tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/healing-3939/articles
Healing – The Conversation
2024-03-26T12:41:28Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226293
2024-03-26T12:41:28Z
2024-03-26T12:41:28Z
An annual pilgrimage during Holy Week brings thousands of believers to Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico, where they pray for healing and protection
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583549/original/file-20240321-30-z27kej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C4%2C2968%2C2182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of Catholics travel by foot to Santuario de Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, during an annual Good Friday pilgrimage.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CatholicPilgrimageNewMexico/27b7d518d220496e8911f7b0c20bf07d/photo?Query=Chimay%C3%B3%20New%20Mexico%20pilgrimage&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=14&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Morgan Lee</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For decades, the people of northern New Mexico have marked the Christian observance of Good Friday with a walking pilgrimage to the Santuario de Chimayó in the village of Chimayó, New Mexico.</p>
<p>Referring to themselves as <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/hispano-music-and-culture-from-the-northern-rio-grande/articles-and-essays/nuevo-mexicanos-of-the-upper-rio-grande-culture-history-and-society/english/">Hispanos</a>, or Nuevomexicanos, they have lived in the region for generations, tracing their descent from Spanish colonists who arrived to New Mexico in the 17th and 18th centuries. Nuevomexicanos’ Catholicism developed at the far northern frontier of the Spanish Empire; a scarcity of priests led to the flourishing of many popular devotions in New Mexico, including the pilgrimage to Chimayó. </p>
<p>Built in the early 1800s, the santuario is a small church, built of adobe bricks, with a unique feature: In a little room adjacent to the church’s central worship space, there is a hole in the floor, the “pocito,” filled with the sandy earth of the area. </p>
<p>For at least 200 years, Nuevomexicano Catholics have used dirt from the pocito for its purported miraculous healing qualities. They rub it on their aches and pains, they hold it to focus their prayers, and, historically, ingested it. </p>
<p>In 2015, I participated in the annual pilgrimage as part of the research for <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479884278/the-healing-power-of-the-santuario-de-chimayo/">my book</a>, “The Healing Power of the Santuario de Chimayó: America’s Miraculous Church.” The santuario’s story is not merely a curiosity but also a significant part of the shifting identity of the U.S. Catholic Church, which is on the verge of becoming <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">majority-Latino</a>.</p>
<h2>Legendary origins of santuario’s holy dirt</h2>
<p>The source of the pocito dirt’s power for Hispano pilgrims is linked to two images of Christ.</p>
<p>The first is a large crucifix called the Señor de Esquipulas, or Lord of Esquipulas. Named for a famous and much older <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803268432/">Guatemalan Christ</a> figure also known as the Señor de Esquipulas, the crucifix lies at the heart of the most common origin story for the santuario’s holy dirt. </p>
<p>The legend goes that in 1810, a Chimayó community leader and landowner named Bernardo Abeyta witnessed light coming out of the ground in one of his fields. Upon examination, he is said to have discovered the crucifix partially buried in the soil. He dug it up and brought it to the nearest church at the time, some 8 miles away. </p>
<p>The crucifix, however, is believed to have returned on its own to the hole in Abeyta’s field. Given this sign, Abeyta sought and received permission to build a chapel around the hole, a chapel today known as the Santuario de Chimayó.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brightly painted church altar with Jesus on the cross." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583554/original/file-20240321-28-lsrlch.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior view of Santuario de Chimayo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.66247/">Carol M Highsmith/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The Señor de Esquipulas crucifix hangs on the main altar screen in the santuario, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has promoted the story of its miraculous provenance. </p>
<p>A second Christ image, however, is by far the more popular among Hispano pilgrims. The <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826347107/crossing-borders-with-the-santo-ninyo-de-atocha/">Santo Niño de Atocha</a> is a depiction of the Christ child dressed as a medieval pilgrim and is popular throughout northern Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region. A statue of the Holy Child is ensconced in the santuario in a room adjacent to the pocito.</p>
<p>For pilgrims, a visit to the santuario typically includes time in prayer in front of the Holy Child, where they ask for healing and protection for themselves, their children and other loved ones. They take home dirt from the pocito as a reminder and vehicle of Christ’s power to answer their prayers.</p>
<h2>The annual pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Hispano residents in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado made pilgrimages to the santuario for healing throughout the 19th century, but the massive walking pilgrimage during Holy Week, culminating on Good Friday, did not begin until after World War II. </p>
<p>Hundreds of members of New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery had endured the 1942 <a href="https://historyinsantafe.com/200th-coast-artillery-bataan-death-march/#:%7E:text=New%20Mexico's%20Veteran's%20Administration%20is,joined%2075%2C000%20prisoners%20of%20war">Bataan Death March</a>, in which thousands of U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to walk for miles through the Philippines. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161130144025/http://www.bataanmuseum.com/bataanhistory/">Many died</a> from either torture or exhaustion.</p>
<p>Upon returning home, Nuevomexicano survivors organized a walking pilgrimage to the santuario in 1946 to commemorate their suffering and to mourn their lost comrades. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/american_latino_heritage/el_santuario_de_chimayo.html">This pilgrimage</a> soon evolved into an annual observance not only for veterans but also for Hispano Catholics in general.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The pilgrimage of Santuario de Chimayo.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Today, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the santuario throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during Holy Week – the week before the celebration of Easter – is the high point. Good Friday, the day on which Christians believe that Jesus was crucified and died, attracts approximately <a href="https://stateecu.com/a-guide-to-holy-week-pilgrimages-to-el-santuario-de-chimayo/">30,000 walking pilgrims</a>, some coming from as far away as Albuquerque, 90 miles away. Others choose shorter routes, including a popular 9-mile walk from the nearby town of Española. </p>
<h2>Latino Catholics</h2>
<p>The santuario’s popularity continues to rise along with the numbers of Latino Catholics in the U.S.</p>
<p>The demographic shift in the U.S. Catholic Church toward a <a href="https://vencuentro.org/consultation-report/">Latino majority</a> is well underway. <a href="https://theology.nd.edu/people/timothy-matovina/">Timothy Matovina</a>, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, writes in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691163574/latino-catholicism">his book</a>, “Latino Catholicism: Tranformation in America’s Largest Church,” that Latinos represent one-third of all U.S. Catholics and make up more than half of the U.S. Catholic population under the age of 25.</p>
<p>He also notes that, because of Latino population growth, the proportion of Catholics in California and Texas has increased since 1990, while the proportion in Massachusetts and New York has dropped. This demographic shift means devotional sites, like the santuario, that have Latino Catholic origins and immense popularity can expect to grow in importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Hendrickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Santuario de Chimayó throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during the week before the celebration of Easter is the high point.
Brett Hendrickson, Professor of Religious Studies, Lafayette College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218992
2024-03-01T13:33:52Z
2024-03-01T13:33:52Z
The tools in a medieval Japanese healer’s toolkit: from fortunetelling and exorcism to herbal medicines
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578362/original/file-20240227-20-ng0qz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C979%2C466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An 'onmyoji,' an expert on yin and yang, performs divination with counting rods in an Edo-period illustration.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tamamonomae_Onmyoji.jpg">Kyoto University Library/Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“The Tale of Genji,” often called <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530271/the-tale-of-genji-by-murasaki-shikibu/">Japan’s first novel</a>, was written 1,000 years ago. Yet it still occupies a powerful place in the Japanese imagination. A popular TV drama, “Dear Radiance” – “<a href="https://www.nhk.jp/p/hikarukimie/ts/1YM111N6KW/">Hikaru kimi e</a>” – is based on the life of its author, Murasaki Shikibu: the lady-in-waiting whose experiences at court inspired the refined world of “Genji.”</p>
<p>Romantic relationships, poetry and political intrigue provide most of the novel’s action. Yet illness plays an important role in several crucial moments, most famously when one of the main character’s lovers, Yūgao, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66057/pg66057-images.html#page_92">falls ill and passes away</a>, killed by what appears to be a powerful spirit – as later happens <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/66057/pg66057-images.html#page_250">to his wife, Aoi</a>, as well.</p>
<p>Someone reading “The Tale of Genji” at the time it was written would have found this realistic – as would some people in different cultures around the world today. Records from early medieval Japan document numerous descriptions <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-46cs-wq63">of spirit possession</a>, usually blamed on spirits of the dead. As has been true in many times and places, physical and spiritual health were seen as intertwined.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ealc.wustl.edu/people/alessandro-poletto">a historian of premodern Japan</a>, I’ve studied the processes its healing experts used to deal with possessions, and illness generally. Both literature and historical records demonstrate that the boundaries between what are often called “religion” and “medicine” were indistinct, if they existed at all.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An intricate illustration of a ceremony attended by people in robes, with the background covered in a golden color." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578356/original/file-20240227-28-gqyl6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 17th-century scroll, ‘Maboroshi no Genji monogatari emaki,’ showing the funeral of Genji’s wife, Aoi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/leaves-of-wild-ginger-from-the-phantom-genji-scrolls-mid-news-photo/1206222207?adppopup=true">Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Vanquishing spirits</h2>
<p>The government department in charge of divination, the Bureau of Yin and Yang, established in the late seventh century, played a crucial role. Its technicians, known as <a href="https://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/186">onmyōji</a> – yin and yang masters – were in charge of divination and fortunetelling. They were also responsible for observing the skies, interpreting omens, calendrical calculations, timekeeping and eventually a variety of rituals.</p>
<p>Today, onmyōji appear as wizardlike figures in <a href="https://books.bunshun.jp/sp/onmyoji">novels</a>, <a href="https://www.viz.com/twin-star-exorcists">manga</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEiZuDTEq6A">anime</a> and <a href="https://en.onmyojigame.com/">video games</a>. Though heavily fictionalized, there is a historical kernel of truth in these fantastical depictions.</p>
<p>Starting from around the 10th century, Onmyōji were charged with carrying out iatromancy: divining the cause of a disease. Generally, they distinguished between disease caused by external or internal factors, though boundaries between the categories were often blurred. External factors could include local deities known as “kami,” other kami-like entities the patient had upset, minor Buddhist deities or malicious spirits – often revengeful ghosts. </p>
<p>In the case of spirit-induced illness, Buddhist monks would work to winnow out the culprit. Monks who specialized in exorcistic practices were known as “genja” and were believed to know how to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300922/the-pillow-book-by-sei-shonagon">expel the spirit from a patient’s body</a> through powerful incantations. Genja would then transfer it onto another person and force the spirit to reveal its identity before vanquishing it.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A faded picture of a broom, branch with a few leaves, and a fan, as well as Japanese script on top of it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=665&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578368/original/file-20240227-26-dx583p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=836&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 19th century print by Kubo Shunman shows objects representing the New Year’s ceremony of exorcising demons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/objects-representing-the-ceremony-of-exorcising-demons-one-news-photo/1338629689?adppopup=true">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Court physicians</h2>
<p>While less common than spirit possessions, the idea that physical factors could also cause illness appears in sources from this period. </p>
<p>Since the late seventh century, the government of the Japanese archipelago had established a bureau in charge of the well-being of aristocratic families and high-ranking members of the state bureaucracy. This <a href="https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2657">Bureau of Medications</a>, the Ten’yakuryō, was based on similar systems in China’s Tang dynasty, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/3414658">which Japanese officials</a> adapted for their own culture.</p>
<p>The bureau’s members, whom scholars today often call “court physicians” in English, created medicinal concoctions. But the bureau also included technicians tasked with using spells, perhaps to protect high-ranking people from maladies.</p>
<h2>Not either/or</h2>
<p>Some scholars, both Japanese and non-Japanese, compare the practices of members of the Bureau of Medications with what is now called “traditional Chinese medicine,” or just “medicine.” They typically consider the onmyōji and Buddhist monks, meanwhile, to fall under the label of “religion” – or perhaps, <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/7306973">in the case of onmyōji, “magic</a>.”</p>
<p>But I have found numerous signs that these categories do not help people today make sense of early medieval Japan.</p>
<p>Starting in the seventh century, as a centralized Japanese state began to take shape, Buddhist monks from the Korean Peninsula and present-day China brought healing practices to Japan. These techniques, such as herbalism – treatments made of plants – later became associated with court physicians. At the same time, though, monks also employed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.980">healing practices rooted in Buddhist rituals</a>. Clearly, <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-46cs-wq63">the distinction between ritual and physical healing</a> was not part of their mindset.</p>
<p>Similarly, with court physicians, it is true that sources from this period mostly show them <a href="https://rekihaku.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2657">practicing herbalism</a>. Later on, they incorporated simple needle surgeries and moxibustion, which involves burning a substance derived from dried leaves from the mugwort plant near the patient’s skin.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing showing the outline of the human body from behind and in front, with one arm outstretched, and Chinese characters written on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578349/original/file-20240227-28-9evlnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century engraving identifying parts of the body treated by moxibustion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/engraving-of-the-meridian-points-on-the-human-body-which-news-photo/90731089?adppopup=true">Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>However, they also incorporated ritual elements from various Chinese traditions: spells, divination, fortunetelling and hemerology, the practice of identifying auspicious and inauspicious days for specific events. For example, moxibustion was supposed to be avoided on certain days because of the position of a deity, <a href="https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1520853832664346880">known as “jinshin</a>,” believed to reside and move inside the human body. Practicing moxibustion on the body part where “jinshin” resided in a specific moment could kill it, therefore potentially harming the patient. </p>
<p>Court physicians were also expected to ritually “rent” a place for a pregnant woman to deliver, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110907">producing talismans</a> written in red ink that were meant to function as “leases” for the birthing area. This was done in order to keep away deities who might otherwise enter that space, possibly because childbirth was believed to be a source of defilement. They also used hemerology to determine where the birthing bed should be placed.</p>
<p>In short, these healing experts straddled the boundaries between what are often called “religion” and “medicine.” We take for granted the categories that shape our understanding of the world around us, but they are the result of complex historical processes – and look different in every time and place.</p>
<p>Reading works like “The Tale of Genji” is not only a way to immerse ourselves in the world of a medieval court, one where spirits roam freely, but a chance to see other ways of sorting human experience at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218992/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandro Poletto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days.
Alessandro Poletto, Lecturer in East Asian Religions, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222568
2024-02-05T13:29:42Z
2024-02-05T13:29:42Z
Amid growing legalization, cannabis in culture and politics is the focus of this anthropology course
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572920/original/file-20240201-19-efs8pb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C25%2C3456%2C2214&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Laws that govern cannabis use are changing across the nation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/marijuana-legalization-high-quality-stock-photo-royalty-free-image/1143280562?phrase=cannabis">Darren415 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>Anthropology of Cannabis</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>Whenever I taught my medical anthropology course, I noticed that students were most curious about the section of the course that deals with the uses of plants, fungi and other species for a range of medical purposes. Those purposes included healing, psychological well-being, ritual and spiritual awakening, to name a few.</p>
<p>Once Connecticut, the state where I work, legalized recreational cannabis, I decided it was timely to take the plant section from the original course and expand it to a 14-week course of its own. It was also an opportunity to introduce students to the discipline of anthropology through a topic I knew many of them found interesting. I decided to focus on cannabis instead of the entire panoply of plants and other species, since it was the one plant being legalized in the state at that time.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>Throughout the course, we focus on the different cultural and political significance of cannabis in other geographical contexts. We look at the representation of <a href="https://www.northernstandard.com/a-brief-history-of-cannabis-in-art/">cannabis in art</a>, <a href="https://electricliterature.com/7-lesser-known-stoner-novels-with-suggested-weed-pairings/">literature and pop culture</a>, as well as what the <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/cannabis-marijuana-and-cannabinoids-what-you-need-to-know#:%7E:text=The%20cannabis%20plant%20contains%20about,on%20a%20person's%20mental%20state">science of cannabis</a> tells us about its <a href="https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2020.22.3/mcrocq">impact on health and well-being</a>.</p>
<p>We also look at the way stigma and racism impact cannabis users and producers in the United States and elsewhere.</p>
<p>We end the course with students writing letters to themselves in which they imagine how the legal and social landscape for cannabis will be in five years, in the U.S. as well as globally. I plan to send them these letters in 2028.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>While cannabis has long been a part of human existence, the legal and political landscape of cannabis production is rapidly changing. Even if they are not cannabis consumers, students will at least become more aware about the role that cannabis plays in today’s society.</p>
<p>Students may want to know how they can participate in the business side of cannabis. Or they may be interested in doing research on the uses and abuses of the plant.</p>
<p>The course also offers students a way to think about the stigma and discrimination faced by cannabis users and how different cultural systems define and treat behaviors that are deemed deviant. </p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>My main objective is to have students develop an informed understanding of cannabis as a plant and as a cultural fact. I want them to approach the study of cannabis with an open mind and to walk away with a greater understanding of how harmful stigma can be to individuals in any society. I would hope everyone leaves informed and less inclined to stereotype others. </p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>We read passages from <a href="https://facultyprofile.fairfield.edu/?uname=dcrawford">anthropologist David Crawford</a>’s “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498598187/Dealing-with-Privilege-Cannabis-Cocaine-and-the-Economic-Foundations-of-Suburban-Drug-Culture">Dealing with Privilege: Cannabis, Cocaine, and the Economic Foundations of Surburban Drug Culture</a>,” which challenges the stereotypes that many white people and politicians hold about drug dealing and also explores how drugs became raced and classed entities.</p>
<p>We also read “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2022.0251">Understanding and Rebalancing: A Rapid Scoping Review of Cannabis Research Among Indigenous People</a>,” which gives students an opportunity to learn more about Indigenous peoples and cultures alongside learning more about the cannabis plant itself.</p>
<p>And we watch “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028346/">Reefer Madness</a>,” a 1936 film meant to be a cautionary tale about the presumed dangers of marijuana use.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>Students leave the class better informed about cannabis as a plant and with a better appreciation for the complexity of “drugs” in society. I believe the class also helps students to become more informed citizens, since the laws that govern the use and research on cannabis and other related plants are as much a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0091450919827605">political issue as they are social</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hillary Jeanne Haldane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Students are invited to imagine how the social, political and legal landscape for cannabis will look in the future.
