A bizarre true story of spiritual revelation and psychedelic horror associated with the specter of Hitler and the madness of a world on the brink of a global holocaust. This strangely foreboding testament to the inherent danger and the transcendental propensity of the psychedelic experience contains a detailed exposition of the (RNA shutter mechanism) interface between the organic matrix of the brain and the spiritual matrix of the human soul. The author's treatment of that receptor matrix "interface" includes the correlation between Jungian psychology and the correlative derivative of the Hindu Sutras that obviously provided Jung with the inspiration for the development of his principles of psychic functioning. The author's treatment of the internal dynamics and historical continuity of the psychedelic experience also includes a very important reference in the Christian Bible and is interlaced in a 30 year autobiography that includes a very long and very intense nightmare about the reincarnation of Hitler.

Mythology, Madness and Laughter: Subjectivity in German Idealism explores some long neglected but crucial themes in German idealism. Markus Gabriel, one of the most exciting young voices in contemporary philosophy, and Slavoj Žižek, the celebrated contemporary philosopher and cultural critic, show how these themes impact on the problematic relations between being and appearance, reflection and the absolute, insight and ideology, contingency and necessity, subjectivity, truth, habit and freedom. Engaging with three central figures of the German idealist movement, Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte, Gabriel, and Žižek, who here shows himself to be one of the most erudite and important scholars of German idealism, ask how is it possible for Being to appear in reflection without falling back into traditional metaphysics. By applying idealistic theories of reflection and concrete subjectivity, including the problem of madness and everydayness in Hegel, this hugely important book aims to reinvigorate a philosophy of finitude and contingency, topics at the forefront of contemporary European philosophy. MARKUS GABRIEL is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, NY. He has published a number of books and journal articles in German, including Der Mensch im Mythos (De Gruyter, 2006), and Das Absolute und die Welt in Schellings Freiheitsschrift (Bonn University Press, 2006).

Philosophy and psychiatry share many topics and problems. For example, the "solutions" of the psychiatry of the philosophical body-soul problem have direct effects on the self-image of the discipline. Despite these obvious overlappings, and unlike the English-speaking countries, interdisciplinary research on "philosophical psychopathology" has been scarce in Germany. The current anthology closes these gaps, because the authors - renowned experts as well as young scientists, whose new approaches open promising perspectives - come from both disciplines. The individual contributions deal with philosophical debates as they arise within the context of psychiatric theory and practice.

Michel Foucault continues to be regarded as one of the most essential thinkers of the twentieth century. A brilliantly evocative writer and conceptual creator, his influence is clearly discernible today across nearly every discipline-philosophy and history, certainly, as well as literary and critical theory, religious and social studies, and the arts. This volume exploits Foucault's insistent blurring of the self-imposed limits formed by the disciplines, with each author in this volume discovering in Foucault's work a model useful for challenging not only these divisions but developing a more fundamental interrogation of modernism. Foucault himself saw the calling into question of modernism to be the permanent task of his life's work, thereby opening a path for rethinking the social. Understanding Foucault, Understanding Modernism shows, on the one hand, that literature and the arts play a fundamental structural role in Foucault's works, while, on the other hand, it shifts to the foreground what it presumes to be motivating Foucault: the interrogation of the problem of modernism. To that end, even his most explicitly historical or strictly epistemological and methodological enquiries directly engage the problem of modernism through the works of writers and artists from de Sade, Mallarmé, Baudelaire to Artaud, Manet, Borges, Roussel, and Bataille. This volume, therefore, adopts a transdisciplinary approach, as a way to establish connections between Foucault's thought and the aesthetic problems that emerge out of those specific literary and artistic works, methods, and styles designated “modern.” The aim of this volume is to provide a resource for students and scholars not only in the fields of literature and philosophy, but as well those interested in the intersections of art and intellectual history, religious studies, and critical theory.

Drawing on a career-long exploration of 1960s French philosophy, Leonard Lawlor seeks a solution to 'the problem of the worst violence'. The worst violence is the reaction of total apocalypse without remainder; it is the reaction of complete negation and death; it is nihilism. Lawlor argues that it is not just transcendental violence that must be minimised: all violence must itself be reduced to its lowest level. He offers new ways of speaking to best achieve the least violence, which he creatively appropriates from Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze and Guattari as 'speaking-freely', 'speaking-distantly' and 'speaking-in-tongues'.

