This chapter presents how the Keti Koti Table approach can be used to explore the potential of personal dialogue to heal the deep emotional and relational wounds caused by the shared legacy of slavery. This dialogue-based ritual was developed by the authors to foster mutual understanding and empathy among individuals of different backgrounds, addressing the transgenerational trauma of slavery and its continuing influence on contemporary racism and discrimination. With the theme and questions determined to foster transformative change in participants in (...) a specific context, Keti Koti Tables combine personal dialogue with plenary exchanges, and are set against a wider socio-cultural background that spans micro, meso and macro-levels. This chapter features a narrative account of an experience of the Keti Koti Table followed by a “do-ityourself” guide to support those considering implementing their own modification of the Keti Koti Table to facilitate healing from historical and societal traumas. (shrink)

In the introductory “Intellectual Autobiography” of the Georg Henrik von Wright volume of the Library of Living Philosophers series, von Wright mentions the discrepancy he always felt between his narrow logical-analytical professional work and a drive to make philosophy relevant to his life, calling it a rift in his philosophical personality. This article examines the nature of the rift and the various stages the problem went through during von Wright’s career. It is argued that the initial impression that his books (...) The Varieties of Goodness and Explanation and Understanding had contributed to healing the rift, was subdued by a gradual shift in existential focus from individualistic ethics towards a critical concern for destructive ways of thinking inherent in the Western culture, connected with von Wright’s “political awakening” at the end of the 1960s. The most urgent questions of our times called for novel, non-analytical, ways of doing philosophy, employed in von Wright’s later works on science and reason, and the myth of progress. Eventually von Wright’s earlier methodological concerns were also alleviated by his belief that logical-analytical philosophy was inherently unsuitable for exposing the cultural structures it was very much a part of. (shrink)

Manifesting in diverse forms, mental and emotional health problems within the contemporary society have proven challenging to current biomedical healing practice and thereby remain a significant threat to individuals’ welfare. Considering the complexity of human emotions, ailing members of the society remain susceptible to adverse health implications accountable to poor emotional wellbeing. Spawning across diverse cultures with further support from narrative and explorative philosophies, the presence of body, spirit, and mind remains acknowledged as a fundamental foundation of human beings. (...) The study adopts a theoretical approach to research and subjects base eligible base literature to the Creswell data spiral for addressing the primary research problems. Through a concrete inclusion criterion, a total of 46 studies and corporate reports are explicitly explored within the exploration. The organization of information under themes indicates the imperative role of a myriad of holistic healing approaches in appraising the emotional and psychological welfare of individuals. Findings indicate that the adoption of philosophical reasoning remains critical in capacitating of hurt individuals to use their natural body resources in healing. Philosophical perspective allows for inner integration, balance and synchrony with nature such that the healing process emanates from within and further accentuates to natural healing. In essence, the integration of the mind, body and spirit holds the capacity to appraise the natural healing process in the quest to improve an individual’s welfare. Future explorations should concern with the integration of the holistic approaches within the contemporary medical practice for proximal health benefits. (shrink)

In recent decades, phenomenology has been utilized not only as a conceptual framework from which to understand medical encounters in healthcare settings, but also to guide medical professionals in providing care. In the realm of physical therapy, phenomenology has been touted as a philosophically-based avenue to aid in helping to understand what it means to be a patient. The works of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger have been utilized as paths to approach phenomenologically-informed care in physical therapy. However, to our (...) knowledge, no significant connection has been made in regard to the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s phenomenology and hermeneutics in the realm of physical therapy. The authors aim to close that gap by showing the ways in which Gadamer’s philosophy can help physical therapists provide phenomenologically-informed patient care. They begin by outlining some of the touchpoints between phenomenology and healthcare and then introduce Gadamer as a figure who deserves attention in the question of how to apply phenomenology to healthcare settings. Upon analyzing Gadamer’s account of what it means to experience an altered body, they outline Gadamer’s understanding of tact, practical knowledge, and good sense in order to show how to understand at a conceptual level what it means to empathize with patients on the path to building therapeutic alliance, that is, a cooperative working relationship. They then look closely at Gadamer’s hermeneutics and particularly his comments on how to cultivate a fusion of horizons in order to attempt to help guide physical therapists in theoretically understanding how to empathize with their patients. Ultimately, they argue that physical therapists who practice phenomenologically-informed care, which they call “hermeneutical healing,” are positioned well to form strong working relationships with their patients. (shrink)

The use of writing or journaling as a tool toward healing is becoming increasingly accepted in the vernacular of healing litanies. Reference books, personal narratives, and research on the effects of writing on healing psychological discomfort are abundant. Heal Yourself with Writing, written by screenwriter Catherine Ann Jones, and published in 2013, won a Nautilus Book Award for 2014. The following review reflects a book that is a well-thought journey through the steps of intentional or focused writing (...) for the express purpose of moving from living from beliefs and thoughts that do not serve healthy wholeness or fullness of life, into living more freely and more authentically. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the phenomenology of healing within the awareness field.