Hillary Jeanne Haldane, Professor of Anthropology, Quinnipiac University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215415
2024-01-24T13:28:09Z
2024-01-24T13:28:09Z
Healing from child sexual abuse is often difficult but not impossible
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569798/original/file-20240117-25-rmsvl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C84%2C5548%2C3623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most child sexual abuse involves people the children know.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/black-and-white-image-of-a-girl-feeling-guilty-royalty-free-image/1252367851?phrase=sexual+abuse+child&adppopup=true">ajijchan via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/02/patrick-wojahn-pleads-guilty-child-pornography/">mayor</a>, a <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/karate-instructor-arrested-for-child-sex-abuse-police.amp">karate instructor</a>, a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/baltimore/news/ex-baltimore-cop-accused-of-abusing-children-at-wifes-owings-mills-daycare-appears-in-court/">former cop</a>, an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/29/child-porn-meek-journalist-sentenced/">award-winning journalist</a> and a <a href="https://abc13.com/robert-l-carter-houston-pastor-impregnates-child-decadelong-sex-assault-arrest-report/13885173/">pastor</a>. All five of these individuals in positions of authority or trust made headlines within the past year in connection with childhood sexual abuse.</p>
<p>Beyond the headlines and whatever punishments are meted out, each heinous case is alleged to involve a child who endured unjustifiable suffering and is left with the burden of carrying the weight of this trauma.</p>
<p>As a child <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=fdZFeHwAAAAJ">clinical psychologist</a> who regularly provides therapy for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I can attest that traveling the uphill path to healing from such experiences is arduous – but it is possible.</p>
<h2>How many children endure sexual abuse?</h2>
<p>Child sexual abuse is sadly a common occurrence. About 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 20 boys in the United States are subjected to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childsexualabuse/fastfact.html">child sexual abuse</a> – maltreatment of a child involving <a href="https://www.rainn.org/articles/child-sexual-abuse">molestation, rape, prostitution, pornography and any sexual contact without consent</a>. </p>
<p>According to the most recent federal data, approximately 60,000 children were <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/data-research/child-maltreatment">confirmed victims of sexual abuse in 2021</a>.</p>
<p>However, true rates of child sexual abuse are unknown, as only 10% of cases are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2492">reported to law enforcement</a>. An estimated 60% to 70% of adults who were sexually abused as children <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8971.11.1.194">kept it a secret throughout their childhood</a>. </p>
<h2>Who are the perpetrators?</h2>
<p>The majority of child sexual abuse perpetrators – 93% – <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence">are someone the child knows</a>. Thirty-four percent of perpetrators are family members, and <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence">only 7% are strangers</a>.</p>
<p>Father figures and male family members are the abusers in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.111.2.329">more than a quarter of child sexual abuse cases</a>.</p>
<p>Evidence points to younger children being more likely to be abused sexually by a family member <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JFN.0000000000000063">than by an acquantance</a>. Around 49% of sexual abuse cases against children under 5 were committed by a relative, <a href="https://www.nationalcac.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/CSA-Perpetrators.pdf">versus about 24% for children aged 12 to 17</a>. </p>
<p>In such cases, children are particularly vulnerable to coercion and secrecy. This can lead to greater likelihood of the child sexual abuse going unreported due to fear, guilt or shame, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2492">concern about getting into trouble</a>.</p>
<h2>How have the internet and social media changed things?</h2>
<p>As more children have access to various online platforms, they may become even more susceptible to unwanted sexual conversation, grooming and online sexual abuse. Teenagers, rather than younger children, are <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/children10081306">at greatest risk for encountering a sexual perpetrator online</a>.</p>
<p>A recent study found that 1 in 15 teens are exposed to unwanted sexual material online, while 1 in 9 are exposed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.03.012">sexual conversation by adults or peers</a>. Approximately 8.5% of adults who were sexually abused during childhood reported meeting a perpetrator online, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/children10081306">via social media or other online apps</a>.</p>
<p>Since the dangers that youth face online mirror dangers in real world settings, teaching internet safety skills in the context of sexual abuse and bullying education is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020916257">encouraged by researchers</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s different for extremely young victims?</h2>
<p>Research suggests that about 30% of child sexual abuse cases <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200303000-00006">involve children age 4-7</a>.</p>
<p>Preschool-age children who were sexually abused <a href="https://doi.org/10.18357/ijcyfs44201312700">reported more depressive symptoms</a> than preschool-age children who were not abused. Moreover, younger age of abuse predicts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.116.1.176">worse future mental health problems</a>, including anxiety, depression and behavioral difficulties.</p>
<p>Due to their limited understanding and knowledge, young children are at a significant risk for being “<a href="https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/child-grooming/">groomed,</a>” especially by those in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2020.1801935">positions of trust</a>, and may be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.11.020">less likely to disclose abuse</a>.</p>
<p>Developmental problems are also a cause for concern if abuse occurs during the 0 to 5 age range – <a href="https://www.zerotothree.org/resource/understanding-brain-development-in-babies-and-toddlers/">the most pivotal time for brain development</a>. Compared to adolescents, younger children are more likely to display <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/10292-002">physical trauma-related symptoms</a>, such as sexualized behaviors, wetting accidents and other developmental delays, following abuse. </p>
<p>Despite their age, younger children benefit from <a href="https://www.nctsn.org/resources/sexual-development-and-behavior-children-information-parents-and-caregivers">learning about sexual behaviors, boundaries and private parts</a>. They make the most progress in trauma therapy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-020-00334-0">with caregiver participation</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A therapist listens to a young female speak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569801/original/file-20240117-19-wajyxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Therapy can help survivors of child sexual abuse regain a sense of control over their lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mature-female-counselor-gives-unrecognizable-young-royalty-free-image/1399285418?phrase=girl+in+therapy&adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>What does it take for children to recover?</h2>
<p>The most important aspects for recovery after trauma are abuse disclosure, consistent support from safe adult caregivers, and therapy. Children who are exposed to any inappropriate sexual activity or abuse are strongly encouraged to report the abuse to a trusting adult. The sooner children report being a victim of sexual abuse, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2492">fewer future psychological difficulties</a> they experience. Additionally, caregiver support strongly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2134(95)00077-L">predicts resilience</a> in children who were sexually abused. </p>
<p>Regrettably, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2492">most common reasons</a> cited for not disclosing child sexual abuse were: shame, believing the incident was not serious enough, lack of proof, self-blame, fear of negative reactions from others, and fear of not being taken seriously. So, if a child decides or agrees to report the abuse to law enforcement authorities, caregivers and professionals are urged to be supportive to lessen the negative impact of disclosure. </p>
<p>Children who have endured sexual abuse may benefit greatly from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13094">trauma-focused therapy</a>. Goals of trauma-focused therapy often include learning skills to help deal with difficult thoughts, feelings and behaviors following the abuse. The therapy also involves talking through their trauma in a safe and healthy way, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40920-7_6">learning safety skills</a> such as healthy boundaries and assertive responses to threatening situations.</p>
<h2>Are normal lives possible?</h2>
<p>Child sexual abuse can have far-reaching and lifelong consequences. Children who endure sexual abuse demonstrate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2016.11.027">more difficulty understanding and managing their emotions</a>, and experience more <a href="https://doi.org/10.18357/ijcyfs44201312700">anxiety, depression and behavioral problems</a>.</p>
<p>Adults who were sexually abused as children are at greater risk for worse physical health, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2011.01772.x">gastrointesinal, sexual health, neurological and respiratory problems, as well as chronic pain</a>. They are also at greater risk for worse psychological health, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30286-X">post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, among other disorders</a>. Further, they are at greater risk for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2534">substance abuse</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2005.01.015">marital problems and suicide</a>.</p>
<p>These things notwithstanding, many children are quite resilient. They can and do recover from such experiences, especially with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2492">abuse disclosure</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0145-2134(95)00077-L">caregiver support</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13094">treatment</a>. </p>
<p>Therapy and support from caregivers contribute greatly to healing and protection against future physical and psychological consequences. One of the core tenets of trauma-focused therapy is for an individual to regain control over their life, experiences and trauma.</p>
<p>With the support of loved ones and specialized, professional help, children and adults who have endured child sexual abuse can be resilient and successful in all domains of life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Khan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
With therapy and social support, children and adults who experienced child sexual abuse can regain a sense of control over their lives.
Maria Khan, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry, West Virginia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220024
2024-01-10T13:27:53Z
2024-01-10T13:27:53Z
A beginner’s guide to sound baths − what they are, how to choose a good one and what the research shows
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566936/original/file-20231220-17-ae0awn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C24%2C8155%2C5408&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sound therapy, which uses bells and singing bowls for healing, has gained popularity in recent years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sound-bell-healing-and-senior-woman-giving-royalty-free-image/1459154522?phrase=sound+bath&adppopup=true">PeopleImages/iStock via Getty Images plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years, sound bathing, a therapy in which sound is used for healing, <a href="https://abc7.com/sound-bath-yoga-noho-center-north-hollywood-therapy/14152096/">has been marketed</a> as one of many “<a href="https://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/04/the_history_of_self_care.html">self-care</a>” practices, such as journal-keeping or candle-burning, in support of personal well-being. Sold also as sound “immersions,” or sound “healing” or “therapy,” sound baths are pitched as a safe and effective way to reduce stress and increase inner peace.</p>
<p>Do they, though? If so, how? As a <a href="https://anthropology.sdsu.edu/people/sobo">medical anthropologist</a> who has conducted <a href="https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/healing-vibrations/">research on the sound bath boom</a>, I have some evidence-based insights to offer. </p>
<h2>What is a sound bath?</h2>
<p>Dedicated yogic sound baths are typically intimate, hourlong, small group events hosted in yoga studios or other private settings. Lights dimmed, perhaps with essential oils diffusing, providers surround their typically recumbent clients with sound generated from simple instruments such as tuning forks, gongs and bowls. In my research, sound bath receivers and providers say this leads to a deep sense of peace or harmony.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/tibetan-singing-bowls-are-not-tibetan-sincerely-a-tibetan-person/article_7e4dd7ea-6e40-5584-90d6-b864a9e9d129.html">Some people claim erroneously</a> that what we call sound baths are an ancient practice. There is a long-standing tradition in yoga of using sound to <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Practice-of-Nada-Yoga/Baird-Hersey/9781620551813">focus one’s meditative efforts</a>, perhaps most famously in chanting “Aum.” </p>
<p>But sound baths emerged in their present form largely as an outgrowth of the rise of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2021.1949943">modern yoga</a> – the kind that focuses on postures, or “asanas.” These classes generally include, at the end, a short, meditative, “rest and receive” phase, or “savasana.” A yogic sound bath is, essentially, a sound-enhanced, extended, savasana-only sound immersion session. </p>
<p>The commodification of yogic practices in the West, along with <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9485449/Kendall-Jenner-conducts-relaxing-sound-bath-crystal-singing-bowls-followers-Instagram.html">celebrity endorsements</a>, have resulted in the modern-day sound bath industry. Many yoga studios now offer sound baths regularly: It “draws people in,” explained one owner. </p>
<h2>Early research and health benefits</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman lying down with eyes closed while gongs are played next to her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566942/original/file-20231220-21-1kr11m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sound vibrations can bring about several benefits, if done in the right way.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sound-bath-therapy-playing-gong-royalty-free-image/1393950816?phrase=sound+bath&adppopup=true">microgen/iStock via Getty Images plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is evidence that shows that yogic sound therapy can bring benefits. Data confirms associations between yoga practice and better <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2019.04.006">physical</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2018.03.002">mental</a> health.</p>
<p>Regarding sound baths specifically, in a study involving the controlled exposure of 62 people to singing bowls, gongs, cymbals called ting-shas, and other simple instruments, subjects reported decreased <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587216668109">tension, anger and fatigue</a>. A review including several other somewhat smaller studies found that sound immersion can also improve blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32507429/">other clinical indicators</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9050597">Scientific understanding of the mechanics of sound therapy</a> is in its infancy. But preliminary studies have shown that a well-executed sound bath may help <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587216668109">reduce anxiety</a> and even improve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2020.102412">blood pressure and heart rate, among other</a> clinical outcomes. </p>
<p>In my research, many participants pointed to science in explaining why sound baths worked so well for them, referencing for instance the nervous system’s capacity to move us into a “<a href="https://www.livescience.com/parasympathetic-nervous-system-rest-and-digest">rest and digest</a>,” or relaxation, state. Many also referenced spiritualized concepts, such as the “chakras,” seven wheel-like energy or spiritual power centers running up the spine, which they believe the vibrations can “unblock.” </p>
<h2>Navigating options</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person in a black outfit and white hat playing sounds on singing bowls while several others lie in meditation poses nearby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568297/original/file-20240108-20-bcelis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sound bath healer plays her bowls at a mental wellness training camp for Black men in Inglewood, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/inglewood-ca-a-sound-bath-healer-plays-her-bowls-at-news-photo/1259086092">Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The sound bath experience varies. For instance, some are held outside. Some providers play lots of different instruments, not just simple percussive ones or singing bowls. Some bring in lots of yogic philosophy; others leave that unspoken. Some infuse sessions with what I call “trauma talk,” inviting clients to focus on inner pain; others remain silent regarding client motivations for participating. </p>
<p>With sound baths so widely available, no regulations, and a <a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780063077089/who-is-wellness-for/">wellness market hungry for profit</a>, how do you choose what kind to attend? Here are some guidelines, based on my study. </p>
<p>To begin, participants said that the ideal sound bath site enables clients to let down their guard. This may mean locking studio doors or providing warm blankets and cushioning so that receivers can comfortably relax into the soundscape offered. </p>
<p>Outdoor sound baths can be nice, but concern about onlookers, noise intrusions and imperfect weather could undermine a sense of sanctuary. The same was true for baths conducted in noisy fitness centers or other locations not built to promote inner peace. </p>
<p>Practitioner style also mattered. Interviewees recommended backing out if a provider makes you uncomfortable, because relaxation will be difficult. They also noted that providers with less experience often play too loudly, make jarring versus gentle transitions and forget to pause. Relatedly, baths with lots of diverse or complex instruments, or songs that tell a story, make maintaining meditation difficult. </p>
<p>Yet another distraction came from providers focused on suffering, stress or trauma. Observations confirmed that too much “trauma talk” might <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2023.101010">prime clients to focus on and even amplify any sense of distress</a>, diverting them from the simple pleasure of an immersion and from <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/george-a-bonanno/the-end-of-trauma/9781541674363/">their own resilience</a>. </p>
<p>Even the best sound bath cannot relieve stress long term if the <a href="https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/healing-vibrations/">causes of that stress remain in place</a>. Nevertheless, in a world where inner peace is hard to find, let alone maintain, an hour spent in meditative repose can be a godsend.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220024/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elisa J. Sobo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A medical anthropologist explores claims about the health benefits of sound baths and how to choose the one to attend.
Elisa J. Sobo, Professor of Anthropology & Director for Undergraduate Research, College of Arts and Letters, San Diego State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210068
2023-07-24T14:00:27Z
2023-07-24T14:00:27Z
You’ve lost someone you love: 4 signs you may need to seek grief counselling
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538351/original/file-20230719-12075-bgws6e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Talking helps you access your internal resources.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Grief is a natural response to losing something you felt a bond with. This loss ranges from death to the end of a relationship. It could also be the loss of an election or of a body part through amputation. Grief is natural and normal. It serves as a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15305816/">psychological way of buffering you against the shock</a> brought on by loss. </p>
<p>Experiencing the grief brought on by the death of someone you loved is an emotionally challenging journey. The intensity of your reaction will vary depending on factors like the nature of your loved one’s death, your relationship with them and their age. For instance, violent deaths or the loss of a child tend to evoke more profound pain than a death from natural causes or the passing on of an older person. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.cuea.edu/?page_id=12280">counselling psychologist</a> who studies trauma and how communities process grief, I believe that understanding the symptoms of grief and recognising the signs that you aren’t coping with loss on your own are crucial for <a href="https://www.ourhouse-grief.org/grief-pages/grieving-adults/four-tasks-of-mourning/">promoting healing and overall well-being</a>. </p>
<h2>Symptoms of grief</h2>
<p>The common symptoms of grief can be categorised into <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-06044-005">four dimensions</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Physical symptoms:</strong> these affect the biological functions of the human body. They may include a change in eating habits, like overeating or a loss of appetite. You may also experience a general loss of energy and gastrointestinal issues, like constipation and stomach aches. Your immune system could also weaken, meaning you fall ill easier. </p>
<p><strong>Intellectual symptoms:</strong> these affect the cognitive dimension. They include concentration deficits, such as repeatedly performing small tasks to accomplish simple assignments. Confusion may arise, leading to disorganisation and difficulty recalling certain things, like the names of children or specific rooms in the house. Making decisions and learning new things could also become challenging. This reaction is a result of the overwhelming pressure and disruption that grief <a href="https://speakinggrief.org/get-better-at-grief/understanding-grief/cognitive-effects">exerts on the brain</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Social symptoms:</strong> these include how you relate to others after a loss. Some people may withdraw and retreat from the activities they enjoy. Others may display irritability or mood swings. They may also become more dependent, requiring the presence and support of others even for simple decisions.</p>
<p><strong>Spiritual symptoms:</strong> these relate to religious or spiritual beliefs and values. Grief can lead to you questioning where your God was when your loved one died. You may doubt the power of your God or question the effectiveness of your prayers. These spiritual reactions are an attempt to understand grief by finding new meaning through <a href="https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/a-shift-in-the-conceptual-understanding-of-grief---using-meaning-oriented-therapies-with-bereaved-clients.pdf?sfvrsn=4acab18c_12#page=2">looking to a higher power for answers</a>.</p>
<p>All these symptoms are normal reactions to losing a loved one. They aren’t necessarily problematic. However, grief symptoms can be viewed as harmful if they <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2788766#:%7E:text=The%20DSM%2D5%2DTR%20criteria,the%20lost%20person%20to%20a">present for longer than normal</a> (usually more than 12 months) or if they affect your functionality to a point where you’re not able to perform your normal day-to-day activities smoothly. </p>
<h2>Signs you aren’t coping</h2>
<p>People who aren’t coping well with grief after losing a loved one <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/prolonged-grief-disorder">exhibit several symptoms</a>. These include:</p>
<p><strong>Prolonged and intense grief:</strong> while grief is a natural process that takes time, an extended period of intense grief may suggest the need for additional support. If your grief persists beyond six months without significant improvement or relief, seeking professional assistance may be beneficial.</p>
<p><strong>Impaired daily functioning:</strong> grief can disrupt daily life, but if it significantly affects your ability to function, it may be a sign that professional help is necessary. Finding it challenging to concentrate on tasks, make decisions or perform routine activities due to overwhelming sadness indicates you could benefit from grief counselling. You may also need the support of your peers or significant others. </p>
<p><strong>Persistent emotional distress:</strong> feelings of emptiness, loneliness and a deep yearning for the deceased are normal aspects of the grieving process. However, if these emotions become overwhelming and persistently disrupt your daily life, it may be time to consider seeking professional help. Grief counsellors can help you navigate complex emotions and find healthy coping mechanisms. These mechanisms include sports, prayer, keeping a reflective journal or celebrating anniversaries linked to the deceased. </p>
<p><strong>Self-destructive thoughts or behaviours:</strong> in some cases, grief can lead to thoughts of self-harm or a desire to join the deceased. These intense feelings of hopelessness and despair require immediate attention. If you experience persistent thoughts of suicide or engage in self-destructive behaviours, like using drugs in an effort to numb the pain, reach out to a grief counsellor or a mental health professional. This is crucial for your safety and well-being.</p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>Seeking professional help doesn’t indicate weakness or an inability to handle grief on your own. Instead, grief counselling provides a safe space to express your emotions, gain valuable insights and learn coping strategies that are tailored to your specific needs. </p>
<p>When in this safe space, talk about how you’re feeling. This helps you express emotions that you may have earlier blocked. It also helps you access your internal resources, such as resilience, spirituality and positive self-talk. Talking it out also helps get you to a place where you can accept a loss and move forward with your life. </p>
<p>Healing from grief takes time. Seeking help is a courageous step towards finding solace and restoring your well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210068/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Asatsa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Grief is a natural response to loss, but if it significantly affects your ability to function, it may be time to seek professional help.
