The Cathars became a major movement, while having some influence in the Rhineland, Northern Italy and Northern France the movement was strongest in southern France (especially the Languedoc region) and northern Italy. By the 12th century the Cathar popular movement had gained a substantial following in urbanized southern France.
The dualistic…[Read more]

“Experience has shown pastoral caregivers that individuals do seem to cope better if they can “actualize” their spiritual experiences in times of crisis.”
A substantial amount of interest in spiritual experiences recently appears to be from a re-emergence of interest from the (unofficial) pastoral school of thought in psychology. For ins…[Read more]

1. Motivation: Spiritual beliefs as a Drive or Motivation.
When you talk to “spiritual people” – spiritual beliefs are not just a motivation but a very profound source of inspiration and a powerful drive. In contrast spirituality as a motivation is conspicuously absent from much of academia proper. Beginning in 2017, I did substantial research.…[Read more]

In Ingela Visuri’s study of autistic spiritual experiences, what struck me is the very distinct character of the autistics’ experiences. In Ingela Visuri’s words, “unexplainable sensory experiences” – invisible touch, invisible presence (i.e. bodies), and even imaginary friends. It would stand to reason that since this peculiar type of…[Read more]

A pesar de que ya el clásico de Cicerón sobre la amistad enfatizaba cuántos daño podría producirse al considerarla “como compañera de los vicios” en vez de “ayudante de las virtudes”, en realidad el concepto medieval de las malas amistades, dejando al margen el significado de ‘amistad’ como ‘tratado’ o ‘confederación’, se explica mejor en términ…[Read more]

The Four Primary Drives: The Need for Meaning, the Need to Belong, the Need for Ideology, and the Spiritual Drive
Religious beliefs are primarily created and generated by four very basic and fundamental “Needs” or “Drives.” From a rather practical and pragmatic approach, in general, religions could be said to involve meaning or purpose, others…[Read more]

George Barton, PhD: “Disaster and sorrow compel either a soul or a nation to seek anew the foundations of life. Times of sorrow are accordingly times of religious growth. The Babylonian exile was no exception. Indeed, the influence of this exile upon the religion of Israel was enormous. This was in part due to the fact that the exile was the e…[Read more]

George Barton, PhD: “Disaster and sorrow compel either a soul or a nation to seek anew the foundations of life. Times of sorrow are accordingly times of religious growth. The Babylonian exile was no exception. Indeed, the influence of this exile upon the religion of Israel was enormous. This was in part due to the fact that the exile was the e…[Read more]

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. And It is crystal clear that some psychologists play with human consciousness as if it were their toy! Human consciousness is not psychologists’ personal plaything!

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never…[Read more]

Eighteenth-century Spanish music experienced a golden age thanks, especially, to the proliferation of centers such as the chapels, which articulated and structured the musical life of our cities: the main sound activity was centered on ecclesiastical music, both liturgical and paraliturgical, with which religious festivities were solemnized.…[Read more]

Geertz, perhaps the most influential of the anthropologists, contends that symbolism and meaning are central to religion: “The view of man as a symbolizing, conceptualizing, meaning-seeking animal, which has become increasingly popular both in the social sciences and in philosophy over the past several years, opens up a whole new approach not o…[Read more]

Uno de los muchos manuscritos de la Crónica de Enrique IV de Enríquez
del Castillo,1 en concreto el que hoy reposa en la Biblioteca de El Escorial
(X.II.15), se abre con unos curiosos versos seguramente redactados por el
anónimo amanuense autor de esta copia, fechada en la primera mitad del
siglo XVI.2 El poemita, que creo es inédito (algo lóg…[Read more]

Einstein observed, “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration of this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.” As the p…[Read more]

This is pre-publication preview introduces the major questions, methods, and insights of my book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (UC Press, 2023).