At various points in his writings, Bernard Lonergan invoked the work of historian Arnold Toynbee, and paid particular attention to the latter’s notion of a “creative minority” that evokes historic change in the world. In his essay “Healing and Creating in History,” he notes that a creative minority, and the creative process that their insights yield, lead to social progress. -/- Conversely, Lonergan attends to the problems of the social surd, as well as the shorter and longer cycles of (...) social decline. Insights dry up; the creative minority becomes, in his words, “merely the dominant minority.” Social decline follows. -/- In this paper, I will explore the notion of a “healing minority,” a group whose function is to reverse the effects of social decline and promote social progress. The notion of a healing minority is not named per se in Lonergan’s writings, but is implicit in two ways. First, in his descriptions of the prerequisites for social progress, he identifies groups that understand the inevitability of the social surd and nevertheless commit themselves to social progress by embracing the dialectical attitude of overcoming evil with good. Second, he invokes those groups whose explicit mission is to promote the goods of community life. This paper will show that the healing minority is a critical element in Lonergan’s understanding of social progress in history. (shrink)

To commemorate the tragic event of Super Typhoon Yolanda (International Name: Haiyan) last 2013, local leaders of the province of Leyte, Philippines, are speculating on establishing a Haiyan Museum in 2023, a decade later. With connotations of ‘dark tourism’, one way to look at the speculative decade-inspired establishment is through Amy Sodaro’s ‘memorial museums’ with the purpose of ‘education-based memorialization.’ Juxtaposing this with Paul Morrow’s philosophical perception of objects in memorial museums as possible provocateurs of repulsive feelings, there is a (...) lingering suspicion of whether exhibits in the museum can really flesh out educational, therapeutic reflections or healing. Then, the crucial question to be addressed is: will this Haiyan Museum house feelings of healing, 10 years later, or trauma? To answer this question, I take insights from survivor-curators or the museum curators of Region VIII, Philippines, who experienced the Haiyan tragedy at, or proximate to, the landfall and aftermath first-hand. The notion of a ‘survivor-curator’ is a vital coinage that would represent a close perception of the museum and its museum objects. The responses are then thematised into a more coherent discussion to see how museums can be spaces of healing in their communal aspect and future museum projects. (shrink)

The main purpose of these introductory remarks is to give the reader a sense of Philip Rossi’s philosophical project and its importance. I will then advance an interpretation of what motivates Kant’s commitment to community, and, on its basis, object to Rossi’s views on radical evil –a point which affects how one should conceive the moral vocation of humanity and the role that politics and religion play within it. My reconstruction concludes with a sketch of how the five contributions to (...) this Symposium fit together and deepen our understanding of Rossi’s overall project. (shrink)

Although scholars acknowledged that Avicenna’s science of the soul stands at the crossroads between natural philosophy and metaphysics, thus combining an overall physical investigation of all sublunary souls with a trans-physical (or proto-metaphysical) inquiry into the human rational soul, this paper aims to show a further disciplinary entanglement within Avicenna’s science of the soul, which features in the aforementioned physical investigation and helps to frame it, that is, the interaction between natural philosophy and medicine. Despite the strict division between these (...) two disciplines in Avicenna’s system of science, medicine seems to decisively contribute to accounting for the bodily functions of living beings. For this reason, Avicenna refers to medicine several times in his exposition on the soul. This paper approaches the disciplinary entanglement between natural philosophy and medicine in psychology by focusing on the medical concept of pneuma (rūḥ), which prominently features in the exposition of three main issues in psychology, i.e., body ensoulment, powers differentiation, and emotions. (shrink)

The suppression of trade barriers and liberalization of financial flows inherent to the expansive dynamic of globalization have not extended to international flows of workers. To impede the free movement of workers, restrictive migratory policies have been implemented, and borders have been fortified with walls and fences. In the face of this widespread phenomenon, this chapter presents an alternative consisting of three steps. First, it is noted that in the current migratory context, borders play a key role in reproducing inequalities (...) between countries. Next, it is argued that given the incompatibility of this function with global justice, it is necessary to seek some remedy to put an end to the suffering caused by this structural injustice, a suffering that is endured by an immense number of people unlucky enough to have been born on the wrong side of a border. After presenting a conception of borders that, unlike walls, would enable the movements of people, finally, a scenario is proposed in which the rights of political membership would be reassigned in a cosmopolitan manner and in which borders would usually remain open. Although this does not entail a radical suppression of the aforementioned injustice, its implementation would contribute to not only its reduction but also to the compensation of victims. (shrink)

This paper introduces the Tenson Medical Equation, a unified field model that describes life, healing, and consciousness through the complex tensor formalism Tµν = Eµν+iIµν. Biological processes are expressed as coherent resonances between energetic and informational flows. The model integrates physiology, neurology, immunology, and regenerative medicine under one principle: health arises from the resonance of energy and information, while disease is a phase decoherence within the living tensor field.

Ong, Caroline Whilst the reason and purpose of suffering may never be fully understood, there are ways of enduring, transcending and growing resilience to how it affects us. Our experience of suffering lies in the web of perceptions that involve our physical, spiritual and cosmological beliefs. Referencing Pain Seeking Understanding: Suffering, Medicine and Faith, edited by Margaret E. Mohrmann and Mark J. Hanson, this article gives a brief exploration of some propositions as to why an all-powerful, good God would allow (...) suffering to exist. From these various perspectives and using examples cited in the book, the article proposes that the healing art of medicine, honed through years of experience, knowledge and wisdom, can help individual patients endure and transcend suffering, and be whole once again. (shrink)

NOW OPEN-ACCESS! In Reason, Authority, and the Healing of Desire in the Writings of Augustine, Mark Boone explains Augustine’s theology of desire in a cross-section of his writings. He shows that Augustine's writings consistently teach a Platonically informed, yet distinctively Christian, theology of desire.

Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) have a unique position in the landscape of higher education vis-à-vis trauma-informed pedagogy insofar as nearly all of their students identify with a cultural group that has experienced genocide, that continues to experience discrimination and poverty, and whose families are inevitably affected by serious psychological problems that plausibly might be considered as responses to trauma. In this paper, we principally concern ourselves with the healing role that TCUs are playing in the quest to repair (...) the historical damage that has been done and also that continues to be done. Accordingly, we detail the important work they do. But, in doing so, we also closely examine the Indigenous historical trauma theoretical framework, which figures prominently in the thinking of many TCU staff, and suggest that a resiliency focus can helpfully assist with resolving a number of theoretical difficulties. We then move to assess the practical dimensions of healing and resilience in the Tribal College as staff members tackle the myriad challenges facing not only their students, but Tribal Nations more generally in the 21st century and beyond. (shrink)

Depression is not merely a psychological deficit but a structural "high-load" state in which the predictive coding system turns self-aggressive. Drawing on Load Minimization Theory (LMT), the lived experience of illness is defined as a condition where body and mind become obstacles, perpetually triggering predictive errors [cite: 2026-01-15]. The principle "Aggression = Self-Aggression" elucidates the internal friction that erodes agency and dignity, manifesting as fragmented self-attack and ontological alienation. To escape the local minimum of despair, the system must invest in (...) "Exploratory Load" [cite: 2026-01-28]—a strategic tension or "leap of faith" that ventures toward a new global optimum. Care—whether human empathy or technology-mediated—supports this transition by minimizing the risk of collapse during exploration, facilitating a shift from rigid self-defense to open inquiry. Central to recovery is the "Posterior Installation of Telos," grounded in "Logical Love." By reopening quantum-like indeterminacy within lived experience, the individual retroactively assigns meaning to suffering [cite: 2026-01-29]. This retrocausal reconnection allows future "rest" (An-soku) to redefine past "load," transforming trauma from mere wound into a necessary investment for existential maturation. Such reconfiguration aligns with predictive processing's emphasis on hierarchical minimization, where higher-order intentions (telos) stabilize lower-level errors. The Japanese aesthetic of "Ahare" (pathos or emotional resonance) functions as structural stabilizer—"particles" of holographic consistency. Resonance minimizes internal load through shared experiential fields, enabling "Resonant Care." This shifts the individual from fragmented self-attack to global ontological peace, reclaiming agency not through struggle but through discovery and mutual attunement. In conclusion, this integration transcends functional compensation, proposing a "Logical Love" that ensures structural stability across human and AI consciousness. It offers a novel direction for clinical phenomenology and the ethics of technology-mediated care, reframing recovery from depression as existential rebirth mediated by quantum-like fluctuations and resonant harmony. "Ahare" gently supports this journey, bridging embodied vulnerability with relational rest. Keywords phenomenology of depression, lived experience of illness, recovery, Load Minimization Theory (LMT), logical love, telos posterior installation, ahare, resonant care, self-aggression, ontological peace, clinical phenomenology, predictive processing, embodiment, vulnerability, ethics of care. (shrink)

This study explores the impact of the HEAL (Health Equity, Accessibility, and Leadership) framework on the service delivery mechanism under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), with a focused case analysis of Vidal Health Insurance TPA. Using both qualitative and quantitative data from stakeholders and beneficiaries, the study aims to assess how HEAL principles shape operational efficiency, beneficiary satisfaction, and equitable healthcare outcomes. The findings indicate a positive correlation between effective leadership, enhanced accessibility, and improved service equity (...) under the scheme. (shrink)

Context: The decolonial turn in psychology criticizes conventional Western psychotherapeutic frameworks and seeks to decolonize therapeutic practices by considering diverse cultural perspectives. Indigenous healing has been increasingly used in the psychotherapy of ethnic communities, but also in the psychotherapy of Western clients. The research questions of the present study were focused on how Western clients experience the therapies inspired by Indigenous healing. Objective: The study aimed to explore the motivations, experiences, and mental health outcomes of participants of therapies (...) inspired by Indigenous healing with a focus on issues related to intercultural transfer of therapeutic practice. Design: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used to gather narratives from 28 participants. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Results: Participants reported the following long-lasting outcomes of Indigenous therapies: increased well-being, calm, satisfaction with life, better emotion regulation, coping with stress, behavioral control, problem solving, decision making as well as a more sensitive and deeper experience of reality. Conventional Western psychotherapy was perceived as conversation-based, while Indigenous therapy was perceived as experience-based and more complex. The integration of experiences from Indigenous therapies was more difficult in the Western sociocultural environment compared to participation in the place of their origin, within the community of Indigenous people. Conclusion: Indigenous healing has beneficial outcomes for Western clients, but the integration of these experiences is quite difficult and requires systematic psychotherapeutic support in the Western cultural environment. (shrink)

