Preface
Introduction: Unutterable Experiences of Consciousness Alteration
PART I. THE EXPOSURE
1.Manifestations of Shamanic Spirituality: Mongolia 1999, 2002
Eva Jane Neumann Fridman
2. Theoneurology: Bridging Hebrew Bible Prophecy and Clinical Psychedelic Drug Research
Rick Strassman, MD
PART II. THE SYMBOLIC
3.Materializing the Symbolic in Paranormal Experience
Jess Hollenback
4.Words and Images of a Transcendent Inner Mysterion: Mysticism in Contemporary Western Literature and Art
Ori Z. Soltes
PART III. THE COGNITIVE
5.The Dao Flickering through Words: A Cognitive-Poetic Analysis of Dao-de Jing
Sivan Wagshal Te’eni and Reuven Tsur
6. Why Are Religious Experiences Ineffable? The Question of Mystical-Noetic Knowledge
Laura E. Weed
7.Toward a Cognitive Psychology of Mystical Experiences
Harry T. Hunt
PART IV. THE SCIENTIFIC
8. Explanatory Mechanisms of Altered States of Consciousness: A Brief Overview
Alex S. Kohav
9.Mathematical Modeling of Cognitive Mechanisms of Meaning and the Spiritually Sublime
Leonid I. Perlovsky
10. Transcendent Knowledge-Claims and the Scientific Study of Mystical Experiences
Richard H. Jones
About the Contributors
Index