scholarly journals “Like a Vibration Cascading through the Body”: Energy-Like Somatic Experiences Reported by Western Buddhist Meditators

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1042
Author(s):  
David J. Cooper ◽  
Jared R. Lindahl ◽  
Roman Palitsky ◽  
Willoughby B. Britton
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Body Energy ◽  
Qualitative Sample ◽  
Psychological Studies ◽  
Somatic Experiences

There are numerous historical and textual references to energy-like somatic experiences (ELSEs) from religious traditions, and even a few psychological studies that have documented related phenomena. However, ELSEs remain an understudied effect of meditation in contemporary research. Based upon narratives from a large qualitative sample of Buddhist meditators in the West reporting meditation-related challenges, this paper offers a unique glimpse into how ELSEs play out in the lives of contemporary meditation practitioners and meditation experts. Departing from studies presuming a “kundalini awakening” framework, this paper presents a broader scope for understanding ELSEs by describing the metaphors practitioners used when speaking about them; the trajectories and impacts of ELSEs, including the factors that were reported as influencing their nature or trajectory; the various ways in which they were interpreted and appraised by practitioners, teachers, and specialists, such as doctors and therapists; and how practitioners responded to them or managed them with particular remedies. Deciding how to interpret and manage ELSEs entailed recruiting frameworks from within and/or beyond the meditator’s specific Buddhist lineage.

Starvation and Self-Mutilation in Religious Traditions

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Wilson
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Hunger Strike ◽  
The West ◽  
Buddhist Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Self Mutilation ◽  
The World ◽  
Bodily Practice ◽  
Self Immolation

This chapter investigates the place of destructive acts against oneself—such as starvation and self-mutilation—in the spectrum of violent actions performed in the name of religion. Self-starvation and self-mutilation share some of the ideological and performative features of violence in the name of religion. The self-sacrifice of Quang Duc was demonstrative of a time-tested Buddhist form of bodily practice known in Buddhist studies in the West as self-immolation. It is revealed that self-directed violence can be both an act of devotion and an act of protest. Self-immolation and hunger-striking employ the body as a means of resistance. Like self-conflagration, the hunger strike has become a global phenomenon used on every continent of the world.

Locating the Historical and Contemporary Context of Women’s Imprisonment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Chamberlen
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Women's Prisons ◽  
Women's Imprisonment ◽  
Contemporary Context

This chapter sketches the broader context of the study presented in this book. It starts with a historical account of imprisonment, focusing particularly on women’s imprisonment, and attempts to trace the centrality of prisoner bodies in the delivery of punishment via the prison since the eighteenth century. Through this brief historiography, it examines how the body has been the object and subject of punishment and, since the start, has been part and parcel of the delivery of imprisonment. More specifically, the chapter argues that, since its establishment, women’s imprisonment has been gendered and embodied. The second half of the chapter looks at more contemporary research on women’s experiences in prison, and unpacks the punishment–body relation by connecting the study’s objectives to extant research on women’s prisons.

scholarly journals Religion, Belonging, and Active Citizenship: A Systematic Review of Literature on Muslim Youth in Australia

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Mehmet Ozalp ◽  
Mirela Ćufurović
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
The Body ◽  
Active Citizenship ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
The West ◽  
Important Conclusion ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
The Impact

Muslim youth have been under scrutiny over the last two decades from a radicalisation and countering violent extremism lens. This bias has largely carried itself to research conducted on Muslim youth in the West. This article undertakes a systematic review and analysis of literature conducted on Muslim youth in the West and in Australia in the last two decades since 11 September 2001. The body of literature in this field can be grouped under three main themes: (1) the impact of terrorism policies and discourse on Muslim youth and their disengaged identities, (2) the relationship between religion (Islam) and civic engagement of Muslim youth, and (3) Muslim youth as active citizens. An important conclusion of this review is that most of the research is dated. There have been significant changes in the development of youth as they quickly evolve and adapt. The systematic review of literature exposed a number of gaps in the research: the current literature ignores generic adolescent factors and external social factors other than Islam that also influence Muslim youth; studies that examine both online and traditional activism and volunteering space are needed to understand the dynamics of change and shift; research needs to focus on Muslim youth who were born and raised in Australia rather than focus only on migrant youth; the ways some Muslim youth use their unique sense of identity as Australian Muslims to become successful citizens engaged in positive action is not known; how Muslim youth use avenues other than their faith to express themselves in civic engagement and their commitment to society is underexplored; it is not known the degree to which bonding networks influence the identity formation and transformation of Muslim youth; there is no research done to examine how adult–youth partnership is managed in organisations that successfully integrate youth in their leadership; there is a need to include Australian Muslim youth individual accounts of their active citizenship; there is a need to understand the process of positive Muslim youth transformations as a complement to the current focus on the radicalisation process. Addressing these gaps will allow a more complete understanding of Muslim youth in the West and inform educational and social policies in a more effective manner.