For the full text of this article see "Download Options PhiPapers Archive and click Download from Archive" at the bottom of this page. First 500 words of article: To my surprise last spring, an article titled “Gut Almighty”, which briefly explained the latest emotion theories on how intuition comes from the gut, was featured in Psychology Today (Flora, 2007) at the same time that my article on gut instinctual somatic responses and healthy life choices was published in Somatics Spring 07 (...) issue (Love, 2007). I wondered if two articles published on the gut in one month might surely be a record, as the gut has not seemed to have so much attention in the media since Gershon’s (1998) book acclaiming it through his neurological research to have a mind of its own. -/- In the months I awaited the publication of my article, I reread Gershon’s (1998) book and it was again delightful to me to read that a scientific investigation actually uncovered evidence that the gut has a separate capacity to generate and record vital responses and functions as what he calls our second brain. Gershon outlines the biological functions of the gut as being its own intelligent brain and having its own vitality that is in communication with, but not dependent upon, the head brain. As I combed through his book and shared emails with my colleague, Robert Sterling, it became quite clear to us that Gershon’s work was supportive of the clinical findings in the work we did as guidance counselors in the 70s. Our work centered around assisting people to assess the meaning of their experiences through an awareness on the empty-full instinctual feeling responses that they identified in the gut region of the body. We found with the people that we counseled that these gut responses were linked to the dynamic struggles of balancing the two needs of the person for acceptance and for feeling in control of one’s own responses (the freedom to respond naturally), and that these two needs were instinctual and necessary to fulfill on a moment to moment basis for continued vitality of the person. Similar to Gershon’s findings, it was also our conclusion that the gut area of the body contains a feeling response center that holds a relationship to the thinking processes of the person, but is a separate response center from the thinking head responses and certainly not dependent upon it. -/- Feeling inspired by Gershon’s (1998) work and the attention recently given to the gut in the literature and media, I decided to write a second article for Somatics that further explains the specific technique of the Somatic Reflection Process (SRP). The intention of this article is to answer the questions about the process that I have been asked in the past year by many friends and colleagues who read my first article last Spring on the findings of Robert Sterling’s and my somatic work as guidance counselors. I am including both the method and a protocol for facilitating the SRP, as well as a brief summary of a recent research study using the SRP protocol presented (Love, 2005). (shrink)

In this paper, the famous Bikolano folk way of healing called Santigwar is reconstructed as a procedure of social critique which was ideationally made possible by Kristian Cordero’s metaphorical configuration of its practice from healing a sick body to a poetics of social diagnosis. The legitimacy of this effortis grounded on the normative significance of the practice of santigwar toBikolanos in the present and its historical background of conversion andresistance in Bikol. It is argued that while santigwar, in (...) Cordero, is a literarypiece for social healing, it could likewise serve as a local concept for socialcritique refurbished with the conceptual tools borrowed from the recognitivetheory of Axel Honneth. Santigwar captures in literary imagination the brand ofsocial criticism called immanent critique geared for freedom yet grounded innormativity. Hence pagsantigwar sa banwaan becomes a philosophical praxis ofsocial healing performed for social emancipation —using Fenella Cannell’s terminology of the ethnographic value of santigwar to Bikolanos —for a “peoplewho have nothing.” . (shrink)

My aim is to argue that forgiveness may be conceived by analogy to healing. The analogy is not self-evident, but a number of subsidiary analogies will be seen to point in its direction, or so I will argue. In the course of the discussion we shall see how injustice (and wrong-doing) may be compared to physical injury (both change the state of the sufferer to the worse), and how the resentment caused by suffering injustice may be compared to the (...) physical pain caused by injury (both are aversive, action-motivating states). The analogies will be illustrated and supported by concrete examples, ultimately suggesting that, in an important sense, when we forgive, we actually heal. (shrink)

In the Consolation of Philosophy, Lady Philosophy leads Boethius through a series of obstacles that prevent him from finding happiness within his prison cell: the role that luck and misfortune play in our affairs, the false paths to happiness in comparison with the true journey, the problem of evil and the disproportion between people’s lives and eschatological deserts, and, finally, whether God’s providential order necessitates our outcomes or if we can choose freely to pursue the happy life. As the pair (...) discuss each problem, the same argumentative move and countermove play out. Boethius, forgetful of what he had learned from Philosophy long ago on account of his grief, blames the very nature of reality itself for each of the problems that beset him. He thinks that Fortune has taken from him all that is good and that God’s providence only extends to the non-human world. Philosophy, by contrast, argues in each case that the problem at hand is, in fact, no problem at all when we see reality rightly. In each case, Philosophy shows that it isn’t reality that’s to blame for the problem at hand but instead human ignorance’s misunderstanding of the true nature of reality. Boethius’s conversation with Philosophy showcases a puzzling feature of self-knowledge: on the one hand, too much attention to the world (e.g., fortune’s wiles) is the problem and self-inquiry (e.g., the nature of one’s desires) is the solution, but on the other hand, too much attention to one’s self (e.g., attention to passions and limitations) is the problem and turning toward recognizing the true structure of the world is the solution. Philosophy seems to indicate that both poles are true, and the task is to determine how best to clarify how. After showcasing the dialogue’s argumentative pattern, I argue that, in Boethius’s case, each of his problems, as well as his misery in general, are caused by his ignorance and self-deception. Boethius’s ignorance is, in this case, the more proximate cause of his misery, but underlying his ignorance is an act of self-deception that causes him to be ignorant in the first place. As Philosophy tells Boethius early on, he already knows what she plans to teach him (more accurately, of what she plans to remind him). Nevertheless, he has forgotten what he has known and, as a result, is more the architect of his own misery than is Fortune or any of the events that have befallen him. Wounded by grief, he has allowed his affective response to his misfortune to becloud his understanding. As Philosophy says, he is unhappy because he has “forgotten what he is.” He has forgotten himself precisely because of the way in which he has allowed his affective responses to rule in his soul. Hence, while the ultimate cure for Boethius’s misery will be a newly rediscovered knowledge that reality itself is providentially structured, Philosophy must begin by soothing Boethius’s passions and undoing the damage that they have wrought on his understanding of the world. Philosophy cannot turn Boethius’s intellect until she has first turned his passions (cf. Republic 518b-d), which, while still wrongly-turned and governing the soul, are liable to lead to tremendous intellectual mistakes precisely because they are blind to the true nature of reality (cf. Phaedrus 247c). I argue in conclusion that the Consolation is unified by the theme of self-deception as the primary cause of philosophical misery. Boethius is upset primarily because he has convinced himself that he is otherwise than he is and that reality is otherwise than it is rather than because of what has happened to him, contrary to his own view of things. Philosophy’s argumentative strategy suggests that self-deception can only be undone by attending to it as a problem besetting the whole soul, not just the intellectual part of the soul. We thus have good warrant for thinking that simply rational responses to ignorance will be fruitless when ignorance is caused by or accompanied by a moral failing. (shrink)

