In this original study, Moshe Idel, an eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism and thought, and the cognitive neuroscientist and neurologist Shahar Arzy combine their considerable expertise to explore the mysteries of the Kabbalah from an entirely new perspective: that of the human brain. In lieu of the theological, sociological, and psychoanalytic approaches that have generally dominated the study of ecstatic mystical experiences, the authors endeavor to decode the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena. Arzy and Idel analyze first-person descriptions to explore the Kabbalistic techniques employed by most prominent Jewish mystics to effect bodily reduplications, dissociations, and other phenomena, and compare them with recent neurological observations and modern-day laboratory experiments. The resultant study offers readers a scientific, more brain-based understanding of how ecstatic Kabbalists achieved their most precious mystical experiences. The study further demonstrates how these Kabbalists have long functioned as pioneering investigators of the human self.
**
In this original study, Moshe Idel, an eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism and thought, and the cognitive neuroscientist and neurologist Shahar Arzy combine their considerable expertise to explore the mysteries of the Kabbalah from an entirely new perspective: that of the human brain. In lieu of the theological, sociological, and psychoanalytic approaches that have generally dominated the study of ecstatic mystical experiences, the authors endeavor to decode the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena. Arzy and Idel analyze first-person descriptions to explore the Kabbalistic techniques employed by most prominent Jewish mystics to effect bodily reduplications, dissociations, and other phenomena, and compare them with recent neurological observations and modern-day laboratory experiments. The resultant study offers readers a scientific, more brain-based understanding of how ecstatic Kabbalists achieved their most precious mystical experiences. The study further demonstrates how these Kabbalists have long functioned as pioneering investigators of the human self.
**

motw/Kabbalah_ A Neurocognitive Appr - Shahar Arzy.epub

motw/Kabbalah_ A Neurocognitive Appr - Shahar Arzy.pdf

Shahar Arzy; Moshe Idel

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Brandywine River Museum

Mariners' Museum, The

United States, United States of America

1st edition, New Haven, 2015

New Haven, 2016

1, 20150630

Memory of the World Librarian: Slowrotation

Cover 1
Contents 6
Foreword, 10
Introduction 12
ONE: Justification of a neurocognitive Approach to Mystical Experiences 16
1. Four Main Approaches to Mystical Experiences 16
2. A “Bottom-Up” Approach to Mystical Experiences 20
3. Experiences, Radiations, and Cognitive Techniques 21
4. Technical Constructivism from Within the Brain: Limitations 24
TWO: Approaching Ecstatic Experiences 29
1. Ecstasy and the Subjective Experience 29
2. Ecstasy in Judaism 33
3. Four Basic Levels of Ecstasy in Jewish Mysticism 40
4. Four Types of Ecstatic Experience in Jewish Mysticism 41
5. Ecstasy and the Cognitive Neuroscience of the Self 43
THREE: The One out There: Autoscopic Phenomena in Jewish Mysticism 46
1. Ex-Stasis: Out of the Body 46
2. Autoscopic Phenomena 47
3. Autoscopic Phenomena in Ecstatic Kabbalah 52
4. Personal Reports of Mystical Experiences 63
5. Analyzing Mystical Experiences 80
6. Autoscopic, Ascension, and Unitive Ecstasies: Different Kabbalistic Trends, Different Brain Mechanisms 88
7. Conclusion 94
FOUR: The Spirit in the Brain: Trance and Possession in Jewish Mysticism 96
1. Dissociative Trance Disorders 96
2. Maggid and Dibbuq 100
3. The Maggid and Its Induction 102
4. Personal Reports of Mystical Dissociative Experiences 104
5. Maggid, Dibbuq, and the Brain 112
6. Maggid and Dibbuq: Two Selves in One Person 122
Conclusions 124
1. Some Final Methodological Remarks 124
2. Ecstatic Kabbalah as a Seminal Investigation of the Human Self 127
APPENDIX A. The External and Internal Worlds: Functional networks in the Human Brain 130
1. Large-Scale Networks in the Human Brain: Function and Anatomy 130
2. The External and Internal Worlds 142
3. Integration of Information in the Brain 146
4. Embodiment, Subjectivity, and Integration 149
5. Conclusion 151
APPENDIX B. Abraham Abulafia the Mystic and His Theory and Technique 152
Notes 158
Bibliography 174
Acknowledgments 200
Index 203
A 203
B 204
C 204
D 205
E 206
F 207
G 207
H 208
I 209
J 209
K 210
L 210
M 210
N 212
O 212
P 213
Q 214
R 214
S 214
T 216
U 216
V 217
W 217
Y 217
Z 217

<div>In this original study, Moshe Idel, an eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism and thought, and the cognitive neuroscientist and neurologist Shahar Arzy combine their considerable expertise to explore the mysteries of the Kabbalah from an entirely new perspective: that of the human brain. In lieu of the theological, sociological, and psychoanalytic approaches that have generally dominated the study of ecstatic mystical experiences, the authors endeavor to decode the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena. Arzy and Idel analyze first-person descriptions to explore the Kabbalistic techniques employed by most prominent Jewish mystics to effect bodily reduplications, dissociations, and other phenomena, and compare them with recent neurological observations and modern-day laboratory experiments. The resultant study offers readers a scientific, more brain-based understanding of how ecstatic Kabbalists achieved their most precious mystical experiences. The study further demonstrates how these Kabbalists have long functioned as pioneering investigators of the human self.</div>

2025-10-27