This essay analyzes the performance of dhikr (the invocation of God through prayer, sons, and movement) in Aleppo, Syria, as an embodied practice mediated by specific repertoires of aesthetic and kinesthetic practices. In dhikr, aesthetic stimuli produce an experience of temporal transformation that participants narrate as "ecstasy." Performing dhikr also conditions a musical self, which in turn allows for the habituation of spiritual states. This suggests the importance of investigating the interface of embodied practices, temporality, and the aesthetics of spiritual practice. (Aesthetics, temporality, music, Islam, Syria).
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A spiritual anthology drawn from the Greek and Russian traditions, concerned in particular with the most frequently used and best loved of all Orthodox prayers--the Jesus Prayer. Texts are taken chiefly from the letters of Bishop Theopan the Recluse, along with many other writers.
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<p>Certain highly emotional experiences have the potential to produce long-lasting and meaningful changes in personality. Two such experiences are spiritual transformations and experiences of profound beauty. However, little is known about the cognitive appraisals or narrative elements involved in such experiences, how they are similar, and how they differ. In a study of emotion-related narratives, these experiences were found to share many features but also differ in their valence. Experiences of profound beauty are almost always positive, but spiritual transformations are both positive and negative. Moreover, spiritual transformations seem to produce long-lasting change, but experiences of profound beauty, although evocative, do not seem to produce long-lasting change. An emotion approach helps to elucidate two understudied but important emotional experiences.</p>
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The heart rate, breathing rate, and skin resistance were recorded for 20 community home girls (Home group) and for 20 age-matched girls from a regular school (School group). The former group had a significantly higher rate of breathing and a more irregular breath pattern known to correlate with high fear and anxiety, than the School group. Skin resistance was significantly lower in the School group, which may suggest greater arousal, 28 girls of the Home group formed 14 pairs, matched for age and duration of stay in the home. Subjects of a pair were randomly assigned to either yoga or games groups. For the former emphasis was on relaxation and awareness, whereas for the latter increasing physical activity was emphasized. At the end of an hour daily for six months both groups showed a significant decrease in the resting heart rate relative to initial values (Wilcoxon paired-sample rest), and the yoga group showed a significant decrease in breath rate, which appeared more regular but no significant increase in the skin resistance. These results suggest that a yoga program which includes relaxation, awareness, and graded physical activity is a useful addition to the routine of community home children.
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This essay seeks to explore contemplation as it features in Christian theology and philosophy, both ancient and modern. Contemplation, in ancient philosophy, is transformed in Christian theology; nonetheless, it has the structure of what Jean Wahl calls ‘transascendance’, a rising to the heights. Although contemplation remains as a theme in modern Christian theology, it drops out in modern philosophy: that is, post-Renaissance philosophy. And yet it returns, both in analytic and continental philosophy, in the twentieth century. It returns, however, in the mode of ‘transdescendance’: by way of conditions of possibility, and fundamental orientations.
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Objective To examine the effect of parental training on disturbed behavior of early childhood cases presented to the pediatricians. Methods The patients who reported in pediatric OPD of the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Dehradun, with complaints of low learning, poor memory, vertigo, speech problem, stress, headache, depression, adjustment problems, aggression, and hostile behavior were included in the study. Children aged 3 through 6 (N = 60), were screened through PBQ (Preschool Behavior Questionnaire), DST (developmental screening Test), and Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS). Children included in the study had an average range of developmental quotient 85–90 (mean DQ = 87.5). Range of social quotient was 40–45 (mean SQ = 42.5). Twenty four fortnightly sessions of ‘parental training’ using the model of ‘Mindful Parenting’ were conducted. Single group t test method was applied in order to see the difference in mean of pre and post assessment of PBQ. Results After concluding parental training (after 24 sessions), mean difference of total disturbed behavior was found to be significant (t value: 5.31 > .05) Similarly, the mean difference of hostile/aggressive behavior (t value: 10.2 > .05), anxious behavior (t value: 18.5 > .05), and hyperactive/distractible behavior (t value: 1.97 > .05) were found to be significant. Conclusions These results provide some evidence in favor of parental training in managing behavioral problems occurring in early childhood. Instead of putting the child immediately on medication, parents can get training and prepare a plan to understand and make a change in child’s behavior leading to better health.
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<p>Exercises from the world's religions to cultivate kindness, love, joy, peace, vision, wisdom, and generosity.</p>
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Subjects were presented with videotaped expressions of 10 classic Hindu emotions. The 10 emotions were (in rough translation from Sanskrit) anger, disgust, fear, heroism, humor-amusement, love, peace, sadness, shame-embarrassment, and wonder. These emotions (except for shame) and their portrayal were described about 2,000 years ago in the Natyasastra, and are enacted in the contemporary Hindu classical dance. The expressions are dynamic and include both the face and the body, especially the hands. Three different expressive versions of each emotion were presented, along with 15 neutral expressions. American and Indian college students responded to each of these 45 expressions using either a fixed-response format (10 emotion names and "neutral/no emotion") or a totally free response format. Participants from both countries were quite accurate in identifying emotions correctly using both fixed-choice (65% correct, expected value of 9%) and free-response (61% correct, expected value close to zero) methods.
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