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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)

This study explores an interpretation of mysticism as a way of life that is a response to what the mystic conceives of as ultimate reality. The suggestion is that what lies at the centre of reality is the sense of a dynamic non-dialectic absence/presence. Mysticism is suggested to be an exploration of this centre of reality that takes the form of a conjoined movement of transcending and integrating. The argument of the study is developed in light of the contemporary approach that has made mysticism either totally grounded in the mystic's socio-linguistic context (Steven T. Katz) or detached from it in a 'pure consciousness event' (Robert K. C. Forman et al), both of which are primarily driven by a focus on mysticism as an experience. What is judged to have been overlooked in the contemporary discussion is that which is argued as being most endemic to mysticism, that is, the explorative life-enactment of that which the mystic conceives of as ultimate reality. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

Le travail de Wittgenstein exemplifie la transcendance dont se nourrit la philosophie. En effet, la recherche de fondements à notre langage, par la mise en œuvre d'un idiome logique, génère des préoccupations ontologiques insondables. De même, le désir de créer une grammaire purement descriptive révèle l'arbitraire des critères de l'ordinaire. Enfin, la négation quasi obsessionnelle d'une intériorité active ne fait pas obstacle à son retour dans les thèmes de la volonté, du silence et de l'éthique. L'Éthique dite ineffable et la volonté, dans le sens de Schopenhauer, s'imposent comme les invariants d'un Sujet en marge d'un monde dit sans valeur dans lequel, logique, éthique et esthétique ne peuvent se dire. Ici, le silence de Wittgenstein ouvre sur un non-dit éloquent. En recherchant des fondements ou des règles à notre langage, tout en expulsant certains objets hors du dicible, Wittgenstein exprime le désir de mettre en place un point de vue synoptique sur notre forme de vie. Mais en fait, il se retrouve prisonnier des entrelacs qui relient l'immanence et la transcendance.Ces investigations ne peuvent être dissociées, chez ce contemporain de la naissance de la psychanalyse, d'une attitude tendancielle à la sublimation des problèmes philosophiques sur fond de crise identitaire. Son attitude face aux choix, sa difficulté à donner un assentiment, son rapport ambigu au religieux, au mystique et à l'identité, sont soulignés comme les points aveugles de son expression. Ces thèmes révèlent une transcendance intrinsèque à son œuvre et une résistance forte de la métaphysique.Le travail de Wittgenstein est pris ici comme un exemple paradigmatique de la philosophie analytique, philosophie entrée en conflit contre l'abus d'expressions métaphysiques accusées de nous livrer aux illusions trompeuses. / Wittgenstein's work exemplifies transcendence which feeds philosophy. The search for foundations to our language, by the implementation of a logical structure generates unfathomable ontological concerns. Similarly, the dream of a purely descriptive grammar reveals the arbi-trariness of criteria of the ordinary. Finally, the obsessive denial of an active interiority does not preclude his return to willpower, silence and ethical themes. Ethics, as ineffable, and will, in the sense of Schopenhauer, are invariants of a philosophical subject on the sidelines of a world without value, in which, the logical, ethical and aesthetic could not be said. Here, Witt-genstein's silence opens on an eloquent unsaid. Searching for foundations or rules to our lan-guage, while expelling some objects in the indescribable, Wittgenstein expressed the desire to provide a synoptic view of our form of life. In fact, he finds himself prisoner of interlaces between immanence and transcendence.These investigations cannot be separated with this contemporary of the birth of psychoanaly-sis, a trend attitude to the sublimation of philosophical problems on substance of identity cri-sis. His attitude to choice, his difficulty to give consent, his ambiguous report to the religious, the mystic and identity are underlined as blind expression points. These themes reveal an in-herent transcendence in his work and the resistance of the metaphysical.Wittgenstein's work is seen as a paradigm of analytic philosophy, philosophy came into con-flict against the abuse of metaphysical expressions accused of deceptive illusions for us.

