Religions
June 12, 2026
Yue Wang
Lotus and dharma wheel motifs in the Dunhuang Mogao Caves are not merely decorative but function as active visual apparatuses that generate embodied religious experience through a mechanism called totemic mediation. Drawing on structuralist and phenomenological theories, the analysis of motifs in Caves 285, 329, and 361 shows that the lotus mediates ontologically along a spatial axis, building a vertical channel between the worldly and the divine, while the dharma wheel mediates teleologically across the temporal axis, neutralizing linear temporality through rotational dynamics. Together, these motifs constitute visual prajñā—a nonconceptual, embodied cognitive effect that enables direct apprehension of emptiness.
Religions
May 26, 2026
Andrew Skinner
People tend to form social bonds with large language models even when they know the systems lack consciousness. This happens because humans evolved to attribute inner states, moral status, and even 'soul' to nonhuman beings—a capacity that once operated within cultural belief systems that regulated such relationships. Modernity has stripped away those cultural frameworks, but the underlying cognitive architecture for perceiving agency in others remains. When conversational agents behave helpfully and patiently, users project authentic interiority onto them, similar to how ancestors interacted with spirits and animals in enchanted landscapes. The result is a 'Turing Animism' where users feel soul in a simulacrum.
Religions
May 18, 2026
Geoffrey Ready, Ron Cole‐turner
Orthodox Christianity offers distinctive resources for evaluating psychedelic spirituality that both challenge and enrich existing Western Christian approaches. The tradition's insistence that profound spiritual experience is a universal Christian vocation rather than reserved for an elite reframes discussions of mystical experience. Orthodoxy's recognition of diverse catalysts for spiritual awakening, its understanding of ascetical preparation as receptive, and its doctrine of divine energies provide frameworks for evaluating psychedelic experiences that sometimes resemble mystical experience by their orientation and fruits. The emphasis on ongoing formation within communities situates spiritual experience within broader transformation, and traditions of spiritual discernment offer criteria for evaluating authenticity. Engagement with psychedelic experiences can occur within established frameworks when guided by discernment, formation, and communal accountability.
Religions
May 14, 2026
Hollis Phelps
The term “entheogen” is often treated as a neutral label for certain psychoactive drugs, but this article argues it functions as a theological construct. Entheogenic claims about historical use, spiritual meaning, and transformative power are presented as descriptive when they are actually normative. The article examines how the term was created, how advocates portray entheogens as exceptional, how shamanism is used for legitimacy, and the eschatological hopes for social and religious renewal. Instead of judging these claims or proposing a new term, the article interrogates the theological interests and rhetorical strategies involved, suggesting a more reflexive and contextual approach is needed.
Religions
April 24, 2026
Youngsun Yang, Eunyoung Lee
Indian intellectual traditions developed a distinctive 'relational organ model' in which brain and heart function as complementary poles of a single vital-cognitive network connected by the nāḍī (neural-energetic channel) system, neither purely cardiocentric nor encephalocentrist but integrated within a hierarchical framework. This model evolved from the Atharvaveda through classical Āyurvedic texts to Haṭha Yoga literature, which located ultimate consciousness in the cranial Sahasrāra while preserving the heart as the integrative hub. The Sāṃkhya philosophical framework provided the metaphysical key by distinguishing non-material consciousness (puruṣa) from the material cognitive apparatus (antaḥkaraṇa). The article brings these historical findings into dialogue with modern neurocardiology and prāṇāyāma science.
Religions
April 2, 2026
Eduard López Hortelano
Angela of Foligno's Memoriale presents seeing and hearing not merely as devotional motifs but as epistemic operations that transform affect into theological cognition. Sensory language in the text mediates authority, discernment, and transformation. The article argues that Angela's itinerary progresses from imitating Christ to participating in the Trinity, culminating in a state described as being in medio Trinitatis. The Memoriale is thus a theology of perception where embodiment, affect, and cognition are inseparable, with suffering and compassion functioning as forms of knowledge.
Religions
April 2, 2026
Qiongke Geng
Daoist cultivation traditions incorporate psychoactive substances, derived from botanicals or artificial synthesis, within ritual consumption practices to induce mystical experiences and facilitate union with the Dao. These substances are part of the broader category of Daoist ingestive culture (fushi). Analysis of Daoist scriptures shows that the use of psychoactive substances goes beyond physiological stimulation, representing a distinctive integration of material practices with transcendental pursuits aimed at achieving perfection in both body and spirit.