Simulation and Analysis on Pressure Resistance Experiments of Automotive Body

2012 ◽  
Vol 490-495 ◽  
pp. 1451-1455
Author(s):  
Guang Yao Zhao ◽  
Yi Feng Zhao ◽  
Chuan Yin Tang ◽  
Zhi Yuan Du
Keyword(s):  
Energy Absorption ◽  
The Body ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Vehicle Simulation ◽  
Automotive Body ◽  
Safety Regulations ◽  
Vehicle Rollover ◽  
Pressure Resistance ◽  
Body Energy

Aimed at SUV-type vehicle, simulation and analysis of pressure resistance experiments on the body of automobile has been presented in the paper, according to the vehicle safety regulations and standards of FMVSS216. A limited SUV vehicle model is created; simulation is obtained with the help of software LS-DYNA, based on the principle of finite element analysis method. Assessment of pressure resistance and safety of the automobile has been presented, from the aspect of the deformation of body, the energy absorption of the vehicle and components, and the pressure on the body, etc. By rational improving of the original design of body structure, the reasonable distribution of pressure absorbability of the body of the SUV-type automobile is achieved. The effect of the overall energy absorption of the body is fully exerted, and then the safety of the driver and the passenger in a rollover accident is improved. Research methods and conclusions of this paper provide useful ways and references to the research of the safety of vehicle rollover and design of rationality of body energy absorption

Les manifestes et les programmes littéraires en Afrique francophone subsaharienne : à propos de ‘l’invisibilité’ du corpus dans la critique littéraire

Literator ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laude Ngadi M
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
The West ◽  
Francophone Africa ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Geographical Space

Manifestos and literary programs in French-Speaking sub-Saharian of Africa: About ‘invisibility’ of the corpus in literary criticism. Despite an abundant production, the corpus of literary manifestos and programmes from sub-Saharan Francophone Africa is relatively invisible in literary criticism. With the exception of a few studies, critical works devoted to the programmatic works of writers are rare. This article proposes some hypotheses that can explain why the body of literature of authors’ ideas in this space is generally ‘invisible’. The approach of the literary field, applied to the sociology of scientific production, makes it possible to highlight three main causes for this invisibility: the importance of identity and cultural discourse, which makes it impossible to delimit the geographical space of writers from sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, whose production and reception are dominated by that of their colleagues from the West Indies and the Caribbean; the omnipresence of political and social discourse which takes precedence over poetic reflection; the metalanguage of the manifesto due to the fact that writers are also generally literary critics.

The Neuronal Crisis: Meditate to Comprehend the Nature of Psychosomatic Epidemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Henri Hude
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The West ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Experimental Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Rational Consideration ◽  
Existential Problem

This articles describes the “neuronal crisis,” the epidemic of psychosomatic illnesses observed all over the world, particularly in the West. The paper looks into the deeper real causes and seeks the most effective kind of cure for this malady. This leads to rational consideration of the metaphysical dimension of the human being and the fundamental problems (those of evil, of freedom, of God, of the soul, and of the body), where lack of sufficiency plays a major part in the etiology of these pathologies, as the desire for the Absolute is the basis of the unconscious. This approach presumes the Freudian model but denies its purely libidinal interpretation that substitutes desire for the Absolute with libido. Hence, an explanatory system applied to increasingly serious pathologies: ailments, neuroses, depressions, and psychoses. Frustration of one’s desire for the Good gives rise to a sublimation of finite goodness. The inevitable desublimation, caused by anguish because of the Evil, intense guilt, and the dramatization of evils, causes neuroses as awkward but inevitable solutions to the existential problem that is still unresolved, due to lack of functional and experimental knowledge. Psychiatry and even medicine must take into account the metaphysical layer, and, therefore, operate within an existential dynamic, aiming to progress in wisdom and to discover man, man’s brain and body, as these are structured around the axis of his desire.

