First I have to define a
metaphysical event. I researched several articles of definition and Wikipedia
best fits for me.
I agree. This will do
for your purposes of clarity. Use the key word 'Hava Nagila' to begin your blog
research once you clean the Wikipedia definition below. Amorella.
1251 hours. As I edit this article I add: [I concur] where I find the
notations valuable in the assessment of the above sub-aspect. I also underline material I feel while being in a spiritual experience.
** **
Religious experience
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A religious experience (sometimes known as a
spiritual experience, sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a
subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The
concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing
rationalism of Western society. William James popularised the concept.
Many religious and mystical traditions see religious experiences
(particularly that knowledge which comes with them) as revelations caused
by divine agency rather than ordinary natural processes. They are considered
real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with higher-order
realities of which humans are not ordinarily aware.
Skeptics may hold that religious experience is an evolved
feature of the human brain amenable to normal scientific study. The
commonalities and differences between religious experiences across different
cultures have enabled scholars to categorize them for academic study.
Definitions
William James
Psychologist and Philosopher
William James described four characteristics of mystical experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience. According to James, such an experience
is:
·
Transient – the experience is temporary;
the individual soon returns to a "normal" frame of mind. It is
outside our normal perception of space and time.
·
Ineffable – the experience cannot be adequately put into words.
·
Noetic – the individual feels that he or she has learned something
valuable from the experience. Gives us knowledge that is normally hidden
from human understanding.
·
Passive – the experience happens to the
individual, largely without conscious control. Although there are
activities, such as meditation (see below), that can make religious experience
more likely, it is not something that can be turned on and off at will.
[I concur.]
·
·
Norman Habel defines religious experiences as the
structured way in which a believer enters into a relationship with, or gains an
awareness of, the sacred within the context of a particular religious tradition
(Habel, O'Donoghue and Maddox: 1993). Religious experiences are by their
very nature preternatural; that is, out of the ordinary or beyond the natural
order of things. They may be difficult to distinguish observationally from
psychopathological states such as psychoses or
other forms of altered awareness (Charlesworth: 1988). Not all preternatural
experiences are considered to be religious experiences. Following Habel's
definition, psychopathological states or drug-induced states of awareness are
not considered to be religious experiences because they are mostly not
performed within the context of a particular religious tradition.
Moore
and Habel identify two classes of religious experiences: the immediate and the
mediated religious experience (Moore and Habel: 1982).
·
Mediated – In the mediated experience, the
believer experiences the sacred through mediators such as rituals, special
persons, religious groups, totemic objects or the natural world (Habel et al.:
1993).
·
Immediate – The immediate experience comes to the
believer without any intervening agency or mediator. The deity or divine is
experienced directly. [ I concur.]
·
Richard Swinburne
In
his book Faith and Reason,
the philosopher Richard Swinburne formulated
five categories into which all religious experiences fall:
·
Public – a believer 'sees God's hand at work',
whereas other explanations are possible e.g. looking at a beautiful sunset
·
Public – an unusual event that breaches natural
law e.g. walking on water
·
Private – describable using normal language e.g.
Jacob's vision of a ladder
·
Private – indescribable using normal language,
usually a mystical experience e.g. "white did not cease to be white, nor
black cease to be black, but black became white and white became black."
·
Private – a non-specific, general feeling of God
working in one's life.
Swinburne
also suggested two principles for the assessment of religious experiences:
·
Principle
of Credulity – with the
absence of any reason to disbelieve it, one should accept what appears to be
true e.g. if one sees someone walking on water, one should believe that it is
occurring.
·
Principle
of Testimony – with the
absence of any reason to disbelieve them, one should accept that eyewitnesses
or believers are telling the truth when they testify about religious
experiences.
·
Rudolf Otto
The
German thinker Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) argues that there is one common factor
to all religious experience, independent of the cultural background. In his
book The Idea of the Holy (1923) he identifies this factor as
the numinous. The "numinous" experience has two aspects:
·
mysterium
tremendum, which is the
tendency to invoke fear and trembling;
·
mysterium
fascinans, the tendency to
attract, fascinate and compel.
