Theoretische Konzepte aus der empirischen Mystikforschung: Eine Jamessche Perspektive

Theoretische Konzepte aus der empirischen Mystikforschung: Eine Jamessche PerspektiveDie Forschung im Bereich des Mystizismus wird erschwert durch zahlreiche Ansätze, die sich gegenseitig auf weiten Strecken ignorieren. Dieser Umstand wird noch bestärkt dadurch, dass diese unterschiedlichen Ansätze alle die Existenz introvertierter Mystik akzeptieren und ähnlich charakterisieren. Dabei greifen sie auf eine große Bandbreite empirischer Ansätze zurück. Im Folgenden wird nun unter Rückgriff auf William James' Anstrengungen, Psychologie innerhalb der Grenzen der Wissenschaft zu verorten, argumentiert, dass James unter Einfluss seines sich ständig erweiternden Konzept von Empirizismus, ein reduktionistisches Konzept der Mystik ablehnte. Dies ist ebenfalls Konsens in der aktuellen Mystikforschung. Außerdem wird gezeigt, dass zur Erforschung eines introvertierten Mystizismus Sprache und Kultur nicht als alleinige Konzepte zur Erklärung herangezogen werden können, sondern vielmehr ein empirischer Ansatz benötigt wird.The study of mysticism is hampered by the existence of discreet literatures that remain largely ignorant of one another. This is further exacerbated by the fact that these literatures converge toward a consensus on the existence and characteristic of introvertive mysticism using a variety of empirical methods. Tracing the efforts of William James to confine psychology within the limits of natural science assumptions it is argued that James' ever expanding definition of empiricism led him to abandon what amounts to a reductionistic view of mysticism, something the discreet literatures on mysticism have also reached as a consensus position. Furthermore, with respect to at least introvertive mysticism, language and culture cannot be considered as exhaustive explanations of its fundamental empirical reality

The Differential Evaluation of Religious Risk Rituals Involving Serpents in Two Cultures

While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the actual handling of serpents that can maim and kill in their rituals. Two exceptions are various Manasa sects common in India and the serpent handlers of Appalachia in America. We presented brief descriptions of each of these traditions along with videos of the handling of serpents in each tradition under three degrees of risk, video with no serpents, video with serpents but no bites, video with serpents and bites. Under a fourth condition only for the Appalachian handlers, the video showed a handler dying from a bite. American, largely Christian participants rated assessed each condition for ritual quality and perceived legitimacy. As predicted, serpent handling in America was perceived as less legitimate than serpent handling in India. No differences were found between perceived legitimacy and level of risk except in the condition where a handler was seen dying from a bite

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The Psychology of Religion

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The Differential Evaluation of Religious Risk Rituals Involving Serpents in Two Cultures

While serpent symbolism is common in many religious traditions, few traditions have including the actual handling of serpents that can maim and kill in their rituals. Two exceptions are various Manasa sects common in India and the serpent handlers of Appalachia in America. We presented brief descriptions of each of these traditions along with videos of the handling of serpents in each tradition under three degrees of risk, video with no serpents, video with serpents but no bites, video with serpents and bites. Under a fourth condition only for the Appalachian handlers, the video showed a handler dying from a bite. American, largely Christian participants rated assessed each condition for ritual quality and perceived legitimacy. As predicted, serpent handling in America was perceived as less legitimate than serpent handling in India. No differences were found between perceived legitimacy and level of risk except in the condition where a handler was seen dying from a bite

What is Deconversion? Critiques and Current Conceptualizations from a Faith Developmental Perspective

Hood Jr. RW, Streib H, Keller B. What is Deconversion? Critiques and Current Conceptualizations from a Faith Developmental Perspective. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psychometric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in contemporary religion . Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 17-31

Perceived Efficacy of Interreligious Dialogue in Narratives of Conflict Resolution Between Religions or Worldviews

Poster presented at the Religion and Spirituality Pre-conference at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference in Portland, Oregon

Deconversion Typologies Revisited: Biographical Trajectories Ten Years Later

Keller B, Bullik R, Streib H, Steppacher A, Hood Jr RW. Deconversion Typologies Revisited: Biographical Trajectories Ten Years Later. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psychometric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in contemporary religion. Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 287-300