The Seba library treats Vigilance in 8 passages, across 6 authors (including McGilchrist, Iain, Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), Coniaris, Anthony M.).
like vigilance, they are the ground of our being in the world, not only at the lowest, vegetative level, but at the highest, spiritual levels ('Brethren, be sober, be vigilant', 'O Mensch, gib acht!')
McGilchrist elevates vigilance from technical psychological function to ontological ground, arguing it subtends both biological survival and spiritual wakefulness alike.
, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, 2009thesis
Vigilance and prayer should be as closely linked together as the body to the soul, for the one cannot stand without the other. Vigilance first goes on ahead like a scout and engages sin in combat.
The Philokalic tradition presents vigilance as the vanguard of the contemplative life, structurally inseparable from prayer and constitutive of spiritual progress.
, The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis
One of the major means of theosis according to the Philokalia is expressed by the Greek word nepsis which means vigilance, watchfulness, alertness, attentiveness.
Coniaris identifies vigilance — as nepsis — with the cardinal practice of Orthodox theosis, rendering it inseparable from the path of spiritual transformation.
, Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 1998thesis
attention shifts into a state of vigilance, a slowing or cessation of movement except for head and eye scanning accompanied by autonomic changes such as a slowing of heart rate (brachycardia), short, quiet, and shallow breathing, and skeletal muscle tension
Fogel provides a precise somatic phenomenology of vigilance as a discrete anticipatory fear-state positioned between neutral engagement and active threat mobilisation.
, Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness, 2009thesis
Vigilance allows us to recognize evil before being tempted . . . Strike the serpent on the head before he enters the cell. If the serpent enters, the struggle will be much more laborious.
The desert-father tradition figures vigilance as pre-emptive psychic defence, intercepting harmful thoughts at the threshold before they colonise the interior life.
, Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 1998supporting
PTSD symptoms can include hypervigilance or the constant monitoring of one's surroundings for potential threat of harm.
Within the trauma-recovery literature, hypervigilance is framed as a pathological intensification of the survival-monitoring function, a chronic PTSD symptom in adult children of dysfunctional families.
, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012supporting
experiencing nurturant love led to greater responsiveness to argument quality in processing a persuasive message, suggesting an increase in cognitive vigilance and attentiveness
Lench demonstrates that vigilance is not exclusive to threat states, showing that nurturant love selectively activates cognitive vigilance as a protective, caregiving-oriented attentional posture.
, The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help Us, 2018supporting
The first is from the service of Compline
A bibliographic note traces McGilchrist's scriptural citation on vigilance to the liturgical office of Compline, contextualising his invocation of spiritual wakefulness within formal religious practice.
, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, 2009aside