rdf-syntax-grammar
mods:
  schema location: http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
  title info:
    title: Caves and the ancient Greek mind
    sub title: descending underground in the search for ultimate truth
  name:
    name part: Ustinova, Yulia.
    role:
      role term: creator
  type of resource: text
  genre: bibliography
  genre: Electronic books.
  genre: History
  origin info:
    place:
      place term: enk
    place:
      place term: Oxford
    place:
      place term: New York
    publisher: Oxford University Press
    date issued: 2009
    issuance: monographic
  language:
    language term: eng
  physical description:
    form: remote
    extent: 1 online resource (x, 315 pages)
  abstract: In ancient Greece, a common method of search for divine wisdom was to descend into caves or underground chambers. Entering caves persistently appears as a major requirement for prophecy-giving, both in established cults and in the activities of individual seers. Underground sojourns recur in the activities of several early Greek sages and philosophers. Mystery initiations comprise rites located in caves or dark chambers. The sages, seers, and initiates shared a quest for hidden truth, which they attained as revelation or vision. Exploring the reasons for the predilection for caves in the search for ultimate truth, this book juxtaposes ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuroscience. This approach, new in Classical Studies, enables an examination of the consciousness of people who were engaged in the vision quest. It is argued that cave environment creates conditions which force the human mind to deviate from its normal waking state and to enter altered states of consciousness, in many cases leading to the sensation of ineffable revelation of ultimate reality. Altered states of consciousness often occur in people exposed to sensory deprivation. As a result, various mediators between gods and mortals practice prolonged isolation in caves and other closed spaces in their quest of ecstatic illumination. The book demonstrates that multiple cave experiences of the Greeks are culturally patterned responses to the states determined by the neurology of the human brain.
  table of contents: 1. Cave experiences and the human mind -- Altered states of consciousness -- Caves as mental images -- Human consciousness in the cave -- Near-death experiences -- Altered states of consciousness, shamanism, and ancient Greece -- 2. Oracles and caves -- Caves of the nymphs and Pan -- Entrances to the netherworld -- Oracles of underground dwellers -- Apollo shining in the dark -- The Delphic Adyton : theories and facts -- 3. Seers and poets -- Sibyls -- Blind seers -- 4. Sages and philosophers -- Early sages -- Pythagoras -- Parmenides and the Eleatics -- Empedocles -- 5. Near-death experiences, real and make-believe -- Chasm in the mind -- Mysteries -- Retrospect.
  note: Yulia Ustinova.
  note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
  subject:
    geographic code: e-gr---
  subject:
    topic: Mysticism
    geographic: Greece
  subject:
    topic: Caves
    geographic: Greece
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy, Ancient
  subject:
    topic: Psychology, Religious
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy
  subject:
    topic: Mysticisme
    geographic: Grèce
  subject:
    topic: Cavernes
    geographic: Grèce
  subject:
    topic: Philosophie ancienne
  subject:
    topic: Psychologie religieuse
  subject:
    topic: psychology of religion
  subject:
    topic: RELIGION
    topic: Mysticism
  subject:
    topic: Caves
  subject:
    topic: Mysticism
  subject:
    topic: Philosophy, Ancient
  subject:
    topic: Psychology, Religious
  subject:
    geographic: Greece
  classification: BV5077.G8 U88 2009eb
  classification: 248.2/238
  classification: 11.15
  classification: 15.51
  classification: CD 1610
  classification: LG 7100
  classification: NH 6850
  classification: 5,1
  classification: 6,14
  classification: 6,12
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Caves and the ancient Greek mind
    name:
      name part: Ustinova, Yulia.
    origin info:
      publisher: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009
    identifier: (OCoLC)269433644
  related item:
    identifier: (OCoLC)269433644
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Oxford scholarship online
  related item:
    title info:
      title: Oxford scholarship online
      part name: Classical Studies module
  identifier: 9780191563423
  identifier: 0191563420
  identifier: 9780191720840
  identifier: 0191720844
  identifier: 9780199548569
  identifier: 0199548560
  identifier: http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login
  record info:
    record content source: N$T
    record creation date: 090304
    record change date: 20260318174036.8
    record identifier: in00005703515
    language of cataloging:
      language term: eng