Hyperdimensional Perspectives in Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences

Recent theories of modern physics predict that the universe has more dimensions than are apparent to us. Many near-death experiencers report the perception that there are more dimensions than we are commonly aware of. These two statements might be related. This article examines the possibility of additional dimensions (hyperdimensions), what they would seem like, and whether they seem to be described by the unusual visual perspectives found in out-of-body and near-death experience accounts. I examine some implications of a hyperdimensional model of the universe.     

At the Edge of Eternity's Shadows: Scaling the Fractal Continuum from Lower into Higher Space

In this paper, I elaborate the hyperspatial implications of the fractal-scaling scheme that I introduced previously. Four case examples where out-of-body experiencers reported heightened and amplified visual capacities are correlated with this explanatory model. Three of these cases are identified as including an additional hyperspace signifier, the reported capacity to see through solid and opaque physical obstructions. One of these cases included yet another hyperspace signifier, the reported capacity to pass through such obstructions. Additional evidence supportive of this thesis is drawn from the literature on ecstatic experience, including out-of-body, near-death, and other varieties of mystical or visionary experience, and from that on psychedelic experience. Yet other hyperspace signifiers reported by ecstatic voyagers are also considered, including sensations of seeing outward spherically in 360 degrees and of seeing on all sides of three-dimensional solids simultaneously.     

宗教伦理学与当代社会--兼答万俊人教授《普世伦理如何可能》

这是一篇回应性的文章。作者在简要介绍了文章的由来以后,首先借用万俊人教授《现代西方伦理学史》一书中的材料阐述了西方宗教伦理思潮与西方社会的关系;然后指出在中国学界展开宗教伦理学研究的必要性,并论述了作者对建构中国宗教伦理学的一些想法;在文章的最后一部分,作者对万俊人教授《普世伦理如何可能》中的三个问题作出了回应：第一,关于“强伦理模式”;第二,有关世界宗教信仰现状的问题;第三,关于普世伦理以什么为基础的问题。     

DNA世纪之回顾——浅析科学发现的要素

DNA作为生物遗传物质,它的发现是一个伟大的历史事件,具有所有科学发现的共性,回顾一个世纪的DNA发现的科学史,可以升华出许多的哲学观点和理论。经验和推理是科学赖以建立的两根支柱,一定历史条件下学科的交叉与渗透对科学发现有重大意义。分析科学的继承与DNA双螺旋结构的提出、DNA双螺旋发现中科学家的创造性思维及思维方式的选择等几个方面,旨在总结科学发展的经验,从而更加理性、主动地发展科学。     

Journal Reviews

Covington, Coline. 'Learning how to forget – repeating the past as a defence against the present'.
Grotstein, James. 'Bion, the Pariah of O'.
Hinshelwood, R. D. 'The elusive concept of "internal objects" (1934–1943): its role in the formation of the Klein Group'.
Lippmann, Paul. 'On dreams and interpersonal psychoanalysis'.
Renik, Owen. 'Conscious and unconscious use of the self'.
Schaverien, Joy. 'Men who leave too soon: reflections on the erotic transference and countertransference'.
Williams, Gianna, 'Reflections on some dynamics of eating disorders: "no entry" defences and foreign bodies'.
Slavin, Malcolm & Kriegman, D. 'Why the analyst needs to change: towards a theory of conflict, negotiation, and mutual influence in the therapeutic process'.     

Who are maximizers? Future oriented and highly numerate individuals

Two studies investigated cognitive mechanisms that may be associated with people's tendency to maximize. Maximizers are individuals who are spending a great amount of effort in order to find the very best option in a decision situation, rather than stopping the decision process when they encounter a satisfying option. These studies show that maximizers are more future oriented than other people, which may motivate them to invest the extra energy into optimal choices. Maximizers also have higher numerical skills, possibly facilitating the cognitive processes involved with decision trade‐offs.     

Should One Be A Left or A Right Sellarsian? (And is There Really Such A Choice?)

The followers of Wilfrid Sellars are often divided into “right” and “left” Sellarsians, according to whether they believe, in Mark Lance's words, that “linguistic roles constitutive of meaning and captured by dot quoted words are ‘normative all the way down.’” The present article anatomizes this division and argues that it is not easy to give it a nontrivial sense. In particular, the article argues that it is not really possible to construe it as a controversy related to ontology, and goes on to argue that it is also not easy to construe it as one concerning the translatability of the normative idiom into the non‐normative one. The conclusion is that the only coherent interpretation of this disagreement is as a disagreement about the possibility and desirability of assuming a standpoint “inside” our linguistic practices.     

SHINTO RESEARCH AND THE HUMANITIES IN JAPAN

Three approaches to scholarship are “scholarship as a way,” which aims at perfection of character; “scholarship as a method,” which clearly limits objects and methods in order to achieve precise perception and new knowledge; and “scholarship as an expression,” which takes various approaches to questions and inquiry. The “humanities” participate deeply and broadly in all three of these approaches. In relation to this view of the humanities, Japanese Shinto is a field of study that yields rich results. As a religion of awe, shrine groves, community, arts, and entertainment, it offers a research field that joins together the study of human beings, nature, society, and expression. Though we elucidate the characteristics of Shinto and its differences with Buddhism, we also draw attention to the seven dimensions of “place, way, beauty, festival, technique, poetry, and ecological wisdom,” and then finally take up “research on techniques of body and mind transformation” as a comprehensive and creative development in the “humanities.”