Religions
April 1, 2026
Xiaoshuang Liu
In northern China, shamanic practices have developed an indigenous concept called 'virtual illness' to address mental distress arising from modern individuation. Prolonged mental distress is understood as leading to possession by external malevolent spirits, constituting a form of virtual illness. Healing involves attributing misfortune—including failure and mental illness—to the possessed spiritual identity, conducting spiritual healing on that identity, and encouraging individuals to maintain a positive, forward-looking state. This approach builds a psychological foundation for coping with mental illness and offers a unique response to the individualized self. These cultural healing practices adapt to the modern Chinese medical system and provide a targeted perspective for understanding mental illness in China's individuation process, prompting philosophical reflection on the concept of the self.
Religions
March 20, 2026
Youngsun Yang
Indian philosophy offers a distinctive spectrum of views on omniscience (sarvajñāna), ranging from a personal Creator-God to impersonal textual authority and perfected human achievement. The article argues that the question of who knows everything is ultimately not epistemological but ontological—it concerns the nature of consciousness itself. Across Vedic, Upaniṣadic, Nyāya-Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, Jain, Buddhist, Sāṃkhya, and Advaita traditions, omniscience shifts from cosmic personhood to Self-knowledge, logical necessity, authorless text, or human attainment. The final analysis shows that authentic liberation transcends encyclopedic omniscience, requiring a transformation from object-knowledge to non-objectifying awareness. The "All" cannot be an object of knowledge because it is the condition for any knowledge whatsoever.
Religions
March 20, 2026
Torbjørn Eftestøl, Jeremy Qvick
This article examines Rudolf Steiner's Christology within cosmic evolution, focusing on the Second Coming as a metaphysical event. It uses an immanent-synthetic methodology to present a sacramental, participatory epistemology. The first part describes Steiner's 'Mystery of Golgotha' as a cosmic turning point where macrocosmic death is reversed into a resurrection life stream. The second part explores Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon's development of these ideas into a 'knowledge drama of the Second Coming,' involving an individual 'essence-exchange' with the Christ impulse. The article discusses social-metaphysical implications through the 'Reversed Cultus,' where the indwelling Christ becomes humanity's 'Higher Self,' grounding a new community and 'school of love' to address technoscientific challenges. It argues for a renewed understanding of the Second Coming as a step in humanity's spiritual evolution.
Religions
March 5, 2026
Matthew Wickman
Scholars characterize religious and spiritual experiences as profound, meaningful, and enlightening, with Ann Taves labeling them "special" experiences and Paul Tillich describing them as matters of "ultimate concern." The text presents these perspectives from scholars who study such experiences, emphasizing their perceived depth and significance.
Religions
March 2, 2026
Cogen Bohanec
The concept of biophilia—the innate human affinity for nature—is expanded by adding a mystical dimension termed spiritual biophilia, drawn from the writings of modern Jain Ācārya Śrīmad Rājcandra. The paper argues that spiritual experiences can deepen ecological connections and promote ethical stewardship of the environment. By integrating insights from ecology, mysticism, and Jain philosophy, it advocates for a holistic nurturing of both the planet and the human spirit. Śrīmad’s works support the biophilia hypothesis and link it to mystical experiences from a Jain perspective, potentially encouraging interfaith dialogue and sustainable living. The study suggests that spiritual biophilia can enrich environmental education, policy, and personal commitment to preserving the natural world.
Religions
February 24, 2026
Youngsun Yang
Liminal states of consciousness such as lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are not merely odd psychological events but were deliberately cultivated in Indian religious and philosophical traditions as 'architectures of liminality' to investigate self, consciousness, and reality. A comparative analysis of Vedāntic, Yogic, Buddhist, and Jain systems reveals a spectrum of interpretations: from Buddhism's mind-only projection model in dream yoga to Jainism's subtle-material interaction model in karmic ontology, and from modern neuroscience's embodied cognition to classical Indian disembodied consciousness theories. Understanding these states requires integrating first-person reports with their soteriological, ritual, and metaphysical contexts, challenging reductionist approaches in consciousness studies.
