MYSTICISM AND SAINT WORSHIP IN INDIA

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.

Hero worship

This month, as the surest route to public embarassment, I decided to write about scientific heroes. Today’s world is full of talk of mentoring. Graduate students are told to find supervisors who will intellectually nourish them, emotionally support them, and teach them networking and grantspersonship. As I tap away, I can almost hear Uncle Syd muttering that the world is going to the dogs. In h...

Celebrity worship, addiction and criminality

Two studies assessed the relationship between celebrity worship and (i) addiction (n 1359) and (ii) criminality (n 2158). Overall Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) scores correlated positively with Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQ-R) Addiction and Criminality sub-scale scores. In further support of the absorption addiction model of celebrity worship (McCutcheon, Lange, & Houran, 2002...

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