Academic literature on the topic 'Esoteric'

This thesis aims to explore the relationship between the science, the philosophy and the esoteric imagination of the American physicist David Bohm (1917-1992). Bohm is recognized as one of the most brilliant physicists of his generation. He is famous for his ‘hidden variables’ interpretation of quantum mechanics. Bohm wrote extensively on philosophical and psychological subjects. In his celebrated book Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1882) he introduced the influential ideas of the Explicate and the Implicate orders that are at the core of his process philosophy. Bohm was also a very close disciple of the Indian teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986), whom he recognized to have had an important influence on his thought. Chapter 1 is a general explanation of what I intend to do, why my research is filling an important gap, introduce the field of Western esotericism as a scholarly subject and suggesting that it offers a fruitful way of approaching the thought of David Bohm. I also explain my research principles and a brief description of the philosophical standpoint from which I am approaching the material. Chapter 2 gives a description of the textual sources I used in my research. This is followed by a comprehensive literature review. Chapter 3 is a biographical essay where I give an account of Bohm’s life, career, works, major ideas and their development, stressing their significance for the development of Bohm’s holistic philosophy and his interactions with the esoteric. This chapter is an introduction to the main ideas of the dissertation. Chapter 4 revisits the genesis of the Causal Interpretation, Bohm’s first attempt to deal with the interpretation of quantum mechanics. I make emphasis on the philosophical developments that gave rise to it. I introduce all the relevant physics and give a detailed explanation of the problem of interpretation and Bohm’s first proposal. Chapter 5 is about the philosophical developments in Bohm’s thought brought by the Causal Interpretation. In particular I examine the influence that G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831) had on Bohm’s thought and explain why I take the view that this is an esoteric influence. Chapter 6 reviews the developments in Bohm’s thought during the 1960’s. I describe Bohm’s search for radically new concepts in physics and his exchanges with several thinkers ending with his encounter with Jiddu Krishnamurti. Chapters 7 and 8 are devoted to the study of Bohm’s philosophy as he elaborated it after 1960. Chapter 7 concentrates on the idea of the Implicate Order and it also studies the Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Bohm’s last version of his interpretation effort, which is based on the Implicate Order. In chapter 8 I examine Bohm’s theory of how the mind and the body are connected through a ladder of consciousness formed by a series of Explicate and Implicate Orders, and finishes with an exposition of Bohm’s dialogue technique. In the last chapter I summarize my conclusions. An appendix is included with a brief overview of Bohm’s legacy. All the relevant details about the esoteric currents that Bohm encountered during his life and that are required to understand our argument are introduced as they are needed throughout the main body of the text.

Thesis: S.M. in Architecture Studies (Architectural Design), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2017.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Page 180 blank.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 172-176).<br>This thesis speculates that common funerary practices do not reflect a wide enough range of contemporary cultural attitudes towards religion, spirituality, and mortality. As human beings increasingly embrace the paradigms of bioinformatics and digital fabrication, this thesis proposes that alternative funerary practices will arise to reflect these cultural attitudes, with individuals taking on increasing levels of both personal and collaborative agency in the design of their own memorial artifacts, and those of their loved ones. Through a series of speculative models, this thesis projects a scenario in which a group of humans embrace their corporeal materiality and its internalized information as precious and sacred, to produce memorial artifacts that are constructed from their own biomatter, and that formally encode streams of genetic information. The artifacts become esoteric 'post-mordial' emodiments of human being, existing as totems of their lineage, and 'momento mori' for remaining humans.<br>by Kristopher G. Menos.<br>S.M. in Architecture Studies (Architectural Design)

An esoteric programming language is a programming language designed to test the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, or as a joke, for example: Lolcode is designed to resemble the speech of lolcats. The following is the “hello world” example: in all lolcode programs, hai (“Hi!”) introduces the program. In many programming languages, one of the first statements will be a library inclusion for common functions such as input and output. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/33872

Religion has a spiritual message embedded, as its purpose is to establish a relationship between the seen and the unseen worlds. However, to allow people to understand its spiritual message, it uses symbolism in such a way that the physical person would try to comprehend the inner meanings of the spiritual message that lies therein. This study is not about ‘how' the Hajj rituals are to be performed, because the answer to that question is trivial and have been thoroughly studied throughout centuries. This study is an attempt to answer the question ‘why.' Why is the Hajj to be performed in a certain way? This study delves into what must be a deeper meaning. Its methodology is through the etymological usage of the terminologies textually and intertextually between Scriptures, including the Qur'an and the Bible. It attempts to explore the polysemous nature of the root words and to resurrect the inner meanings that can be ascertained from the root. This study introduces a new methodology for Scriptural hermeneutics, while comparing the methods used by Biblical and Qur'anic scholars. Once the methodology is established, it is applied to increase understanding of the inner meanings of the Hajj rituals portraying the journey of a dead soul from death, sacrifice of the ego, resurrection into life, and spreading the seeds and Water of Life to other dead souls trying to fight their egos and, likewise, resurrect them into life.

Magister Artium - MA<br>The main focus of this dissertation is a critical study of the Arabic text, titled: Lubāb al ‘Ilm Fī Sūrah al-Najm (The Kernel of Knowledge in the Chapter of the Star) by Shaykh Ahmad bin Muṣṭafā’ al-‘Alāwī. Due to the lack of research on esoteric commentaries of the Qurʾān in the English language, there is a need to embark upon an in-depth study of such texts. An important work on Shaykh al-‘Alāwī in English is Martin Lings’ A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century. This book is an excellent introduction to the life, works and thought of Shaykh al-‘Alāwī, but it does not deal with a specific text in any detail. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine closely the above-mentioned text of Shaykh al-‘Alāwī as a sample of his esoteric interpretation of the Qurʾān. For the purpose of this thesis, I shall undertake a translation of his exegesis (tafsīr) on Sūrah al-Najm (the Chapter of the Star). I will include with it explanatory notes and identification of key quotations and sources. This sample from Shaykh al-‘Alāwī’s work will form the basis of my critical analyses. It will also provide a means for comparison with some of his other works, and with Qurʾānic commentaries of the same genre by other Sufi scholars, both classical and modern. In this dissertation, I also seek to offer some answers and proofs concerning the validity of the existence of esoteric tafsīr and why it is needed. I will do this by examining key verses in the Qur’ān and the Sunnah (traditions of the Prophet Muḥammad). The distinction between esoteric and exoteric interpretations of the Qurʾān will also be dealt with in this dissertation. Although the emphasis will be on the esoteric dimension, neither the esoteric nor the exoteric dimension will be treated in a mutually exclusive way. Most Arabic commentaries on the Qurʾān tend towards the exoteric and literal meanings of the text, but the exoteric form also has an inner dimension which Shaykh al-‘Alāwī demonstrates in his commentary on Sūrah al-Najm.