Stephen Asatsa, Counseling Psychologist, Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194696
2023-06-09T12:29:31Z
2023-06-09T12:29:31Z
‘From Magic Mushrooms to Big Pharma’ – a college course explores nature’s medicine cabinet and different ways of healing
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531019/original/file-20230608-20480-dlan6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=428%2C512%2C4455%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People for millennia have used what grows around them as medicine.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/dangerous-mushroom-royalty-free-image/463172611">LorenzoT81/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“From Magic Mushrooms to Big Pharma”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>I’m from the foothills of the Appalachians in southern Ohio, where my Grandma Mildred would go out into the woods, which she called her medicine cabinet, to find herbs to use as medicine. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DhbiqSMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I grew up to be an anthropologist</a>, interested in how people around the world heal themselves. In the 1990s, I did my dissertation research in Ecuador and learned how Indigenous people in the Choco region used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05446-2">ayahuasca and other medicines from the forest</a> to assist in the grieving process.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://mjbizdaily.com/map-of-us-marijuana-legalization-by-state/">legalization of cannabis in many states</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/jof8080870">increased research</a> on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311-017-0542-y">how “nontraditional” drugs can assist</a> people with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and <a href="https://doi.org/10.2174/15733998113099990003">addiction issues</a>, it seemed like an opportune time to create this course. It’s part of a new interdisciplinary minor at Western Illinois University called “<a href="http://www.wiu.edu/academics/cannabis/culture/">Cannabis & Culture</a>” that offers students a foundation for understanding the social and cultural context, history and politics of nature-based medicine use in the United States and around the globe.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>The course looks at how different peoples and cultures use nature-based medicines to heal themselves. First we establish that there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.embor.7400693">many ways of knowing the world around us</a>, just as there are many ways to heal ourselves. Some of us rely on Western medicine, others pray, yet others turn to Indigenous or traditional ways of healing that are rooted in nature.</p>
<p>We talk about the ways Western medicine now seeks to validate substances that have been used for healing for centuries, like research into how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27123877">ginger and turmeric can alleviate inflammation</a>, or the ways cannabis can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2016.09.040">reduce or even eliminate some epileptic seizures</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="closeup of five dots of blood on the shoulder of a man without a shirt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530983/original/file-20230608-27-tlrr54.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kambô frog medicine is a shamanic medicinal ritual that originates among Amazonian tribes who use the poisonous excretion from the <em>Phyllomedusa bicolor</em> tree frog to cure illness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/kambo-frog-poison-medicine-for-body-detox-royalty-free-image/1065635962">GummyBone/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>We also examine how the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2006.00168.x">pharmaceutical industry has</a> <a href="https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/biopiracy/">exploited Indigenous peoples’ ethnobotanical knowledge</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8898842">and landscapes for monetary gain</a>.</p>
<p>Using the Amazonian giant leaf frog, or kambô (<em><a href="https://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Phyllomedusa&where-species=bicolor&account=amphibiaweb">Phyllomedusa bicolor</a></em>), as a case study, students learn that at least 15 Indigenous groups have long histories of using the frog’s secretion for its analgesic, antibiotic and wound-healing properties. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/amazon-frog-highlights-appropriation-of-indigenous-knowledge-for-commercial-gain/">Eleven patents related to <em>P. bicolor</em> have been granted</a> – all of them in rich countries. Indigenous people have not been compensated for their knowledge.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>The current generation of young people are <a href="https://magazine.medlineplus.gov/article/teens-are-talking-about-mental-health">open about mental health issues</a>, and many people are looking for new ways to deal with anxiety, grief, PTSD and depression. My students can discuss their health concerns and learn about alternatives to what they may be accustomed to.</p>
<p>At this politically and racially polarized moment in the U.S., the course also provides the opportunity to discuss how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2019.0063">racism, misogyny and discrimination against people of color</a> have influenced scientific research.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Over the course of the semester, students begin to recognize that there is no one right way of healing. More importantly, there is no one right way of being human. It is my hope that students leave seeing that everything is connected, integrally linked to humanity’s relationship to nature. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="rows of marijuana crop inside a greenhouse with two agricultural workers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531020/original/file-20230608-17666-2vej3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In some parts of the U.S., cannabis is now just another agricultural crop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/large-amounts-and-endless-rows-of-marijuana-crop-stand-news-photo/1254375856">Mark Abramson/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Scientific materials provided by the <a href="https://maps.org/">Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies</a>, a nonprofit that provides some of the only scientific research on psychedelics in the U.S. and promotes awareness of these drugs</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529343/how-to-change-your-mind-by-michael-pollan/">How to Change your Mind</a>,” by Michael Pollan and the accompanying <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21062540/">Netflix series</a> </p></li>
<li><p>Work of ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin, including his Ted Talk “<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_plotkin_what_the_people_of_the_amazon_know_that_you_don_t?language=en">What the people of the Amazon know that you don’t</a>”</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>Studying how different cultures approach problems that plague all humans, like being sick and healing our ill, demonstrates to students that there are many ways the world over to solve problems. This course views different approaches not as a problem to be overcome but as a resource that can yield new ways of thinking and new opportunities – a definite advantage in the professional world. I hope students also learn to become advocates for their own health and well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather McIlvaine-Newsad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
An anthropology course explores how peoples and cultures around the world use nature-based medicines to heal.
Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, Professor of Anthropology, Western Illinois University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197789
2023-01-22T19:02:16Z
2023-01-22T19:02:16Z
Can reading help heal us and process our emotions – or is that just a story we tell ourselves?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504623/original/file-20230116-22-sz1aoj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C5%2C3500%2C2321&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cottonbro Studio/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4306897">oldest known library</a>, dating back to the second millennium BC, in Thebes, Egypt, reportedly bore a sign above its portals in Greek: <em>Psyches Iatreion</em>, translated as “healing place of the soul”. </p>
<p>The idea that reading may confer healing benefits is not new, but continues to intrigue readers and researchers. </p>
<p>Of course, this doesn’t apply to reading about how to put up the tent, or tidy our piles of household stuff. When we talk about books that might offer a balm for the soul, we mean fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction (including memoir). </p>
<p>The idea of emotional catharsis through reading is intuitively appealing. But does it work that way? Or do we read for interest, pleasure, escapism – or love of words?</p>
<h2>Reading as catharsis and transport</h2>
<p>“The highest aspiration of art is to move the audience,” claims <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609280/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-by-george-saunders/">George Saunders</a>. Who is not still moved by the first book that affected them on a cellular level – whether that’s Storm Boy, The Little Prince, or their high-school reading of To Kill a Mockingbird? </p>
<p>According to the authors of <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-novel-cure">The Novel Cure: an A-Z of Literary Remedies</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>novels have the power to transport you into another existence, and see the world from a different point of view […] sometimes it’s the story that charms; sometimes it’s the rhythm of the prose that works on the psyche, stilling or stimulating.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Humans imitate or re-present the world through art: poetry, drama and epic. That drive, claimed <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1812/The%252520Poetics%252520of%252520Aristotle%25252C%252520by%252520Aristotle.pdf">Aristotle</a>, sets humans apart from animals. </p>
<p>In 1987 Jerome Bruner proposed that “world making” is the “principal function of mind”, in both the sciences and arts. As humans, we are drawn to the momentum of narrative to tell our stories, <a href="https://ewasteschools.pbworks.com/f/Bruner_J_LifeAsNarrative.pdf">he says</a>. </p>
<p>We seek to make sense of the events in our lives, as if life really were a three-act play with a clear narrative arc. (Conveniently summarised as: “Get him up a tree; throw rocks at him; get him down.”)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="long-haired man sitting in tree scowling at phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504791/original/file-20230116-23-559uvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Life as a three-act narrative arc: ‘Get him up a tree; throw rocks at him; get him down.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachel Claire/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-empathy-or-division-on-the-science-and-politics-of-storytelling-176679">Friday essay: empathy or division? On the science and politics of storytelling</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How reading works</h2>
<p>Reading is one way we seek to understand our worlds. Evolutionary psychologists propose the brain is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009164710203000101">“designed for reading”</a>, just as it is for language, facial recognition or other drives. The act of reading engages both cognitive and – especially where there’s a narrative – emotional processes. </p>
<p>Children learning to read must first grasp the basics of recognition (sound-letter-phoneme-word) and then proceed to the higher-order cognitive skill of comprehension of the meaning of the text (semantics).</p>
<p>It is at that next level of meaning-making that words connect and stir the emotions. That might be fear (<a href="https://theconversation.com/frankenstein-how-mary-shelleys-sci-fi-classic-offers-lessons-for-us-today-about-the-dangers-of-playing-god-175520">Frankenstein</a>), love (<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/pride-and-prejudice-9780241374887">Pride and Prejudice</a>), outrage (Germaine Greer’s polemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-female-eunuch-at-50-germaine-greers-fearless-feminist-masterpiece-147437">The Female Eunuch</a>) or existential angst (Albert Camus’ philosophical novel L’Etranger/<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-outsider-9780141198064">The Outsider</a>). </p>
<p>But how does this process “work”? Or, as Saunders puts it: “How does [the writer] seduce, persuade, console, distract?”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504793/original/file-20230116-16-5h4qmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Evolutionary psychologists says the brain is ‘designed for reading’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rodnae Productions/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How reading between the gaps invites us in</h2>
<p>World or meaning making can occur <em>directly</em> by acquiring knowledge (for example, when reading that tent manual) or <em>indirectly</em>, through our engagement with the social world, art and our meaning-making faculties. </p>
<p>Works of art invite thought and feeling. This “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27449184/">indirect communication</a>” of literature is one of the unique affordances (or benefits) it offers readers. </p>
<p>Meaning-making <a href="https://www.onfiction.ca/p/books.html">is</a> a transaction between author, text and reader; the “gap” between the words and the reader’s interpretation, shaped by their own experiences and predispositions, is critical. Thus, an author might seek to move a reader – but whether the reader is moved will depend on individual circumstances and preferences. (Not the least among these is the skill of the writer, of course.)</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/book-week-is-good-for-kids-and-book-clubs-are-great-for-adults-30783">Book clubs</a>, where heated discussions can be motivated by how books and their characters made readers feel, are a great example. So is consumer review site <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-world-of-goodreads-do-we-still-need-book-reviewers-56455">Goodreads</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-booktok-and-how-is-it-influencing-what-australian-teenagers-read-182290">#BookTok</a>, the sector of TikTok where books that make readers cry dominate.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609280/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-by-george-saunders/">Flannery O’Connor</a> says, “the writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make <em>live</em>” (my italics). In other words, <em>some</em> books will always speak to <em>some</em> readers. And those same books will leave other readers cold – or even make them regret joining a book club.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wccNZOk77_o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An author might want to move a reader, but a reader’s emotional reaction – whether sadness, rage or indifference – is particular to them.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What neuroscience tells us about reading</h2>
<p>Virginia Woolf wrote of books as “<a href="http://lemasney.com/consulting/2015/05/05/books-are-the-mirrors-of-the-soul-virginia-woolf-cc-by-lemasney/">mirrors of the soul</a>”. And contemporary neuropsychologists have proven it, with brain-imaging studies. </p>
<p>These studies have demonstrated that when a person indirectly experiences an event associated with an emotion, the same regions of the brain are activated as if they had experienced the event directly. </p>
<p>We feel disgust, whether we <em>actually</em> discover (or half-eat) the maggot in the ham sandwich or view a TikTok video of the simulated event. The same fear is elicited in the brain when we walk a tightrope in a virtual reality simulation, view the film of Phillipe Petit in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3488710/">The Walk</a>, or high-wire walk ourselves (do not try this at home). Mirror neurons prompt us to yawn or smile or frown when another person yawns, smiles or frowns. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K9ISm2_eYek?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The same fear is elicited in the brain when we see a high-wire walk, like Phillippe Petit’s, read about it, or do it ourselves.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The other person – the protagonist, in a book – can be completely fictional, the entire plot make-believe: yet we still cry. Who of us hasn’t wept real tears when tragedy befalls a favourite character in a novel? (For me, it’s the death of shell-shocked World War I soldier Septimus in Virginia Woolf’s novel <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/mrs-dalloway-9780241468647">Mrs Dalloway</a>.)</p>
<h2>The psychology of fiction</h2>
<p>University of Toronto professor emeritus and author-psychologist <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Such+Stuff+as+Dreams:+The+Psychology+of+Fiction-p-9780470974575">Keith Oatley</a> explains that reading narratives allows us to “simulate” a social world where we identify with characters and their struggles, and observe their way of solving conflicts. </p>
<p>This way we can process emotional content and solve life’s problems indirectly. It’s much more effective than being <em>given</em> the solution! Oatley’s research has also demonstrated that readers’ long-term engagement in fiction (especially literary fiction) <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27449184/">improves their empathy</a> and their ability to take the perspective of another person (referred to as “Theory of Mind”). </p>
<p>Oatley suggests: “We need not lead one life; through fiction we can lead many lives”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman reading in front of greenery and house" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504809/original/file-20230117-14-u1cjp7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reading can help us understand the inner lives of others.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Min An/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this sense, reading can prompt us to understand the inner lives of others as well as our own. It can even help us to re-imagine the narrative of our lives – especially if we are not happy with the one we are actually leading. In this way, reading can provide both escape and a way to imagine (and perhaps start to plan for) alternative ways to live.</p>
<p>In her book <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kgqwk8">Why We Read Fiction</a>, Lisa Zunshine argues: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fiction helps us to pattern in newly nuanced ways our emotions and perceptions […] it creates new forms of meaning for our everyday existence. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Quite apart from the practical benefits of this kind of cognitive and emotional gymnastics, Zunshine says our biggest reason for doing it is enjoyment itself.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-art-and-literature-cultivate-empathy-68478">Do art and literature cultivate empathy?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Does reading prompt emotional catharsis?</h2>
<p>Marcel Proust wrote that a novelist can, in an hour, “set free all kinds of happiness and misfortune which would take years of our ordinary lives to know”.</p>
<p>Reading, as a hard-wired impetus and a form of engaging with art, allows us to process our emotions. </p>
<p>Importantly, this can be at a distance. We don’t have to directly, for example, pursue forbidden love and sort out the ensuing mess (Graham Greene’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-end-of-the-affair-9780099478447">The End of the Affair</a>), or cope alone with alienation or discrimination (Alice Walker’s <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/alice-walker/the-color-purple-the-classic-pulitzer-prize-winning-novel">The Colour Purple</a>). We can scare ourselves without ever having to go into the dark woods.</p>
<p>We can access experiences unavailable to us in life – and the positive feelings they produce can remain with us. For example, we can transform ourselves into magical, powerful heroes and heroines who prevail against impossible odds (<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tolkien-and-lord-of-the-rings-inspired-the-commercial-and-artistic-success-of-the-fantasy-fiction-genre-170958">Lord of the Rings</a>).</p>
<p>Saunders suggests art (including literature) might be </p>
<blockquote>
<p>an offering of sorts – a hypothesis for both writer and reader to take up and consider together […] the goal of that offering might be to ease the reader’s way; to make the difficulty of this life less for her. We try to give the reader a way of thinking about reality that is truthful, yes, and harsh, if need be, but not gratuitously harsh, a way of thinking that, somehow, helps her.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Turner Goldsmith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The idea of healing benefits and emotional catharsis through reading is intuitively appealing. But does it work that way? Jane Turner Goldsmith finds answers in neuroscience, philosophy and more.
Jane Turner Goldsmith, PhD candidate, Creative Writing, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188334
2022-09-21T12:36:19Z
2022-09-21T12:36:19Z
When you’re questioning your faith after being hurt by your religious community, here are 3 ways to cope
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480988/original/file-20220825-12-7fen2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C3%2C2106%2C1404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You don't have to work through trauma on your own.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/christian-group-of-people-holding-hands-praying-royalty-free-image/1360520573?adppopup=true">Khanchit Khirisutchalual/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past few months, religion has never been far from U.S. headlines.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/roe-overturned-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-supreme-court-abortion-decision-184692">The Supreme Court has overturned constitutional abortion rights</a>. Congress is debating whether to codify <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-the-same-sex-marriage-bill-in-congress-would-and-wouldnt-do/2022/09/09/3f6a8298-3049-11ed-bcc6-0874b26ae296_story.html">protections for same-sex marriage</a>. Courts have been asked to decide whether religious schools and business owners have to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/09/13/1122477006/seattle-pacific-university-lawsuit-lgbtq-hiring-practices">hire</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-to-revisit-lgbtq-rights-this-time-with-a-wedding-website-designer-not-a-baker-187584">serve</a> or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/nyregion/yeshiva-university-lgbt-sotomayor.html?searchResultPosition=1">acknowledge</a> LGBTQ members and organizations.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice is <a href="https://religionnews.com/2022/08/17/the-department-of-justice-is-investigating-the-sbc-abuse-fbi-what-does-it-mean-kathleen-mcchesney/">investigating the Southern Baptist Convention</a> after a consultant’s report revealed a history of sexual abuse and cover-ups – and <a href="https://kdvr.com/news/local/archdiocese-denver-lawsuit-sex-abuse-marshall-gourley/">new lawsuits</a> alleging abuse in the Catholic Church continue to appear.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://apps.tamusa.edu/course-information/Profile/Faculty/106?=Christine-Wong">an assistant professor of counseling</a> who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cvj.12155">studies spirituality</a>, I have seen how controversies like these can activate memories and symptoms of religious abuse. They can also be challenging for people who have not experienced abuse but have difficult relationships to religion – especially those who have seriously questioned or left their faith.</p>
<p>People may have built their world around a church or church leader, then discovered their trust was misplaced. They may have been pressured to participate in activities that went against their values, or felt blamed for their story of abuse, gender identity or sexual orientation. They may have been told to stop gossiping when they reported mistreatment.</p>
<p>Religious rejection can be especially painful if it seems as though it’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-008-0187-1">not only a community rejecting you, but God</a>. These experiences can evoke feelings of anxiety and depression – but there are steps you can take to begin healing. </p>
<h2>Many kinds of questions</h2>
<p>Therapy often helps people who are wrestling with aspects of their religious lives, whether or not they’ve experienced abuse. For example, people may reflect on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/patriarchy-and-purity-culture-combine-to-silence-women-in-the-southern-baptist-convention-and-are-blocking-efforts-to-address-the-sexual-abuse-scandal-183799">gender roles</a> they were expected to perform, or why they were told not to question leaders’ decisions.</p>
<p>Some, especially evangelical Christians, refer to the process of <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2022/07/17/evangelicals-are-deconstructing-heres-what-that-means-and-where-it-took-me/">rethinking their beliefs and religious identity</a> as “deconstruction.” <a href="https://gravityleadership.com/deconstruction/">Deconstruction</a> involves reflecting upon one’s beliefs, the way they were developed, and determining what values and beliefs one desires to maintain.</p>
<p>In cases in which people question their beliefs <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429330353-10/religion-hurts-supervising-cases-religious-abuse-craig-cashwell-paula-swindle">because of a painful experience</a>, it can be difficult for them to separate their higher power from the people who hurt them through religious teachings and practices. In my experience as a counselor, I’ve observed individuals blame themselves; experience confusion about their faith, identity and place in the world; and wonder whether God abandoned them.</p>
<p>For some people, <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10504/64291">these experiences may result in leaving their faith</a>. This process can be difficult, as family, friends and faith community members may disapprove of this decision, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-021-00822-y">resulting in strained or severed relationships</a>. </p>
<h2>Recognizing abuse</h2>
<p>Spiritual experiences become abusive when they include emotional or financial manipulation, physical or sexual abuse, discrimination, humiliation or mistreatment. The abuse may be systemic, and perpetrators may have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2021.1943023">used their authority or Scripture</a> to defend their actions.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1569989342612684800"}"></div></p>
<p>For some survivors, abuse can result in religious trauma, when they experience lasting symptoms. According to the latest revised edition of <a href="https://psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm">the diagnostic manual for mental health professionals</a>, signs of a traumatic response include recurring dreams, flashbacks, avoidance of activities related to the event, negative beliefs about oneself and the world, feelings of betrayal or detachment from others and hypervigilance. </p>
<h2>Counseling</h2>
<p>If you believe you or a loved one may have experienced religious abuse or trauma, or are in the deconstruction process, it is important to consider how you can support your mental health and well-being, especially given <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/trm0000183">the complex relationship between faith, identity and trauma</a>. For example, if you have felt harmed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07325223.2018.1443305">in the name of a higher power</a>, it is common to experience confusion or even an existential crisis, in which you might question your purpose and basic assumptions about the world. </p>
<p>First, seek professional help. Licensed professional counselors are trained to identify symptoms of abuse and trauma and can help you process experiences and create an action plan.</p>
<p>Religious communities often stigmatize mental health treatment <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615211065869">and treat mental health issues as though they are purely spiritual</a>. They may treat the decision to seek professional help as a sign of a lack of faith in God. However, going to counseling does not necessarily mean you have to abandon your beliefs at the door.</p>
<p>A licensed professional counselor should be able to incorporate your faith to whatever level you find helpful. However, not all mental health professionals are comfortable <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.2013.00024.x">addressing religious issues in counseling</a> – although there are efforts to improve this through training, <a href="https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf">ethical codes</a> and updating <a href="https://aservic.org/spiritual-and-religious-competencies/">professional competencies</a>.</p>
<p>To see if prospective counselors can provide appropriate care, you can ask what experience they have integrating spirituality into treatment, and whether they have experience working with religious abuse or with issues that led you to question your religious identity.</p>
<h2>Connection and community</h2>
<p>Second, connect with others who are going through similar experiences. You may have <a href="https://theconversation.com/patriarchy-and-purity-culture-combine-to-silence-women-in-the-southern-baptist-convention-and-are-blocking-efforts-to-address-the-sexual-abuse-scandal-183799">been shamed</a> for telling your story, or you may have left your religious community feeling alone and betrayed. You are not alone. </p>
<p>Religious trauma support groups like <a href="https://www.sacredwilderness.org">Sacred Wilderness</a> and <a href="https://www.reclamationcollective.com/">Reclamation Collective</a> can connect you with others who can identify with your experiences, online or in person. If you are not ready to share, you can read about the experiences of others on Twitter, with hashtags such as #ChurchToo and #ReligiousTrauma, or listen to a podcast like “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/10b0rbS8MNB7UjNIlWUAmf?si=cc70c7fb5eea4e77">Bodies Behind the Bus</a>.” However, if you find that your symptoms worsen reading these experiences, take a break.</p>
<p>Finally, find community outside of religion. If you decided to leave your house of worship, you may be grieving that loss of community, and a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212681/social-by-matthew-d-lieberman/">sense of connection is crucial to mental health</a>. Individuals in isolation <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614568352">have higher levels</a> of anxiety and depression, weakened immune systems and even higher risk of early death.</p>
<p>Community means finding people where you can connect with others authentically and encourage one another. This can come from fitness groups, book clubs, art classes or other interest groups. Take the opportunity to explore what you are curious about and learn more about yourself – and know that recovery is possible.</p>
<p><em>If you live in the U.S. and are in immediate crisis or having suicidal thoughts, you can call or text 988 or go to <a href="https://988lifeline.org/chat/">988lifeline.org/chat/</a> to chat with someone 24/7. Outside the U.S., you can visit <a href="https://findahelpline.com/">findahelpline.com</a> to find support.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine D. Gonzales-Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A professor of counseling explains how to find therapists and support communities that can help work through these unique challenges.