The
numinous experience also has a personal quality to it, in that the person feels
to be in communion with a holy other. Otto sees the numinous as the only
possible religious experience. He states: "There is no religion in which
it [the numinous] does not live as the real innermost core and without it no
religion would be worthy of the name" (Otto: 1972). Otto does not take any
other kind of religious experience such as ecstasy and enthusiasm seriously and
is of the opinion that they belong to the 'vestibule of religion'. [I concur.]
Related terms
Ecstasy – In
ecstasy the believer is understood to have a soul or spirit which can leave the body. In ecstasy
the focus is on the soul leaving the body and to experience transcendental
realities. This type of religious experience is characteristic for the shaman.
Enthusiasm – In
enthusiasm – or possession –
God is understood to be outside, other than or beyond the believer. A sacred
power, being or will enters the body or mind of an individual and possesses it.
A person capable of being possessed is sometimes called a medium. The deity,
spirit or power uses such a person to communicate to the immanent world. Lewis
argues that ecstasy and possession are basically one and the same experience,
ecstasy being merely one form which possession may take. The outward
manifestation of the phenomenon is the same in that shamans appear to be
possessed by spirits, act as their mediums, and even though they claim to have
mastery over them, can lose that mastery (Lewis: 1986).
Mystical experience –
Mystical experiences are in many ways the opposite of numinous experiences. In
the mystical experience, all 'otherness' disappear and the believer becomes one
with the transcendent. The believer discovers that he or she is not
distinct from the cosmos, the deity or the other reality, but one with it.
Zaehner has identified two distinctively different mystical experiences:
natural and religious mystical experiences (Charlesworth: 1988). Natural
mystical experiences are, for example, experiences of the 'deeper self' or
experiences of oneness with nature. Zaehner argues that the experiences
typical of 'natural mysticism' are quite different from the experiences typical
of religious mysticism (Charlesworth: 1988). Natural mystical experiences are
not considered to be religious experiences because they are not linked to a
particular tradition, but natural mystical experiences are spiritual
experiences that can have a profound effect on the individual. [I concur.]
Spiritual awakening – A
spiritual awakening usually involves a realization or opening to a sacred
dimension of reality and may or may not be a religious experience. Often a spiritual
awakening has lasting effects upon one's life. The term "spiritual
awakening" may be used to refer to any of a wide range of experiences
including being born again, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences
such as liberation and enlightenment. [I
concur.]
History
Origins
The
notion of "religious experience" can be traced back to William James, who used the term
"religious experience" in his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. It is considered to be the classic
work in the field, and references to James' ideas are common at professional
conferences. James distinguished between institutional religion and personal religion. Institutional
religion refers to the religious group or organization, and plays an important
part in a society's culture. Personal religion, in which the individual has
mystical experience, can be experienced regardless of the culture.
The
origins of the use of this term can be dated further back. In the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries,
several historical figures put forth very influential views that religion and
its beliefs can be grounded in experience itself. While Kant held that moral experience justified religious beliefs, John
Wesley in addition to stressing
individual moral exertion thought that the religious experiences in the
Methodist movement (paralleling the Romantic Movement) were foundational to
religious commitment as a way of life.
Wayne Proudfoot traces
the roots of the notion of "religious experience" to the German
theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is
based on a feeling of the infinite. The notion of "religious
experience" was used by Schleiermacher and Albert Ritschl to defend religion against the growing
scientific and secular critique, and defend the view that human (moral and
religious) experience justifies religious beliefs.
The
notion of "religious experience" was adopted by many scholars of
religion, of which William James was the most influential.
A
broad range of western and eastern movements have incorporated and influenced
the emergence of the modern notion of "mystical experience", such as
the Perennial philosophy, Transcendentalism, Universalism, the Theosophical
Society, New Thought, Neo-Vedanta and Buddhist modernism. [I concur.]