L’homme peut-il voir Dieu ? La question, à laquelle de nombreux théologiens chrétiens ont tenté de répondre, est à l’arrière-plan des Divins Élancements d’amour exprimés en cent Cantiques faits en l’honneur de la Très-Sainte-Trinité (1628) de Claude Hopil. Le poète y célèbre le mystère de la Trinité et clame son désir de la voir, sans jamais oublier que les Écritures enseignent que Dieu est invisible. À la même question, Pierre de Bérulle apporte dans les Discours de l’état et des grandeurs de Jésus (1623) une réponse liée au mystère sur lequel porte sa méditation : grâce à l’Incarnation, Dieu s’est manifesté dans la création et, partant, s’est rendu visible.Le présent travail s’est attaché à évaluer les implications théologiques, spirituelles et culturelles que recouvrait le thème de la vision dans chacune des deux œuvres et à déterminer dans quelle mesure les auteurs étaient influencés par les nouveautés scientifiques de leur époque. Bérulle et Hopil sont héritiers de ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler le modèle visuel de la connaissance, que saint Augustin a exposé dans plusieurs de ses ouvrages, et leurs savoirs dans le domaine de l’optique ressortissent surtout à des conceptions pré-classiques, antérieures aux travaux de Kepler et de Descartes. Hopil connaît les deux théories héritées de l’Antiquité qui avaient encore cours au début du XVIIe siècle, celle de l’émission et celle de la réception, mais il semble qu’aucune ne corresponde à la vision telle qu’il l’entend dans la plupart de ses poèmes. Celle-ci est présentée comme l’expérience, instable et ineffable, d’une coprésence de la créature et du Créateur.Si le domaine de l’optique ne retient pas particulièrement l’attention de Bérulle, les connaissances qu’il a acquises dans celui de l’astronomie lui permettent de concevoir une mystique du regard. Son œuvre a été publiée au cours d’une décennie qui suit de peu les travaux de Galilée et de Kepler, indissociables de la promotion du système cosmologique copernicien. Pour Bérulle, le chrétien doit regarder le Christ et il compare ce regard à celui que les astronomes antiques, tels qu’il les imagine, portaient sur le soleil. En outre, le Christ est d’autant mieux vu qu’il occupe dans la vie spirituelle une place centrale analogue à celle du soleil dans l’univers, selon la théorie que Copernic a proposée en son temps et à laquelle l’Oratorien fait référence. Quelle que soit l’importance que Bérulle accorde aux données venues de l’astronomie, il les remodèle pour servir son objectif principal : glorifier l’Incarnation. / Can man see God ? The question to which many Christian theologians have tried to answer is in the background of Les Divins Élancements d’amour exprimés en cent Cantiques faits en l’honneur de la Très-Sainte-Trinité (1628) by Claude Hopil. In this book, the poet praises the Mystery of the Trinity and claims his desire to see it, without forgetting the Scriptures say God is invisible. Pierre de Bérulle in his book Discours de l’état et des grandeurs de Jésus (1623) answers this same question by linking it to the mystery on which his meditation is focused on : with the Incarnation God emerged in the Creation and therefore made himself visible.The current study focused on assessing the theological, spiritual and cultural implications involved in the theme of vision in each of these two works. It also aimed at determining to what extent the authors were influenced by the scientific discoveries of their time. Bérulle and Hopil are the heirs of what is called the visual model of knowledge which saint Augustine explained in several of his works. Their knowledge in the field of optics are mostly based on pre-classical concepts, dating from before the work of Kepler and Descartes. Hopil knew about the two theories of emission and reception inherited from the Antiquity and which still existed at the beginning of the 17th century. However, it seems that neither of the two theories corresponds to the vision as mentioned in his poems. This vision is presented as the unstable and ineffable experience of a copresence of the creature and the Creator.If the field of optics didn’t particularly grab Bérulle’s attention, his knowledge in astronomy allowed him to devise a mystical way of watching. His work was published during the decade which closely followed Galileo and Kepler’s work which are inseparable from the promotion of a Copernician cosmological system. According to Bérulle, Christians should look at Christ and he compares the look in their eyes to the one, he imagines antique astronomers had when looking at the sun. Furthermore, Christ is all the more well seen that he has a core place in spiritual life, similar to the sun in the universe, according to Copernic’s theory to which the Oratorian refers to. Whatever the emphasis Bérulle places on the discoveries in astronomy, he reshapes them to serve one main objective : glorify the Incarnation.

