Integrative Medicine, Kimberly Burnham is an expert in brain health, working with people with Parkinson's, Macular degeneration, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington's ataxia, Diabetic Neuropathy, Autism and more.. She blogs regularly on SpokaneFavs, an Interfaith news site, Inner Child Press Magazine with a column entitled Community of Humanity and writes for the Reform Judaism site. 
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