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To Which of Thine Selves be True? Changes in Viscerosomatic Neural Activity with Mindfulness Meditation Training Reflect Improved Present-moment Self-awarenessFarb, Norman A. S. 26 July 2013 (has links)
Mindfulness training cultivates momentary awareness, a form of attention directed to non-evaluative, immediate sensation. This form of attention stands in contrast to a more temporally extended awareness, which allows for the evaluative organization of experience into a personal narrative. The neural mechanisms underlying such awareness, and their role in regulating emotions, are poorly understood. Thus, in three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments, I explored the thesis that momentary and extended awareness represent dissociable modes of self-reference, with momentary self-reference reducing ruminative elaboration of events by biasing attention towards interoceptive signals from the body. I compared individuals who were randomly-assigned to either an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training course against a waitlisted group (Controls). Three distinct studies examined the impact of Mindfulness on: 1) the contrast between explicitly directed momentary and extended self referential processing; 2) reactions to an induced sadness challenge; and 3) the contrast between interoceptive (breath-monitoring) and exteroceptive (visual) attention. In all three studies MBSR led to a shift in neural activity away from cortical midline structures, such as the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, to predominantly right-lateralized viscerosomatic structures, and specifically the insular cortex. Cortical midline activity is thought to support habitual patterns of evaluation, and stands as the neural correlate of a narrated, extended self, while right-lateralized insula activity is thought to represent the recurrent integration of present moment context, the neural correlate of the momentary self. These data revealed that MBSR may enhance the distinction between momentary and extended self-reference, reducing cortical midline responses and recruiting a novel, right-lateralized viscerosomatic network. Additionally, MBSR graduates demonstrated reduced emotional reactivity to a film-based sadness mood induction, reducing cortical midline activity and inhibition of the right insula. Moreover, the MBSR group demonstrated enhanced right middle insula recruitment during the monitoring of sensory experience associated with breath monitoring, a core mindfulness practice. The data from this final study also suggest that MBSR promoted an integration of posterior insular sensory representations with anterior insular subjective representations of present moment status. Preserved viscerosomatic activity in the face of emotional challenge may be a predictor of enhanced well-being following mindfulness training.
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Unveiling the melodic interval: a phenomenology of the musical element in human consciousnessKillian-O'Callaghan, Danae January 2005 (has links) (PDF)
This phenomenology begins with an observation of a musical instrument, the piano. The piano is surrounded by an aura of lifelessness, for its sound world is dominated by tone-decay and a calcified intonation system. Therefore, a physically seamless legato rendering of melody is impossible for pianists, and the inflexible symmetry of given intervallic relations enforces a loss of tonal centre when a composer ventures into the intrinsically asymmetrical domain of chromaticism. However, the melodic interval - the element lying between the acoustically sounding pitches - is in essence always inaudible, whatever the instrument. Through the development of listening capacities directed specifically toward unveiling the non-positive musical element in its origin, namely, within human consciousness, it is possible to overcome external instrumental limitations. Human being’s intrinsic musicality is revealed through phenomenological observation of consciousness in its qualitatively differentiated, ordinarily related, temporally unfolding nature. External limitations can have no hold over living melodic expression when the essence of the melodic interval is discovered self-sufficiently within the non-positive dimension of human onticity, that is, within a consciousness in which the potential for clear spiritual cognition lies dormant. ‘Tonicness’ is discovered ultimately to be an inner awareness of self-voicefulness, independent from instrumental and linguistic contingencies; and the piano reveals an historical mission to awaken - from ‘death’ - new cognitive listening faculties. This research employs the spiritual-scientific method of Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, or wisdom of the human being, which involves meditation and the cultivation of sense-independent logic as well as of lucid feeling (as distinct from blinding emotion).
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Bad Conscience: Nietzsche and Responsibility in ModernityMcGill, Justine January 2005 (has links)
Nietzsche is a name not often invoked in relation to the topic of responsibility. This study reveals, however, that his work engages vigorously with the problem of responsibility in modernity on both the conceptual and methodological levels. In the concept of "e; bad conscience,"e; Nietzsche presents a " dangerous and multi-coloured " alternative to the more monochrome varieties of self-consciousness which ground theories of individual responsibility in the work of other modern philosophers, such as Locke and Kant. The complexity of Nietzsche's approach to self-consciousness allows him to shed light on the range of interconnected practices of responsibility and irresponsibility that characterize modern life. It also raises pressing questions about the possibility and conditions of philosophy in modernity. In grappling with " bad conscience" within the performative structures of his own thought, Nietzsche makes experimental use of methodological resources drawn from both the ancient and modern traditions of Western philosophy. In particular, this study examines Nietzsche's appropriation and " reinterpretation" of meditational methods which form part of the ancient philosophical " art of living," and which re-emerge in altered form, in the work of Descartes. In Nietzsche's writings, such methods are used to provoke and reflect upon the passions of " bad conscience," a dangerous practice which involves the risk of exacerbating this " illness," but which also promises to give birth to new insight and skill in confronting the problem of responsibility in modernity.
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"From crying to laughing" : the transpersonal curriculum. Sharing experiences of transformative learning with participants in an "Art of Living" course: A holistic program for self-directed change in adult learners.Gause, Robert Carlos, January 2005 (has links)
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005.
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Meditation and cognitive, affective and behavioral change inside and out of the classroomSolarz, Pamela. January 2009 (has links) (PDF)
Thesis (M.I.T.)--The Evergreen State College, 2009. / Title from title screen (viewed 7/30/2009). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-119).
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The effect of a class teaching Lectio divina in enriching the devotional life of participants at Family in Christ Community ChurchJorden, Paul R. January 1900 (has links)
Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.
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The effect of a class teaching Lectio divina in enriching the devotional life of participants at Family in Christ Community ChurchJorden, Paul R. January 1999 (has links) (PDF)
Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.
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The effect of a class teaching Lectio divina in enriching the devotional life of participants at Family in Christ Community ChurchJorden, Paul R. January 1999 (has links)
Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.
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Das Sitzen der Wüstenväter : eine Untersuchung anhand der Apophthegmata Patrum /Dodel, Franz. January 1997 (has links)
Zugl. Diss. theol. Bern, 1995. / Literaturverz. Index.
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The impact of meditation as a cognitive-behavioral practice for alternative high school studentsWisner, Betsy L., January 1900 (has links)
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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