Perennial philosophy
According to the Perennial Philosophy the
mystical experiences in all religions are essentially the same. It supposes
that many, if not all of the world's great religions, have arisen around the
teachings of mystics, including Buddha, Jesus, Lao Tze and Krishna. It also
sees most religious traditions describing fundamental mystical experience, at
least esoterically. A major proponent in the 20th century was Aldous Huxley, who
"was heavily influenced in his description by Vivekananda's neo-Vedanta and
the idiosyncratic version of Zen exported to the west by D. T. Suzuki. Both of
these thinkers expounded their versions of the perennialist thesis", which
they originally received from western thinkers and theologians.
Transcendentalism was an
early 19th-century liberal Protestant movement,
which was rooted in English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of
Herder and Schleiermacher, and the skepticism of Hume. The Transcendentalists emphasised
an intuitive, experiential approach of religion. Following Schleiermacher, an individual's intuition of truth was
taken as the criterion for truth. In
the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of Hindu texts
appeared, which were also read by the Transcendentalists, and influenced their
thinking. They also endorsed Universalist and Unitarian Universalism, the idea that there must be truth in
other religions as well, since a loving God would redeem all living beings, not
just Christians. [I concur.]
New Thought
New
Thought promotes the ideas that Infinite
Intelligence, or God, is everywhere, spirit is the totality of real things,
true human selfhood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness
originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect. New Thought was propelled along by a
number of spiritual thinkers and philosophers and emerged through a variety of
religious denominations and churches, particularly the Unity Church, Religious
Science, and Church of Divine Science. Then
Home of Truth, which belongs to the New Thought movement has, from its
inception as the Pacific Coast Metaphysical Bureau in the 1880s, disseminated
the teachings of the Hindu teacher
Swami Vivekananda.
Theosophical Society
The
Theosophical Society was formed in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan
Judge and others to advance the
spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The Theosophical Society has been
highly influential in promoting interest, both in west and east, in a great
variety of religious teachings:
"No
single organization or movement has contributed so many components to the New
Age Movement as the Theosophical
Society [...] It has been the major force in the dissemination of occult literature in the West in the twentieth century.
The
Theosophical Society searched for 'secret teachings' in Asian religions. It has
been influential on modernist streams in several Asian religions, notably Hindu
reform movements, the revival of Theravada Buddhism, and D. T. Suzuki, who
popularized the idea of enlightenment as insight into a timeless, transcendent
reality. Another example can be
seen in Paul Brunton's A
Search in Secret India, which introduced Ramana Maharshi to a western
audience.
Orientalism and the
"pizza effect"
The
interplay between western and eastern notions of religion is an important
factor in the development of modern mysticism. In the 19th century, when Asian
countries were colonialised by western states, a process of cultural mimesis
began. In this process, Western
ideas about religion, especially the notion of "religious experience"
were introduced to Asian countries by missionaries, scholars and the
Theosophical Society, and amalgamated in a new understanding of the Indian and
Buddhist traditions. This amalgam was exported back to the West as 'authentic
Asian traditions', and acquired a great popularity in the west. Due to this
western popularity, it also gained authority back in India, Sri Lanka and
Japan.
The
best-known representatives of this amalgamated tradition are Annie Besant (Theosophical Society), Swami
Vivekenandaand Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (Neo-Vedanta), Anagarika Dharmapala, a
19th-century Sri Lankan Buddhist activist who founded the Maha Bodhi Society,
and D. T. Suzuki, a Japanese scholar and Zen-Buddhist. A synonymous term for
this broad understanding dualism.is non-dualism. This mutual influence is also
known as the pizza effect.
Criticism
The
notion of "experience" has been criticised.
"Religious
empiricism" is seen as highly problematic and was – during the period
in-between world wars – famously rejected by Karl Barth. In the 20th century, religious as well
as moral experience as justification for religious beliefs still holds sway.
Some influential modern scholars holding this liberal theological view are Charles Rave and the Oxford physicist/theologian
Charles Coulson.
