The claim has been made that the experience facilitated by psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, can be similar or identical to the experience described by the mystics of all ages, cultures, and religions. This paper will attempt to examine and explain this possibility. There is a long and continuing history of the religious use of plants that contain psychedelic substances...

I am a student of philosophy. In the beginning I had actually thought of studying music, not so much because I love music – but because music has never caused war. Only words produce war, and, having become afraid of words, I thought – why not study music and become a conductor? But then I chose philosophy – because of the questions it involves; and I almost left philosophy – because of the ans...

The extraordinary power inherent in human mysticism was exemplified at dawn on a remote atoll in the western Pacific on February 28, 1954, when the USA exploded a hydrogen-fusion bomb, codename ‘Castle Bravo’ (LEFT). This thermo-nuclear device released the energy equivalent of 15 megatons of TNT and far exceeded the 5 megaton explosion they had planned. The bomb was tested because America felt ...

A culture promoting a strong desire for romantic relationships can greatly influence feelings of romantic loneliness and of closeness. In this study, the authors hypothesized that when not in a romantic relationship, U.S. young adults experience greater degrees of romantic loneliness because of a high desire for romantic relationships, compared with Korean young adults. The authors also predict...

Is there a world of mathematics above and beyond ordinary reality, as Plato proposed? Or is mathematics a cultural construct? In this short article we speculate on the place of mathematical reality from the perspective of the mystical cosmologies of the ancient traditions of meditation, psychedelics, and divination.