Mystical Thought Research Articles

Frontotemporal dementia with psychosis, parkinsonism, visuo-spatial dysfunction, upper motor neuron involvement associated to expansion of C9ORF72: a peculiar phenotype?

Dear Sirs, From 2006, a locus on chromosome 9p21 has been associated with a large proportion of ALS and FTD [1–3]. Recently, two independent groups have identified a hexanucleotide repeat expansion in noncoding region of the C9ORF72 gene as the cause of chromosome 9p21-linked ALS-FTD [4, 5]. We report the case of a 64-year-old man who presented with a 3-year history of delusional mystic thoughts, auditive, visual, and olfactory hallucinations, and hyperreligiosity. The patient later developed progressive apathy, dysphoric mood, hyperphagia, self-care reduction, and progressive cognitive decline with motor retardation. The man's father had died at age 68 after committing suicide, and his older brother developed parkinsonism associated with behavioral disturbances at age 60 and died 2 years later. Neuropsychological assessment of this patient, performed 3 years after the onset of neurological symptoms, demonstrated bradyphrenia, marked impairment of attention and executive functions, marked constructional apraxia, mild visual and verbal long-term memory deficit, mild anomia, emotional lability, fatuity, and mild utilization behavior. Blood exams, thyroid antibodies and hormones, vitamin B12, folic acid, and TPHA were all normal. Neurological examination revealed symmetric akinetic-rigid syndrome characterized by hypomimia, dysarthria, camptocormia with anterocollis, and diffuse bradykinesia. Brain MRI documented atrophy mainly frontotemporal but with consistent posterior region involvement (Fig. 1). Perfusion SPECT with 99Tc-ethylene cystine dimer (ECD) showed a marked reduction of the uptake in the frontotemporal and parietal regions bilaterally (Fig. 1). A few months after the first neurological assessment, the patient had a rapid progression to a severe dementia and developed marked pyramidal involvement of upper and lower limbs with an inability to walk. The patient became anarthric, dysphagic, and developed constipation. The nature of the dysarthria was both pseudobulbar and extrapyramidal. Lower motor neuron signs or symptoms were not present. Later the patient was admitted to a surgical department for intestinal sub-occlusion; during the hospitalization, a pulmonary embolism (PE) occurred. The patient died 4 years after the first neurological manifestations. Mutations of TARDBP, MAPT, and PGRN genes were excluded. The patient has been found positive for a GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the first intron of C9ORF72 gene (>50). Our patient developed a dementia with prominent behavioral disturbances at presentation, characterized mostly by psychosis with mystic themes. The neuropsychological evaluation demonstrated a marked cognitive impairment with predominant frontal syndrome. An important involvement of visuo-spatial functions was also found (Fig. 2). This cognitive impairment, associated with multimodal hallucinations and parkinsonism, which presented before the onset of upper motor neuron signs, raised a differential diagnosis between FTD and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). A few cases have been reported with similar diagnostic difficulties [6]. The parkinsonism was not drug-induced. The dementia profile of our patient was consistent with a behavioral variant of FTD. He presented a positive family history for similar disturbances. Some features of our case are atypical for FTD, like psychosis, constructional apraxia associated with the frontal syndrome, atrophy, and perfusional deficit extended to posterior cortical areas. Hallucinations are possible but not common in FTD [7], whereas they are a core clinical feature in the diagnostic criteria of DLB [8]. Of note, some clinical aspects of our case have been reported in patients with ALS-FTD linked to the locus 9p21, such as the presence of parkinsonism, psychosis, visuo-spatial impairment, and brain atrophy with parietal and occipital lobe involvement [9, 10]. We propose that delusions with multimodal hallucinations at presentation, visuo-spatial dysfunction, and frontotemporal brain atrophy also involving posterior areas could be aspects of a possible distinctive phenotype of FTD-parkinsonism-upper motor neuron disease linked to the C9ORF72 gene hexanucleotide expansions. Fig. 1 a–c Brain MRI T1-weighted transversal scans showing bilateral frontotemporal and posterior cerebral areas atrophy. d–f Perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with 99Tc-ethylene cystine dimer (ECD). The transversal ... Fig. 2 Severe constructional apraxia demonstrated by the copy of a simple drawing