Robert
Sharf points out that "experience" is a typical Western term, which
has found its way into Asian religiosity via western influences. The notion of
"experience" introduces a false notion of duality between
"experiencer" and "experienced", whereas the essence of
kensho is the realisation of the "non-duality" of observer and
observed. "Pure experience"
does not exist; all experience is mediated by intellectual and cognitive
activity. The specific teachings
and practices of a specific tradition may even determine what
"experience" someone has, which means that this
"experience" is not the proof of the teaching, but a result of the teaching. A pure consciousness without concepts,
reached by "cleansing the doors of perception" would be an
overwhelming chaos of sensory input without coherence. [I concur.]
Religious practices: traditions offer a wide variety
of religious practices to induce religious experiences:
Extended exercise, often running in a large communal circle,
which is used in various tribal and neo-pagan religions.
Praying
Music
Dance, such as Sufi whirling
Extreme pain, such as mortification of the flesh'
Meditation,
Meditative practices are used to calm the mind, and attain
states of consciousness such as nirvikalpa samadhi. Meditation can be focused
on the breath, concepts, mantras, symbols.
Questioning or investigating (self)-representations/cognitive
schemata, such as Self-enquiry, Hua Tou practice, and
Douglas Harding's on
having no head.
Drugs: religious experiences may also be caused by the use of entheogens.
. . .
•
Neurophysiological origins: Religious experiences may
have neurophysiological origins. These are studied in the field of neurotheology,
and the cognitive science of religion, and include near-death experience and
the "Koren halmet". " Causes may be:
Temporal lobe epilepsy, as described in the Geschwind syndrome;
Stroke
Profound depression or schizophrenia
[I concur.]
Religious
practices
Western
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and
mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and
based on the teachings of Plato . . ..
Neoplatonism teaches that along the same road by which it
descended the soul must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must
first of all return to itself. This is accomplished by the practice of virtue, which
aims at likeness to God, and leads up to God. By means of ascetic observances
the human becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin.
But there is still a higher attainment; it is not enough to be sinless, one
must become "God", (henosis).
This is reached through contemplation of the primeval Being, the One – in
other words, through an ecstatic approach to it.
It is only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the
soul can recognize and touch the primeval Being. Hence the soul must first pass
through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with the contemplation of corporeal
things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and
withdraws into the depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous,
the world of ideas. But even there it does not find the Highest, the One; it
still hears a voice saying, "not we have made ourselves." The last
stage is reached when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in
silence and utter forgetfulness of all things, it is able as it were to lose
itself. Then it may see God, the foundation of life, the source of being, the
origin of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment it enjoys the
highest indescribable bliss; it is as it were swallowed up of divinity, bathed
in the light of eternity. Porphyry tells us that on four occasions during the
six years of their intercourse Plotinus attained to this ecstatic union with
God. . . .
Christianity
Christian mysticism
Christian doctrine generally maintains that God dwells in all
Christians and that they can experience God directly through belief in Jesus,
Christian mysticism aspires to apprehend spiritual truths inaccessible through
intellectual means, typically by emulation of Christ. William Inge divides this
scala perfectionis into three stages: the "purgative"
or ascetic stage, the "illuminative" or contemplative stage,
and the third, "unitive" stage, in which God may be beheld
"face to face."
The third stage, usually called contemplation in the Western
tradition, refers to the experience of oneself as united with God in some way.
The experience of union varies, but it is first and foremost always associated
with a reuniting with Divine love. The underlying theme here is that
God, the perfect goodness, is known or experienced at least as much by the
heart as by the intellect since, in the words of 1 John 4:16: "God is
love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him." Some
approaches to classical mysticism would consider the first two phases as
preparatory to the third, explicitly mystical experience; but others state that
these three phases overlap and intertwine.
Hesychasm
Based on Christ's injunction in the Gospel of Matthew to
"go into your closet to pray", hesychasm in tradition has been the
process of retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to
achieve an experiential knowledge of God (see theoria).
The highest goal of the hesychast is the experiential knowledge
of God. In the 14th Century, the possibility of this experiential knowledge of
God was challenged by a Calabrian monk, Barlaam, who, although he was formally
a member of the Orthodox Church, had been trained in Western Scholastic
theology. Barlaam asserted that our knowledge of God can only be propositional.
