Australian Journal of Parapsychology, Volume 13 Issue 1 (Jun 2013)
Wasney de Almeida Ferreira
The aims of this paper are to narrate and analyze some psychological phenomena that I have perceived in dead people, including evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in murdered people. The methodology adopted was “projection of consciousness” (i.e., a non-ordinary state of consciousness), which allowed me to observe, interact, and interview dead people directly as a social psychologist. This investigation was based on Cartesian skepticism, which allowed me a more critical analysis of my experiences during projection of consciousness. There is strong evidence that a dead person: (i) continues living, thinking, behaving after death as if he/she still has his/her body because consciousness continues in an embodied state as ‘postmortem embodied experiences’; (ii) may not realize for a considerable time that he/she is already dead since consciousness continues to be embodied after death (i.e., ‘postmortem perturbation’ – the duration of this perturbation can vary from person to person, in principle according to the type of death, and the level of conformation), and (iii) does not like to talk, remember, and/or explain things related to his/her own death because there is evidence that many events related to death are repressed in his/her unconscious (‘postmortem cognitive repression’). In addition, there is evidence that dying can be very traumatic to consciousness, especially to the murdered, and PTSD may even develop.
Obsession and dis-obsession from a Spiritist perspective
The degree of influence on a human being by a discarnate spirit entity can determine the label that is used to describe the phenomenon. For example, the Catholic religion uses the terms possession and exorcism, clinical spirit release practitioners use the terms spirit attachment and release, and Spiritists us the term obsession and dis-obsession. Here is a video that describes the Spiritist concept of obsession.
ACISTE 2013 2nd Annual Conference
Therapeutic Issues of Spiritually Transformative Experiences
Conference: October 3rd – to Oct 5th, 2013
Certification Workshop: October 6th
About the Conference
ACISTE provides education and certificate training for mental health professionals, pastoral counselors, spiritual counselors and other professionals who wish to increase their competency and develop their expertise in working with clients who may have psychological, spiritual or mental health challenges related to their spiritually transformative experiences (STEs). STEs may include, but are not limited to, near-death or similar experiences, spiritual emergencies,out-of-body, kundalini, after-death communications and anomalous, paranormal or exceptional human experiences, etc. The conference brings together top researchers, experiencers and practicing professionals to present their expertise and insight into in this growing field of specialization and awareness.
Audience:
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Psychotherapists
- Clinical Social Workers
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Professional Counselors
- Addiction Counselors
- Pastoral Counselors
- Spiritual Directors
- Spiritual Life Coaches
- Psychiatric Nurses
- Psychological Assistants
For a complete conference schedule, click here.
4th British Congress on Medicine and Spirituality
Daimonic Imagination: Uncanny Intelligence
My contribution is Chapter Eight.
Editor: Angela Voss and William Rowlandson
Date Of Publication: Jun 2013
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-4726-1
Isbn: 1-4438-4726-7
From the artistic genius to the tarot reader, a sense of communication with another order of reality is commonly affirmed; this ‘other’ may be termed god, angel, spirit, muse, daimon or alien, or it may be seen as an aspect of the human imagination or the ‘unconscious’ in a psychological sense. This volume of essays celebrates the daimonic presence in a diversity of manifestations, presenting new insights into inspired creativity and human beings’ relationship with mysterious and numinous dimensions of reality. In art and literature, many visual and poetic forms have been given to the daimonic intelligence, and in the realm of new age practices, encounters with spirit beings are facilitated through an increasing variety of methods including shamanism, hypnotherapy, mediumship and psychedelics. The contributors to this book are not concerned with ‘proving’ or ‘disproving’ the existence of such beings. Rather, they paint a broad canvas with many colours, evoking the daimon through the perspectives of history, literature, encounter and performance, and showing how it informs, and has always informed, human experience.
William Rowlandson is Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Kent, and former co-director, with Angela Voss, of the Centre for the Study of Myth at the University of Kent. He has recently completed a book entitled Borges, Swedenborg and Mysticism, which examines the relationship between Borges’ own recorded mystical experiences and his appraisal of Swedenborg and other mystics. William’s work on Cuban poet and novelist José Lezama Lima concentrated on Lezama’s equation of poetry and the numinous. His published articles concern various areas of Latin American studies, including the history of Guantánamo Bay and Gitmo detention centre, rendition, torture, Cuba during the War on Terror. He has also published analyses of Borges, Lezama Lima, Cabrera Infante and Rulfo.
Angela Voss was a Lecturer for ten years in the Theology and Religious Studies section at the University of Kent, teaching on the MA in Mysticism and Religious Experience, and directing an MA programme in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination. From January 2014, she will be teaching on a new MA at Canterbury Christ Church University: Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred. Angela is an honorary Lecturer for the MA in the Study of Western Esotericism at the University of Exeter, a tutor in Community Arts and Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a practising astrologer and tarot reader. Her research interests centre on the Western esoteric traditions and the symbolic imagination, and she has published extensively on the astrological music therapy of the Renaissance magus Marsilio Ficino.