MORALĖS MISTIKA

Straipsnio tikslas – išplėtoti Ludwigo Wittgensteino mintį apie mistinius moralės elementus. Tai daroma remiantis Blaise’o Pascalio ir Immanuelio Kanto idėjomis. Pascalis kalbėjo apie meilės fenomeno mistiškumą. Kantas samprotavo apie praktinio proto mistiką. Šių dviejų autorių moralės samprata leidžia kalbėti apie mistinius moralės elementus. Remiantis Pascalio ir Kanto idėjomis, bandoma įrodyti, kad mistika nėra vien religinio mąstymo dalis, bet gali būti traktuojama kaip svarbus moralinio patyrimo elementas.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: moralė, mokslas, mistika, meilė, transcendentalizmas.Mysticism of MoralityAlvydas Jokubaitis SummaryThe aim of this article is to develop Wittgenstein’s idea of mystical elements of morality. This is done by invoking the thoughts of Blaise Pascal and Immanuel Kant. Pascal talked about mysticism of love. Kant philosophized about the mysticism of practical reason. The conception of morality developed by these two thinkers allows us to speak about mystical elements of morality. Building on from the ideas of Pascal and Kant one can try to prove that mysticism is not exclusively part of religious mode of thinking but should be treated as important part of moral experience.Science demands the usage of empirical facts. Religious people are mystics, they acknowledge entities that are not describable in scientific terms. Discussions about mysticism do not necessarily have to be based on religion. Scientists cannot accept the proposition “God exists” or “the soul is immortal”, there is no sense in talking about mysticism with them. Another way of defending mysticism looks much more promising – to prove that moral judgement has mystical elements. Ludwig Wittgenstein thought that ethics cannot be expressed in ordinary scientific language but directs towards something that is absolute and mystical.Wittgenstein thought that science is capable of exhausting the entirety of valid propositions. In his opinion, sentences about morality center on things that are absolute, transcending the world of empirical facts. This viewpoint is in agreement with the basic intentions we find in philosophy of morality of Pascal and Kant. Ethical judgement can be interpreted as one of many forms of mystical thinking. Mystical approach to ethics is dislodged to the margins of Western philosophical discourse. This has very much to do with philosophers’ distrust in religion. This article presents arguments, which prove that we can reasonably talk about mysticism of morality.Keywords: mortality, science, mysticism, love, transcendentalism.

The Question of Ultimate Meaning in the Mystical Thought of Adrienne von Speyr

The Question of Ultimate Meaning in the Mystical Thought of Adrienne von Speyr

Trade Mark Protection, Public Health and International Investment Law: Strains and Paradoxes

This article aims at exploring the antinomies and paradoxes of trade mark protection in international investment law. The negative impact of trade mark protection on public health seems counterintuitive or even paradoxical. Strong trade mark protection is usually associated with positive effects on consumer protection and, more generally, there is a sort of mystical thinking about trade marks. Brand names are deemed the keystone of a competitive economy, where individuals are encouraged to do the best they can and make their products recognizable to the public, who will determine their eventual success. However, it is a common criticism that in recent years law makers and judges have expanded the rights of trade mark owners too far, at the expense of the common weal. In some cases, trade marks have been used in an aggressive fashion by corporations in order to chill public health regulation. At the international level, this expansion ultimately determines the emergence of antinomies between intellectual property law and other branches of public international law. This article critically assesses international trade mark protection in order to verify whether such a paradox and the consequent systemic antinomies may be resolved. It also puts forward some legal mechanisms which may help policy makers and adjudicators to reconcile trade mark protection and public health in international investment law.

Mysticism in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: searching for oneness

Introduction: What is Mysticism? Chapter 1 The Birth and Development of the Abrahamic Faiths Chapter 2 The Roots of Judaism and Christianity Chapter 3 The Emergence of Jewish Mystical Thought Chapter 4 Early Christian Mysticism Chapter 5 A Third Player on the Stage: Muslim Mysticism from the Qur'an to Ibn 'Arabi Chapter 6 Medieval Jewish Mysticism form Merkavah to Kabbalah Chapter 7 Medieval Christian Mysticism from Assisi to Avila Chapter 8 The Spread of and Variety within Sufism Chapter 9 Variations within Jewish and Christian Mysticism from the Renaissance through Emancipation Chapter 10 Still Searching: The Persistence of Mysticism in the Modern Era Chapter 11 Unfinished Epilogues Suggestions for Further Reading

State of Nemra: The Context of Religious, Non-Religious and Mystical Thinking

The statement of the problem is to start before I become rooted in HEMRI, as a special person I become, de facto sprint for an hour and space, to relax in the light of the eye. Analysis of the remaining costs to drive the problem of transmission and the ability to see will become NEMRI in the context of the forms of suspension. That is to say, form and state - to look at NEMRI in the context of a reliant, unrelated and mystic ministry.