scholarly journals Yoruba Customs and Beliefs Pertaining to Twins

Twin Research ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernand Leroy ◽  
Taiwo Olaleye-Oruene ◽  
Gesina Koeppen-Schomerus ◽  
Elizabeth Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Belief System ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
The West ◽  
Traditional Beliefs ◽  
Southwestern Nigeria ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The World ◽  
African Slaves ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Supreme Deity

AbstractThe Yoruba are an important ethnic group mainly occupying Southwestern Nigeria. Mainly for genetic reasons, this very large tribe happens to present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4 % of all maternities). The high perinatal mortality rate associated with such pregnancies has contributed to the integration of a special twin belief system within the African traditional religion of this tribe. The latter is based on the concept of a supreme deity called Olodumare or Olorun, assisted by a series of secondary gods (Orisha) while Yoruba religion also involves immortality and reincarnation of the soul based on the animistic cult of ancestors. Twins are therefore given special names and believed to detain special preternatural powers. In keeping with their refined artistic tradition, the Yoruba have produced numerous wooden statuettes called Ibejis that represent the souls of deceased newborn twins and are involved in elaborate rituals. Among Yoruba traditional beliefs and lore some twin-related themes are represented which are also found in other parts of the world. Basic features of the original Yoruba beliefs have found their way into the religious traditions of descendants of African slaves imported in the West Indies and in South America.

scholarly journals The sacredness of the self, of society and of the human body: the case of a Finnish transgender pastor Marja-Sisko Aalto

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Veikko Anttonen
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Life Story ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Folk Biology ◽  
The Town

In 2008 the change of sex of a Finnish transgender pastor attracted media attention to Lutheran Christianity on a worldwide scale, which compared to other religious traditions seldom makes it to the world news. This article­ discusses the sex reassignment undergone by Marja-Sisko Aalto, a Lutheran pastor from the town of Imatra, in south eastern Finland, who in 2008, at the age of 54, was transformed into a woman. First some remarks on the relation between religion and the body are made and terminological issues are discussed briefly. The second part of the article presents Aalto's life story based on the author's interview with her in April 2010. In the last section the author discusses the Finnish cognitive scholar Ilkka Pyysiäinen’s reflection on folk biology as an explanation for making sense of the public image regarding a priest’s gender. The article concludes by looking at Marja-Sisko Aalto’s case from the perspective of marking boundaries between the categories of the self, the society and the human body. 

scholarly journals Homicide and corpse dismemberment: A study of one case

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 251-254
Author(s):  
C BIGOT ◽  
F O NGONGANG ◽  
E NSEME ◽  
M SOUMAH ◽  
Z SANDO
Keyword(s):  
Cutting Planes ◽  
West African ◽  
The Body ◽  
Public Place ◽  
Criminal Offence ◽  
The West ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Plastic Bag ◽  
African Context ◽  
Mechanical Asphyxia

Homicide may be an isolated impulsive act arising from a situation or based on a previous conception, which is premeditation. Despite its nature or motivations, homicide remains a wrongful criminal act at all times and in all places. Several studies conducted in Western countries on this topic have highlighted the overriding concern of the criminal, which includes concealing the criminal offence in most cases.In Africa, apart from cases of infanticide, the discovery of the body of a homicide victim in a public place is a relatively common phenomenon, particularly if it involves mutilation.The body was examined; it was a young adult African female whose corpse was wrapped in a plastic bag. The autopsy established that the section or cutting planes were preferably lodged in the large joints.Death was caused by mechanical asphyxia. The focus of this case lies in the atypical nature of this type of postmortem manipulation in the West African context.The unusual nature of this type of homicide illustrates and underscores some reality in our development context.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document