saqqā-ḵāna artists looked to cults, rituals, and visual elements of folk and local vernacular culture for inspiration. although many of these items appeared crude in their execution and lacked the artistic polish of artifacts made by professional calligraphers and painters, and were often created collaboratively as a kind of street art, their true significance was not lost to these artists. vie...

This article details the reasons behind adolescents' attraction to cults. It is recommended that parents, teachers, and counselors familiarize themselves with the warning signs. Suggestions are offered on how to make adolescents less vulnerable to cult overtures. Adolescence is the transitional period between the dependence of childhood and the assumption of the rights and responsibilities of a...

Mystery cults were the religious cults within the Greco-Roman world that were secretive in nature but offered their followers the notion of life after death. Mystery cults that threatened Roman political life and the state religion faced suppression and persecution. The mystery cults of Bacchus and Isis were the cults that the Roman government attacked the most. The persecution happened for ent...

Artists value the ability to determine what parts of their composition is most appreciated by viewers. This information normally comes straight from viewers in the form of oral and written feedback; however, due to the lack of participation on the viewers part and because much of our visual understanding of artwork can be subconscious and difficult to express verbally, the value of this feedbac...

The aim of this paper is to summarize the limited literature on clinical vampirism, vampire cults and the involvement of adolescents in vampire-like behavior. The various definitions of clinical vampirism are outlined and the emergence of vampire cults from Gothic culture is examined. Further, the clinical features of cult behavior, the attraction to cults, the risk factors for cult involvement...

In 2008, Lesley University Professors Geoffrey Koetsch and Ellen Schön conducted an informal survey of New England artists to ascertain the degree to which recent work in neuroscience had impacted the visual arts. The two curators mounted an exhibition (MINDmatters May-June, 2008) at the Laconia Gallery in Boston in which they showcased the work of artists who had chosen mental processes as the...

Early in the Ptolemaic era, Egyptian cults, particularly those of Isis and Sarapis, spread successfully to ports across the ancient Aegean Sea. Leading researchers in the field claim that the spread of these cults was influenced by multiple factors, ones that were mainly economic or political in character. However, the question of which factors had more weight or impact than others in the proce...