L’usage rituel de la Jurema, en tant que boisson sacrée faite à partir des plantes du même nom (surtout Mimosa tenuiflora, autrement appelée Mimosa hostilis Benth.) par les peuples autochtones du Brésil, est apparu pour la première fois dans un document rédigé à Recife, Pernambuco, et daté de 1739, qui traite de son usage par les Amérindiens des missions de Paraíba. Son apparition dans les sources coloniales lusobrésiliennes du XVIIIe siècle peut indiquer de nouvelles dynamiques socioculturelles sur la frontière coloniale du Nordeste. L’usage de cette boisson sacrée semble avoir des origines bien antérieures à l’arrivée des colonisateurs, peut-être de plusieurs siècles, et l’on peut aussi signaler sa permanence de nos jours, soit chez les Indiens du Nordeste, au coeur de leurs croyances et de leur cosmologie, soit dans les populations rurales et urbaines dans le cadre d’usages religieux qui mêlent christianisme et cultes afrobrésiliens. On cherchera ici à dégager le rôle joué par les missions catholiques dans l’Amérique Portugaise coloniale comme institutions de frontière, à la fois comme bornes entre les espaces connus et inconnus des colonisateurs et comme élément de définition des territoires des couronnes espagnole et portugaise, mais surtout comme espaces, elles mêmes, de communication et d’échange entre des univers culturels et religieux totalement différents. / The ritual of Jurema, a sacred drink made of a group of plants with the same name (especially Mimosa tenuiflora, formerly known as Mimosa hostilis Benth) by the native people of Brazil first appears in a document written in Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, in 1739. The document talks about its use by the indigenous population living on the mission settlements of the state of Paraíba. Its appearance in the colonial archives of the 18th century may reveal new socio-cultural dynamics in the colonial frontiers of the northeast. The use of this sacred drink seems to have been originated a long time before the colonizers’ arrival, maybe centuries before that, and its endurance can be observed today, either as a central element of the beliefs and cosmogonies of the indigenous peoples of northeast, or among rural and urban populations as part of syncretic religious contexts that combine elements of Christianity and African-Brazilian sects. In this paper we analyze the role played by the mission settlements in the Portuguese America. The settlements are considered here as ‘institutions of frontier’, sometimes acting as landmarks between known and unknown spaces of colonizers and also as an element of definition for the territorial limits between the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, but especially as channels of communication and exchange between completely diverse religious and cultural universes.

In this qualitative phenomenological study, the researcher interviewed 18 hospitalised patients and community members in rural Appalachia to learn about their mystical experiences in the context of health care. A loosely structured interview format addressed factors that initiate mystical experience and essential qualities of mystical experience. In addition, the researcher examined the nursing process, focusing on assessments and actions which supported the participants in sharing their experiences. The researcher also considered her response to being the recipient of these shared experiences. Data were analysed using the crystallisation/immersion method and concept mapping. Mystical experience was conceptualised as a process incorporating initiation, occurrence, maturation, and integration of mystical experience. Essential aspects of the mystical experience itself were found to include sensory-motor perception, interaction with the supernatural, interaction with dead and living members of the family, conviction of reality, cognition, dynamic tension and emotional intensity. Nursing actions which supported the participant included listening and support. The researcher's response to the participants' sharing their experiences included tension, intimacy and empathy, sense of awe and autonomic responses. In addition, the researcher developed an appreciation of the mystical in everyday experience. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

In this qualitative phenomenological study, the researcher interviewed 18 hospitalised patients and community members in rural Appalachia to learn about their mystical experiences in the context of health care. A loosely structured interview format addressed factors that initiate mystical experience and essential qualities of mystical experience. In addition, the researcher examined the nursing process, focusing on assessments and actions which supported the participants in sharing their experiences. The researcher also considered her response to being the recipient of these shared experiences. Data were analysed using the crystallisation/immersion method and concept mapping. Mystical experience was conceptualised as a process incorporating initiation, occurrence, maturation, and integration of mystical experience. Essential aspects of the mystical experience itself were found to include sensory-motor perception, interaction with the supernatural, interaction with dead and living members of the family, conviction of reality, cognition, dynamic tension and emotional intensity. Nursing actions which supported the participant included listening and support. The researcher's response to the participants' sharing their experiences included tension, intimacy and empathy, sense of awe and autonomic responses. In addition, the researcher developed an appreciation of the mystical in everyday experience. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

In pharaonic times, religion, magic and medicine had little distinction between each other due to the commonly held belief that all parts of life were influenced and even controlled by divinity and the supernatural. To navigate life easier, and in true Egyptian fashion, a large corpus of text was composed of magic, medicine and religion. The latter includes the arguably most well-known work, the Egyptian Book of the dead, the religious scripture that would help the deceased navigate the netherworld in the hopes for eternal life. The papyri depict numerous plants and remedies as well as spell and healing methods accompanied by magical incorporation such as incantation or invocation of a god or goddess. These can be considered a basis for the fundamental ideas of religion and daily life of ancient Egypt, always consisting of divine involvement. This essay will deal with a symbol that the ancient Egyptians saw as synonymous with life, and immortality: The narcotic blue water lily, Nymphaea Caerulea. The study will be a work on the human religious experience with a plant that I will theorize as having been used for an entheogenic effect in order to connect with the divine by asking some key questions: How and why was the lily used? How is the flowers depiction on art, in texts, and different iconography indicative to a usage in religious experience and through the mythology produced in the civilisation?