This is a summation by an outstanding American theological writer of a lifetime of thought about the course that mankind has taken. This book has taken its place in religious writing as a clear statement of the empirical religious philosophy which he has been instrumental in establishing and developing. Originally published in 1958 by the Southern Illinois University Press. Co-published with the Foundation for the Philosophy of Creativity.

The editor first approached Henry Nelson Wieman in March of 1968 about making a collection of his essays. Throughout the years Mr. Wieman have been most cooperative and helpful in the matters of verifications, editing, and structure. Mr. Wieman read several introductions for the essays by the editor. He offered significant criticisms pertaining to the interpretation of the essays in this collection. The present introduction is the outcome of taking seriously these criticisms and several rewritings of (...) the major parts of the interpretations. It is hoped that the interpretative role of the introduction has been enhanced by the changes undertaken. (shrink)

pt. I. The historical growth of religion, by W. M. Horton.--pt. II. Contemporary growth of religion, by H. N. Wieman.

This is a summation by an outstanding American theological writer of a lifetime of thought about the course that mankind has taken. This book has taken its place in religious writing as a clear statement of the empirical religious philosophy which he has been instrumental in establishing and developing. Originally published in 1958 by the Southern Illinois University Press. Co-published with the Foundation for the Philosophy of Creativity.

This is a summation by an outstanding American theological writer of a lifetime of thought about the course that mankind has taken. This book has taken its place in religious writing as a clear statement of the empirical religious philosophy which he has been instrumental in establishing and developing. Originally published in 1958 by the Southern Illinois University Press. Co-published with the Foundation for the Philosophy of Creativity.

The thesis is two-fold: to show that to be human is to have a nature disposed to inalienable conflict of interests, and to show that creativity is the best principle by which to organize interests.

Psychedelics have been recognized as model interventions for studying altered states of consciousness. However, few empirical studies of the shamanic state of consciousness, which is anecdotally similar to the psychedelic state, exist. We investigated the neural correlates of shamanic trance using high-density electroencephalography (EEG) in 24 shamanic practitioners and 24 healthy controls during rest, shamanic drumming, and classical music listening, followed by an assessment of altered states of consciousness. EEG data were used to assess changes in absolute power, connectivity, signal (...) diversity, and criticality, which were correlated with assessment measures. We also compared assessment scores to those of individuals in a previous study under the influence of psychedelics. Shamanic practitioners were significantly different from controls in several domains of altered states of consciousness, with scores comparable to or exceeding that of healthy volunteers under the influence of psychedelics. Practitioners also displayed increased gamma power during drumming that positively correlated with elementary visual alterations. Furthermore, shamanic practitioners had decreased low alpha and increased low beta connectivity during drumming and classical music and decreased neural signal diversity in the gamma band during drumming that inversely correlated with insightfulness. Finally, criticality in practitioners was increased during drumming in the low and high beta and gamma bands, with increases in the low beta band correlating with complex imagery and elementary visual alterations. These findings suggest that psychedelic drug-induced and non-pharmacologic alterations in consciousness have overlapping phenomenal traits but are distinct states of consciousness, as reflected by the unique brain-related changes during shamanic trance compared to previous literature investigating the psychedelic state. (shrink)