{"word_count": 634, "character_count": 5214}
The Spiritual Tradition in Eastern ChristianityAscetic Psychology, Mystical Experience, and Physical PracticesSeries:  Studies in Spirituality Supplements, 26Authors:  Bradford D.T., 2016&#160;The Spiritual Tradition in Eastern Christianity is a comprehensive survey of the means, goals, and motivations of the ascetic life as represented in texts spanning the fourth and the nineteenth century. Contemporary examples are also included. The main themes are the dynamics of the soul, the disabling effects of the passions, mental and physical ascetism, the desirable condition of dispassion, and the experience of deification. A variety of topics are addressed, including hesychast prayer, religious weeping, the spiritual senses, dream interpretation, luminous visions, the holy 'fool', ascetic demonology, and pain in ascetic practice. Typical ascetic and mystical experiences are interpreted from the psychological and the neuroscientific perspective. Comparative analyses based on Sufism, Vedantic mysticism, and especially early Buddhist psychology highlight distinctive features of the Christian ascetic life. Major figures such as Evagrius Ponticus, Maximos the Confessor, Isaac the Syrian, and Symeon the New Theologian receive extensive individual consideration.(Text by the author)&#160;Table of Contents&#160;PrefaceChapter 1 – The Powers of the Soul1.1 The Incensive Power1.2 The Desiring Power1.3 The Intellect1.4 Image and Archetype1.5 Brightly Shining Mind&#160;Chapter 2 – The Heart2.1 Spiritual Anatomy2.2 Hesychast Prayer2.3 Four Phases of Prayer2.4 Intracorporeal Space2.5 Posture and Respiration2.6 Attention2.7 Two Patterns of Autonomic Arousal2.8 Parallels in Other Traditions2.9 The Influence of Sufism&#160;Chapter 3 – The Luminous Presence3.1 Properties of the Luminous Presence3.2 The Hesychast Controversy3.3 Divine and Demonic Visions3.4 Four Kinds of Luminous Visions3.5 Focal-Extracorporeal Light3.6 Global-Extracorporeal Light3.7 Corporeal Light3.8 Intracorporeal Light3.9 A Complex Visionary Experience3.10 Chromatic Visionary Light3.11 Visionary Light and Divine Omnipresence&#160;Chapter 4 0 Sleep, Dreams, and Prayer4.1 Prayer During Sleep4.2 Sleep Deprivation4.3 Dream Interpretation4.4 Visions and Revelations While Asleep4.5 Illustration of Prayer While Dreaming4.6 Illustration of Mystical Experience While Asleep4.7 Dreamless Sleep and Mystical Experience&#160;Chapter 5 – The Spiritual Senses5.1 Spiritual Perception5.2 Sensory Perception5.3 One and Many5.4 Mystical Synesthesia5.5 Spiritual Odor5.6 Smell and Demonic Entrapment&#160;Chapter 6 – The Passions6.1 Eight Dispositions6.2 The Five Hindrances6.3 The Constructing Activities6.4 The Demons6.5 Anchorite and Cenobite6.6 Psychotherapy of the Passions6.7 Illustration of Evagrian Psychotherapy6.8 Demons, Delirium, and Migraine&#160;Chapter 7 – Stillness and Dispassion7.1 The Delicacy of Stillness7.2 Nipsis and Attention7.3 Nipsis and Emotion7.4 Nipsis and Memory7.5 The Permanence of Dispassion7.6 A Dispassionate ‘Fool’&#160;Chapter 8 – Acedia8.1 Depleted Fervor8.2 Acedia and Physical Symptoms&#160;Chapter 9 – Pride and Vainglory9.1 Vainglory and Social Display9.2 Clothing and Other Possessions9.3 Vainglory and Cognition9.4 A Psychosis of Pride and Vainglory&#160;Chapter 10 – Fornication10.1 Morbid Defluxions10.2 Intoxication and Sexual Fantasy10.3 Fornication and Sense-Desire&#160;Chapter 11 – Gluttony11.1 Diverse Expressions of Gluttony11.2 Fasting11.3 A Syndrome of Ascetic Fasting11.4 The Precedence of Gluttony over Fornication11.5 The Desire for Immortality&#160;Chapter 12 – Physical Practices12.1 Surface and Depth Interventions12.2 Discomfort and Pain12.3 The Prostration12.4 Face, Eyes, and Gaze&#160;Chapter 13 – Evagrius on Impassioned Mental Activity13.1 Thoughts13.2 Illustration of Objective Perception&#160;Chapter 14 – Images of Bodily Corruption14.1 The Buddhist Meditation on Foulness14.2 The Ascetic Utility of Raw Emotion&#160;Chapter 15 – Maximos on Impassioned Mental Activity15.1 Conceptual Images15.2 Illustration of Objective Perception&#160;Chapter 16 – Religious Weeping16.1 Tears16.2 Weeping16.3 Isaac the Syrian on Tears16.4 Permanent Autonomic Change&#160;Chapter 17 – The Body in Dreams and Fantasy17.1 The Imaginal Body17.2 A Principle of Mental Transformation&#160;Chapter 18 – The Deified Body18.1 The Flesh18.2 Weightiness18.3 Illusory Movement18.4 Weightiness and Cosmology&#160;Chapter 19 – The Remembrance of Death19.1 Fear and Love19.2 An Imaginal Practice19.3 The Thought of Death19.4 Change in the Practice19.5 An Imitation of Christ&#160;Chapter 20 – Three Forms of Mystical Experience20.1 Near-Absorption20.2 The Ecstatic Vision20.3 The Imageless Grasp20.4 Mystical Experience in Temporal Perspective&#160;Chapter 21 – Maximos on Dispassion and Deification21.1 Eros21.2 Preliminary Dispassions21.3 Advanced Dispassions21.4 Inhibition of Perceptual Experience21.5 Deification&#160;ReferencesAppendicesAppendix A: Sources and TermsAppendix B: Ascetic TheologiansAppendix C: Biographical Chronology of Symeon the New TheologianAppendix D: Visionary Mysticism in Symeon the New TheologianAppendix E: Deification and Cognitive Inhibition in Maximos the ConfessorIndex