Jan 28, 2021 08:10 AM
(This post was last modified: Jan 28, 2021 08:19 AM by C C.)
Why some people believe they can hear the dead
https://theconversation.com/why-some-peo...ead-153407
EXCERPTS: People have reported spooky, spiritual and extraordinary experiences for centuries. [...] The experience of hearing voices is far more common than you might expect. Some studies have estimated that as many as 50% of people hear the voice of their deceased loved one during periods of grieving. ... Claiming to be able to speak with the dead is often found to coexist with the beliefs of what’s called “spiritualism” – a quasi-religious movement based on the idea that individuals continue to exist after the death of their physical bodies. ... But what’s actually going on when people claim to hear voices they take to be the spirits of the dead?
Our new study of the clairaudient experiences of contemporary mediums is beginning to clarify why some people report hearing spiritual voices. We found that people who were more likely to experience “absorption” – a tendency to get lost in mental imagery or altered states of consciousness – were also more likely to experience clairaudience.
This finding suggests these people actually experience unusual sounds they believe to be clairaudient. But it doesn’t explain why they identify these hallucinated voices with the spirits of the dead, which is the core tenet of spiritualism... (MORE - details)
RELATED (scienceblog): Two key factors facilitate the experience of spirits or gods
The problem with India’s ‘love jihad’ laws
https://theconversation.com/the-problem-...aws-152675
EXCERPT: Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the Bharatiya Janata Party government has put forward several anti-Muslim policies. The latest is a clampdown on what it sees as “love jihad,” the belief that Muslims are seeking to deceive Hindu women through marriage and convert them to Islam.
Over the course of the past year or so several BJP politicians have suggested that this is part of an Islamic conspiracy to increase India’s Muslim population. More recently, one of India’s most populous states has assumed the right to intervene in matters of marriage – particularly between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man. Other states are planning to follow suit.
[...] Known as the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, it requires couples from different religious communities to provide two months’ notice to a district magistrate before getting married. A district magistrate is an official belonging to India’s administrative services – a vestige of the British colonial rule – who is in charge of the district, the basic unit of administration, and has legal as well as significant executive powers.
Under the terms of the ordinance, the presiding judicial official would have the discretion to decide whether the conversion was through compulsion; the offending person could then be denied bail and sentenced to 10 years in prison. [...] Notionally, this law applies with equal force to all interfaith marriages. However, for all practical purposes this would affect Muslims, as Islamic personal law requires a non-Muslim to convert to sanctify the marriage. So far, enforcement has targeted only Hindu-Muslim marriages. Since its passage last year, as many as 30 Muslim men arrested in Uttar Pradesh are facing possible prosecution. It remains unclear at this stage what sanctions Muslim women marrying Hindu men might confront... (MORE - details)
Woman Extradited From Israel In Australian Court On Child Sex Abuse Charges
https://www.ibtimes.com.au/woman-extradi...es-1673075
EXCERPT: A former principal at a Jewish ultra-Orthodox school appeared in an Australian court Thursday, hours after she was extradited from Israel to face child sexual abuse charges. Malka Leifer, an Israeli citizen in her 50s, is accused of sexually abusing children while working as a religious studies teacher and principal at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne. [...] She faces 74 charges including rape, indecent assault and child sexual abuse offences alleged to have occurred between 2004 and 2008, according to official documents.
Her lawyer, Tony Hargreaves, did not apply for bail but asked that she be transferred "as quickly as possible" from police custody to a prison with more facilities due to her "significant mental health issues". "Ms Leifer has very strict religious beliefs and special arrangements will need to be made for her to comply with those religious beliefs," he added... (MORE - details)
https://theconversation.com/why-some-peo...ead-153407
EXCERPTS: People have reported spooky, spiritual and extraordinary experiences for centuries. [...] The experience of hearing voices is far more common than you might expect. Some studies have estimated that as many as 50% of people hear the voice of their deceased loved one during periods of grieving. ... Claiming to be able to speak with the dead is often found to coexist with the beliefs of what’s called “spiritualism” – a quasi-religious movement based on the idea that individuals continue to exist after the death of their physical bodies. ... But what’s actually going on when people claim to hear voices they take to be the spirits of the dead?
Our new study of the clairaudient experiences of contemporary mediums is beginning to clarify why some people report hearing spiritual voices. We found that people who were more likely to experience “absorption” – a tendency to get lost in mental imagery or altered states of consciousness – were also more likely to experience clairaudience.
This finding suggests these people actually experience unusual sounds they believe to be clairaudient. But it doesn’t explain why they identify these hallucinated voices with the spirits of the dead, which is the core tenet of spiritualism... (MORE - details)
RELATED (scienceblog): Two key factors facilitate the experience of spirits or gods
The problem with India’s ‘love jihad’ laws
https://theconversation.com/the-problem-...aws-152675
EXCERPT: Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the Bharatiya Janata Party government has put forward several anti-Muslim policies. The latest is a clampdown on what it sees as “love jihad,” the belief that Muslims are seeking to deceive Hindu women through marriage and convert them to Islam.
Over the course of the past year or so several BJP politicians have suggested that this is part of an Islamic conspiracy to increase India’s Muslim population. More recently, one of India’s most populous states has assumed the right to intervene in matters of marriage – particularly between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man. Other states are planning to follow suit.
[...] Known as the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, it requires couples from different religious communities to provide two months’ notice to a district magistrate before getting married. A district magistrate is an official belonging to India’s administrative services – a vestige of the British colonial rule – who is in charge of the district, the basic unit of administration, and has legal as well as significant executive powers.
Under the terms of the ordinance, the presiding judicial official would have the discretion to decide whether the conversion was through compulsion; the offending person could then be denied bail and sentenced to 10 years in prison. [...] Notionally, this law applies with equal force to all interfaith marriages. However, for all practical purposes this would affect Muslims, as Islamic personal law requires a non-Muslim to convert to sanctify the marriage. So far, enforcement has targeted only Hindu-Muslim marriages. Since its passage last year, as many as 30 Muslim men arrested in Uttar Pradesh are facing possible prosecution. It remains unclear at this stage what sanctions Muslim women marrying Hindu men might confront... (MORE - details)
Woman Extradited From Israel In Australian Court On Child Sex Abuse Charges
https://www.ibtimes.com.au/woman-extradi...es-1673075
EXCERPT: A former principal at a Jewish ultra-Orthodox school appeared in an Australian court Thursday, hours after she was extradited from Israel to face child sexual abuse charges. Malka Leifer, an Israeli citizen in her 50s, is accused of sexually abusing children while working as a religious studies teacher and principal at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne. [...] She faces 74 charges including rape, indecent assault and child sexual abuse offences alleged to have occurred between 2004 and 2008, according to official documents.
Her lawyer, Tony Hargreaves, did not apply for bail but asked that she be transferred "as quickly as possible" from police custody to a prison with more facilities due to her "significant mental health issues". "Ms Leifer has very strict religious beliefs and special arrangements will need to be made for her to comply with those religious beliefs," he added... (MORE - details)