Christine D. Gonzales-Wong, Assistant Professor of Counseling, Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188692
2022-09-07T12:22:16Z
2022-09-07T12:22:16Z
Wounded souls: 75 years after India’s Partition, survivors’ trauma has still not been recognized
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479973/original/file-20220818-164-vhl26n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C4%2C1020%2C754&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A refugee family that fled to Pakistan after the Partition of British India.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/famille-r%C3%A9fugi%C3%A9e-dans-un-camp-apr%C3%A8s-la-partition-de-linde-news-photo/833364734?adppopup=true">Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his poignant, much-acclaimed short story “<a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/special/newlits/manto_toba_tek_singh.pdf">Toba Tek Singh</a>,” Pakistani playwright <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/11/saadat-hasan-manto-short-stories-partition-pakistan">Saadat Hasan Manto</a> describes the plight of Bishan Singh, an inmate of the asylum in Lahore. In the story, set in a post-Partition era, the governments of India and Pakistan decide to exchange inmates: the Muslims among them are to stay in Pakistan, while Hindus and Sikhs are to go to India. </p>
<p>Singh, whose native town Toba Tek Singh now lies in Pakistan, is asked to go to India, as he is a Sikh. Unable to comprehend the new realities of home and belonging, Singh struggles with a crisis of identity. In the end, the “madman” dies at the no man’s land on the newly carved India-Pakistan border.</p>
<h2>The ‘insanity’ of dividing the mentally ill</h2>
<p>The no man’s land in “Toba Tek Singh” could be symbolic of the space that the mentally ill spend their lives in – between institutions that feel burdened by them and a community where they are seldom welcome. </p>
<p>But the division of the mentally ill was hardly symbolic. The farce described in Manto’s story, where governments exchange inmates, did actually take place. After the division, the largest asylum in northern India fell in Pakistan. There were no asylums under the government in Delhi. Patients and their bodies became assets to be divided between the two nations. Lists were drawn up, and <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9789353280703">hundreds of patients were exchanged</a> – a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268630418_Partition_and_the_mentally_ill">history</a> that my fellow researcher Alok Sarin and <a href="https://adbsnimhans.org/index.php/prof-sanjeev-jain/">I</a> have recorded in our work on Partition. </p>
<p>Non-Muslim patients were sent to India. The state of Punjab was divided between the two countries, and those who arrived from the area of the state that lay in Pakistan were housed in buildings and tents in the city of Amritsar in Indian Punjab. Others were sent as far away as central India, as no provincial government wanted to take responsibility of the new “others.” Several Muslim patients were sent to Pakistan from hospitals in India. </p>
<p>It is unclear how these persons were identified. Perhaps it was a bureaucratic response to make sure the burden was equally distributed. Thus attempts were made to arrive at somewhat equal numbers of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh patients to be shared across the new nations. Clearly, the new governments had not imagined the possibility that care might be delivered in a nonsectarian manner. </p>
<h2>The unacknowledged trauma of Partition</h2>
<p>The year leading up to Aug. 15, 1947, the day India gained independence, was perhaps one of the most violent in world history. Millions were forcibly moved, and at least a million killed or injured, because of the unimaginable atrocities that were perpetrated and experienced. </p>
<p>Before the Partition, in the late 1920s, a doctor conducting post-mortems on those killed in a communal riot noted that <a href="https://www.scienceopen.com/document_file/069ea416-9ea8-47c4-8633-1fd4eaaeef67/PubMedCentral/069ea416-9ea8-47c4-8633-1fd4eaaeef67.pdf">most injuries were on the victims’ backs</a>, suggesting that the perpetrators’ sense of guilt made them avoid the victims’ eyes. By 1946, this sense of guilt had disappeared. </p>
<p>Doctors were shot dead at their clinics or on the road, a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-62499647">prominent hospital in Lahore</a> was attacked, patients were killed inside hospital wards because of their identity, and more. This destroyed the idea of the hospital as a safe, secure, nonsectarian space. </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=L5w5AQAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&ots=y_KIJxwbQN&sig=SRtGyeO5k-naCeGs8c3tB3b8-84&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">Politicians on both sides of the border</a> described the violence <a href="https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.191999">as “madness</a>.” Eminent jurist N.H. Vakeel described the attempts at carving up the country and its people as the “<a href="https://www.indianculture.gov.in/ebooks/political-insanity-india">political insanity of India</a>.” </p>
<p>Doctors of the time felt that though the physical wounds could be treated, the “abyss in the soul” of the perpetrators would <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9789353280703.n5">take decades to heal, if at all</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black and white photograph shows a street of buildings turned to rubble." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479974/original/file-20220818-20345-6nv5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Burned-out and ruined buildings in Amritsar, India, after violence during Partition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/burned-out-and-ruined-buildings-in-the-katra-jaimal-singh-news-photo/722142447?adppopup=true">Keystone Features/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As early as the 1940s, historians such as Beni Prasad in India had warned that an undue emphasis on national identity tied up with religion boded ill for the <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.71639/page/n13/mode/2up">future</a>. This is similar to the <a href="https://scroll.in/article/876700/this-book-asks-why-psychiatrists-have-been-so-silent-about-the-trauma-of-the-partition">critique of the Holocaust</a>. Psychologist <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1965/introduction.htm">Erich Fromm</a>, political philosopher <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739192870/The-Political-Humanism-of-Hannah-Arendt">Hannah Arendt</a> and psychiatrist and political philosopher <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-43665-002">Karl Jaspers</a> advocated universal humanism as a counter to the dangers posed by a national identity tied up in religion or myths of superiority. Universal humanism emphasizes the value of shared human experience.</p>
<p>Post-Partition, D Satyanand, the first professor of psychiatry at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.171838">wrote about</a> the impact of the “low state of political, social and economic integration” on the mental health of its citizens. </p>
<p>However, he was optimistic that things could change if the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.171838">feeling of belongingness (that) is most essential</a>” for positive mental health were nurtured. However, recurrent efforts to carve the nation along linguistic and political lines – more so after its independence – show the <a href="https://pen.org/india-at-75/">warnings have gone unheeded</a>. A sense of belongingness and selfhood has suffered as <a href="https://pen.org/india-at-75/">sectarian and communitarian identities became commonplace</a>. </p>
<h2>The silences of psychiatry in South Asia</h2>
<p>In India, formal attempts to study psychiatry began in the late 19th century, not too long after they did in the rest of the world. Most psychiatrists working in India, though British born or trained, were quite sure that there was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154X14530815">no difference in the nature of insanity</a> between the two societies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A nurse holds one child while another child with a bandaged head stands next to her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479975/original/file-20220818-17379-4n33ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A nurse in Amritsar, India, with two children whose mother was stabbed to death during riots after Partition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nurse-with-two-child-victims-of-communal-violence-in-news-photo/722142427?adppopup=true">Keystone Features/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Psychiatry in India fell short of assessing the events of the Partition. The experiences of hundreds of thousands who died or were displaced were met with a stony silence. There were only a handful of psychiatrists, and even <a href="https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/psychiatry-in-india-historical-roots-development-as-a-discipline-">fewer psychologists, in South Asia</a>. </p>
<p>When we shared first-person accounts of the trauma experienced during Partition with mental health experts as part of a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269689258_Bad_Times_and_Sad_Moods">research project</a>, almost all of them recognized the emotional and behavioral symptoms that would benefit from therapy, and perhaps even medication. </p>
<p>However, none of these remedies were available at the time, and issues were swept under the carpet. Psychiatrists know from other situations that a transgenerational transmission of trauma has significant effects on the psychological and even the biological health of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269689258_Bad_Times_and_Sad_Moods">subsequent generations</a>.</p>
<p>By the mid-20th century, medical services – and thus, psychiatry – were thought of as an essential and fundamental need in the subcontinent. Before India became independent in 1947, the colonial Indian Medical Service supervised health care from the Suez to Singapore. Post-independence, though, this was the only imperial service that was specifically disbanded even as the police and administrative and defense structures <a href="https://www.epw.in/journal/2013/10/notes/international-advisers-bhore-committee.html">were broadly left in place</a>. By the mid-1940s, a national health plan had been envisioned for India, but its execution was watered down in the name of provincial autonomy – reflecting the attitude of early colonial rule, which centralized revenue but distributed responsibility. </p>
<p>The transfer of power did not really change matters, as the burden of caring for the mentally ill and addressing the trauma of the Partition proved too onerous for the newly independent nations. The consequences of this denial of care and the silences over the survivors’ trauma are being felt even today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sanjeev Jain received funding from Wellcome Trust 'Turning the Pages' (096493/Z/11/Z).
Prof. Sanjeev Jain DPM,MD
Department of Psychiatry
National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences,
New Mental Hospital Road (Hosur Road)
Bangalore 560029, INDIA
tel: **91 80 26 99 52 62/63</span></em></p>
Effects of violence and forced migration on survivors’ mental health have not been acknowledged, despite the trauma being passed down generations.
Sanjeev Jain, Professor of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, India
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/186029
2022-07-06T12:19:30Z
2022-07-06T12:19:30Z
What’s behind the enduring popularity of crystals?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472090/original/file-20220701-23-s4ooix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=579%2C36%2C4111%2C2676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Proponents claim the stones can promote health and well-being. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/sisters-meditating-with-healing-crystals-rooftop-royalty-free-image/1280567102?adppopup=true">janiecbros/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As New York City mayor Eric Adams attends ribbon cuttings, <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/12/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-booed-while-marching-in-pride-parade/">marches in parades</a> and <a href="https://autos.yahoo.com/york-mayor-bulldozes-hundreds-illegal-204200186.html">bulldozes dirt bikes</a>, he wears an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/style/eric-adams-style.html">energy stone bracelet</a> that his supporters gave him. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/11/eric-adams-nyc-mayor-profile-00016106">In a recent interview</a>, Adams discussed his belief that New York City has a “special energy” because it sits atop a store of rare gems and stones – the so-called “<a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/09/mayor-eric-adams-says-healing-crystals-give-nyc-good-vibes/">Manhattan schist</a>,” which is over 450 million years old and contains over 100 minerals.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1535034393030545425"}"></div></p>
<p>Adams isn’t the only one imbuing rocks with metaphysical significance. During the first year of the pandemic, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/31/us-crystal-gem-boom-people-looking-for-healing">crystal industry boomed</a>, with customers hoping the gems might relieve their anxiety. </p>
<p>Some people might be confused about the allure of these stones. But crystal enthusiasts aren’t deviants. Current ideas about crystals come from a larger tradition called “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300136159/republic-mind-and-spirit/">metaphysical religion</a>” that has always been part of the American spiritual landscape.</p>
<h2>More than rocks</h2>
<p>Technically, <a href="https://nature.berkeley.edu/classes/eps2/wisc/Lect4.html">a crystal</a> is any matter with a repeating pattern of atoms or molecules. The crystals for sale in shops are known as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/euhedral-crystal">euhedral crystals</a> because they have well-defined surfaces, or “faces.”</p>
<p><a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2018/08/09/understanding-peoples-obsession-crystals/">For centuries</a>, people have attributed special properties to crystals. Scientist <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Demon_haunted_World/ulqPDQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Sagan+OUr+Demon+Haunted+World&printsec=frontcover">Carl Sagan</a>, in his book “The Demon-Haunted World,” traces their modern popularity to a series of books written in the 1980s by Katrina Raphaell, who founded <a href="https://webcrystalacademy.com/">The Crystal Academy of Advanced Healing Arts</a> in 1986.</p>
<p>Crystals aren’t just eye-catching stones. Quartz is used in electronics because it possesses <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcJXA8IqYl8">piezoelectric properties</a> that cause it to release an electric charge when compressed. But, <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/1989/07/crystals/">as skeptics are quick to point out</a>, there is no evidence crystals can bring health, prosperity or any of the other properties that crystal enthusiasts may attribute to them. </p>
<h2>Mining the metaphysical</h2>
<p>Yet crystals are part of a broader tradition called metaphysical religion, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300136159/republic-mind-and-spirit/">a term coined</a> by historian <a href="https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/people/emeriti/catherine-l-albanese/">Catherine Albanese</a>.</p>
<p>Metaphysical religion includes modern <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/">New Age movements</a>, a nebulous milieu of alternative spiritual beliefs and practices, such as <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/synchronicity">synchronicity</a> or psychic abilities. Older traditions like <a href="https://hypnosis.edu/history/the-birth-of-mesmerism">Mesmerism</a>, the idea that humans beings emit magnetic energy that can be used for healing, and <a href="https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Parks/OHenry/spiritualism.pdf">Spiritualism</a>, the belief that mediums can communicate with the dead, also fall under the metaphysical umbrella.</p>
<p>Albanese ascribes four characteristics to metaphysical traditions: a preoccupation with the mind and its powers; “correspondences,” or the idea of hidden connections between things; a tendency to think in terms of energy and movement; and a yearning for salvation understood as “solace, comfort, therapy, and healing.” </p>
<h2>‘Contagious magic’</h2>
<p>Metaphysical ideas about crystals exhibit each of these characteristics.</p>
<p>While crystals are physical objects, not thoughts, many crystal enthusiasts recommend “cleansing” and “charging” crystals <a href="https://themanifestationcollective.co/how-cleanse-charge-crystals-beginner/">through visualization</a> and other meditative techniques. So the mind plays a key role in crystal spirituality, as it does in other forms of metaphysical religion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two masked women walk through a store filled with colorful crystals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472112/original/file-20220701-22-57bpnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crystal sales soared during the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cheryl-rey-center-manager-of-the-crystalarium-and-abby-news-photo/1234406149?adppopup=true">Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Correspondence refers to the belief found in many occult traditions that ordinary things possess secret qualities or connections to other things. A classic example is <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/the-new-age-of-astrology/550034/">astrology</a>, which postulates a correspondence between one’s birthday and certain personality traits. Metaphysical claims about crystals also reflect a belief in correspondences. For example, Colleen McCann, a self-described shaman affiliated with the crystal purveyor Goop, <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/10/04/spencer-pratt-and-heidi-montag-order-27k-of-crystals-for-childbirth/">described the positive qualities</a> of different crystals: bloodstones promote good health, rose quartzes help with love, and pink mangano calcites are good for sleep. </p>
<p>Modern crystal enthusiasts often use words like “energy” and “vibrations” that present their ideas in a scientific register. When enthusiasts talk about the energy of crystals – like Eric Adams did – they really mean that it exerts influence within a certain proximity. This is the principle behind <a href="https://www.elle.com/uk/beauty/body-and-physical-health/a28242635/crystal-water-bottle-wellness-trend/">crystal water bottles</a> that can be used to “charge” water with “vibrational energy.”</p>
<p>Stripped of scientific language, the logic of energy and vibrations is another form of what anthropologist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-George-Frazer">James Frazer</a> called “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3623/3623-h/3623-h.htm#c3section1">contagious magic</a>” found in many cultures, where simply placing one thing next to another is believed to cause an effect.</p>
<h2>A source of stigma</h2>
<p>Finally, metaphysical religion tends to focus on solving problems in this life rather than the hereafter. This includes health and prosperity, but also emotional growth and well-being. Crystal spirituality is certainly centered around these worldly goals. </p>
<p>This is a big distinction from traditions like Christianity that emphasize salvation in heaven. It is also a factor in why metaphysical ideas are stigmatized despite their popularity.</p>
<p>Protestant Christianity, with its emphasis on “sola fides” – faith alone – has historically dismissed many forms of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rfmr20/current">material religion</a>, or objects with religious significance, as superstition. So in a culture shaped by its historically <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/07/08/survey-white-mainline-protestants-outnumber-white-evangelicals/">Protestant majority</a>, some Americans may be predisposed to look at crystal spirituality as foolish, greedy or even <a href="https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-does-bible-say-about-crystals">blasphemous</a>. </p>
<p>But while claims about the hidden properties of crystals lack scientific validation, so do many of the claims of Christianity and other mainstream religions. </p>
<p>From a historical perspective, Adams’ ideas about crystals don’t make him an outlier. As a scholar of religious studies, I see him as a normal part of the American religious landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186029/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph P. Laycock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Crystals are part of a larger tradition of metaphysical religions that have a long history in the U.S.