Book Review: Feminist Mystical Thought

Book Review: Feminist Mystical Thought

The Westminster Handbook to Origen (review)

Reviewed by: The Westminster Handbook to Origen Richard A. Layton John Anthony McGuckin , editor The Westminster Handbook to OrigenThe Westminster Handbooks to Christian TheologyLouisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004 Pp. xix + 228. $34.95. This handbook introduces the seminal thought of Origen in a rapidly growing reference series for the study of historic and contemporary theological movements and theologians. It opens with a brief biographical essay by McGuckin followed by an orientation to the writings of Origen together with a useful bibliography of editions and translations. The heart of the volume, however, is a series of dictionary-style entries organized primarily to address theological, ecclesiological, and hermeneutical terms essential for an understanding of Origen. The introductory essay expertly negotiates the ambiguities of Origen's meteoric rise to celebrity and the tensions of his relationship with the episcopal hierarchy of Alexandria. McGuckin, however, does not neglect the older Origen, who patiently nurtured the newly emerging school of Caesarea and planted the seeds for centuries of Christian scholarship. The topical entries vary in length and complexity, and in some cases concepts of daunting scope (e.g., "Mystical Thought") are heroically brought into manageable form by the contributor. The entries are richly documented with original sources, and they provide a point of departure for further research. Without exception, the handbook offers an impressive display of learning, but the learning comes with a price. Some topics might be forbidding to readers not schooled in the conflicts and technical aspects of early Christian thought, for whom references to "neo-Nicene" positions, Middle Platonism, and a "pullulation of syzygies and emanations" (143) might not be immediately transparent. Readers might find that negotiating the byways and highways of Origen's thought is facilitated by starting with topics of narrower focus before tackling the broader, more conceptual entries. It helped me, for example, to digest "universalism," "pre-existence," and "atonement" before undertaking "anthropology" and "Christology." This approach had a further advantage. Origen famously compared the Scriptures to a series of locked rooms with the keys distributed among other rooms, thus necessitating the unlocking of many doors to traverse the entire mansion. Origen's own thought might be described in the same way, and the reader will quickly discover that one topic will unlock the door to many related ideas. Consequently, no strict boundaries separate the topics, and one will be well-advised to sample the entries broadly to get an exhaustive discussion of any one topic and its family of related concepts. It is difficult to leaf through the handbook without gaining deepened appreciation for how thoroughly Origen integrated his stirring vision of theology as an activity of mental illumination occurring through the encounter with the divine Logos in the contemplation of Scripture. Despite the density and interlocking quality of Origen's thought, the handbook is refreshingly easy to use. Readers will turn with profit to this volume either to obtain a first [End Page 393] acquaintance with Origen or to delve repeatedly into the many facets of this elusive and brilliant thinker. As the title of the series indicates, the handbook is more concerned with "thought" than history. It is understandable, then, that the strictly theological entries are on the whole more successful and more fully integrated than the historical ones. There are two major areas where stronger historical emphasis could have contributed to the aims of the volume. First, readers could use an historiographical essay to survey the shifting assessments of Origen over time. Some historiographical commentary is present in piecemeal remarks throughout the handbook, but it would have been helpful to have organized these comments systematically. Second, McGuckin achieves greater success in portraying the texture of the theological world Origen envisioned than the intellectual and social world that Origen inhabited. The term "disciple" is bandied about without much differentiation among the varying degrees to which subsequent thinkers appropriated Origen's diverse contributions. Also, there is disappointingly little information provided on Origen's rivals and opponents although an entry on Heracleon is a happy exception to this omission. Accordingly, the various discussions of the subsequent contestation of Origen's legacy suffer as readers are not provided adequate foundation to understand the complex disputes that clouded...

The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing by Bernard McGinn

The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing by Bernard McGinn

Exile and Redemption in Jewish Mystical Thought

Exile and Redemption in Jewish Mystical Thought

Review: The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutierrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God

Review: The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutierrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God