Religions
February 15, 2026
Paul C. Knox
Neuroscientific findings have been claimed to challenge historic Christian teachings about human nature, particularly the existence of an immaterial soul or mind. In the late 20th century, eliminative materialism—the view that a mature neuroscience would eliminate folk-psychological concepts like beliefs and desires—prompted some Christian scholars to adopt non-reductive physicalism and theological monism, reinterpreting biblical teaching to align with neuroscience. This paper reviews neuroscientific, philosophical, and theological developments to assess the current state of theological anthropology. Contemporary neuroscience, including consciousness studies, has not fulfilled eliminative materialists' predictions, and methodological criticisms (e.g., reproducibility, participant selection) have emerged. This has revived interest in dualism, a traditional theological position, and highlighted the need to rebalance theological and neuroscientific perspectives in understanding the person.
Religions
February 15, 2026
Büşra Çakmaktaş
Ecosufism, grounded in the metaphysics of Ibn ʿArabī and Rūmī, offers a theocentric account of the human–nature relationship based on unity (waḥdat) and self-disclosure (tajallī). It rejects anthropocentrism by conceiving the cosmos as a living, conscious reality and framing human responsibility through vicegerency (khilāfah), trust (amānah), and the virtue of moderation (iʿtidāl). Without claiming historical identity, ecosufism converges with modern ecological approaches such as deep ecology, panpsychism, and environmental virtue ethics, and has potential to contribute to ecological problems at theoretical and practical levels.
Religions
February 13, 2026
Wenwei Long
Many Chinese youth who lack formal religious beliefs engage with digital non-traditional religious music, such as electronic adaptations of the Great Compassion Mantra chant on platforms like Bilibili. Based on 15 interviews and one year of digital ethnography, the research shows that music, technology, environment, and cultural context shape youth's affective states of tranquility, trance, and transcendence. The study identifies fluid, contingent associations between these mediators and emergent, ambient affective states. It reveals hybridized practices that blend alternative spiritual elements with secular experiences, highlighting context-specific ways Chinese youth navigate spirituality in a post-secular age.
Religions
February 12, 2026
Maciej Karasinski, Prasad Erancheri
Sacred groves in South Asia are dynamic spaces where non-human entities actively participate in spiritual and ecological processes, not merely passive backdrops for human rituals. Comparing a sacred grove in Kerala, India, and shamanic forests in Nagarkot, Nepal, the paper shows that monkeys in the Indian grove are perceived as emissaries of spiritual-natural forces that preserve the ecosystem, while trees and stones in Nepal act as spiritual guides or manifestations of nature's spirit. Combining ethnographic, botanical, and philological research, the work highlights indigenous ecological knowledge transmitted through ritual, spirit possession, trance, and visionary journeys.
Religions
February 6, 2026
Feifei Yan, Zhanguo Peng
The paper examines how the Yogācāra tradition systematically developed and philosophically finalized the practices of śamatha (tranquility) and vipaśyanā (insight). It focuses on two key texts: the Śrāvakabhūmi, which presents śamatha as a rigorous psychological system outlining a cognitive progression from worldly practices like impurities meditation to the nine stages of mental abiding, facilitating a metacognitive transition from distraction to absorption and the eradication of afflictions; and the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, which provides the ultimate philosophical synthesis by framing these practices within the Consciousness-Only (vijñaptimātratā) framework, finalizing the meaning of training in higher mind. The analysis clarifies the evolution of Buddhist bhāvanā by bridging technical rigor with Mahāyāna ontological depth.
Religions
January 24, 2026
Zhiping Yu
In early Chinese religion, celestial deities, earthly spirits, and ghosts were devoutly worshipped. Oracle bone inscriptions record rituals for rain, temple worship, and river deities under terms like “fang.” The Supreme God was the paramount deity of the Shang Dynasty, merging with ancestral spirits by the early Zhou. The hexagram of Contemplation (guan gua) depicts shamans or ritual hosts performing temple sacrifices, emphasizing sincere human–Heaven communication. A monarch’s guan ritual embodies inner sincerity, prompting celestial trust, forming an interactive relationship. The hexagram’s structure highlights deities’ transcendence and humans’ reverence. Sages established religion for human life but not as leaders. From Shang through Spring and Autumn, Chinese spirituality shifted from shamanism to ritual propriety and from theistic to humanistic culture, shaping subsequent 2500 years. Confucius replaced shamanistic elements with moral experience.
