Altered States a Poetic Evolution


Book Description

Altered States is a poetic evolution. A life changing arrangement, Everything from sadness to gladness. Tales of romance to make you want to dance. Even some heartbreak that will bring A tear to your eye. Stories of love lost Was it worth the cost? Tales of family told, Both new and old. Some political satire To get you wired. Some celestial tales, To help you understand To no avail. Share in author Stosh Chappas' joy, sorrow, relief and closure as you get whisked away in the brilliant poetry in Altered States. Stosh Chappas is a union carpenter who travels and works at industrial sites in nuclear and chemical plants and oil refineries.




Altered States


Book Description

In the 1960s, Americans combined psychedelics with Buddhist meditation to achieve direct experience through altered states of consciousness. As some practitioners became more committed to Buddhism, they abandoned the use of psychedelics in favor of stricter mental discipline, but others carried on with the experiment, advancing a fascinating alchemy called psychedelic Buddhism. Many think exploration with psychedelics in Buddhism faded with the revolutionary spirit of the sixties, but the underground practice has evolved into a brand of religiosity as eclectic and challenging as the era that created it. Altered States combines interviews with well-known figures in American Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality—including Lama Surya Das, Erik Davis, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei, Rick Strassman, and Charles Tart—and personal stories of everyday practitioners to define a distinctly American religious phenomenon. The nuanced perspective that emerges, grounded in a detailed history of psychedelic religious experience, adds critical depth to debates over the controlled use of psychedelics and drug-induced mysticism. The book also opens new paths of inquiry into such issues as re-enchantment, the limits of rationality, the biochemical and psychosocial basis of altered states of consciousness, and the nature of subjectivity.




Consciousness


Book Description

Some of our most burning questions surround consciousness: What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Is consciousness itself an illusion? The rapid rate of developments in brain science continues to open up debate on these issues. This book clarifies the complex arguments and illuminates the major theories on consciousness.




The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics


Book Description

Rev. ed. of: The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics / Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan, co-editors; Frank J. Warnke, O.B. Hardison, Jr., and Earl Miner, associate editors. 1993.




When Mirrors Are Windows


Book Description

In an ocean where myriads of rivers converge, can one sole river lend the ocean its distinct flavour? For someone who is at home with several languages, literary traditions and disciplines, is it possible for one form to criss-cross the landscape of another? In a poet’s world of mirrors, where stream and earth are sky, one may ‘sometimes count every orange on a tree’, but can one count ‘all the trees in a single orange’? In this volume, Guillermo Rodríguez explores these possibilities by analysing the works of one of India’s finest poets, translators, essayists and scholars of the twentieth century, A.K. Ramanujan (1929–1993).




Literary Illumination


Book Description

An Original Research Area – Little has been written on the connections between artificial light and literature in this period. Substantial Textual Coverage – A wide range of literature is analysed in this manuscript, which makes it beneficial to new or experienced scholars. Some more canonical texts are studied, and some more obscure authors and texts. The Holistic Approach – This manuscript tackles the entire history of nineteenth century illumination; it is an excellent primer for those interested in the field, and an example of what can be done within it.




Tell Me Again: Poetry and Prose from The Healing Art of Writing, 2012


Book Description

For more than a decade The Healing Art of Writing conference has sought to strengthen compassionate understanding between healthcare providers and those who seek a state of well-being beyond the reach of surgery or pharmacology. Together, the participants share the belief that being cured of disease is not the same thing as being healed, and that a practice of expressive writing promotes both spiritual and physical healing. The writings presented at the 2013 conference, collected here in Tell Me Again, are a powerful testament to that belief. Within these pages you will hear, again and again, words of truth, words that uplift, words that heal.




Expressive Minds and Artistic Creations


Book Description

Expressive Minds and Artistic Creations: Studies in Cognitive Poetics presents multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research papers describing new developments in the field of cognitive poetics. Among other leading researchers, many contributors are world-famous scholars of psychology, linguistics, and literature, including Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., Zoltán Kövecses, and Reuven Tsur.




69 Provoking Poems


Book Description

A harsh world-view, preposterous theories and a profound exchange of ideas and thoughts, this book is all about experiencing one’s internal viewpoints - assessing them through comparison. Have a weird world view? Read this and relate!




Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts


Book Description

In this book, well-known scholars describe new and exciting approaches to aesthetics, creativity and psychology of the arts, approaching these topics from a point of view that is biological or related to biology and answering new questions with new methods and theories. All known societies produce and enjoy arts such as literature, music and visual decoration or depiction. Judging from prehistoric archaeological evidence, this arose very early in human development. Furthermore, Darwin was explicit in attributing aesthetic sensitivity to lower animals. These considerations lead us to wonder whether the arts might not be evolutionarily based. Although such an evolutionary basis is not obvious on the face of it, the idea has recently elicited considerable attention. The book begins with a consideration of ten theories on the evolutionary function of specific arts such as music and literature. The theory of evolution was first drawn up in biology, but evolution is not confined to biology: genuinely evolutionary theories of sociocultural change can be formulated. That they need to be formulated is shown in several chapters that discuss regular trends in literature and scientific writings. Psychologists have recently rediscovered the obvious fact that thought and perception occur in the brain, so cognitive science moves ever closer to neuroscience. Several chapters give overviews of neurocognitive and neural network approaches to creativity and aesthetic appreciation. The book concludes with two exciting describing brain-scan research on what happens in the brain during creativity and presenting a close examination of the relationship between genetically transmitted mental disorder and creativity.