Eckhart’s Imageless Image: Art Spirituality, and the Apophatic Way

The doctrine of Images is a pervasive, deep, and difficult area in Eckhart studies. In recent years, a number of articles and even books have been devoted to this aspect of the Meister's teaching. Among those accessible from the Eckhart Review are Loris Sturlese's important article from 1993 and Bruce Milem's prize-winning essay of two years ago. I also highly recommend the pertinent section of Bernard McGinn's fine new book, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart. (I have provided a short bibliography for those who are interested in pursuing the subject further.) Despite its difficulty and medieval tenor, there is nothing quaint or musty about Eckhart's concern with the notion of Image, and in particular the human person as Imago Dei the Image of God. This ancient Christian doctrine is still very much at the front of theological disputation as indicated in the Santa Clara lecture given last April by Mary Catherine Hilkert, 'Imago Dei: Does the Symbol Have a Future?'l In her excellent address, which is available as a reprint from Santa Clara University; she summarizes much of the theological debate surrounding the theme and offers constructive suggestions about rehabilitating it in an era in which feminist, liberation, and ecological demands require a reassessment of both the concept, the language in which it has been formulated, and its historical and current implications for spirituality and ethics.2 Hilkert does not cite Eckhart, nor does Eckhart address issues that are of special importance to Hilkert and many people toda~ such as human arrogance in regard to other species and the planet as a whole, gender disparity, and the oppressive inequity between rich nations and poor nations. Still, Eckhart's approach to the Image, and the Imago Dei in particular, offers insights that are surprisingly similar to many of Hilkert' s observations and, I think, contain a wealth of spiritual wisdom. Eckhart did not approach this subject in a vacuum, of course. He drew on resources of both the biblical and philosophical traditions of the past, as well as theological speculation. Since I do not have much to add byway of textual exegesis to what has been so admirably discussed by Bernard McGinn, Bruce

The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutiérrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God. Alexander Nava

<i>The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutiérrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God</i>. Alexander Nava

Śaiva Siddhānta: An Indian School of Mystical Thought. By H. W. Schomerus. Translated from German by Mary Law, edited by Humphrey Palmer. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979 [First English Edition, 2000]. xv, 410 pp. Rs. 595.

Śaiva Siddhānta: An Indian School of Mystical Thought. By H. W. Schomerus. Translated from German by Mary Law, edited by Humphrey Palmer. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979 [First English Edition, 2000]. xv, 410 pp. Rs. 595.

Dealing with the Fear of Mutilation in the Donation Discussion

Fear of mutilation is a significant barrier to organ and tissue donation. It constitutes an example of Mystical Thinking and may be seen as an exemplar of animal learning or, more specifically, as a representation of the “blood phobia.” As such the fear is not amenable to conventional public education efforts. Cognitive and behavioral techniques used in treating other types of phobias should be studied as a way to remove this barrier to donation.

Dealing with the fear of mutilation in the donation discussion.

Fear of mutilation is a significant barrier to organ and tissue donation. It constitutes an example of Mystical Thinking and may be seen as an exemplar of animal learning or, more specifically, as a representation of the "blood phobia." As such the fear is not amenable to conventional public education efforts. Cognitive and behavioral techniques used in treating other types of phobias should be studied as a way to remove this barrier to donation.

Ezekiel 1 and its Role in Subsequent Jewish Mystical Thought and Tradition

The Jewish Sages of the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods had an ambivalent attitude towards the prophet Ezekiel, which was particularly pronounced in relation to the first chapter of his Book. The visual audacity and dexterity of this chapter, which describes Ezekiel’s call to prophecy through his vision of the heavenly chariot and throne, was compared by the Sages to Isaiah’s restrained revelation (6:1–4), in their well-known saying (Babylonian Talmud, Hagigah, 13b): ‘All that Ezekiel saw Isaiah saw. What does Ezekiel resemble? A villager who saw the king. And what does Isaiah resemble? A townsman who saw the king’.

Biases among hospital personnel concerning donation of specific organs and tissues: implications for the donation discussion and education.

Previous research has established that healthcare professionals who are being trained to talk with families about donation have strong personal preferences for and aversions to the donation of specific organs and tissues. This article examines the possible reasons for such preferences and/or aversions. Among the population studied, strong personal preferences for donation of specific anatomical gifts predominantly were associated with pragmatic and moral or ethical justifications. Strong aversions were associated with pragmatic reasoning and mystical thinking, represented as ancient fears. The findings suggest the need for changes in the way the donation option is offered to families and the way hospital personnel are educated.

Biases among Hospital Personnel concerning Donation of Specific Organs and Tissues: Implications for the Donation Discussion and Education

Previous research has established that healthcare professionals who are being trained to talk with families about donation have strong personal preferences for and aversions to the donation of specific organs and tissues. This article examines the possible reasons for such preferences and/or aversions. Among the population studied, strong personal preferences for donation of specific anatomical gifts predominantly were associated with pragmatic and moral or ethical justifications. Strong aversions were associated with pragmatic reasoning and mystical thinking, represented as ancient fears. The findings suggest the need for changes in the way the donation option is offered to families and the way hospital personnel are educated.

Gender in Mystical and Occult Thought: Behmenism and Its Development in England

Gender in Mystical and Occult Thought: Behmenism and Its Development in England