Freeing Mysticism

Freeing vision from frames

3 Volume 3, Issue 1, May 006 The notion of a ‘frame’ of video data has become so embedded in computer vision that it is taken for granted. This is natural, given that the only available input devices have always been frame-based—from drum scanners and videcon tubes to CCDs (chargecoupled devices) and CMOS (complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor) imagers. Also, frame-based imagers have undeniab...

Late Medieval Mysticism

both positive and negative; in the medieval world, however, it held a precise meaning, often also referred to as “contemplation” or “the contemplative life.” The mysticism of this period had some merits, but also some serious flaws in both theology and practice. In many respects, the mysticism of the medieval world derived from early Latin mysticism, which in turn evolved from an amalgamation o...

Drugs and Mysticism

The claim has been made that the experience facilitated by psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, can be similar or identical to the experience described by the mystics of all ages, cultures, and religions. This paper will attempt to examine and explain this possibility. There is a long and continuing history of the religious use of plants that contain psychedelic substances...

Mathematics and mysticism.

Is there a world of mathematics above and beyond ordinary reality, as Plato proposed? Or is mathematics a cultural construct? In this short article we speculate on the place of mathematical reality from the perspective of the mystical cosmologies of the ancient traditions of meditation, psychedelics, and divination.

David Ranson , Between the “ Mysticism of Politics ” and the “ Politics of Mysticism ” : Interpreting