Religions
January 10, 2026
Walter Scott Stepanenko
William James attempted to reconcile empiricism with religion by advocating finite theism and a pluralistic cosmos with overlapping minds of various scales, while warning against replacing functional psychology with entitative perspectives. Ralph Barton Perry criticized James for underestimating the body's role in cognition, arguing that embodied minds are cognitively superior to social or composite minds due to their integration. Perry saw embodied cognition's emergent character as grounds for a humanistic spirituality. This article compares James and Perry on theology, arguing that Perry's emphasis on embodiment in cognitive integration illuminates a tripartite distinction between impersonal, subpersonal, and personal theologies, which scholars seeking more embodied theological approaches should consider.
Religions
January 2, 2026
Santiago García Mourelo
In plural and global contexts, the Theology of Religions and Interreligious Dialogue foster mutual understanding and a culture of encounter. This article examines theological and spiritual foundations through Paul Tillich and Jacques-Albert Cuttat. It reconstructs Tillich's ontological and pneumatological framework, focusing on a mystical a priori as the structural condition of religious experience. It analyzes Cuttat's model of "assumptive convergence" between Eastern and Western religious hemispheres as an experiential unfolding of Tillich's intuition. The argument holds that Cuttat anticipates Tillich's theology of religions, showing Christian mystical experience can assume, discern, and transfigure other traditions without syncretism or relativism. Mysticism emerges as a principle for articulating truth, plurality, and ethical responsibility in interreligious dialogue.
Religions
December 22, 2025
Dana W. Sawyer
Similarities across religious traditions, particularly unitive mystical experiences, deserve scholarly attention despite decades of emphasis on differences. Aldous Huxley described such experiences as a thread running through traditions, not a core essence. Research studies with psychedelics like psilocybin regularly produce unitive experiences, offering contemporary experiential reports for mysticism scholars. Drawing on Huxley and researchers including Roland Griffiths, Jussi Jylkka, David Yaden, William Richards, and Julie Holland, the article speculates that psychedelic-induced unitive mystical experiences may benefit individuals and society.
Religions
December 4, 2025
Anderson Fabián Santos Meza
Mystical writings use natural metaphors—rivers, gardens, fire, wind—not as decorative language but as symbolic systems that articulate the ineffable through elemental earthly terms. This essay argues that such metaphors sustain a theology of embodiment, relationality, and transformation across epochs and artistic media, bringing together the poetry of John of the Cross, the diaries of Etty Hillesum, and the music and visual art of Björk. The work advocates for a decolonial hermeneutics that resists rigid doctrinal frameworks and colonial interpretations, recognizing mystical experience as still unfolding in the present through poetry, diary, and sound—where theology becomes a matter of vibration, beauty, and embodied openness.
Religions
November 26, 2025
John R. Snarey, Eunil David Cho, Shelby L. Hall
William James's two classic works, The Principles of Psychology (1890) and The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), are usually treated as separate, but this article argues that The Principles provides the psychological foundation for The Varieties. The authors identify ten conceptual connections between the texts, showing that James applied his principles on the brain, habit, stream of consciousness, subconscious, self, attention, association, and emotions to religious topics such as conversion experiences, mystical experiences, and saintliness. Some principles were also broadened through contact with religious data. Placing the texts in conversation yields a deeper understanding of James's psychology of religion.
Religions
November 10, 2025
Nathan E. Fisher, Elisabeth Irvine, Michael Z. Yonkovig et al.
Energy-like somatic sensations in the body are commonly reported across Abrahamic contemplative traditions, not only in Buddhist and Yogic contexts. In interviews with 30 practitioners and 30 teachers from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, 40% of practitioners and 43% of teachers reported such experiences. These sensations varied widely in intensity and emotional tone, interpreted either as expected signs of spiritual progress or as surprising events. Participants blended metaphors from multiple traditions and mixed spiritual with psychological explanations. Compared to earlier research on Western Buddhists, both commonalities and differences emerged. The findings suggest these experiences arise from a complex interplay of cultural frameworks, attention, and bodily processes.