scholarly journals The enchantment of archaeological sites and the quest for personal transformation

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. e021012
Author(s):  
Yael Dansac
Keyword(s):  
Personal Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Archaeological Sites

Ethnographical studies increasingly testify the conversion of archaeological sites into places used for a myriad of spiritual purposes associated to the culture of personal transformation. Analyzing data gathered at contemporary spiritual practices held in Carnac, a megalithic site located in northwest France, this article argues that the resignification of ancient places as ‘sacred’ and ‘energetic’ is a strategy to develop and enact inner search and work on the self. Collected data provides understanding on the actor’s conceptualizations and uses given to this place, while also suggesting further inquiries to assess the relations between spirituality, personal transformation and the enchantment of archaeological sites.

scholarly journals Stylizations of Being: Attention as an Existential Hub in Heidegger and Christian Mysticism

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Existential Phenomenology ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
Simone Weil ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Philosophical Framework

AbstractThe assimilation of phenomenology by theology (namely of Heidegger by Karl Rahner) exemplifies how a pre-existing philosophical framework can be imported into a theological system by being suffused with belief. Although one would imagine that the incommensurability between philosophy and religion would thus be overcome, the two disciplines risk to remain, given the sequels of the ‘French debate’, worlds apart, separated by a leap of faith. In this paper I attempt to uncover what grammatical similitudes afforded Rahner formal transference in the first place. Uncovering analogous uses of contemplative attention, namely between Heidegger and Simone Weil, I hope to demonstrate the filial relationship between existential phenomenology and Christian mysticism. I propose that attention is a key factor in both systems of thought. Furthermore, I propose that: 1) attention, the existential hub between subject and phenomena, provides a base for investigating methodologies, as opposed to causal relations, in philosophy and religion; 2) that the two attentional disciplines of meditation and contemplation, spiritual practices designed to shape the self, also constitute styles of thinking; and 3) the ‘turn’ in the later Heidegger’s philosophy is a strategic point to inquire into this confluence of styles of thinking, evincing the constantly dynamic and intrinsically tight relation between philosophy and theology.

Drafted into a Foreign War?

Rhizomata ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-217
Author(s):  
Matthew Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Technologies Of The Self ◽  
Analytic Tradition ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rational Inquiry

Abstract This paper examines the central criticisms that come, broadly, from the modern, ‘analytic’ tradition, of Pierre Hadot’s idea of ancient philosophy as a way of life.: Firstly, ancient philosophy just did not or could not have involved anything like the ‘spiritual practices’ or ‘technologies of the self’, aiming at curing subjects’ unnecessary desires or bettering their lives, contra Hadot and Foucault et al. Secondly, any such metaphilosophical account of putative ‘philosophy’ must unacceptably downplay the role of ‘serious philosophical reasoning’ or ‘rigorous argument’ in philosophy. Thirdly, claims that ancient philosophy aimed at securing wisdom by a variety of means including but not restricted to rational inquiry are accordingly false also as historical claims about the ancient philosophers. Fourthly, to the extent that we must (despite (3)) admit that some ancient thinkers did engage in or recommend extra-cognitive forms of transformative practice, these thinkers were not true or ‘mainline’ philosophers. I contend that the historical claims (3) and (4) are highly contestable, risking erroneously projecting a later modern conception of philosophy back onto the past. Of the theoretical or metaphilosophical claims (1) and (2), I argue that the second claim, as framed here, points to real, hard questions that surround the conception(s) of philosophy as a way of life.

scholarly journals Worn Shoes: Identity, Memory and Footwear

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Hockey ◽  
Rachel Dilley ◽  
Victoria Robinson ◽  
Alexandra Sherlock
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Personal Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The North ◽  
The Way

This article raises questions about the role of footwear within contemporary processes of identity formation and presents ongoing research into perceptions, experiences and memories of shoes among men and women in the North of England. In a series of linked theoretical discussions it argues that a focus on women, fashion and shoe consumption as a feature of a modern, western ‘project of the self’ obscures a more revealing line of inquiry where footwear can be used to explore the way men and women live out their identities as fluid, embodied processes. In a bid to deepen theoretical understanding of such processes, it takes account of historical and contemporary representations of shoes as a symbolically efficacious vehicle for personal transformation, asking how the idea and experience of transformation informs everyday and life course experiences of transition, as individuals put on and take off particular pairs of shoes. In so doing, the article addresses the methodological and analytic challenges of accessing experience that is both fluid and embodied.

Namaste All Day

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-100
Author(s):  
Andrea R. Jain
Keyword(s):  
Self Care ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Self Actualization

This chapter focuses on the appropriating and commodifying practices of spirituality industries and asks how corporations, entrepreneurs, and consumers relate spiritual practices to ethical values through marketing and consumer activities. The author analyzes popular spiritual discourses, demonstrating how the powerful and subversive expressions appliqued across yogaware and the industry’s “do good” discourses are tied to a commitment to particular “yogic” or “spiritual” values. Yet, for all of the self-actualization it offers through PEACE LOVE YOGA the industry also plays a capitalist game that thrives on nostalgia about lost cultural norms, as well as neoliberal narratives about the capitalist market, self-care, and personal improvement.

scholarly journals Philosophy as a Vocation and Personal Commitment: the Young Heidegger and the Question of Philosophy

Problemos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 161-173
Author(s):  
Juan José Garrido Periñán
Keyword(s):  
Personal Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
Personal Commitment ◽  
Personal Nature

Determining what philosophy is for the young Heidegger is a complex task. It is also an ambiguous task in that it is considered unresolved and intricate due to its subsidiary link to factical life. This paper will try to show that from the approach of worried concern and from a critique of the theoretical attitude and worldviews, Heidegger conceives that philosophizing is committing oneself to the possibility of carrying out a personal transformation lived as a commitment of a personal nature. From this situation, which will be critically scrutinized in the development of the present paper, I will determine philosophy to be the setting in motion of the self-enlightenment of the life of each existent.