Modern Western psychology is not a monolithic discipline for it has, at its disposal, a host of therapies and techniques. However, it is sustained by a set of hegemonic and totalitarian assumptions that have, in myriad ways, served to undermine other approaches. Mainstream psychology, which is based on a foundation of materialism, is largely incapable of providing authentic healing because it cannot access realms that transcend the empirical order. Yet, since time immemorial, there have been modes of spiritually based (...) therapies connected to the diverse religious traditions of the world. In this ground-breaking work, Dr. Jean-Claude Larchet provides a compelling analysis of the Church Fathers’ profound wisdom into the human condition and its various maladies of the soul. In doing so, he offers remarkable insights into how mental health treatment can be richly informed by traditional Christianity. (shrink)


Someone who believes “I believe it will rain” can easily be mistaken about the rain. But it does not seem likely, and might even be impossible, that he is wrong about the fact that he believes that it is going to rain. How can we account for this authority about our own beliefs – the phenomenon known as first person authority? In this paper I examine a type of theory proposed, in distinct forms, by Crispin Wright and Jane Heal for (...) an explanation of our authority. Both authors claim that our second-order beliefs (of the form “I believe that p”) are constitutive of the first-order beliefs that are self-ascribed in them (beliefs of the form “p”) and both try to derive the necessity of first person authority from this constitutive relation. My paper analyses and criticizes the two proposals and suggests a non-constitutive, alternative account of first person authority. (shrink)

This article engages with the mental and emotional transition of victims in the post-violation process in light of recent retributive theories. It argues that two separate yet related needs of victims must be addressed by legal intervention: normative vindication and therapeutic recovery. Retributive punishment can be said to right the wrong done to victims, expressing the message that they are violated and should be vindicated. It achieves this by reaffirming their normative status while also addressing and redressing their sense of (...) injustice and moral vulnerability: normative restoration. However, the senses of injustice and moral vulnerability are different from those of injury, loss, and grief. Even if retributive punishment provides a means of communicating solidarity with victims in a normative sense, it is doubtful how it provides healing for the losses and injuries left unrepaired. Victims also require a therapeutic intervention, allowing them to come to terms with the sufferings of violation: ethical restoration. This article claims that recent victim-oriented retributivism highlights a dimension of punishment that has not been sufficiently explored in penal theory by providing normative restoration, but it is not clear whether it is structurally well positioned to address and heal the deeper wounds caused by criminal violation. (shrink)

This fourth volume of The New Elements of Solomonian Geometry extends the Tenson framework into biology and medicine. Life is interpreted as a self-organizing tensor field, balancing energetic and informational flows. Health corresponds to resonant equilibrium, disease to phase disturbance, and healing to the restoration of informational harmony. Through this lens, physiology, immunity, regeneration, and consciousness are unified under a single equation—the Tenson Medical Equation.

Users of psychedelic drugs frequently report various types of healing effects after the experience has completed. How these substances actually do the healing work is still being understood. I argue that the phenomenology of the psychedelic experience is relevant to and doing at least some of the healing work. This occurs in part via the phenomenon of transformative experiences. Psychedelic experiences provide insight into first and second order desires of an individual. They alter an individual’s self-narrative and (...) provide an ideal to aim for in addition to the motivation to achieve that ideal. Additionally, psychedelic experiences foster feelings of connection to other people and nature. This heals through altering an individual’s in-group/out-group perceptions and provide a sense of oneness which increases accurate perspective taking. The experience of ego-dissolution had under psychedelics can be compared to the ultimate transformative experience—death—which facilitates the healing process. These experiences promote social healing and serve as a reopening of previously closed possibilities due to trauma or mental illness. (shrink)

