Religiosity and Soviet ‘modernisation’ in Central Asia: locating religious traditions and rituals in recollections of antireligious policies in Uzbekistan

The main argument of this article is that religious policies implemented during the Soviet era and adaptations of the public to them produced a new understanding of religiosity and religious life among the population in Uzbekistan. The Soviet administration promoted the rejection of religion as an official policy and utilised a vast range of opportunities to criticise religion and promote secular education. However, there were other policies the public remembers as initially shocking to indigenous society but eventually accepted as positive because they assisted in the process of modernisation. These policies are exemplified by the hujum (unveiling) campaign to institutionalise safeguards against under-age and forced marriage, introduce conventional education and promote the wider integration of non-religious Soviet men and women into public life. An analysis of the manner in which people have come to terms with their past and their recollections of antireligious campaigns helps us understand how life under the Soviet government not only resulted in changes in lifestyles but also redrew the ‘boundaries’ of ‘proper’/‘modernised’ religious life and of what are now considered to be the religious remnants of the past.     

Client perspectives and uses of psychotherapy

The present paper argues for the importance of studying user perspectives on ongoing psychotherapy. Four approaches to such studies are discussed. It is stressed that studies of user perspectives may allow us to develop a broader and more robust understanding of clients as the primary agents of their own change processes, and that if the studies focus on clients' everyday lives during the course of psychotherapy, they allow us a better understanding of how clients include their psychotherapy, give it a particular significance, fight over it, and transform it as a part of their changing everyday practice in other places than the session. the rationale and design of such a study is presented. It is a study of a small number of family therapies with the present author as a co-therapist. Some preliminary findings from this study are presented.     

Age Influences on Multi-Dimensional Set Switching

Using a task switching paradigm, we investigated age effects on switch costs as a function of the number of sets to be switched. In Experiment 1, younger and older subjects determined a color or shape of an object presented on the computer screen, responding either by moving the joystick or by pressing a button on the joystick. The switch costs were assessed with differences between switch trials (task-set switch, response-set switch, and double switch) and non-switch trials. Contrary to the prediction that age would negatively influence performance on the double switch trials, age effects on switch costs were observed only for the single switch trials (i.e., response-set switch condition). Additionally, both younger and older adults were capable of preparing for task and response-set switches in parallel. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the time available to prepare for a task and response-set switch. Both younger and older adults were able to utilize extra time to reduce switch costs. Furthermore, the age deficit found in Experiment 1 for response-set switching was eliminated in the second experiment in which preparation for task and response-set switching was temporally decoupled. The data are discussed in terms of task component coordination across the adult lifespan.     

The physics of evolution: From chaos to evolution and deep ecology

This paper summarizes the various physical science elements of the evolutionary story. The “nonlinear” revolution includes chaos, self‐organization theory, the thermodynamics of evolution, and biological evolution. The key result of the revolution is a physical understanding of how order emerges and change is driven. This paper brings the lessons of each branch of the revolution together into a single easily understood thread. The unexpected result of this revolution is an understanding of evolution as a single inexorable physical process that has given rise to everything from molecules to humankind. Here evolution is driven by energy flow and involves increasing efficiency, the growth of complexity, and the acceleration of change. This paper ties the resulting physical insights to an evolving ecological world view, looks at its ties to spirituality and applies the rules that govern the growth of complexity to business and its current crisis. The net result of the nonlinear revolution is a radical change in our everyday understanding of how the world works, a shift away from classical science's machine world to the vision of an evolving deeply ecologically intertwined world.     

Consciousness,Vorticity, and Dipoles

As spin is a fundamental feature of the universe, preliminary evidence suggests that its study could help in understanding consciousness. Research detailed in this article further develops the author's work in Keen (2005) Keen, J. 2005. Consciousness, intent, and the structure of the universe, Canada: Trafford. Available at http://www.trafford.com/robots/04-2320.html [Google Scholar]. The findings demonstrate that rotating objects generate fields that are also associated with mind-generated fields. Numerous quantitative properties of these fields generated by rotation are shown to be very different to fields associated with static objects. Dipole antenna radiation patterns are also discovered. The conclusions suggest that vorticity is not only involved in consciousness, but also has wider implications in understanding our universe, and therefore the subject warrants further research.     