Joseph P. Laycock, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184705
2022-06-21T15:14:41Z
2022-06-21T15:14:41Z
Comedy should punch up, not kick down
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468053/original/file-20220609-22-jt8ogw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4712%2C3332&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian Howie Mandel is a veteran stand up comic</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Power</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/comedy-should-punch-up--not-kick-down" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Recently at <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rumors-comedy-rich-vos-racism-homophobia-1.6469701">a Winnipeg comedy club</a>, American comic Rich Vos hurled racist “jokes” at female Indigenous attendees — lobbing lines like he hoped the women would get ticketed for driving under the influence on the way home.</p>
<p>Vos’s antics further a longstanding practice of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0731121417719699">spewing bile and ignorance disguised as entertainment</a>. </p>
<p>As a researcher and a stand-up comedian myself, I see that comedy’s greatest power actually isn’t to bully and divide, but rather to unite and heal. </p>
<p>It should be deployed to help propel truth and conciliation among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, not derail it.</p>
<h2>Why we laugh</h2>
<p>Scholars commonly offer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14382-4">three theories</a> on why we find things funny.</p>
<p>First comes <em>ridicule</em> — the notion that we, the audience, are superior to the butt of the joke. Insult comics like Vos ride this oldest train of thought, freighted as it may be.</p>
<p>The second theory is <em>surprise</em>, the joyous incongruity awaiting us when the rug is yanked from under us.</p>
<p>The third is <em>relief</em>, the physical catharsis from releasing our pent-up emotions. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_588-1">Sigmund Freud</a> couched this as repressed psychic energy.</p>
<p>If this trifecta has a common denominator, it could be duality: us vs. them, expectation vs. surprise, repression vs. release. <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle-poetics/">Aristotle</a> echoes this in seeing comedy as the converse of tragedy, a dualism echoed by even more recent comics like <a href="http://steveallen.com/">Steve Allen</a> defining comedy as tragedy plus time and <a href="https://johnvorhaus.com/product/the-comic-toolbox/">John Vorhaus</a> positing that comedy equals truth plus pain.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s why comedy thrives in our hours of greatest need: when we, individually or as a society, are in pain.</p>
<h2>Comedy for survival</h2>
<p>Being what the great Ojibway writer <a href="https://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/">Drew Hayden Taylor</a> calls “a person of pallor” — white — I can’t imagine the historic and present pain suffered by Indigenous people <a href="https://nctr.ca/records/reports/#trc-reports">due to colonialism</a>.</p>
<p>But I can certainly appreciate how turning to comedy has helped Indigenous people and others resist their oppressors. Kanien’kehá:ka actor Devery Jacobs declares: “Indigenous people are masters at taking the hurt and pain that was dealt to us, laughing in the face of it and weaving it into <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2021/06/10477340/how-indigenous-people-use-humour-for-survival">ridiculous comedy gold</a>.” </p>
<p>This mirrors the legendary Jewish penchant for comedy as a means of coping with centuries of persecution and genocide, manifested in a sub-genre dubbed “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-holocaust-jokes-can-only-be-told-by-a-jewish-comedian-87027">Holocaust humour</a>” and documented in Israeli scholar Chaya Ostrower’s in-depth study of Holocaust survivors, <a href="https://store.yadvashem.org/en/it-kept-us-alive-16"><em>It Kept Us Alive</em></a>.</p>
<p>Taylor observes that the ability to laugh has not only kept Indigenous people sane, but also given them power, “<a href="http://www.drewhaydentaylor.com/books/me-funny/">sort of like a spiritual pemmican</a>.” The Toronto-based, all-Indigenous female comedy troupe <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/independent-women-why-this-all-indigenous-comedy-group-brings-big-laughs-and-hard-truths">Manifest Destiny’s Child</a> deploys comedy to share lived experiences and to heal. Anishinaabe Comedian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/25/indigenous-news-site-walking-eagle-news-satire">Tim Fontaine</a> shows us that dark comedy can bring the light of understanding as a path to change.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JSgcQwmtCkE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tim Fontaine shares ‘5 Things To Know About Indigenous Humour’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/subversive-laughter-the-liberating-power-of-comedy/oclc/30593331"><em>Subversive Laughter: The Liberating Power of Comedy</em></a>, comedian Ron Jenkins documents cases where the form has been deployed to survive and even overcome tyranny. </p>
<p>He describes clowns in Bali who stage theatre against Westernization by tourists. Lithuanian street artists who decorate Russian barricades with caricatures of Stalin and Lenin. A khaki-clad clown who leads an anti-apartheid march in South Africa. Comic theatre artists who mock the widespread intolerance of eccentricity in Japan.</p>
<p>My ancestors come from Hungary, located in central Europe with limited natural defences and thus a hotspot for armed tourism by Mongol, Turkish, Austrian, Nazi and Soviet occupiers. My parents, then young political refugees of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Hungarian-Revolution-1956">the Hungarian Revolution</a>, still recall standing in a breadline in Budapest, sharing jokes about Russians while around the corner, Soviet tanks terrorized the streets. Growing up as a child of immigrants, I found comedy to be an essential survival tactic on the playground.</p>
<h2>Controlling public discourse</h2>
<p>Cultural theorist <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/comedy-the-mastery-of-discourse/oclc/927916833&referer=brief_results">Susan Purdie</a> sees the real role of comedy as controlling language and meaning. So when comedians command a podium, they don a mantle of power.</p>
<p>I argue that ethically, in civil society, this mantle should come with a responsibility not to abuse it. Comedy’s societal credibility and contribution — its proven power as a force for positive change — comes from punching <em>up</em> rather than kicking <em>down</em>.</p>
<p>Comedy is a social corrective exposing the gap between what <em>is</em> (injustice, poverty, environmental disaster) and what some think it <em>ought to be</em> (fairness, equal opportunity, gentle breezes). This gap, which may be history’s largest mass case of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/cognitive-dissonance">cognitive dissonance</a>, remains our omnipresent duality.</p>
<p>In addressing this gap to inspire positive change, comedy <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520299764/a-comedian-and-an-activist-walk-into-a-bar">promotes new ideas and offers hope</a>. That entails punching <em>up</em> at privilege to call out abuse, not kicking <em>down</em> to perpetuate it.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sQaIDo94viA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for <em>Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Racial slurs like those belched by Vos at Indigenous audience members channel Roman emperors cracking wise about emaciated Christians <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/hrome/Authors/jimkuo2/IlColosseo/253/pub_zbpage_view.html">making lame lunches for the lions</a>. Vos admitted a further cardinal sin in comedy in professing no knowledge of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/doris-trout-vigil-1.6466067">violence facing Indigenous women in Winnipeg</a>, which boasts the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/indigenous-population-statistics-canada-report-winnipeg-1.5390580">largest Indigenous population in Canada</a>: no research!</p>
<p>So what does all this teach us about the role of comedy in public discourse?</p>
<p>We might think of the comedian’s loftiest task as being to “<a href="https://www.utne.com/community/speak-the-truth-but-not-to-punish-zm0z17szsel/">speak the truth, but not to punish</a>.” But comedy can serve as a corrective, a cream-pie balm for a societal rash, nudging us towards a kinder way to live.</p>
<p>At its best, comedy can bridge, unite and heal, rather than divide, bully and perpetuate the very ills that it is uniquely equipped to help us solve. At its core (even in addressing our many flaws) comedy, like its timeless tool, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/magazine/who-made-that-whoopee-cushion.html">whoopee-cushion</a>, should lift us all up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geo Takach receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, an agency of the Government of Canada. </span></em></p>
At its best, comedy can bridge, unite and heal, rather than divide, bully and perpetuate the very ills that it is uniquely equipped to help us solve.
Geo Takach, Professor of Communication and Culture, Royal Roads University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174574
2022-02-09T13:18:46Z
2022-02-09T13:18:46Z
How Lourdes became a byword for hope
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444477/original/file-20220204-13-1lw84kz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C0%2C1628%2C1041&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apparitions of the Virgin Mary have inspired pilgrimages – and souvenirs – in Lourdes, France, for more than a century.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Culture Club/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thousands of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/421085/pdf">apparitions of the Virgin Mary</a> have been reported by Christians across the world, from <a href="https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300185560-015">fourth-century Asia Minor</a>, which is now Turkey, to <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801448546/our-lady-of-the-rock/#bookTabs=1">contemporary California</a>. Of all of these, the most renowned are the visions of Our Lady of Lourdes, reported in the mid-19th century by a teenage girl in the French Pyrenees mountains.</p>
<p>Ever since, devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/23391/lourdes/9780141038483.html">has gripped the Catholic imagination</a>. Lourdes is one of the <a href="https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/a/apparitions-approved.php">very few apparitions</a> the Vatican has officially commended as <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/worthy-of-belief-how-the-catholic-church-approves-apparitions-1494581409">worthy of belief</a>, with its own feast day, Feb. 11, in the church’s annual liturgical calendar.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-lourdes-history/factbox-the-roman-catholic-pilgrimage-site-lourdes-idUKLB15892820080911">6 million pilgrims</a> come to <a href="https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/">the shrine in Lourdes, France</a>, each year to pray and seek healing. </p>
<p>This popular pilgrimage is one of the most visible examples of the devotion of many Catholics to Mary. I am a <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/iacs/staff/">Jesuit priest and theologian</a> whose research focuses <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935420-e-62">on Mariology</a>, the academic study of ideas about Mary in Christian history. </p>
<h2>The Lady in the Grotto</h2>
<p>In 1858, a 14-year-old girl named <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/bernadette-of-lourdes-9780826420855">Bernadette Soubirous</a> reported having 18 visions of a beautiful “young lady” in a cave near Lourdes, which was then a provincial town. Soubirous said that the figure identified herself as “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24459597">the Immaculate Conception</a>” and instructed the girl to dig into the earth and drink the water she found there. In other messages, the lady asked for a church to be built there so priests could come in procession.</p>
<p>Reports of the events drew large crowds who believed them to be apparitions of the Virgin Mary, and many people began attributing healing properties to the waters of the spring. These extraordinary events soon attracted the notice of the Parisian press and gained the support of the <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/23391/lourdes/9780141038483.html">French imperial court</a>. </p>
<p>Many Catholics interpreted the apparitions as confirming <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9ineff.htm">the doctrine of Immaculate Conception</a>, which Pope Pius IX in 1854 had declared to be an essential element of Catholic faith. <a href="https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/124/">This teaching</a> holds that Mary, as the mother of Jesus, was conceived without <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/originalsin_1.shtml">original sin</a> – the incomplete union with God that, according to Catholic belief, all people are born with as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobeying God in the Garden of Eden. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black and white vintage photograph shows a young woman in a shawl and head covering." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444480/original/file-20220204-25-10omqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=961&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St. Bernadette, who claimed as a young woman to have seen the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, was canonized in 1933.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keystone/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Church officials were quickly alerted to Soubirous’ experiences and were initially concerned about the truth of her account. After investigating, the local bishop became convinced that Mary had indeed appeared to the young woman. Popes later encouraged veneration at Lourdes, and in 1933, Soubirous herself was canonized as <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-bernadette-soubirous-of-lourdes-438">St. Bernadette</a>.</p>
<p>Catholic churches, schools and hospitals soon began to be dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/villianurshrine">replicas of the cave</a>, or “grotto,” are today found throughout the world. These sites are built for worshippers who cannot make the pilgrimage but who seek to share in the experience of Lourdes.</p>
<h2>Lourdes water</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/nbfr.12268">Researching popular Catholic devotions</a> has taught me that apparitions attract skeptics as easily as they do crowds of enthusiastic believers. They also stir up <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/reli.2000.0296">religious and political controversy</a>.</p>
<p>From the start, church officials at Lourdes sought to deny claims of direct supernatural intervention for cures that could be scientifically explained instead. Today physicians at <a href="https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/medical-bureau-sanctuary">the International Medical Committee of Lourdes</a> run a rigorous process of investigating claims of miraculous healings there. </p>
<p>Most reported healings turn out to have purely natural causes, but if the committee does not find a medical explanation, it refers the case to the local bishop for investigation. Since the 1860s, church officials have formally declared 70 of the Lourdes healings to be miracles. The <a href="https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/miraculous-healings/">most recent case</a>, which they confirmed in 2018, involved <a href="https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/how-do-we-recognise-a-lourdes-miracle/">the healing of a French nun</a> who had been using a wheelchair and suffering severe pain for almost 30 years, but recovered soon after her pilgrimage to the grotto.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white vintage photograph shows nurses in white assisting people on stretchers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444481/original/file-20220204-25-10jfcmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People seeking healing visit Lourdes, France, in 1932 with the help of Italian nurses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis Historical via Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the course of the 20th century, the number of new miracles confirmed in Lourdes <a href="https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/miraculous-healings/">has gradually slowed</a> because of growth in scientific understanding.</p>
<p>In 2006, church officials declared that, beyond “miracles,” they would recognize <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2006/03/25/une-reforme-des-miracles-a-lourdes_754608_3214.html">three additional categories of healing</a> at Lourdes, in light of advances in medical knowledge: “unexpected,” “confirmed” or “exceptional” healings. The new categories relax the previous strict division between “natural” and “supernatural” healings, with the implication that God intervenes in many cases in which health is restored, even those that do not strictly qualify as <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-a-miracle-heres-how-the-catholic-church-decides-170183">“miracles” in the sense traditionally used by the Catholic Church</a>.</p>
<h2>Devotion goes digital</h2>
<p>If the number of officially recognized miracles has declined, grassroots faith in Lourdes is as strong as ever. An understanding that sickness and healing involve psychological, emotional and spiritual aspects as well as physical ones <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2012.756411">helps explain</a> some of Lourdes’ continuing appeal for many contemporary Catholics.</p>
<p>Devotional practices involve the sensory experiences of <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003094968">seeing, touching, tasting and hearing</a>. Visitors travel from all over the world to light candles in the grotto, touch the rock where Soubirous said the Virgin appeared, join in the chants of the twice-daily processions, attend Mass, take Communion, and bathe in and drink the holy waters of the spring.</p>
<p>Psychologically, being in the company of large crowds of fellow believers strengthens social <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1015969">faith identity</a>, as does seeing sick pilgrims treated with dignity and honor.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman with her back to the camera sits on the bank of a stream, facing a Catholic shrine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444479/original/file-20220204-27-hiebo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pilgrim prays in front of the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes on May 16, 2020, after it was closed for the first time in its history amid the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bob Edme</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many family, friends, spiritual advisers and volunteers from international Catholic organizations, such as the <a href="https://orderofmaltaamerican.org/spirituality-in-action/lourdes/overview/">Order of Malta</a>, accompany visitors too ill to travel alone. The physical work of caring for the sick affects people spiritually. I have visited Lourdes several times as both helper and chaplain and heard many confessions there. I know that many of those who volunteer their time as helpers – including people who are not practicing Catholics or even Christians – return home with deeper gratitude for their own health and a livelier faith.</p>
<p>For two months in 2020, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200405-virtual-easter-as-virus-closes-lourdes-shrine">the shrine at Lourdes closed for the first time in its history</a> because of the pandemic. Since then, <a href="https://www.lourdes-france.org/en/tv-lourdes">live-streaming of the grotto</a> has attracted an even wider audience. Its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7zlbnNCnuAPiC3goKcFgUg">dedicated YouTube channel</a> and other social media are <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-christian-pilgrimage-how-a-virtual-tour-to-lourdes-follows-a-tradition-of-innovation-142965">21st-century virtual equivalents</a> of the replica grottoes built in church grounds, schools, hospitals and <a href="https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/h/home-shrines-to-mary.php">homes around the world</a>.</p>
<p>Skeptics will likely continue to dispute claims of miraculous healings and apparitions of the Virgin Mary. For millions, however, Lourdes will indisputably continue to be an important faith symbol of comfort and care, and a byword for healing and hope. </p>
<p>[<em>More than 140,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dorian Llywelyn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
St. Bernadette’s visions of the Virgin Mary in the 19th century inspired the pilgrimage site millions of Catholics flock to each year.
Dorian Llywelyn, President, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171288
2022-01-31T13:01:21Z
2022-01-31T13:01:21Z
There is much more to mindfulness than the popular media hype
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444116/original/file-20220202-27-14try7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C2108%2C1365&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Have the benefits of meditation been overhyped in the West?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/praying-posture-royalty-free-image/1051055894?adppopup=true">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mindfulness is seemingly everywhere these days. A Google search I conducted in January 2022 for the term “mindfulness” resulted in almost 3 billion hits. The practice is now routinely offered in workplaces, schools, psychologists’ offices and hospitals all across the country. </p>
<p>Most of the public enthusiasm for mindfulness stems from the reputation it has for reducing stress. But scholars and researchers who work on mindfulness, and the Buddhist tradition itself, paint a more complex picture than does the popular media. </p>
<h2>Medicalizing meditation</h2>
<p>Mindfulness originated in the Buddhist practice of “anapana-sati,” a Sanskrit phrase that means “awareness of breath.” Buddhist historian <a href="https://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/ecb2j">Erik Braun</a> has <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/the-insight-revolution/">traced the origins of the contemporary popularity of meditation</a> to colonial Burma – modern-day Myanmar – in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Meditation, which was practiced almost exclusively inside monasteries until then, was introduced to the general public in a simplified format that was easier to learn. </p>
<p>The gradual spread of meditation from that time to the present is a surprisingly complex story.</p>
<p>In the U.S., meditation first started to be practiced among <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mind-cure-9780190864248">diverse communities of spiritual seekers</a> as early as the 19th century. It was adopted by <a href="https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/mindfulness-in-psychotherapy/">professional psychotherapists</a> in the early 20th century. By the 21st century, it had become <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mindful-america-9780199827817">a mass-marketing phenomenon</a> promoted by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra and Gwyneth Paltrow. </p>
<p>The process of translating the Buddhist practice of meditation across cultural divides transformed the practice in significant ways. Modern meditation often has different goals and priorities than traditional Buddhist meditation. It tends to focus on stress reduction, mental health or concrete benefits in daily life instead of spiritual development, liberation or enlightenment. </p>
<p>A pivotal moment in this transformation was the creation of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol by <a href="https://profiles.umassmed.edu/display/130749">Jon Kabat-Zinn</a>, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in 1979. The stress reduction program introduced a standardized way of teaching meditation to patients so that its health benefits could be more rigorously measured by scientists. </p>
<p>Research on this new kind of “medicalized” mindfulness began to gather steam in the past two decades. As of today there are over 21,000 research articles on mindfulness in the National Library of Medicine’s <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">online database</a> — two and a half times as many articles as have been published on yoga, tai chi and reiki combined. </p>
<h2>Scientific evidence vs. mindfulness hype</h2>
<p>Medical researchers themselves have had a far more measured opinion about the benefits of meditation than the popular press.</p>
<p>For example, a 2019 meta-analysis, which is a review of many individual scientific studies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093423">pointed out</a> that the evidence for the benefits of mindfulness and other meditation-based interventions has “significant limitations” and that the research has “methodological shortcomings.” </p>
<p>Based on their review of the scientific literature, the authors warned against falling prey to “mindfulness hype.” On the positive side, they found various forms of meditation to be more or less comparable to the conventional therapies currently used to treat depression, anxiety, chronic pain and substance use. On the other hand, they concluded that more evidence is needed before any strong claims can be made regarding treatment of conditions such as attention disorders, PTSD, dysregulated eating or serious mental illnesses. </p>
<p>More troubling, some researchers are even beginning to suggest that a certain percentage of patients may experience <a href="https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/research/varieties-contemplative-experience">negative side effects</a> from the practice of meditation, including increased anxiety, depression or, in extreme cases, even psychosis. While the causes of these side effects are not yet fully understood, it is evident that for some patients, therapeutic meditation is far from the panacea it is often made out to be. </p>
<h2>Putting mindfulness back into context</h2>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.piercesalguero.com/academic/">historian of the relationship between Buddhism and medicine</a>, I argue that mindfulness can be a beneficial practice for many people, but that we should understand the broader context in which it developed and has been practiced for centuries. Mindfulness is one small part of a diverse range of healing techniques and perspectives the Buddhist tradition has developed and maintained over many centuries. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Buddhist monks in orange robes praying" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mindfulness is one small part of the healing techniques forwarded by Buddhism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/buddhist-monks-praying-royalty-free-image/185091185?adppopup=true">FredFroese/iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a recent book, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-global-history-of-buddhism-and-medicine/9780231185271">I have traced the global history</a> of the many ways that the religion has contributed to the development of medicine over the past 2,400 years or so. Buddhist tradition advocates countless contemplations, devotional practices, herbal remedies, dietary advice and ways of synchronizing the human body with the environment and the seasons, all of which are related to healing. </p>
<p>These ideas and practices are enormously influential <a href="http://www.jivaka.net/global/">around the world</a> as well as in Buddhist communities <a href="http://www.jivaka.net/philly/">in the U.S.</a> Such interventions have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-buddhists-handle-coronavirus-the-answer-is-not-just-meditation-137966">particularly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic</a> – for example, through the medical charity of major international Buddhist organizations as well as through health advice given by high-profile monastics such as the Dalai Lama. </p>
<p>Buddhism has always had a lot to say about health. But perhaps the most significant of its many contributions is its teaching that our physical and mental well-being are intricately intertwined – not only with each other, but also with the health and vitality of all living beings. </p>
<p>Medicalized meditation is now a self-help commodity that generates over US$1 billion per year, leading some critics to label it “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600158/mcmindfulness-by-ronald-purser/">McMindfulness</a>.” But placing mindfulness back into a Buddhist ethical context shows that it is not enough to simply meditate to reduce our own stress or to more effectively navigate the challenges of the modern world. </p>
<p>As I argue in my <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691081/buddhish-by-c-pierce-salguero/">most recent book</a>, Buddhist ethics asks us to look up from our meditation cushions and to look out beyond our individual selves. It asks us to appreciate how everything is interconnected and how our actions and choices influence our lives, our society and the environment. The emphasis, even while healing ourselves, is always on becoming agents of compassion, healing and well-being for the whole.</p>
<p>[<em>This Week in Religion, a global roundup each Thursday.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-global-roundup">Sign up.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierce Salguero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A scholar studying the relationship of Buddhism and medicine explains how the popular media has misrepresented mindfulness.