A presente tese focaliza a questão da individuação espiritual na obra de Henry Corbin, valendo-se de pontos da obra de Heidegger que iluminam essa questão. Heidegger foi um dos filósofos que mais influenciaram Corbin, sendo que este foi o primeiro tradutor de Heidegger para o francês. No entanto, não é o propósito da tese demonstrar essa influência, embora muitas vezes o faça. O que importa é se valer das idéias de Heidegger que parecem equivaler às de Corbin, para ajudar-nos na anãlise da questao do exílio e da individuação. Conceitos de Heidegger tais como hermenêutica, fenomenologia, o Dasein, o Ser, a Superação da Metafísica, o Impessoal (das Man), a decisão pela Autenticidade, pelo ser si-mesmo mais próprio, colocam-se em cena ao longo da tese para colaborar com o aprofundamento da compreensão da individuação espiritual em Corbin. Parto da questão do exílio da alma em Corbin e nos místicos que este representa, tentando primeiramente levantar a etiologia de tal exílio, de tal disjunção alma-mundo. Para isso, lanço mão não só de Heidegger, mas também de Husserl, que foi bastante importante para Corbin. Em seguida, abordo, a partir da hermenêutica e da fenomenologia, a noção de imaginal e de hermenêutica espiritual, que equivale a uma interiorização e a uma integração do mundo na alma. Para isso, valho-me das noções de tempo e espaço na mística oriental de Corbin assim como na filosofia de Heidegger. O percurso desta primeira parte vai do exílio da alma no mundo do espaço quantitativo ao mundo vivido na alma, ou seja, a perspectiva da saída do exílio enquanto um retorno ao mundo da alma. A segunda parte, aborda o conceito de alma em Corbin e na mística sufi, que possui um caráter dual e pressupõe o conceito de anjo do sufismo, assim como o de Pessoa, que foi herdado por Corbin de Berdiaev, para então justapô-los ao conceito de Dasein de Heidegger e a verificação dos pontos onde os conceitos de Dasein e de Pessoa se encontram e se equivalem. A ideia de personalismo e autenticidade contrapõe-se em ambos autores ao nihilismo e ao Impessoal que oprime o homem moderno e o atira no exílio. Esta crise é apresentada na tese como um mundo sem alma assim como um mundo onde prevalece o esquecimento do ser, sendo que as indicações de superação de Heidegger e Corbin apontam para direções similares e às vezes complementares. A saída do Exílio tem como condição a tomada de consciência das consequências da despersonalização do mundo, do empobrecimento espiritual, e do perigo que o homem está correndo de desaparecer enquanto homem, enquanto Pessoa. A superação da crise, o retorno à casa, aparece em ambos ligada à capacidade de desconstrução de qualquer objetivação e na neutralização do caráter reificador e dominador do pensamento, que concorrerão para a reintrodução do transcendente, do inabarcável e misterioso, do espiritual na cotidianeidade e na visão de mundo do homem moderno. / This thesis focuses the question of spíritual individuation in Henry Corbin1s work, using the parts of Heideggers work which throw light on this question. Heidegger was one of the philosophers which most influenced Corbin, who was the first translator of Heideggers work in french. Nevertheless, it is not the purpose of this work to demonstrate this influence, although it becomes evident along the thesis. What matters here is is to take Heideggers ideas that seem to match to Corbins in order to help us in the analisis of the question of exile and of individuation. Heideggerian concepts such as hermeneutics, phenomenology, the Dasein, Being, the overcoming of metaphysics, the Impersonal (das Man), the will to authenticity to be one\'s very self, are employed throughout the thesis, so as to contribute to a better understanding of spiritual individuation in Corbin\'s philosophy. I take as my starting point the subject of the exile of the soul in both Corbin and the mystics whom he represents, first of all by attempting to trace the etiology of this exile, this disjunction between soul and world. To that end, I avail myself not only of Heidegger\'s philosophy, but also that of Husserl, which had a great deal of influence on the work of Corbin. I then address, with the help of hermeneutics and phenomenology, the concepts of imaginal and spiritual hermeneutics, which is equivalent to the interiorization and integration of the world into the soul. To that purpose, I utilize the notions of time and space in the oriental mysticism of Corbin and in Heidegger\'s philosophy. The first part then covers the trajectory of the soul from its exile in the world of quantitative space back to the lived world of the soul; in other words, the way of exile as a return to the soul-world. The second part covers both the concept of soul in Corbin and in Sufi mysticism, wich possesses a dual character and in Sufism pressuposes the concept of \"angel\", and that of Person, which Corbin inherited from Berdiaev, with the intention of contrasting these concepts with Heidegger\'s Dasein and verifying where they meet and are the same. In both authors, the ideas of personalism and authenticity are put in opposition to ninhilism and the Impersonal which oppresses man in the modern world and casts him into exile. In the thesis, this crisis is described in terms of a world devoid of soul, a world where the soul has been forgotten, and what Corbin and Heidegger appoint as the way to overcome it are many times similar and sometimes complementary. The way out of Exile has as its condition the awareness of the consequences of the de-personalization of life, of spiritual empoverishment, and of the risk man runs of diassappearing as man, as a person. In both Heidegger and Corbin, the overcoming of the crisis, the return home, is associated with the capability of desconstructing any sort of objectification and of neutralizing the reifying and imposing character of thought, which will collaborate with the re-introduction of the transcendent, the unfathomable, and the mysterious in the daily life and world view of modern man.