The practice of the hesychasts was defended by St. Gregory Palamas.
Islam
While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God
and will become close to God in Paradise – after death and after the
"Final Judgment" – Sufis believe that it is possible to
become close to God and to experience this closeness while one is alive.
Sufis believe in a tripartite way to God as explained by a tradition attributed
to the Prophet, "The Shariah are my words (aqwal), the tariqa are my
actions (amal), and the haqiqa is my interior states (ahwal)".
Shariah, tariqa and
haqiqa are mutually interdependent.
The tariqa, the ‘path’ on which the mystics walk, has been
defined as ‘the path which comes out of the Shariah, for the main road is
called shar, the path, tariq.’
No mystical experience can be realized if the binding
injunctions of the Shariah are not followed faithfully first. The path, tariqa,
however, is narrower and more difficult to walk. It leads the adept, called
salik (wayfarer), in his suluk (wandering), through different stations (maqam)
until he reaches his goal, the perfect tauhid, the existential confession that
God is One.
Asia
Buddhism
In Theravada Buddhism practice is described in the threefold
training of discipline (sila), meditative
concentration (samadhi), and
transcendent wisdom (prajna).
Zen-Buddhism emphaises the sole practice of meditation, while Vajrayana Buddhism
utilizes a wide variety of practices. While the main aim of meditation and prajna
is to let go of attachments, it may also result in a comprehension of the
Buddha-nature and the inherent lucidness of the mind.
Different varieties of religious experience are described in
detail in the Surangama Sutra. In its
section on the fifty skandha-maras, each of the five skandhas has ten
skandha-maras associated with it, and each skandha-mara is described in detail
as a deviation from correct samādhi. These skandha-maras are also known as the
"fifty skandha demons" in some English-language publications.
It is also believed that supernormal abilities are developed
from meditation, which are termed "higher knowledge" (abhijna), or "spiritual power"
(rddhi). One early description found
in the Samyutta Nikaya, which
mentions abilities such as:
... he goes unhindered through a wall, through a rampart,
through a mountain as though through space; he dives in and out of the earth as
though it were water; he walks on water without sinking as though it were
earth; seated cross-legged, he travels in space like a bird; with his hands he
touches and strokes the moon and sun so powerful and mighty; he exercises
mastery with the body as far as the brahmā world.
Hinduism
According to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, "Hinduism is not
just a faith. It is the union of reason and intuition that cannot be defined,
but is only to be experienced." This emphasis on experience as
validation of a religious worldview is a modern development, which started in
the 19th century, and was introduced to Indian thought by western Unitarian missionaries.
It has been popularized in Neo-Vedanta, which has dominated the popular
understanding of Hinduism since the 19th century. It emphasizes mysticism,
Aryan origins and the unity of Hinduism. [I concur.]
Meher Baba
According to the syncretistic Indian spiritual teacher Meher
Baba, "Spiritual experience involves more than can be grasped by mere
intellect. This is often emphasised by calling it a mystical experience.
Mysticism is often regarded as something anti-intellectual, obscure and
confused, or impractical and unconnected with experience. In fact, true
mysticism is none of these. There is nothing irrational in true mysticism
when it is, as it should be, a vision of Reality. It is a form of perception
which is absolutely unclouded, and so practical that it can be lived every
moment of life and expressed in every-day duties. Its connection with
experience is so deep that, in one sense, it is the final understanding of all
experience."
[I concur.]
Psychedelic
drugs
Dr. R.R. Griffiths and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University
had done a double blind study evaluating the psychological effects of
psilocybin comparing with methylphenidate(Ritalin). 36 hallucinogen-naive
adults were recruited. 22 of the 36 reported mystical experience. The effect
persisted even at 2 and 14 months follow-up. The group continued to do studies
in evaluating the effect with different dosing and the resulting mystical
effect on personality.