Pierce Salguero, Associate Professor of Asian History & Religious Studies, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170076
2022-01-04T13:07:12Z
2022-01-04T13:07:12Z
The promise of repairing bones and tendons with human-made materials
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438835/original/file-20211222-120394-wx89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8093%2C5464&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Musculoskeletal injuries can cause severe pain and lead to greater problems. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/shot-of-a-young-woman-holding-her-shoulder-in-pain-royalty-free-image/1359197542?adppopup=true">PeopleImages/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Brittany Taylor is a biomedical engineer and assistant professor who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KOS4i7AAAAAJ&hl=en">studies novel ways to improve bone and tendon healing</a> after injuries. She is exploring drug delivery systems and temporary artificial tissue replacements to promote healing of tendons and the interface with bones and muscle. Millions of musculoskeletal injuries each year cause pain and reduce people’s quality of life. Here, she answers questions about the <a href="https://www.bme.ufl.edu/dept-member/brittany-taylor-ph-d/">benefits of using composite materials</a> – biological materials like tissue from animals or synthetic materials – to improve repair outcomes. Many of the techniques are still in the experimental stages and have been tested in animal models.</em></p>
<h2>At least half a million bone grafts a year are performed in the United States. Why do doctors and patients need an alternative to using real bone in these surgeries?</h2>
<p>Musculoskeletal complications due to disease, traumatic injury or repetitive activity are major problems worldwide. Current treatments to repair these injuries rely on harvested or donated tissue. For example, doctors take bone from the iliac crest, the curved portion at the top of the hip, then mold it to fit the area needing the bone replacement. But donation sites for bone are limited, and there is a risk of tissue death where the bone is extracted. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jaaos/fulltext/2005/01000/the_biology_of_bone_grafting.10.aspx?casa_token=MHJAoIBIQwMAAAAA:Yiq53pMIWz2_abzPfC-3eTTW3rzgf2QlI-AV_2HjIetqN6zzTS8LxAcT7CPah7BpTQZaoezJ031gOEd7suOVWplK">another patient or a cadaver provides bone for such repairs</a>, it can transmit disease. Harsh detergents and sterilization methods to remove any disease can also affect the bone’s strength.</p>
<p>The use of composite material <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=KOS4i7AAAAAJ&citation_for_view=KOS4i7AAAAAJ:IjCSPb-OGe4C">overcomes the risks and problems of real bone</a>. </p>
<h2>What kinds of materials work best to help injured bones regenerate?</h2>
<p>Composite materials that have a combination of metals, ceramics and polymers – human-made substances – appear to work best for bone regeneration. They <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288050539_Recent_Advances_in_Bone_Graft_Technologies">provide mechanical support and also a matrix</a> for tissue development. Biomaterials – engineered materials designed to interact with real body tissue – can regenerate tissues and help healing. </p>
<p>The biomaterial should be compatible with the body. It should not set off an immune response, and it should match tissue’s structural and mechanical properties. Biomaterials used for bone tissue engineering should be as tough as bone and allow for tissue to grow into the structure. Natural materials <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jbm.b.33622">such as collagen from cows</a> or pigs can also be integrated into the bone scaffold to promote bone repair. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Q3S6q97FiU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This short video from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health introduces nonscientists to the process of tissue engineering for healing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>You study tendons and their limited ability to regenerate when torn. Why don’t tendons heal themselves easily?</h2>
<p>Tendons do not regenerate well because they have low cellularity – fewer clusters of cells than other parts of the body – and fewer blood vessels. Tendons also form scar tissue as they heal and therefore have limited functionality. Surgically repaired tendons can also easily retear, which reduces a person’s quality of life and lead to prolonged complications. Therefore, researchers are working on tissue engineering strategies to augment healing.</p>
<h2>What kind of engineered materials can help tendons heal?</h2>
<p>Tendons are fibrous tissues that transmit energy loads from muscles to bones. They are “highly aligned,” which means they orient along the direction of the load they transmit. Any engineered biomaterial that replaces a tendon should mimic its mechanical force and allow cells to attach and grow on them, as real tendons do. Therefore, polymer-based biomaterials are the best materials to engineer tendon tissue. Engineers make the experimental polymers with techniques such as electrospinning, which uses an electric field to draw a nanosized polymer strand from a solution, making nanofibers. </p>
<p>Nanofibers can be combined with other materials to engineer tendons, as they have a large surface area-to-volume ratio and are porous. Cells easily adhere to these materials.</p>
<h2>You have worked on developing stronger scaffolds that act like real bone in the body. What do scaffolds do, and why do they need to be made stronger?</h2>
<p>Biomaterial scaffolds for tissue engineering are similar to scaffolding used in construction: a temporary framework that supports the structure and provides a platform for the builders to climb and place materials in their appropriate location. Once the construction is complete, the scaffolding is removed and the newly built structure remains.</p>
<p>The same process works in the human body. Cells attach to the scaffold, proliferate and migrate throughout the scaffold. As the cells “climb” they start to deposit biological factors that promote tissue formation.</p>
<p>The scaffold degrades over time as the new tissue regenerates. Mechanical supports can be added to the scaffolds to make them stronger. My colleagues and I included ceramic posts made out of naturally occurring bone mineral, hydroxyapatite, in the three-dimensional composite bone scaffold for load-bearing applications. The posts were similar to beams added to a structure.</p>
<h2>As a Black scientist, you have advocated for <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=KOS4i7AAAAAJ&citation_for_view=KOS4i7AAAAAJ:5nxA0vEk-isC">good mentors</a> to help other scientists of color.</h2>
<p>I have had to overcome several societal and academic challenges. As a Black first-generation college graduate and female biomedical engineer, I am underrepresented at every level of academia. The obstacles I conquered and the knowledge I gained along this journey contribute to the diverse perspective I bring to the field as a culturally competent educator, well-rounded scientist and strong mentor.</p>
<p>My vision for diversifying scientific research is to continually influence members of the next generation as they work their way through their studies. I mentor scientists, transparently share my experiences and encourage trainees from all backgrounds.</p>
<p>I strongly believe a significant part of being successful in academia is the ability to mentor and be mentored throughout the academic pipeline. I am grateful for the many mentors throughout my journey who opened doors for new opportunities and provided access to the necessary spaces to get me to where I am now. And I am committed to doing the same for others.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brittany Taylor receives funding from the University of Florida and Burroughs Wellcome Fund.</span></em></p>
A biomedical engineer explains how human-made materials inserted in the body hold hope to repair painful injuries more efficiently than bone grafts.
Brittany Taylor, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171763
2021-11-15T14:43:42Z
2021-11-15T14:43:42Z
Religion was once Ethiopia’s saviour. What it can do to pull the nation from the brink
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431888/original/file-20211115-15-vpro7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims at Lalibela, Ethiopia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ethiopia is at war with itself – all over again. Again, it is in the global media spotlight for the wrong reasons: <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/ethiopia-grave-humanitarian-crisis-unfolding-never-saw-hell-before-now-have">war, displacement, rape, and killings</a>. A nation with a long but turbulent history and a rich religious heritage has struggled to shrug off the vices holding it back from moving forward.</p>
<p>This, however, is not for a lack of opportunity. The nation lays claim to <a href="https://addisstandard.com/opinion-does-ethiopia-really-need-democracy-then-it-should-draw-resources-from-indigenous-virtues/">cultural and religious values</a> which could have been nurtured, re-calibrated, and developed to foster peaceful cohabitation. Moreover, history has afforded Ethiopia <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=ijad">many chances</a> to find a unifying formula and move to a more democratic dispensation. Many times, the country has struggled to root out toxic seeds which have effectively ruined its chances of using ethnic and religious diversity as a strength, not as a threat.</p>
<p>Ethiopia is a <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/08/orthodox-christians-are-highly-religious-in-ethiopia-much-less-so-in-former-soviet-union/">deeply religious</a> nation. Both Christians and Muslims have <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/fr/oir/interfaith-relations-between-christianity-and-islam-ethiopia">fascinating stories</a> to tell not only of their origins, but also of how they have managed to negotiate their shared space. The question, therefore, should be: what role is religion playing in the conflict in Tigray? </p>
<p>It is worth starting this discussion by way of briefly capturing the role religion played in the past in addressing threats of division and disintegration.</p>
<h2>The unifying myth</h2>
<p>Ethiopia has survived several dark epochs in its long history. Religion was one of the reasons why it survived. Take, for example, the <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211883.001.0001/acprof-9780199211883-chapter-4">“Zemene Mesafint”</a> – the era of princes. This period, between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, got its name from the Bible because it mimicked the biblical <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43660013?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">“period of judges”</a> in Israel’s history.</p>
<p>Joshua, who had guided Israelites in the last and critical part of their journey of liberation and helped them to settle in the promised land, had just died. Upon this, the central point in Jewish life <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00393388408600023?journalCode=sthe20">started to dissipate</a>. The nation splintered into 12 tribes, followed by a vicious cycle of violence and lawlessness.</p>
<p>In the same way, the Zemene Mesafint was a treacherous time in Ethiopian history, its union <a href="https://books.google.es/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jRMWPSfPBysC&oi=fnd&pg=PA348&dq=zamana+mesafint+%2B+Israel&ots=PYQ3wV_69N&sig=qi4yB6MVHxmhDh3fjATiSOCpXSE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=zamana%20mesafint%20%2B%20Israel&f=false">threatened by power-hungry regional warlords</a>. As the real power deserted central government and lay instead with regional leaders, the nation’s political and institutional architecture was challenged. </p>
<p>Scholars <a href="https://books.google.es/books?id=m5ESDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA39&dq=Regionalism+%2B+zemene+mesafint&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_xIjEm_PjAhUBYsAKHaegA5EQ6AEIMTAB#v=onepage&q=Regionalism%20%2B%20zemene%20mesafint&f=false">believe</a> that heightened regionalism during the Zemene Mesafint brought Ethiopia to the brink of disintegration. But the Orthodox church, a powerful non-state actor, was in favour of unity at the time. Religion, therefore, provided a theologically informed political tool – a national myth of a social covenant – to abate the looming danger. </p>
<p>Ordinary citizens used this notion to invent their own version of <a href="https://books.google.es/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Y0YDve-kiK0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Ullendorff+Ethiopia+and+the+Bible&ots=QcAb3ybQgz&sig=DC8YWs0OcNTVfMmzkrspafRULjY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Ullendorff%20Ethiopia%20and%20the%20Bible&f=false">volksgiest</a>, or a way of life. Their principal concern was negotiating their space with ethnic and religious others. Ultimately, the social tool that religious intellectuals deployed to avoid existential crisis became an opportunity that helped reconfigure the Ethiopian union. For many years, it was an epistemic framework that provided a vision for peaceful cohabitation.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-needs-a-new-rallying-point-instead-of-recycling-its-painful-past-121531">this myth</a> – and the social values that enveloped in it – has not been nurtured and re-calibrated to fit current social and political realities. Instead, it has been demystified and politicised. The result is that, instead of becoming a unifying force, it became a source of polarisation. That religious default point is now replaced by a new one: ethnicity.</p>
<p>In the current Ethiopian political reality, ethnicity is not mere allegiance, it is also an interpretive framework by which groups analyse and formulate their existence. Religion and its social values have been weakened. More worrying, religion is now being preyed upon and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1YE-gr1yGU">can be instrumentalised</a>, if necessary, by politicians to score political points.</p>
<h2>War in Tigray</h2>
<p>The problem confronting Ethiopia now has some similarity to the times of the Zemene Mesafint. For instance, powerful regional states were born. Some of them operate with worrying levels of autonomy in relation to the federal state. They have well-resourced armies that stand toe-to-toe with the federal army. </p>
<p>Personal animosities among political leaders often swiftly take a tribal shape. Ethnic allegiance, and resultant territorialism, has become a social and political prism through which human interactions are imagined. Historical injustices are not properly addressed. Instead, they are recirculated and galvanised by hostile groups to achieve their political goals. </p>
<p>So, what is the role of religion here?</p>
<p>Firstly, what is manifesting in the social and political reams is symptomatic of moral decay within the religious institutions. By their very inability to become a source of peaceful cohabitation and reconciliation, religious groups have become responsible for the loss of the moral compass in society.</p>
<p>Secondly, there is no one unified religious entity that commands attention and dictates a unifying narrative as religious institutions face their own internal crises related to ethnicity. A case in point is that Abune Mathias – the head of the Orthodox Church who is of Tigrayan descent – has recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-africa-religion-99106036de345fc5e8615ca95b022b36">spoken against</a> the government’s stance in the conflict. There are other clergy members within the same church who are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpPC2WlnTUE">outspoken supporters</a> of the government’s action of “maintaining law and order” in Tigray.</p>
<p>Thirdly, even though religion is not the primary factor behind the conflict, it can be used as a mobilising factor by both sides. Supporters of the warring groups use their pulpits to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QshmiE3-XwE">demonise their perceived enemies</a> and paint their leaders in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Avy9Y9_GA">messianic light</a>. This comes with the risk of dogmatising ideological positions and desensitising conscience when atrocities are committed by those who are supported by a particular group.</p>
<p>Finally, religiously laced conversation pushes politics from ideas that can be challenged to dogma that should be defended at any cost. It, simply, is a matter of existence.</p>
<h2>Going forward</h2>
<p>Ethiopia’s future is uncertain. The country needs the efforts of every stakeholder to prevent it from the already unfolding tragedy. Religious groups – Christians and Muslims – have big roles to play. I will suggest three action points:</p>
<p>The first, and very critical, step is genuine soul-searching within each religious group. They need to ask the hard questions of why and how the society is sliding into hate-filled chaos. They need to come up with corrective actions within themselves and find a unified narrative among themselves.</p>
<p>Secondly, there is a great need for an inter-religious peace effort. This requires coming out of their own small echo chambers, empathetic listening to those who are hurting, and providing a transcendent narrative that goes beyond the political divides.</p>
<p>Third, they need to take an emotional distance from politics and find a neutral space so they can get moral clarity. They need to find courage to speak truth to power, if necessary. Ethiopia is crying out for a new social covenant – the “we” of humanity, not for the “us versus them” of politics. While diversity should be respected, and even celebrated, the religious teachings should now be focused on healing and reconciliation.</p>
<p><em>An earlier version of this article was first published by <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/religion-and-the-social-covenant-in-ethiopia-faith-in-the-tigray-conflict">Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171763/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohammed Girma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ethiopia’s main religions need to take an emotional distance from politics and find a neutral space so they can get moral clarity.
Mohammed Girma, Visiting Lecturer, University of Roehampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159793
2021-10-24T12:25:28Z
2021-10-24T12:25:28Z
Who decides what’s essential? The importance of Indigenous ceremony during COVID-19
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427273/original/file-20211019-16-yydnbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C4594%2C3055&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At the beginning of the 12-day celebration of life ceremony, Elder Wendy Phillips performs a smudge.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Josh Lyon)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown in September 2020, Ojibway Elder Wendy Phillips and her partner, Mark Phillips conducted an in-person 12-day celebration of life ceremony at their home near Havelock, Ont., despite public health recommendations dictating otherwise. </p>
<p>Indigenous <a href="https://fulcrum.bookstore.ipgbook.com/god-is-red-products-9781555914981.php">ceremonies have been central to Indigenous health</a> and <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9780803275720/">well-being since time immemorial</a>. Despite the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml">genocidal policies</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240">practices exercised by Canada</a>, these ceremonies continue to be an important part of life and sustaining good health for many. </p>
<p>In March 2020, federal and provincial governments announced lockdowns — provinces began <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-suspend-sweat-lodges-pipe-ceremonies-1.5504541">prohibiting communal services and social gatherings and in-person contact was discouraged</a>. In September 2020, the Ontario government announced further restrictions to social gatherings as well as ceremonial and religious gatherings. And those found in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-statistics-september-17-1.5727727">violation could face up to $10,000 in fines</a>.</p>
<p>While COVID-19 exacerbated many of the health disparities Indigenous people face, everyday actions of land-based regenerative resurgence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1177180120968156">including some ceremonies, continued</a>.</p>
<p>Teachings that Elder Phillips and her partner received from their elders about the 12-day celebration of life ceremony, was that it had to be performed, every four years, no matter what. No matter the weather, no matter the situation — with ideally 64 people — regardless of western conventions of public health and politics. </p>
<p>Was this determination to continue with the ceremony an <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12471">act of Indigenous resistance and resurgence</a> and did it reflect reassertion of nationhood and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.200852">self-determination seen elsewhere throughout the pandemic</a>? </p>
<p>This was a question our research team wanted to explore.</p>
<h2>Centring the voice of ceremonialists</h2>
<p>Led by Elder Phillips, Ojibway, Bald Eagle Clan from Wasauksing First Nation, we are a culturally diverse group of Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee elders and knowledge keepers, Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers who were concerned about the potential impacts disrupting ceremony would have on Indigenous Peoples’ health and well-being. We asked those who participated in the ceremony: what is the right thing to do?</p>
<p>Our aim was to listen to ceremonialists who chose to continue despite the provincial government’s rules and public health directives, including directives from Indigenous health authorities (like the <a href="https://www.fnha.ca/about/news-and-events/news/covid-19-advisory-on-sweat-lodges-and-potlatches">COVID-19 Advisory on Sweat Lodges and Potlatches</a>) in recognition that Indigenous autonomy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.200852">over ceremony has been historically criminalized</a> and is all too often silenced.</p>
<p>The ceremonialists we spoke with talked about how crucial ceremony is as a way of life and well-being, and for some even lifesaving: “Ceremony actually saved my life. It saved my son’s life. It’s saving our people,” said one of the participants. </p>
<p>Although extra precautions and COVID-19 considerations were made — including both Indigenous medicines and consideration for public health recommendations — it was clear that despite the pandemic, taking part in ceremony was essential. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A lodge is shown with a fire in the middle, people sit in a circle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427274/original/file-20211019-25-11cu0jy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ceremonialists say ceremony can be lifesaving.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Josh Lyon)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ceremony helps people stay connected</h2>
<p>We asked participants to explain why ceremony was important. They talked about identifying ceremony as a way to connect with self and identity, as well as family and community. Being involved in ceremony gave them a sense of connection and belonging within the colonial Canadian context of forced disconnection from culture and community via state annihilation attempts (like <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/intergenerational-trauma-and-residential-schools">residential schools</a>, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sixties-scoop">the ‘60s scoop</a> and <a href="https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/movementtowardsreconciliation/chapter/the-indigenous-child-welfare-system/">the child welfare system</a>). </p>
<p>Ceremony was identified as safe space to heal from intergenerational trauma. One of the participants said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What really brings me here is working on myself, being the best person I can be, being the best Anishinaabe, best <em>nijiwakin</em> (father) and best <em>shomis</em> (grandfather) that I can be … this is something my parents couldn’t give me because of residential school and intergenerational trauma and being taught not to practice ceremonies.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In addition to the individual and community healing part of ceremony, many also voiced a sense of responsibility for the continuation of ceremony and traditional knowledge. </p>
<p>This sense of responsibility was expressed in terms of honouring their ancestors’ historical struggle to protect this knowledge and way of life, as well as ensuring it continues for future generations. “These are important ceremonies for us, and this is important for our well-being and the well-being of future generations,” said one of the participants. “This is why we try to continue to ensure that this knowledge and traditions can continue.”</p>
<h2>Provincial restriction caused frustration and anxiety</h2>
<p>When it came to provincial restrictions, which were intensified during the celebration of life ceremony, participants voiced both frustration at the interference in their way of life, and some anxiety about the potential for police intervention and/or fines. They all however remained unwavering in their commitment to continue participating. </p>
<p>Most often, frustrations were expressed in terms of the historical and ongoing colonial relationship with the government, and ongoing battle to protect Indigenous ways of being. “This isn’t the first time that going to ceremony gets you fined. It’s happened before but I’m following through with what I believe and the faith I have,” said one of the participants.</p>
<p>The federal government banned Indigenous Peoples from conducting their own spiritual ceremonies from 1884 to 1951; fines and prison sentences were the consequences if caught. This aspect of the Indian Act <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/potlatch">was known as the Potlatch Ban</a> because that ceremony, in particular, was deemed “anti-Christian, reckless and wasteful.” Despite such racist and repressive policies, the Potlatch and other ceremonies were never entirely suppressed and have been practised openly since the ban.</p>
<p>One participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The fine that they are implementing, it might as well be a million dollars. I can’t afford it, but I’m not leaving either. I’m staying. These ceremonies are important. Ceremony has given me quality of life.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a saw as she builds a lodge. The image is closeup, you can see her jacket (red), gloves (yellow)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427277/original/file-20211019-13-dtv0g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many ceremonialists say it is their responsibility to continue with ceremony and pass on traditional knowledge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wiisemis King-Phillips)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Should Indigenous communities continue to fear repercussions at the hands of the government and police for upholding their traditional ways?</p>
<p>During this pandemic, Indigenous communities have <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-with-so-much-as-risk-we-couldnt-just-wait-for-help-indigenous/">reasserted nationhood and their desires for self-determination</a>. However, the government continues to signal that it is not ready to move beyond its colonial relationship through blanket restrictions put in place by the government without regard for <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/efforts-underway-indigenous-ceremonies-essential-services-1.5847779">the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or consultation with Indigenous people themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Pandemic or not, can we move toward a relationship with the Crown where Indigenous nations are sovereign with the power and authority to decide how to best protect their citizens? So decisions can be rooted in <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/from-risk-resilience-equity-approach-covid-19/indigenous-peoples-covid-19-report.html#a1">culturally safe and community-led solutions</a>? </p>
<p>Indigenous nations are best suited to understand these essential needs, not simply when it comes to protecting their citizens, but also honouring the past and protecting future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Mashford-Pringle receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institute for Health Research, and eCampus Ontario.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Castleden receives funding from CIHR, SSHRC, and the Canada Research Chairs Program.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Calabretta receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janice Hill, Jodi John, Mark Dockstator, and Wendy Phillips do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Was participating in ceremony despite pandemic restrictions an act of Indigenous resistance and resurgence and did it reflect reassertion of nationhood and self-determination?