This collection of poems concerns contemplative silence, uncertainty, and the relationship between reverence, and constructions of littleness and absence. / Graduate / 10000-01-01

Peter Weir is one of Australia’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful directors. Ever since Weirs feature film debut with The Cars that Ate Paris in 1974, his work has been explored for unifying themes. Scholars have analysed his films from many perspectives: the establishment of identification and identity especially through binary oppositions in the diegesis; the creation of an oneiric atmosphere as a way of exploiting the spectators dream experience; a clash of value systems; the ambiguous nature of narrative structure and character motivations leading to the creation of a sense of wonder; the experience of the protagonist placed in a foreign culture wherein conflict arises from social clashes and personal misunderstandings; and at the particular ways his films adapt generic codes in service of a discernible ideological agenda. . To the best of my knowledge there has been no study of the mystical element of Weirs work in relation to the construction of a cinematic mystical gaze or act of spectatorship. / Within a culture defined by its secularity and a national cinema marked by quirky comedies and social realism, almost all of Weirs films have been described as mystical, arcane or interested in metaphysics. Such an observation could warrant no further investigation if it is held that this critical commentary is but hyperbole in its attempt to grasp what constitutes a Peter Weir film. If, however, language constructs meaning, then the recurrence of references to Weirs mysticism needs to be taken seriously to see what effect this might have exerted on the nature and structure of the Weir text. I will argue that the major consequence of Weirs fascination with the mystical has been the construction of a mystical mode of spectatorship. Furthermore, because other directors and films have been described in similar ways this study opens up a discussion about whether these observations about the mystical qualities in the viewing experience hold importance for other filmmakers, and theories of the gaze in the cinema.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Graz, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-346).

In dominant seventeenth-century thinking women's bodies, minds, and spirits were not only inferior to men's, but also more prone to evil. This study explores the ways in which the women writers attempted to redefine these assumptions. Through an analysis organised along various spiritual transformations the writers claim to go through, the study presents an insight into seventeenth-century women's construction and redefinition of femininity. The symbolic process of women's spiritual transfiguration results in them identifying with the metaphorical figure of Zion and in positioning women as godly agents of God, whereas male writers' transformations eventuate in their being effeminized and being turned into 'Crooked Agents' of God. Therefore, the study shows how the potentials inherent in the biblical figure of Zion were used in establishing a connection with God and in forming female and male authorial identity. The thesis draws on the understudied voices of women such as the anonymous Eliza, Elizabeth Major, An Collins or Gertrude More, and is contextualized by male-authored texts, some of them considered as canonical and popular in contemporary literature.