Price Uk Gbp: 54.99
Price Us Usd: 82.99
Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)
Esoteric Healing – Alice A. Bailey 2007
The Basic Causes of Disease
This is the problem with which all medical practice down the ages has wrestled. In our present
mechanistic age we have wandered far to the surface of things and away from the partially true point of
view of earlier centuries which traced disease back of the “evil humours” bred and festering in the inner
subjective life of the patient. In the evolution of knowledge on every hand we are now on the surface
of things (note I do not use the word “superficial”), and the hour has struck in which knowledge can
again re-enter the realm of the subjective and transmute itself into wisdom. There is today a dawning
recognition on the part of the best minds in the medical and allied professions, that in the subjective
and hidden attitudes of the mind and of the emotional nature, and in the life of inhibited or excessive
sex expression, must be sought the causes of all disease. (C) 1988 Lucis Trust.
Amazon Synopsis: Esoteric Healing is Volume IV of A Treatise on the Seven Rays. In this book, the seven ray techniques of healing are described; the laws and rules of healing are enumerated and discussed; the requirements for healing are given in detail; and basic causes of disease are shown. We learn, for example, that much disease can be karmic in origin; that certain diseases are inherent in the soil and in the substance of the planet; and that many others are psychological, arising in the emotional or mental bodies.
Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle – Alice Bailey 2008
Amazon Synopsis: Occultism is concerned with the scientific facts behind the spiritual idealisms many accept because of a natural human tendency to idealise. One of the most highly idealised concepts is that of the brotherhood of man. Occultism shows that the scientific basis for that ideal rests on the fact of the one etheric structure underlying all forms within the solar system, energised and held in being by one life force. Mankind is, therefore, one in life and in form; he is merely unaware of unity in his own consciousness.
And evolution is essentially the means by which he becomes progressively conscious of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In this whole process the faculties of man play an important part – the five objective senses with their five higher spiritual counterparts. The mental principle or faculty is of tremendous importance to humanity at this stage in his evolutionary unfoldment. The three-fold mind unifies as one faculty the higher or abstract mind, the soul – the son of mind, and the lower concrete mind. As this condition of mental fusion and control develops, the disciple is learning to use the mind in new ways, particularly in wielding energy which, as it vitalises and animates his etheric body, influences through radiation his effect on others.
It is through this conscious, controlled use of mental energy that telepathic communication can be scientifically established with other minds by means of the etheric structure common to all. And by the same means the mind of the disciple, or of a group of disciples developing group consciousness, can be impressed by the clarity of thought and purpose of those members of the spiritual Hierarchy concerned with the working out of the Plan for humanity. The spiritual Hierarchy, we are told, works only through the minds of disciples, using the science of impression, and only for the purposes of the Plan.
The impression is conveyed as a stream of ideas – those ideas inherent in the Plan for man – which the disciple or the group can then interpret and translate into self-chosen action. The form of telepathy now developing within the spiritually awakened aspirants of the world is not, therefore, that of the solar plexus centre which is of the animal nature, but the result of a mental polarisation and penetration in consciousness towards the soul and the Triad. This produces an open channel of communication in two directions – vertically towards the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, seeking to impress the Plan on all receptive minds, and horizontally towards the minds of men united within the mental substance of human consciousness as one.
The second part of this book discusses the etheric structure of the planet and the solar system of which each man and each form is an integral part; the pattern of the triangle in controlling energy flow and establishing a continuity of circulation through the whole system is of immediate importance to humanity. We are involved in the life of the Planetary Logos – in Him we live and move and have our being – and we are a contributing part of the present effort to bring the etheric body under the influence of the soul, symbolised by the triangle.
To the extent, and at the rate, that we succeed, so is the planetary etheric structure changing in form to become more consciously integrated into the energy system of which our planet is one small unit. So the living process of unity is exemplified – the part contributing to the whole, and the whole affecting the part through every cell and atom of every grade of substance which it contains.
The Science of Spirit Possession
SPIRIT POSSESSION AND MENTAL HEALTH
20TH SEPTEMBER 2013 | London Conference
Spirit possession is recognised worldwide across many cultures and by several religions. Spirit possession is often seen as an idiom of distress causing a change in behaviour and mental well being. Spirit possession is also included in the ICD 10 and DSM IV classifications of mental disorders, yet the ex tent to which it is recognised and / or discussed in clinical practice is less than we would expect, even in UK cities where there resides a diverse population.
This one day event will consider the critical themes and debates on spirit possession from an anthropological, social, psychological, medical and religious perspective using a range of illustrative case study, clinical practice and research.
The aims of the conference
Discuss possible definitions and different kinds of spirit possession
Debate the key elements which typify spirit possession
Discuss who can make a diagnosis of spirit possession and how such a diagnosis might be made
Compare and contrast how spirit possession might be viewed by clinicians, religious leaders, healers, the “the patient”, family and community members
Discuss the value of using patient’s explanatory model of illness
Reflect upon the key issues associated with defining what is “normal” and “abnormal”
Discuss folk healing practices in different cultures and “treatment” options including exorcism
Consider whether there is a need to enhance joint working between mental health professionals and transitional healers.
Who Should attend?
This conference will be relevant to all professionals in the field of Mental Health and Social Care, including those from Local Authorities and NHS trusts across the UK, Social Workers, Approved Mental Health Professionals, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Early Intervention Teams, CPN’s, OT’s, Chaplains, Community Faith Leaders & Healers, Equality Leads, Community Development Workers, Service User Representatives, Charities, Third Sector, Educational Establishments, Academics and Policy makers.