Jodi John, Ph.D. Candidate, Geography and Planning, Queen's University, Ontario
Angela Mashford-Pringle, Assistant Professor/Associate Director, Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health, University of Toronto
Heather Castleden, Professor and Impact Chair in Transformative Governance for Planetary Health, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria
Janice Hill, Associate Vice-Principal (Indigenous Initiatives and Reconciliation), Queen's University, Ontario
Marc Calabretta, Research Program Manager, Health, Environment, and Communities Research Lab, Queen's University, Ontario
Mark Dockstator, Associate Professor, Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies, Trent University
Wendy Phillips, Elder in Residence, Queen's University, Ontario
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169240
2021-10-08T13:40:47Z
2021-10-08T13:40:47Z
‘Truth and Healing Commission’ could help Native American communities traumatized by government-run boarding schools that tried to destroy Indian culture
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425304/original/file-20211007-18548-4lkccs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4031%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A makeshift memorial for the Indigenous children who died more than a century ago while attending a boarding school, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndigenousBoardingSchoolsAlbuquerque/32f0502f1cf240d1951b39660b0b6ed3/photo?Query=boarding%20AND%20schools&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=710&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://boardingschoolhealing.org/national-day-of-remembrance-for-us-indian-boarding-schools/">National Day of Remembrance for Native American children</a> honors children who died years ago while attending the United States’ Indian boarding schools each Sept. 30. On that day this year, a <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-davids-cole-reintroduce-bipartisan-bill-to-seek-healing-for-stolen-native-children-and-their-communities">bill was reintroduced in both the Senate and the House</a> to establish an American Indian Truth and Healing Commission on Indian boarding schools. </p>
<p>The bill’s purposes include both truth-seeking and healing. It asks “to formally investigate and document,” the impact of the trauma that resulted from Indian boarding school policies – a trauma that has been passed down through the generations in Native communities. It also urged federal support to heal “cultural and linguistic” destruction to tribal communities carried out by the federal, state and local governments.</p>
<p>Outside of Indian Country, the lasting legacy of boarding school policies has been largely ignored in the United States. As a <a href="https://www.davidrmbeck.com/">historian of federal “Indian policy</a>” in the 19th and 20th centuries, I study the ways that the U.S. federal government has tried to force American Indians to abandon their cultural heritage and the ways in which tribal communities have tried to remedy the damage. </p>
<p>One thing that I have learned is that in order for healing to occur, it is necessary to acknowledge the horrific history and impacts of boarding schools on both American Indian individuals and communities. Knowing the past and healing from it have begun, but both are far from being complete. </p>
<h2>History of boarding schools</h2>
<p>These boarding schools were run by the federal government, or by <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Churches_and_the_Indian_Schools_1888.html?id=cvV7JwYTz2AC">churches using federal money</a>. From the 1870s, when the first schools began operation, into the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of children are estimated to have been taken away from their families and put into boarding schools, sometimes thousands of miles from their homes. They were forced to learn English and practice Christianity in these schools, and were severely punished for not doing so.</p>
<p>The United States Congress and the Department of the Interior were responsible for establishing and supporting the schools across the country. The schools represent a particularly insidious method of attempting forced assimilation because they involved the removal of children, sometimes by kidnapping, from their families and communities. </p>
<p>Children suffered homesickness and were ravaged by diseases. Many were <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-native-students-fought-back-against-abuse-and-assimilation-at-us-boarding-schools-165222">physically and sexually abused and hundreds died</a>. </p>
<p>Children as young as four – who had been separated from their families and community – were punished for speaking their home languages at the schools. When they returned home, sometimes after many years, they would be unable to converse with their elders, or participate in traditional religious ceremonies <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-loss-of-native-american-languages-affects-our-understanding-of-the-natural-world-103984">since they did not speak the language</a>. These ceremonial activities were also banned by federal policy as part of the broader assimilation project.</p>
<p>The U.S. government has neither sought reconciliation nor provided reparations for the harms caused by the boarding school policy. On the heels of the discovery of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012100926/graves-found-at-new-site-canadian-indigenous-group-says">mass graves at residential schools in Canada</a> this past summer, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American in that job, vowed to take action in the U.S. She said that “<a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-announces-federal-indian-boarding-school-initiative">only by acknowledging the past can we work toward a future that we’re all proud to embrace</a>.” </p>
<p>The bill to establish an American Indian boarding school truth and healing commission was <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8420/text">originally introduced in 2020</a> by then U.S. Rep. Haaland and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. For now, the Department of the Interior has <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-announces-federal-indian-boarding-school-initiative">announced a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative</a>, which, it says, will be “a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies.”</p>
<p>The big picture question in both of these initiatives is, what does acknowledging the past and embracing the future look like? </p>
<h2>Understanding the past</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old photograph showing students wrapped in heavy blankets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425307/original/file-20211007-26-ykefpn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scholar Larry Larrichio holds a copy of a late 19th century photograph of students at an Indigenous boarding school in Santa Fe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndigenousBoardingSchools/ef3416025bb34632a6381afebf3e5aa8/photo?Query=boarding%20AND%20schools&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=710&currentItemNo=31">AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historians have been working for the past quarter century to broaden understanding of the impact of boarding schools on Indigenous communities. For example, scholar <a href="https://sma-neh-landmark.ku.edu/brenda-child">Brenda Child</a> has written about the <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803214804/">experiences of families in her own Red Lake Ojibwe community in Minnesota</a>. </p>
<p>In her nuanced historical record, Child documents that even when children were not kidnapped and sent to boarding schools, their families faced heart-breaking decisions about their children. By the late 19th century federal policies had destroyed tribal economies. Many Native people lived in dire poverty. Parents might send their children away, for example, to avoid starvation at home.</p>
<p>Native children tried to survive the boarding school experience, and, when they could, to challenge its restrictions. <a href="https://www.rdjs.law/attorneys/wade-v-davies/">Wade Davies</a>, a University of Montana Native American Studies professor, in his award winning book “<a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2909-1.html">Native Hoops</a>”, gives one example of this. </p>
<p>He tells the history of basketball as a key Native pastime in Indian boarding schools. Students reshaped the sport in ways reflective of the fast-paced way it is now played. They used it as an escape from misery and as a way to travel outside of school grounds. They developed lifelong friendships and relationships that they could later use to protect their home communities.</p>
<p>This is an example of what Anishinaabe writer <a href="http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/vizenor/">Gerald Vizenor</a> termed “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803210837/">survivance</a>,” or going beyond survival to create healthy, self-directed futures for individuals and communities. </p>
<p>In order to understand survivance, scholars have worked to broaden the understanding of the impacts of boarding schools on Native communities and families. At the same time, Indigenous people have worked locally and nationally to bring about healing.</p>
<p>[<em>3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-3-in-1">Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.</a>]</p>
<h2>Healing from within</h2>
<p>The most effective methods of healing for survivors of boarding schools or their descendants are developing within Indigenous communities themselves. <a href="https://boardingschoolhealing.org/">The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition</a>, a Native-run nonprofit in Minneapolis, is in the process of creating a digital archive as a way of identifying all of the U.S. boarding schools. This easier access to the schools’ records will provide a way for survivors and their family members to better understand their own history.</p>
<p>The coalition is also focused on healing. It works with legislatures and communities to find ways to help survivors heal from the traumas inflicted on them. The organization works to make policymakers accountable to Native community needs. And it works directly in communities to promote healthy recovery. </p>
<p>Other efforts are being made to undo the damages that the boarding schools inflicted on Indigenous communities in the United States, on both local and national levels. Native religious practitioners, for example, are <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-wave-of-anti-protest-laws-may-infringe-on-religious-freedoms-for-indigenous-people-160733">revitalizing traditional ceremonial practices</a>. The <a href="http://www.ncnalsp.org/">National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs</a> supports local efforts to revitalize Indigenous languages and works with U.S. federal and state officials to develop policy and law to address the language loss issues.</p>
<p>These issues have been of key importance among Indigenous communities for some 150 years. Following the recent wrenching headlines about <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-canada-committed-genocide-against-indigenous-peoples-explained-by-the-lawyer-central-to-the-determination-162582">residential school graves in Canada</a>, people outside of Indian country are beginning to recognize the importance of addressing the legacy of American Indian boarding schools. </p>
<p>But, to be able to do so effectively, both acknowledging the history of those schools, and support for Native community efforts to heal from it, will be crucial.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169240/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David R. M. Beck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For Indigenous Peoples Day, a scholar of Native American studies explains why understanding the tragic history of Indian boarding schools is important for healing to take place.
David R. M. Beck, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/168058
2021-09-27T12:57:17Z
2021-09-27T12:57:17Z
What Ötzi the prehistoric iceman can teach us about the use of tattoos in ceremonial healing or religious rites
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422985/original/file-20210923-23-1fnt1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4363%2C2856&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man takes a picture of a statue representing the 5,300-year-old mummy named Ötzi, discovered in the Italian Alps 30 years ago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-takes-pictures-of-a-statue-representing-an-iceman-named-news-photo/160644052?adppopup=true">Andrea Solero/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ötzi the Iceman remained hidden to the world for millennia <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/tzi-the-iceman-what-we-know-30-years-after-his-discovery">until two German tourists discovered it 30 years ago</a> <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/scientists-have-mapped-all-of-otzi-the-icemans-61-tattoos">in a glacier in the Italian Alps</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Four images showing tattooed lines on the mummy of Ötzi the Iceman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423149/original/file-20210924-19-192dccr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tattoos on the mummy of Ötzi the Iceman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.iceman.it/en/media-archive/">©South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac/Samadelli/Staschitz</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This 5,300-year-old mummy is not only perhaps Europe’s most famous mummy, but also one of the most significant finds for those who study the global history of tattoos.</p>
<p>Ötzi was adorned with <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/scientists-have-mapped-all-of-otzi-the-icemans-61-tattoos">61 tattoos</a> that were incredibly preserved by the glacial climate.</p>
<p>The meaning of those tattoos has been debated ever since his discovery by the two hikers. Many of Ötzi’s tattoos were found to be lines drawn along areas such as the lower back, knees, wrists and ankles, areas where people most often experience <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/107-features/tattoos/1351-oetzi-copper-age-alps-iceman-tattoos">ongoing pain</a> as they age. Some researchers believe these tattoos to be an ancient <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244/">treatment for pain</a>. Various herbs known to have medicinal properties were found in close proximity to Ötzi’s resting place, lending further credence to this theory.</p>
<p>However, not all of Ötzi’s tattoos were on places usually affected by the wear and tear of everyday life on joints. Ötzi also <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/scientists-have-mapped-all-of-otzi-the-icemans-61-tattoos">sported tattoos on his chest</a>. Theories of the purpose behind this set of tattoos, <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/scientists-have-mapped-all-of-otzi-the-icemans-61-tattoos">which were discovered using new imaging techniques in 2015</a>, range from early <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-otzi-icemans-tattoos-reveal-about-copper-age-medical-practices-180970244/">acupuncture or ceremonial healing rituals</a> to being part of a <a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295742823/ancient-ink/">system of ritual or religious beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, the idea that Ötzi’s tattoos may have held deep cultural or religious meaning for him and his people is not beyond reason. As a tattoo historian and scholar, I have seen how tattoos have historically been used for <a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295742823/ancient-ink/">ceremonial healing</a>, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Tattoo-History-Source-Book-HC/Steve-Gilbert/9781890451073">religious rites</a> and to show belonging to both <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">cultural and religious groups</a> throughout the ancient world and leading all the way up to modern times.</p>
<h2>Ancient tattoos</h2>
<p>The mummified remains of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/tattoos-144038580/">women in Egypt</a> shows tattoos dating back to 2000 B.C. In addition, engraved and painted figures in tomb reliefs and small carved figurines depicting women with tattoos date back to 4000-3500 B.C. </p>
<p>In both cases, the tattoos were a series of dots, often applied like a protective net across a woman’s abdomen. There were also tattoos of the Egyptian Goddess Bes, seen as the protector of women in labor, on a woman’s upper thigh. In both cases, these ancient tattoos were regarded as a kind of talisman of protection for women who were about to give birth.</p>
<p>The early Greek historian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodotus-Greek-historian">Herodotus</a> discussed how runaway slaves at Canopus <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">voluntarily tattooed</a> themselves as both a way to cover up the branding performed on them by their masters and out of religious devotion. </p>
<p>These new marks were often used to symbolize that these men and women no longer served their earthly slave masters, but instead were now in service to a certain <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">god or goddess</a>. </p>
<h2>Tattoos across many faiths</h2>
<p>The early Christian Apostle Paul is recorded in the <a href="https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Galatians-6-17/">Bible in Galatians 6:17</a> as saying, “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” The original word used for “marks” was the word “<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/tattoos-144038580/">stigmata</a>,” which was often seen, hailing back to Herodotus, as the term used to describe tattooing practices. </p>
<p>Multiple scholars believe <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691057231/written-on-the-body">Paul’s tattoos were meant</a> to show his devotion to Christ. The tattoos would also help other Christians, who faced persecution from the Roman empire, identify him as a believer.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sketch of a Māori chief" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=996&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=996&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422982/original/file-20210923-18-1wl02qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=996&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Māori people of New Zealand have long been practicing tattoo art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C4%81_moko#/media/File:MaoriChief1784.jpg">Sydney Parkinson - Alexander Turnbull Library via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Māori people of New Zealand have been practicing the tattoo art of <a href="https://www.zealandtattoo.co.nz/tattoo-styles/maori-tattoo/">Tā Moko</a> for centuries. These tattoos, which are still practiced today, hold a deep cultural meaning and history. The tattoos not only convey social status, family identification and a person’s own life accomplishments, but also hold spiritual meaning with designs that contain protective talismans and appeals to spirits to protect the wearer.</p>
<p>Multiple Native American and First Nations tribes in North America have <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Tattoo-History-Source-Book-HC/Steve-Gilbert/9781890451073">a long history of wearing sacred tattoos</a>. In 1878, the early anthropologist <a href="http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv35336">James Swan</a> <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Tattoo-History-Source-Book-HC/Steve-Gilbert/9781890451073">wrote multiple essays</a> on the Haida people he encountered around Port Townsend, Washington. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcbooks/items/1.0221712">one essay</a> he detailed that the tattoos were more than ornamental, with each design having a sacred purpose. He also detailed that the ones who performed the tattoos were seen as spiritual leaders or holy persons.</p>
<p>The ancient Aztec god of sun, wind, learning and air, Quetzalcoatl, is often depicted as having tattoos in <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Tattoo-History-Source-Book-HC/Steve-Gilbert/9781890451073">ancient reliefs</a>. The Aztec people themselves practiced religious tattooing, with their priests often in charge of various forms of body art and modification. West African nations such as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/looking-at-the-worlds-tattoos-60545660/">Togo and Burkina Faso</a> have used, and continue to use, tattoos and ritual body modification as sacred rites of passage.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Sacred practices</h2>
<p>In modern times, one can still see people around the world wearing sacred tattoos with religious significance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman making a traditional mambabatok tattoo using a mallet and needles in the Philippines." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/422981/original/file-20210923-23-1yt71ye.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The oldest known living tattoo artist, Whang-Od Oggay in the Kalinga province of the Philippines, makes a traditional tattoo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whang-od_tattooing.jpg">Mawg64 via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether it is a member of the Kalinga province of the Philippines receiving a mambabatok tattoo, a pattern of traditional designs done with a single needle, from the oldest known living tattoo artist, <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/whang-od-tattoo-artist/">102-year-old Whang-Od Oggay</a>, to the countless <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1472586X.2019.1687331">crosses, Bible verses, and other symbols of Christianity</a> that can be seen in the U.S., tattoos can still hold deep religious and spiritual meaning.</p>
<p>What the tattoos adorning Ötzi the Iceman’s mummified body meant to him will most likely remain at least partially a mystery. </p>
<p>But Ötzi is an important reminder that tattoos have been, and continue to be, a sacred part of many cultures worldwide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Hawn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When the 5,300-year-old mummy of Ötzi the Iceman was found 30 years ago, researchers found 61 tattoos on it. A scholar explains how tattoos have been a sacred part of many cultures across the world.