Neurophysiology
Psychiatry
A 2012 paper suggested that psychiatric conditions associated
with psychotic spectrum symptoms may be possible explanations for revelatory
driven experiences and activities such as those of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and
Saint Paul.
Neuroscience
Neurology
Visionary religious experiences, and momentary lapses of
consciousness, may point toward a diagnosis of Geschwind syndrome. More
generally, the symptoms are consistent with features of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy,
not an uncommon feature in religious icons and mystics.
Neurotheology, also known as biotheology
or spiritual neuroscience, is the study of correlations of neural phenomena
with subjective experiences of spirituality and hypotheses to explain these
phenomena. Proponents of neurotheology claim that there is a neurological and
evolutionary basis for subjective experiences traditionally categorized as
spiritual or religious.
According to the neurotheologist Andrew B. Newberg, neurological
processes which are driven by the repetitive, rhythmic stimulation which is
typical of human ritual, and which contribute to the delivery of transcendental
feelings of connection to a universal unity. They posit, however, that physical
stimulation alone is not sufficient to generate transcendental unitive
experiences. For this to occur they say there must be a blending of the
rhythmic stimulation with ideas. Once this occurs "...ritual
turns a meaningful idea into a visceral experience." Moreover, they say
that humans are compelled to act out myths by the biological operations of the
brain due to what they call the "inbuilt tendency of the brain to turn
thoughts into actions". [I concur.]
Studies of the brain and religious experience
Early studies in the 1950s and 1960s attempted to use EEGs to
study brain wave patterns correlated with spiritual states. During the 1980s
Dr. Michael Persinger stimulated the temporal lobes of human subjects with a
weak magnetic field. His subjects claimed to have a sensation of "an
ethereal presence in the room." Some current studies use neuroimaging to
localize brain regions active, or differentially active, during religious
experiences. These neuroimaging studies have implicated a number of brain
regions, including the limbic system, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, superior
parietal lobe, and caudate nucleus. Based on the complex nature of religious
experience, it is likely that they are mediated by an interaction of neural
mechanisms that all add a small piece to the overall experience.
Integrating religious experience. [I concur.]
Several psychologists have proposed models in which religious
experiences are part of a process of transformation of the self. Carl Jung's work
on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose
beyond material goals. Our main task, he believed, is to discover and fulfil
our deep innate potential, much as the acorn contains the potential to become
the oak, or the caterpillar to become the butterfly. Based on his study of
Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism and other traditions, Jung
perceived that this journey of transformation is at the mystical heart of all
religions. It is a journey to meet the self and at the same time to meet the
Divine. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung thought spiritual experience was essential
to our well-being.
The notion of the numinous was an important concept in the
writings of Carl Jung. Jung regarded numinous experiences as fundamental to an
understanding of the individuation process because of their association with
experiences of synchronicity in which the presence of archetypes is felt.
McNamara proposes that religious experiences may help in
"decentering" the self, and transform it into an integral self which
is closer to an ideal self.
Transpersonal psychology is a school of
psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects
of the human experience. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
describes transpersonal psychology as "the study of humanity’s highest
potential, and with the recognition, understanding, and realization of unitive,
spiritual, and transcendent states of consciousness" (Lajoie and Shapiro,
1992:91). Issues considered in transpersonal psychology include spiritual
self-development, peak experiences, mystical experiences, systemic trance and
other metaphysical experiences of living. [I concur, though I would conclude
with "experiences in living."]
Selected and edited from Wikipedia - Religious Experience
** **
You just completed your
reading and editing. For your benefit bold [I
concur.] Also, underline passages that strike you as important in your
intimate spiritual outlook for your own better understanding of your intimate
heartansoulanmind as separate and within your practical everyday world. You
have the ability to observe and participate by having your subjective and
objective mind working at the same moment on occasion. You are in a sense, in
two mental places at once. Post once you have read over the article. - Amorella
1734 hours. I don't agree or disagree with your above statement
Amorella. I haven't thought about it as such. I just don't know. I am relieved that I have completed this assignment; I am thankful that I have (though I am not sure why). - rho
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