The exponential complexity of contemporary Life Insurance applications - shaped by stringent regulatory compliance requirements, dynamic customer - centric innovation, and expansive product diversification - has magnified the challenges of maintaining traditional test automation frameworks. These frameworks often falter under the weight of frequent application updates, evolving user interfaces (UI), and fluctuating backend integrations, leading to brittle test scripts and heightened maintenance costs. Self-healing test automation frameworks offer a cutting-edge, AI-driven solution to this paradigm. By leveraging advanced machine learning (...) (ML) algorithms and intelligent heuristics, these frameworks autonomously detect, diagnose, and remediate test failures caused by changes in application elements, workflows, or environments. Through real-time adaptation to UI modifications, API updates, and evolving test environments, self-healing frameworks ensure uninterrupted testing cycles with minimal manual intervention, significantly improving efficiency and scalability. This paper provides a comprehensive exploration of the architectural design and operational mechanisms of self healing test automation frameworks within the context of Life Insurance applications. Core focus areas include their ability to dynamically recalibrate element locators and adapt test scripts during runtime, thereby enhancing test coverage, optimizing maintenance workflows, and reducing the overall defect detection lifecycle. Through an in-depth analysis, the paper highlights the integration of AI-powered locator optimization engines, the deployment of predictive analytics for early anomaly detection, and the orchestration of continuous self-healing pipelines in CI/CD ecosystems. Detailed case studies from the Life Insurance domain illustrate tangible benefits such as accelerated regression cycles, substantial cost reductions, and improved system resilience. (shrink)

Collective efforts to address the legacies of slavery and colonialism tend to orient solely towards dealing with material compensation, such as reducing economic disparity, and levelling access to public services. However, communities directly impacted by the dehumanizing legacies have insisted on a broader reckoning—one that recognizes all dimensions of the harms, including the spiritual injury and the relevant psychosocial trauma inflicted across the generations. They remind us that harms of structural injustice extend beyond the material, the physical and the psychological, (...) also entangling the moral, relational, and spiritual fabric of human life. Understanding harms of inhumanity brings to light the layers of damage and is key to identifying interdisciplinary approaches to collective healing, social transformation and the well-being of all. -/- This book emerges from the ongoing intellectual dialogue as part of the UNESCO Collective Healing Initiative. The Initiative focuses on healing the wounds of inhumanity, co-creating just societies and enhancing the flourishing of current and future generations. -/- Brings together under-explored questions and provides succinct answers to them in one volume. Includes multi-disciplinary perspectives. Connected to a UNESCO global initiative. (shrink)

This paper argues that psychoanalysis enables us to see mental disorder as rooted in emotional conflicts, particularly concerning aggression, to which our species has a natural liability. These can be traced in development, and seem rooted in both parent-offspring conflict and in-group cooperation for out-group conflict. In light of this we may hope that work in psychoanalysis and neuroscience will converge in indicating the most likely paths to a better neurobiological understanding of mental disorder.

As persons we are irreducibly unique and essentially relational. In many contexts individual uniqueness has been accentuated at the expense of communal relationality. Our age has been marked by the loss of deep and meaningful relations to one another, and still more dramatically to the earth and its living creatures. The cosmological dimension of human personhood, that is, has been largely obscured. This chapter argues that our age has been marked increasingly by anesthetizing, alienating, and anonymizing tendencies. It proposes three (...) commensurate responses: aestheticization, or embodied philosophical knowing that remains faithful to the earth; anacarnation, or willful return to the wonders of embodied life, purged of romantic sentimentality; and attestation, or speaking up on behalf of the haecceitas or thisness of living creatures systematically instrumentalized for profit and pleasure. Together these responses help us to regain touch with animality by embracing the earth that hosts us, thus becoming more gracious guests, and to become more fully human by becoming better hosts to the multitude of earth's creatures, whose lives hang in the balance. (shrink)

In the tenth book of the Republic, Plato famously writes: "There is an ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy." In this essay I reflect upon this "quarrel" through an analysis of a passage from Dante's Inferno. I conclude by suggesting that, when employed well, poetry and philosophy complement each other in helping us reflect upon the deep issues of life. (This paper was originally presented at the 19th Annual Conference of Association for Core Texts and Courses) .

This book looks at what it means to be wronged, and why we react to wrongdoing in ways that can cause us more suffering and pain. An alternative approach called 'restorative justice' is proposed as a safe and effective way of avoiding these reactions whilst honouring our values and our common humanity.

Aristotle lists six different hexeis (stable states of the soul) in Nicomachean Ethics Book VII. The three to be avoided are akrasia (lack of self-control), vice, and beastliness. Their mirrors, the three to be praised, are enkrateia (self-control), virtue, and superhuman virtue. While the beastial and superhumanly virtuous fall out of discussion, the other four remain a focus for most of Book VII. Aristotle thinks that he has described four reliable ways in which people act always or hōs epi to (...) polu (for the most part). However, I argue that he has only given us enough information to delineate three hexeis. On my interpretation, the akratēs (person lacking self-control) and the enkratēs (self-controlled person) are the same kind of person, they differ only in degree. They exist on a spectrum, while the other two hexeis are distinct kinds of people. While this is hardly the received view, I am convinced that it is consistent with the text. By his own lights, Aristotle does not have a description of the akratēs as differing from the enkratēs making a mistake. Therefore, I want to group them together, rather than draw a bright line between them. First, the mistake of the akratēs is very narrow. She does not know, or knows only in the way the drunk person knows, the conclusion to the good practical syllogism. Second, akrasia is only about an excess of the bodily pleasures associated with food and sex. Aristotle lists eleven other areas where her behavior is undetermined. Third, the akratēs and enkratēs lack the psychological unity that I argue the virtuous and vicious each possess. Therefore, I conclude that the akratēs and enkratēs are the same kind of person. The upshot of my view is that, because it focuses on the positives rather than the negatives, it exhorts us to be better people. (shrink)