Healing from shame: Possible and desirable?

2021 ◽  
pp. 009182962098653
Author(s):  
Andrea Campanale
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Self Help

This article offers a multidisciplinary exploration of whether healing from shame is possible, what implications it has for the gospel and how healing might be appropriated in ordinary people’s lives. It draws on scripture and a very personal experience of one person’s healing from shame to draw lessons from an understanding of mission in honour/shame cultures to help those struggling with toxic shame in the postmodern, highly individualised West. Examining the relevance of story, spiritual practices and self-help, it is asserted that healing is ultimately experienced as the restoration of a relationship with God and with other, as well as with the self.

The light and the bulb: The psychology and neurophysiology of mystical experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Etzel Cardeña ◽  
Lena Lindström
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Demographic Correlates ◽  
Imaging Research ◽  
Mystical Experiences ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
Pure Awareness

Throughout history, people have described alterations of consciousness in which they experienced a sense of transcendence, being part of a much larger unity, sometimes encompassing the whole universe, or of being pure awareness. These experiences have been foundational for many religious and spiritual practices, albeit they have sometimes been treated as suspect or outright psycho- and or neuro-pathological. This chapter defines various aspects of the self, self-transcendence, and mystical experiences (ME), discusses the relation of ME with other constructs, its prevalence, psychological and demographic correlates, and its relation to mental health, reviews brain-imaging research on it, and concludes with a discussion of its ontological implications. By doing so, it seeks to give an overview of both enlightenment experiences, ‘the light,’ and the underlying neurophysiological processes, ‘the bulb’.

Disability Identity of Leaders in the Self-Advocacy Movement

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 315-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Personal Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Disability Rights Movement ◽  
Disability Identity

Abstract Life stories and perspectives of leaders in the self-advocacy movement were explored to enhance knowledge about disability identity formation. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 leaders in the self-advocacy movement. Five major themes emerged: (a) resistance—claiming personhood and voice; (b) connection with disability community; (c) reclaiming disability and personal transformation; (d) interconnection with broader disability rights movement; and (e) bond with social justice and interdependency.

scholarly journals Prompting Spiritual Practices through Christian Faith Applications: Self-Paternalism and the Surveillance of the Soul

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 502-516
Author(s):  
Jason Pridmore ◽  
Yijing Wang
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
International Survey ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
Technologies Of The Self ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Bible Reading

This paper examines the everyday use of applications designed for Christian spiritual practices, ranging from Bible reading to prayer to meditation to forms of personal and collective worship. These applications are designed to prompt and reinforce particular behaviours on the part of users to support them in their devotional efforts. As a technology that sits between the external workings of (divine) power and reaffirmations of power through personal examination, these spiritual applications seem to exemplify Foucauldian concerns about surveillance and the production of subjectivity. However, a considered examination of these technologies and an empirical investigation of their use suggests a more complicated story. Though these may be considered “technologies of the self,” their use seems to vary amongst adherents, surprisingly less used by those who may be seen as more spiritually committed. Rather than serving to “quantify” or even “gamify” spirituality fully, the use of these apps suggests a form of self-paternalism in which certain users willingly respond to features designed to encourage particular spiritual practices—a mode of governance that subtly promotes particular (personally) desired behaviours. Drawing in part on an international survey that examined users’ motivations and experiences with these applications, the contexts and results of spiritual applications raise several issues for surveillance studies more generally, including considerations needed for contextual norms, responses to and accommodation of social expectations, and a reorientation towards agency in relation to the production of subjectivity.

scholarly journals Tradition of Transformative Initiation in Taoism and the Concept of xian

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-24
Author(s):  
Alexey A. Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Bright Light ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Transpersonal Experience

This paper focuses on the characteristics of one of the key types of Taoist tradition – хian, which is usually inaccurately translated as “immortal”. Based on a number of texts of Taoist traditions Lingbao, Shanqing and Quanzhen, the paper shows that the acquisition of the state of xianhood is not connected with physical immortality, but based on the deep transformative and transpersonal experience. The practitioner goes through a series of transformative stages, each of which, depending on the particular school, includes a set of spiritual practices aimed at achieving absolute peace and self-deactualization. Such reincarnation is also accompanied by the acquisition of a bright “light”, getting a “shining spirit”, immersion into a “deep dream” that is associated with a strong insight experience. In some cases, it could be regarded as the self-rebirth in the true form (the state of the “true man”): passing through the stage of “dying of the previous body” and rebirth in the new one, as well as going to the “distant wanderings”, which typologically can be defined as a special type of rites of passage and passing through a system of consecrated rituals.

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