QUANTUM ASPECTS OF LIFE: RELATING EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY WITH THEOLOGY VIA MODERN PHYSICS

Abstract In the present paper, I shall argue that quantum theory can contribute to reconciling evolutionary biology with the creation hypothesis. After giving a careful definition of the theological problem, I will, in a first step, formulate necessary conditions for the compatibility of evolutionary theory and the creation hypothesis. In a second step, I will show how quantum theory can contribute to fulfilling these conditions. More precisely, I claim that (1) quantum probabilities are best understood in terms of ontological indeterminism, but (2) reflect nevertheless causal openness rather than divine indifference or arbitrariness, and (3) such a genuinely creative universe can be considered as the work of a loving Creator. I ask subsequently whether these necessary conditions are also sufficient for the compatibility of evolutionary theory and the creation hypothesis. Finally, I will show that relating evolutionary biology with theology via quantum theory could also shed some light on the nature of life.     

Divine Activity and Motive Power in Descartes's Physics

This paper is the second of a two-part reexamination of causation in Descartes's physics. Some prominent contemporary scholars, including Gary Hatfield and Daniel Garber, have argued that Descartes is an Occasionalist about natural motion. On their reading, Descartes holds that God alone causes the motions that are not caused by the free actions of finite minds. Hatfield and Garber offer similar, but independent arguments that Descartes's views about physics – in particular, his arguments that the laws of nature are grounded in God's immutability – entail Occasionalism about natural motion. In this paper I argue contra Hatfield and Garber that Descartes's natural philosophy does not entail Occasionalism. Descartes holds that God is a direct efficient cause of every natural motion. Yet he does not take this to imply that bodies lack genuine causal powers. According to Descartes, God concurs with bodies to cause natural motion in such a way that both God and bodies are genuine, efficient causes of motion. I conclude by presenting an account of how Descartes's theory of body is compatible with the thesis that bodies have intrinsic active causal powers.     

感恩对青少年学业成就的影响：有调节的中介效应

本研究提出一个有调节的中介模型,揭示了感恩“怎样”影响学业成就及这种影响“何时”更强或更弱。采用感恩问卷、日常性学业复原力问卷、压力性生活事件量表和学业成就问卷对1361名青少年进行调查。结果显示:(1)日常性学业复原力对感恩与学业成就的关系具有部分中介效应,感恩既对学业成就产生直接影响,也通过日常性学业复原力对学业成就产生间接影响;(2)压力性生活事件对日常性学业复原力的中介作用具有调节效应,压力性生活事件调节了中介过程的后半路径,具体而言,日常性学业复原力对学业成就的影响,随压力性生活事件的增加而降低。因此,感恩对青少年学业成就的影响是有调节的中介效应。研究结论对提高青少年的学业成就具有重要的理论价值和参考价值。     

Intuitive understanding of the relation between velocities and masses in simulated collisions

The participants in our experiments were asked to judge whether simulated horizontal collisions appeared to be “natural” or “unnatural”. We manipulated the implied masses and the velocity ratio of two colliding objects. Implied masses were varied through manipulations of the objects' simulated materials (Experiment 1) and sizes (Experiments 2 and 3). For each participant, we determined the interval of velocity ratios that produced “natural” responses most of the time and evaluated how this interval varied as a function of implied masses. The results revealed a fair degree of consistency between predictions of Newtonian mechanics and the participants' responses; this consistency was greater when the implied masses of the colliding objects were varied through manipulations of the simulated materials. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that the cognitive system can integrate multiple sources of stimulus information, enabling individuals to understand multidimensional mechanical events.     

The transferential chimera II: some theoretical considerations

The author develops here a theoretical model to account for the different levels of organization and functioning of the transference chimera of which he gave a clinical presentation in an earlier article. From his reading of Jung's 'Psychology of the transference' he derives a dynamic model of the chimera and links it to quantum mechanics and chaos theory not so much to describe the reality of the phenomenon, but to offer a model of representation as a conceptual and meditative tool for analysts to use in their practice. The main hypothesis of this work is that the chimera arises from the intimate interplay of the respective de-integrates of the analyst and of the patient, thus constituting a genuine self in the transference. The author concludes with some implications for the analyst's own internal position.