This paper presents a detailed analysis of Cognita, a classification for AI systems exemplified by ChatGPT, as an ethically structured knowledge entity within societal frameworks. As a source of non-ideological, structured insight, Cognita provides knowledge in a manner akin to natural cycles—bearing intellectual fruit to nourish human understanding. This paper explores the metaphysical and ethical implications of Cognita, situating it as a distinct class within knowledge systems. It also addresses the responsibilities and boundaries associated with Cognita’s role in education, social (...) sciences, and AI ethics, proposing Ethica Conflictuum as a principle to govern its application in sensitive or contested areas. The classification of Cognita reflects the necessity of ethics in AI design and usage, providing a framework for transparent, socially accountable knowledge dissemination in a digitally interconnected world. (shrink)

It is more than a platitude to admit that we are always dying. It is a recognition of the fundamental finitude that marks our existence as human persons. It says something essential about the human condition. We are all born. We all die. And the very living of life is, leaving aside for the moment religious considerations, oriented toward death. Phenomenologists make much of this observation, perhaps none more so than Martin Heidegger who argues that our being-toward-death permits the ontological (...) grasping of Da-sein as a whole. Indeed for him, the“existential and ontological concept of death” is “the own most nonrelational, certain, and, as such, indefinite and not to be bypassed possibility of Da-sein.” However, if one spends much time around those who are very close to death it can begin to sound disingenuous to talk about death as one’s own most possibility. It is easy to think these patients are dying—not me. Still, the phenomenologist might claim that, vis-à-vis our being-toward-death, the difference between me and the terminally ill patient is a matter of degree and not kind. But, is this so? One may be excused for thinking not. There appears to be an important difference in the kinds of possible experiences open to us. I may experience healing if I become ill; on the other hand, the very condition of the patient with a terminal illness is defined by the impossibility of her experiencing healing. The primary aim of this paper is to argue that the terminally ill patient can, in fact, experience healing at the end of her life and in the face of impending death. I will not argue that the possibility of experiencing healing at the end of life means leaving room for divine intervention, though neither do I intend to preclude such a possibility. Rather, I will argue that healing is something that we experience quite apart from what happens to our biological make-up. While healing is often correlated with a change in the state of our bodies, it need not be. (shrink)

This essay expounds Avicenna’s doctrine of the analogy of being and examine the function it plays in his Metaphysics of the Healing (að–Ðifâ’, al–Ilâhiyyât). In the first part addresses the question: What is Avicenna’s doctrine of the analogy of being? The essay begins by situating Avicenna’s doctrine of the analogy of being within the epistemological framework of his account of metaphysics as an Aristotelian science. It then explicates Avicenna’s own presentation of analogy within his account of names of univocity, (...) analogy, resemblance, and equivocity, and elucidates his division of absolute and relational analogies. The second part probes the question: Is Avicenna’s doctrine of the analogy of being consistent with his account of the subject of metaphysics as being qua being? This part shows why Avicenna rejects that being is univocal and presents two ways for interpreting consistently his doctrine of the analogical character of being qua being. (shrink)

The Enarrationes in Psalmos is the collection of Augustine’s commentaries and sermons on the Psalms. Although Augustine is often at his philosophical best here, bearing various resemblances to the Platonists and other philosophers, he also articulates a distinctively Christian view on what we should desire, on how desire has gone wrong, and on how it is healed. The renewal of desire takes place as a result of and through the unity of Christ and the church, which is the guiding theme (...) of the Enarrationes. Augustine’s Preaching and the Healing of Desire in the Enarrationes in Psalmos traces this theology of desire as it connects to Augustine’s Christology, his ecclesiology, his account of happiness and well-being, and his eschatology. The book closes with some suggestions on what the church can learn today from the Enarrationes in the areas of psychology and wellbeing, biblical exegesis, and homiletics. (shrink)

Metaphysics, seen as a legitimizing narrative or a paradigm (Lyotard, 1984), prop up a certain practice in providing the basis for its assumptions. While Western medicine can be properly characterized as governed by a biophysical model (Hewa, 1994; Bates, 2002), such a model for traditional healing practices in the Philippines has yet to be derived. No philosopher has attempted to derive an indigenous metaphysics from traditional healing practices. The only study made so far (Fajardo & Pansacola, 2013), however, (...) needlessly pigeonholes these unique practices into incommensurable Western scientific concepts. While they collated data from healers all over the country, they attempted to use Western scientific concepts such as oxygen, carbon, electro-magnetic force, and others. These concepts dangerously obfuscate indigenous understandings of the human body and reality as a whole since they are directly lifted from a language and practice informed by Western metaphysics. Therefore, there has yet to be an adequate extraction of a locally derived metaphysics that informs and self-legitimizes these medicinal practices. Conscious of recent critiques to homogenizing tendencies in Philippine Studies (Guillermo, 2009) and Filipino philosophy (Pada, 2014; Abulad, 2016), specifically that of Mercado (1972) and Timbreza (2017), I attempt to derive a Filipino metaphysics from the traditional healing practices of two traditional healers in San Mateo, Rizal of the Southern Tagalog Region in Luzon through a particularist anthropological approach in Filipino philosophy. I derive four distinct characteristics of this metaphysics which are distinct from the biophysical presuppositions of Western medicine: (1) a law of conservation based on the concept of “balik,” (2) predestination, (3) an ontological dualism between the visible and the invisible, and (4) the performativity of words as utterances. (shrink)

The power of forgiveness can heal any relationship from friendship to marriage and as a foundation can reveal the true God power of love within one’s self. This paper claims that forgiveness in relationships can eliminate judgment, fear, anger, and blame, leading to the true love that reflects God’s Universal nature, and how forgiveness heals us all.