From mindfulness in schools to meditation apps, mental health is bursting out of the psychiatrist's chair and into our everyday conversations. As awareness of mental health increases, so does its predominance in popular culture, which makes for a particularly interesting investigation into the representation of these concerns on our most ubiquitous streaming service: Netflix. These eight essays explore how the service's original content jumps into those conversations, creating helpful--or harmful--messaging about the inner workings of our minds. From toxic masculinity to PTSD, adolescence to motherhood, mental health touches our lives in myriad ways. This interdisciplinary collection explores these intersections, examining how representations of mental health on our screens shape our understanding of it in our lives.

Australian theologian Scott Cowdell explores how having faith has changed under the influence of modernity and post-modernity in the West. He returns faith from pious sentimentality and arid philosophy of religion to the realm of participating knowing, paradigmatic imagination, and personal transformation where it belongs as a form of life, shaped by encounter with Jesus Christ and worked out through the Eucharistic community. This is shown to have been the typical understanding of faith from Saint Paul to the Fathers to the medieval monastic theologians. Since the rise of nominalism, however, modern individuals reflecting a God newly remote from the world have struggled to maintain this participatory vision of faith as a formative habitat. Mysticism is as close as modernity got, while officially faith was annexed by modern Western culture, coming to share its anxious need for certainty and control--systemic, exclusive, and violent-tending. Scott Cowdell has written a wide-ranging book, bringing together several normally separate debates while tackling the problem from a distinctive perspective. He explores faith against the backdrop of secularization, the collapse of community, and the encroachment of an intentionally destabilizing consumer culture. He expounds the nature of desire in terms of imitation and rivalry, and the violent false-sacred roots of cultural formation evident in the modern West's many victims, all according to the uniquely comprehensive vision of RenŽ Girard. Finally, he dismisses today's growing mood of militant religious skepticism as philosophically outdated and out of its depth before the resilient confidence of a genuine living faith. What Cowdell calls abiding faith emerges as a venerable yet strikingly contemporary possibility. This is good news for today's homeless hearts--there is the gift of a secure identity and a mature spirituality on offer, within a liberating, inclusive, world-affirming, ecclesial form of life.

‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – says Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Certain forms of alteration of consciousness, considered to be inspired by supernatural forces, were actively sought in ancient Greece. Divine mania comprises a fascinating array of diverse experiences: numerous initiates underwent some kind of alteration of consciousness during mystery rites; sacred officials and inquirers attained revelations in major oracular centres; possession states were actively sought; finally, some thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Socrates, probably practiced manipulation of consciousness. These experiences, which could be voluntary or involuntary, intense or mild, were interpreted as an invasive divine power within one’s mind, or illumination granted by a super-human being. Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. From the perspective of individual and public freedom, the prominent position of the divine mania in Greek society reflects its acceptance of the inborn human proclivity to experience alteration of consciousness, interpreted in positive terms as god-sent. These mental states were treated with cautious respect, and in contrast to the majority of complex societies, ancient and modern, were never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery.

Even an atheist has a spirituality. Spirituality can be considered as human, rather than narrowly religious. Many today call themselves ‘spiritual but not religious’. It is impossible to define, and so various limited models are suggested by researchers. This book explores these issues and proposes a new model based upon the oeuvre of the Bulgarian/French semiologist, philosopher and psychoanalyst, Julia Kristeva. Kristeva is an atheist with a respect for religion, its valuing of the non-discursive, and its role in therapy. Her work is supplemented and contrasted by her peers, Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. The author proposes a model, based on Kristeva’s work, where themes of Language, Love, Alterity and Transcendence interact to form what we call ‘spirituality’, rather than simply being unconnected aspects of it. Suggestions are given of how this resulting model can be applied to Secondary Education (Religious Education in particular), and also approaches to Healthcare Education.

Considers what is known of acclaimed early Sufi master Ab? Bakr al-Shibl? and how he was characterized in various times and places. Early Sufi master Ab? Bakr al-Shibl? (d. 946) is both famous and unknown. One of the pioneers of Islamic mysticism, he left no writings, but his legacy was passed down orally, and he has been acclaimed from his own time to the present. Accounts of Shibl? present a fascinating figure: an eccentric with a showy red beard, a lover of poetry and wit, an ascetic who embraced altered states of consciousness, and, for a time, a disturbed man confined to an insane asylum. Kenneth Avery offers a contemporary interpretation of Shibl?’s thought and his importance in the history of Sufism. This book surveys the major sources for Shibl?’s life and work from both Arabic and Persian traditions, detailing the main facets of his biography and teachings and documenting the evolving figure of a Sufi saint. Shibl?’s relationships with his more famous colleague Junayd and his infamous colleague ?all?j are discussed, along with his Qur’?nic spirituality, his poetry, and the question of his periodic insanity. “A very fine contribution to the history of Sufism.” — John Renard, editor of Fighting Words: Religion, Violence, and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts