The philosopher Bernard Williams defines authenticity as “the idea that some things are in some sense really you, or express what you are, and others aren’t.” This concept can also be encapsulated by the phrase, “to thine own self be true”, spoken by the character Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Authenticity means realising and manifesting your…
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There are possibly many ways in which we can define a religious experience. We need to ask ourselves: What features should such an experience exemplify? There is also the issue of trying to ascertain whether a certain experience is pathological in nature. For reasons which will become clear, I will be using the term religious…
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If you’re thinking about studying a master’s degree, you may be wondering if it’s really worth the costs involved, especially after accumulating huge amounts of debt from your undergraduate studies. Indeed, you could end up paying thousands of pounds for only a slight advantage over undergraduates in the jobs market. However, it is also quite…
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In 1927, the French dramatist Romain Rolland wrote a letter to the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, in which he coined the phrase ‘oceanic feeling’. It is oceanic because the experience seems to be “without perceptible limits”. Rolland believed that this feeling of ‘the eternal’ was a religious feeling independent of any organised religion, but…
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Many people who use DMT report that it is the most earth-shattering, revelatory and mystical experience they could ever imagine taking place (or never imagine such an experience was possible in the first place). But perhaps the most frustrating part of the DMT experience is the amnesia – being unable to remember clearly what felt…
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