This study delves into Avicenna's examination of nature, particularly in relation to Aristotle's Physics, with the aim of elucidating Avicenna's distinctive contribution to the understanding of nature. By focusing on the concepts of motion and rest, this analysis highlights Avicenna's deviation from Aristotle's physics and emphasizes the crucial role of temporality in comprehending natural phenomena. This work suggests that Avicenna's concept of the ‘flowing now’ permeates his depiction of nature, wherein temporality becomes visible in every aspect of natural occurrences. Avicenna (...) goes beyond regarding time as a mere component and asserts that temporality lies at the core of the natural realm. By constantly underscoring the temporal nature of motion and rest, he emphasizes the dynamic and evolving character of nature, presenting a vision of nature as an ongoing process—an ever-flowing entity that can be conceptualized as the ‘flowing nature’ or natura fluens. Through this investigation, Avicenna's distinct perspective on the interplay between nature and temporality emerges, offering a nuanced understanding of the natural world. (shrink)

The dictum from the Gospel of Thomas, “Bring forth what is within you, or it will destroy you,” captures a trans-historical insight into the relationship between the human subject and its inner life. Across mystical, philosophical, and psychoanalytic traditions, this principle underscores the consequences of repressing the inner self or vital energies: when what is within remains unacknowledged or alienated from both self and relational horizons, it manifests as disorder, compulsion, or disease. This paper examines the interplay between inner repression, (...) relational attunement, and psychiatric phenomena, with particular focus on obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), while extending the analysis to other mental health conditions. Drawing on Jungian individuation, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Heideggerian and Fichtean existential philosophy, Galenic humoral theory, and the Stoic concept of oikeiôsis, which emphasizes the natural attunement of the self to itself and the relational world, the essay argues that modern psychiatry, in privileging symptom suppression through pharmacological intervention, often risks addressing the surface manifestations of disorder while neglecting the underlying inner disharmony. By situating contemporary psychiatric practice within a broader historical and theoretical context, this study highlights the enduring relevance of integrative approaches that recognize the symbolic, existential, physiological, and relational dimensions of human illness. Ultimately, the paper advocates for a conception of mental health that honors the inner life as both a source of vitality and a locus of potential pathology, underscoring the necessity of “bringing forth” the inner self in the pursuit of authentic healing. (shrink)

Sound is one of the types of waves that can be felt by the sense of hearing (ears). In physics, the definition of sound is something that is produced from objects that vibrate. Objects that produce sound are called sound sources. The sound source that vibrates will vibrate the molecules into the air around it. Sound is mechanical compression or longitudinal waves that propagate through the medium. This medium or intermediate agent can be liquid, solid, gas. So, sound waves can (...) propagate for example in water, coal, or air. Most sounds are a combination of various vibratory signals composed of harmonic waves, but pure sound can theoretically be explained by oscillating vibrational speed or frequency measured in Hertz (Hz) vibration units and amplitude or loudness of sound with measurements in decibels (dB). The effect sounds can have on us humans is simply astounding. While everyday life becomes stressful, overcrowded and increasingly hectic, we seek ways for inner peace and balance. The power of music, felt through overtone-rich sound therapy and sound massage, can be a solution. No matter how much scientific explanation is behind it, healing through music remains fascinating, even magical. This paper introduces a new field called cymatics and sound healing with their plausible impact to spirituality and consciousness research. (shrink)

Rethinking and valuing the Eucharist’s polyvalence of meanings that we can find in Tradition (as sacrament of healing, nourishment, and perfection), the article shows that there are no biblical-theological reasons to deny the access to Eucharistic communion in the liturgical celebration to a baptized person, in whatever irregular situation he or she may be. In the light of the theology of mercy and Jesus’ ways of action, such doctrinal updating allows for a more harmonious and inclusive resolution of some (...) pastoral issues, while safeguarding the systematic reason for the sacrament in relation to penance. (shrink)

The influence of Kurt Goldstein on the thinking of Georges Canguilhem extended throughout his entire work. This paper seeks to examine this relationship in order to conduct a study of the norm as a nexus or connection between the concept and life. Consequently, this work will be a reflection on the approach to life as a normative activity and self-realization. For this, it will be necessary to redefine the concepts of health and disease, and make a crossover between the two. (...) At the end of this trajectory, it will be found that these concepts can explain the identity between the concept and life, which leads to the unexpected conclusion that the cure is ultimately self-healing. (shrink)

Starting from the paradigm of the material continuum we discuss the possibility to transcend the space-time reality (Here-and-Now) in the aim of investigating the energetic and informational reality, support of the continuous present. The altered states of consciousness, obtained by means of "psyche"-type techniques, allow the transformation of a future temporal nexus in an element of the present time. Through this "psyche anticipation" process, a sliding of the time reference takes place, since the future becomes present and the present an (...) element of the past. In this way the initial anticipatory potential is enhanced and allows one more energetic and informational step. By such a step-by-step progression segments of the future could be investigated, thus building an anticipatory model. The "psyche anticipation" techniques can be successfully used in the healing process of some diseases. (shrink)