Allison Hawn, Instructional Faculty in Communication, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165999
2021-09-08T09:57:41Z
2021-09-08T09:57:41Z
It’s still not fully understood how placebos work – but an alternative theory of consciousness could hold some clues
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416991/original/file-20210819-25-1jtm3hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C31%2C3516%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-rendering-brain-1031892406">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve had both of your COVID vaccinations, you may have suffered some <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-people-dont-experience-vaccine-side-effects-and-why-its-not-a-problem-159282">side-effects</a> – perhaps headaches, fatigue, fever or a sore arm. These effects are mainly caused by your immune system’s reaction to the vaccine. But most scientists agree that there is another cause: the human mind. </p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/its-still-not-fully-understood-how-placebos-work-but-an-alternative-theory-of-consciousness-could-hold-some-clues-165999&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The ability of the mind to generate the symptoms of illness is known as the “nocebo” effect. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804316/">The nocebo effect</a> is the unpopular twin brother of the placebo effect. Whereas the placebo effect alleviates pain and the symptoms of illness, the nocebo effect does the opposite: it generates pain and symptoms.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-018-3042-4">2018 study</a> found that almost half of participants in placebo trials experience side-effects, even though they are taking inert substances. There was a <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577">similar finding</a> in the first major trial of the Pfizer COVID vaccine in 2020. In the placebo group – who were not given the vaccine – between a quarter and a third of people reported fatigue, a similar number reported headaches, and around 10% reported muscle pain. </p>
<p>Indeed, Martin Michaelis and Mark Wass, bioscientists at the University of Kent, <a href="https://www.kent.ac.uk/news/science/28135/explainer-why-do-covid-19-vaccines-cause-side-effects">recently suggested that</a> “for some vaccinated people the knowledge that they have been vaccinated may be sufficient to drive side-effects”.</p>
<h2>Your brain on placebos</h2>
<p>Unlike its unpopular brother, <a href="https://theconversation.com/placebos-what-theyre-made-of-matters-124189">the placebo effect</a> is so well known that it needs little introduction. But in many ways, the placebo effect has become so familiar that it’s easy to forget how strange it really is. It’s bizarre that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2016.00045/full">pain relief and healing</a> can take place without actual treatment. And that powerful positive physiological effects can occur without any real physiological intervention. </p>
<p>Research has shown that a vast array of different conditions benefit from placebos. This includes <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22677304/">acne</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19900628/">Crohn’s disease</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4828269/">epilepsy</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2014313/">ulcers</a>, <a href="https://n.neurology.org/content/53/4/679">multiple sclerosis</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31043548/">rheumatism</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25304530/#:%7E:text=Neuroimaging%20studies%20have%20demonstrated%20that,neurons%20using%20single%2Dcell%20recording">Parkinsons’s disease</a> and <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9178676/#:%7E:text=Conclusions%3A%20In%20trials%20of%20active,visits%20(more%20than%20three).">colitis</a>. A <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2762993">recent study</a> also found that placebos had a highly significant effect on erectile dysfunction. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="MRI brain scan image." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416958/original/file-20210819-15-gguy16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How placebos work is still not quite understood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mri-magnetic-resonance-image-head-brain-588977774">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Comparisons of placebos to antidepressants suggest that the placebo effect can play an important role in the treatment of depression. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2253608/">A 2008 study</a> found no significant difference between leading antidepressants and placebos. In <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5889788/#__ffn_sectitle">a 2018 study</a>, antidepressants fared slightly better, but their effect was still only found to be “mostly modest” compared with placebos. </p>
<p>All of this isn’t simply a matter of suggestion or delusion: real and measurable physiological changes occur. Studies have found that, when taken as painkillers, placebos <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2016.00045/full">decrease neurological activity</a> related to pain and make use of many of the same neurotransmitters and <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/482600">neural pathways as opioids</a>. Similarly, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25304530/#:%7E:text=Neuroimaging%20studies%20have%20demonstrated%20that,neurons%20using%20single%2Dcell%20recording.">researchers have found</a> that, when taken by people with Parkinson’s disease, placebos can stimulate the release of dopamine, which reduces the symptoms of the condition. </p>
<h2>Mind control and consciousness</h2>
<p>Researchers looking into placebos have found that some factors, such as expectancy of treatment, different personality types and the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3962549/">patient-physician relationship</a>, can have some bearing on the effects. </p>
<p>We also know that placebos can activate reward pathways in the brain – and increase levels of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201081#:%7E:text=Large%20placebo%20responses%20were%20associated,deactivation%20of%20dopamine%20and%20opioids.">opioid and dopamine activity</a>. That said, the underlying causes of the placebo effect are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513296/">still mysterious</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Brain, consciousness concept inside woman's head on purple background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C31%2C4198%2C2790&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/416787/original/file-20210818-21-15zgdlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Placebos also affect activity in higher brain regions like the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and striatum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/double-multiply-exposure-abstract-portrait-dreamer-1502881307">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps though, nocebo and placebo effects only seem mysterious because we are looking at them from the wrong perspective. And by this, I mean maybe if we consider an alternative view of consciousness, the placebo and nocebo effect could begin to make more sense.</p>
<h2>The brain and the mind</h2>
<p>In modern western culture, the mind is usually seen as a <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mind-identity/">byproduct of the brain</a> – a kind of shadow cast by neurological processes. Mental phenomena such as thoughts, memories and feelings are thought to be produced by brain activity. </p>
<p>If we have psychological problems, they are thought to be due to neurological imbalances that can be corrected by medication. But if this assumption is correct, how is it possible for mental processes to influence the body as well as the brain in such a powerful way?</p>
<p>Indeed, the difficulties of explaining consciousness purely in terms of brain processes have grown so acute that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/zygo.12649">some philosophers and scientists</a> have adopted an alternative view: that consciousness is not a direct product of the brain, but a <a href="https://theconversation.com/spiritual-science-how-a-new-perspective-on-consciousness-could-help-us-understand-ourselves-116451">fundamental universal quality</a> – like mass or gravity. </p>
<p>This is something I look at in my recent book, <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/spiritual-science">Spiritual Science</a> and it’s a view
that has been adopted by some contemporary philosophers – including David Chalmers and Thomas Nagel. <a href="http://consc.net/papers/puzzle.html">Chalmers suggests</a> that consciousness “does not seem to be derivable from physical laws” and believes it could be “considered a fundamental feature, irreducible to anything more basic.” Nagel also suggests that the “mind is not just an afterthought or an accident or add on, but a basic aspect of nature.” </p>
<p>Other scientists and philosophers - such as <a href="https://twitter.com/Philip_Goff/status/1257319582311706627?s=20">Christof Koch and Phillip Goff</a> - have adopted similar theories, which suggest that the mind or consciousness is a basic quality of material particles. </p>
<p>These approaches are <a href="https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799">not yet widely accepted</a>, and <a href="https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004286">would need to gather more evidence</a> to support them. And there are some difficult issues that need to be addressed: for example, if consciousness is a fundamental quality, how does it end up in individual conscious beings such as ourselves? Or, if consciousness exists in particles of matter, how does the consciousness of those particles combine to produce larger conscious entities such as human beings? </p>
<p>More mainstream scientists still hope that a neurological explanation of consciousness will be found, that will help to throw some light on “rogue” phenomena like the nocebo and placebo effects. But taking the philosophical idea of consciousness as fundamental might suggest that the mind is in some way more powerful than the brain and the body, and so could influence the latter in a profound way – and it might help explain one day why placebo pills can bring about real physiological and neurological changes in many people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The mind is a powerful thing – it can generate both symptoms of illness and symptoms of healing. Here’s what this could tell us about consciousness.
Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/166079
2021-09-01T12:09:32Z
2021-09-01T12:09:32Z
What are the Jewish High Holy Days? A look at Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and a month of celebrating renewal and moral responsibility
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418687/original/file-20210831-13-gjkbs5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3199%2C2117&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Jewish High Holy Days commemorate concepts such as renewal, forgiveness, freedom and joy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/congregation-eitz-chayim-join-together-for-the-kiddush-news-photo/456087872?adppopup=true">Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In this time of year, Jewish people observe <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/calendar-of-major-jewish-holidays/">the High Holy Days</a> in the month of <a href="https://www.mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/holiday1.htm">Tishrei</a> in the Jewish calendar, usually in September and October. These holidays <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/spiritual-life/resources/guide-to-observances/high-holy-days.html">commemorate</a> concepts such as renewal, forgiveness, freedom and joy. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://colorado.academia.edu/SamBoyd">scholar of the Bible and the ancient world</a>, I am continually impressed with how the history of these festivals offers consolation and encourages people toward living well, even during uncertain and troubled times.</p>
<h2>What are the High Holy Days?</h2>
<p>Of the two main High Holy Days, also called the High Holidays, the first is <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-rosh-hashanah-became-new-years-day/">Rosh Hashanah</a>, or the New Year celebration. It is one of two new year celebrations in Judaism, the other being <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/the-history-of-rosh-hashanah-which-wasn-t-always-the-new-year-1.5301295">Passover</a> in the spring.</p>
<p>The second High Holiday is <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/yom-kippur-history-traditions">Yom Kippur</a>, or the Day of Atonement. </p>
<p>In addition to the main Holy Days, there are other celebrations that occur as part of the festival season. One is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/holydays/sukkot_1.shtml">Sukkot</a>, or the Festival of the Booths, during which meals and rituals take place in a “sukkah,” or a makeshift structure constructed with a tree-branch roof.</p>
<p>The second entails <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/shmini-atzeret-and-simchat-torah">two</a> <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/shemini-atzeretsimchat-torah-101/">celebrations</a>, which in some traditions are part of the same holiday and in others occur on two separate, consecutive days: Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.</p>
<p>Shemini Atzeret is Hebrew for “eighth (day of) assembly,” counting eight days from Sukkot. Simchat Torah is Hebrew for “joy/rejoicing of the Torah” – the Torah being the first five books of the Bible, from Genesis to Deuteronomy, believed to have been revealed to Moses.</p>
<p>Every seven years, as last year in 2021, Rosh Hashanah also begins a yearlong observance known as the “<a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/what-is-shemita-the-sabbatical-year/">Shmita</a>.” </p>
<p>The term comes from a Hebrew phrase that appears in the Bible in a number of passages. Some of these passages command that the farmer “<a href="https://biblehub.com/exodus/23-11.htm">drops</a>” or “releases” his crops. Another <a href="https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/15-2.htm">verse</a> associates the act with the forgiveness of debts. In another <a href="https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/31-10.htm">passage</a> in the Bible, the Shmita is connected with the reading of God’s revelation in the law. </p>
<p>The exact nature of the action denoted by Shmita is <a href="https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/rewriting-the-torah-9783161492983?no_cache=1">debated</a>, but the idea is that some portion of the food is left behind for the poor and hungry in society. </p>
<p>In this manner, the beginning of the High Holy Days can be a reminder to care for those who have been struggling and highlights contemporary issues such as student debt relief.</p>
<h2>Why celebrate these festivals?</h2>
<p>The origins and reasons for the High Holy Days are in some fashion encoded in the Bible and in the agrarian and religious culture that produced it. The millennia of Jewish traditions between the Bible and the present has <a href="https://jps.org/books/entering-the-high-holy-days/">informed</a> many of the commemorations as well, in ways that go beyond the biblical texts.</p>
<p>The first holiday, Rosh Hashanah, celebrates renewal. It involves the blowing of the <a href="https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/akedah-in-jewish-tradition">shofar horn</a>, itself connected to the ram sacrificed instead of Abraham’s son, as God had commanded Abraham to do. Important activities include attending synagogue to hear the shofar, as well as eating <a href="https://reformjudaism.org/why-apples-and-honey">apple slices with honey</a>, the former representing hopes for fruitfulness and the honey symbolizing the desire for a sweet year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View of theTorah at a synagogue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418717/original/file-20210831-27-1onxvus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Origins of the High Holidays are encoded in the biblical texts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/high-angle-view-of-person-by-torah-at-synagogue-royalty-free-image/1135750482?adppopup=true">Valentyn Semenov / EyeEm via Getty images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It also often involves a ritual of throwing bread onto running water, called a <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/tashlikh/">tashlich</a>, symbolizing the removal of sins from people. </p>
<p>Rosh Hashanah is believed to mark the date of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/rosh-hashanah-history#:%7E:text=Rosh%20Hashanah%20commemorates%20the%20creation,Days%E2%80%9D%20in%20the%20Jewish%20religion.">creation</a> of the world, and it begins the “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-days-of-awe-asseret-yimei-t-shuva">Days of Awe</a>,” a 10-day period culminating in Yom Kippur. </p>
<p>The term “Days of Awe” itself is a more literal translation of the Hebrew phrasing used for the High Holy Days.</p>
<p>Concepts of repentance and forgiveness are particularly highlighted in Yom Kippur. Its <a href="https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/the-story-of-sacrifice-9783161596360">origins</a> are found in the Hebrew Bible, where it describes the one day a year in which premeditated, intentional sins, such as willfully violating divine commands and prohibitions, were forgiven.</p>
<p>Intentional sins were envisioned as generating impurity in the heart of the temple in Jerusalem, where God was thought to live. Impurity from intentional sins was believed by Israelites to be a threat to this divine presence, <a href="https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-57506-041-5.html">since God might choose to leave</a> the temple. </p>
<p>The biblical description of Yom Kippur involved a series of sacrifices and rituals designed to remove sin from the people. For example, one goat was thought to bear the sins of the Israelites and was sent off to the wilderness, where it was consumed by <a href="https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2203-azazel">Azazel</a>, a mysterious, perhaps demonic force. Azazel consumed the goat and the sins that it carried. The term “scapegoat” in English <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scapegoat">derives from this act</a>. </p>
<p>Yom Kippur is both the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-yom-kippur-how-it-celebrated-1463670">holiest</a> day of the Jewish calendar and also one of the most somber, as the time for repentance includes fasting and prayer.</p>
<h2>Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah</h2>
<p>The Festival of Sukkot likely began as an <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-10-things-you-probably-dont-know-about-sukkot-1.5336709">agricultural celebration</a>, and the booths were shelters in which farmers stayed during the collection of grain, which was to be processed for the year. </p>
<p>Vestiges of this agricultural commemoration appear in certain passages in the Bible, <a href="https://www.bibleodyssey.org/lightbox-bible-passage.aspx?passage=Lev+23%3A40-43">one of which indicates</a> that the festival is to last seven days to mark the time period in which Israelites dwelt in booths, or makeshift dwellings with branches, when leaving Egypt. </p>
<p>This feast was known as zeman simchatenu, or “the time of our rejoicing,” hearkening to the themes of <a href="https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/16-14.htm">gratitude</a>, freedom from <a href="https://biblehub.com/leviticus/23-43.htm">Egypt</a> and the <a href="https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/31-10.htm">reading</a> of God’s revelation as found in the Torah to all Israel.</p>
<p>Such a time of rejoicing contrasts with the somber repentance and fasting that feature in Yom Kippur. So vital was the Festival of Booths that it is also known as simply “<a href="https://jps.org/books/entering-the-high-holy-days/">the chag</a>,” or “the feast,” a word related to the more familiar hajj pilgrimage in Islam. </p>
<p>This period of seven days ends with Shemini Atzeret on the eighth day, both a connected celebration capping off Sukkot and a festival in its own right. </p>
<p>The annual reading of the Torah ends with the final text of Deuteronomy. The beginning of the next annual reading cycle, starting with the first book Genesis, is also celebrated. This act of beginning a new year of reading the Bible is commemorated in the festival called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Simchat-Torah">Simchat Torah</a>.</p>
<p>The observance of Simchat Torah was a later innovation, described already in the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-torah-service-for-simchat-torah/">fifth century</a> or so but not formalized or identified by this name until the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/history-of-shemini-atzeret-and-simchat-torah/">medieval period</a>.</p>
<h2>Why do they matter?</h2>
<p>Religious calendars and festivals can force people to encounter certain ideas in the year. For example, they can enable them to face the more difficult dynamics of life like <a href="https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/jewish-time-shabbat-and-holidays/high-holidays">repentance and forgiveness</a>, providing avenues to reflect on the events of the past year and to find courage to live differently in the next year where needed. </p>
<p>In this manner, structuring the celebration of the new year around remembrances of a variety of human experiences, both sorrow and joy, entails a profound recognition of the complexity of relationships and experiences in life.</p>
<p>In particular, the High Holy Days – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/us/rosh-hashana-yom-kippur-coronavirus.html">as illustrated in the renewal of Rosh Hashanah</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/universal-ethical-truths-are-at-the-core-of-jewish-high-holy-days-123831">somber reflection of Yom Kippur</a> – as well as the <a href="https://www.moishehouse.org/resources/celebrating-joy-renewal-through-shemini-atzeret-simchat-torah/">joyous celebrations in Sukkot and Simchat Torah</a>, offer a means to remember that time is itself healing and restorative. </p>
<p>As such, the High Holy Days and the holiday season in Tishrei help to mark the year in meaningful ways and to highlight our moral responsibility toward one another.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a piece <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-the-jewish-high-holy-days-a-look-at-rosh-hashanah-yom-kippur-and-a-month-of-celebrating-renewal-and-moral-responsibility-166079">published originally on Sept. 1, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel L. Boyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As the Jewish community prepares to celebrate the High Holy Days, a scholar of the Bible explains their history and why they might offer consolation in times of uncertainty.
Samuel L. Boyd, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162297
2021-06-07T15:14:12Z
2021-06-07T15:14:12Z
TB Joshua: the Pentecostalist, televangelist and philanthropist
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404867/original/file-20210607-27-mvjv58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Residents and church members gather at the main gate of the Synagogue Church of All Nations headquarters in Lagos to mourn the death of pastor TB Joshua.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In the wake of the death of Nigerian televangelist <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29234245">Temitope Balogun Joshua</a>, who founded the Synagogue Church of All <a href="https://www.culturalheritageonline.com/location-2867_SCOAN---Synagogue-Church-of-all-Nations.php">Nations</a> in Lagos, there have been a host of tributes and <a href="https://theconversation.com/obituary-tb-joshua-nigerias-controversial-pentecostal-titan-162232">obituaries</a>. Religious scholar George Nche, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg, explains Joshua’s huge influence and impact on African Christianity.</em></p>
<h2>Who was TB Joshua?</h2>
<p>The Late Temitope Balogun Joshua (known as Prophet TB Joshua) was a charismatic pastor and founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Ikotun-Egbe, Lagos, Nigeria. He was born on June 12, 1963 in Ondo State, Nigeria. He received his primary education at St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Ikare-Akoko, Ondo State, from 1971 to 1977 but could not complete his secondary education. </p>
<p>In the early part of his life he struggled considerably. For a period he did many menial jobs, including waste picking.</p>
<p>His frequent involvement in church activities as a child earned him the nickname “small pastor”. Little would the church community know then that he would grow to become an internationally acclaimed religious leader with far-reaching <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/tb-joshua-ranked-among-most-famous-prophets-in-history/">influence</a>. </p>
<p>His church attracted a congregation of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/6/popular-but-controversial-nigerian-pastor-tb-joshua-dies-aged-57">over 15,000 people</a>. People travelled to his synagogue in Lagos from several countries in Africa and beyond. His sermons and healing activities were televised on Emmanuel TV – a TV channel he founded that was dedicated to the activities of his church.</p>
<p>TB Joshua was also an outstanding philanthropist, which further endeared him to many who admired <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/africa/2021-06-06-tributes-for-tb-joshua-a-man-of-god-who-gave-to-the-poor-say-followers/">him</a>. He received many awards for these activities. One was the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic awarded by the Nigerian government in <a href="https://guardian.ng/news/tb-joshua-ranked-among-most-famous-prophets-in-history/">2008</a>.</p>
<h2>What role did he play in advancing Pentecostalism and televangelism?</h2>
<p>Pentecostalism appears to be, among other things, a “problem-solving” (both spiritual and physical problems) movement which has miracle and healing at its heart. Its origin and growth, especially in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14769948.2019.1627095">Africa</a>, is largely driven by people’s expectations and beliefs in the healing and transformative power of the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/026537880702400105">Holy Spirit</a>. </p>
<p>TB Joshua addressed these expectations. Numerous miracles in the forms of economic prosperity and divine healing were reportedly received in his church or remotely through his <a href="https://www.scoan.org/testimonies/">prayers</a>. This served as a major attraction for many people across Africa and beyond. </p>
<p>Numerous personalities and <a href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/celebrities/pulse-list-5-celebrities-who-have-been-to-tb-joshuas-synagogue-church/sh876pg">celebrities</a> were visitors to his church. Among them were Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, South African opposition party leader Julius Malema, and international footballer Joseph Yobo. Nigerian actor Jim Iyke reportedly <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/06/14/t-b-joshua-a-cleric-and-his-passion-for-charity/">visited</a> him in search of healing. </p>
<p>This was a major way through which he contributed to the advancement of the Pentecostal movement in Africa. </p>
<p>Also, the nondenominational nature of the Synagogue Church of All Nations shielded the church from interdenominational tussles. This made it open and accessible to people of “all nations” irrespective of their affiliations. Little wonder he had a large congregation and following.</p>
<p>Joshua’s <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/06/14/t-b-joshua-a-cleric-and-his-passion-for-charity/">philanthropic activities</a> further portrayed the Synagogue Church of All Nations in a good light. By giving to the poor, Joshua presented his ministry as a movement concerned not only with the spiritual welfare of the people, but also with their physical prosperity. </p>
<p>Joshua also made a substantial contribution to the advancement of televangelism in Africa. For instance, the <a href="https://emmanuel.tv/">Emmanuel TV</a> channel was founded in 2007 by Joshua and used extensively to showcase the activities of the Synagogue Church of All Nations. These activities include bible readings, teachings, testimonies of miracles, and Christian children’s programmes like cartoons. </p>
<p>Before the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56771246">suspension</a> of his YouTube account for videos claiming to “cure” homosexuality, the Emmanuel TV channel had over 1 million subscribers, making it one of the most subscribed Christian YouTube channels worldwide. </p>
<p>Joshua also had over 5 million followers on Facebook and over 4,000 on <a href="https://twitter.com/SCOANTBJoshua?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Twitter</a>. Like American historical phenomenal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1048680">televangelists</a>, Joshua used these media platforms to spread Pentecostal ideas, advance the Synagogue Church of All Nations brand, and promote the idea of televangelism in Africa.</p>
<h2>Why was he so controversial?</h2>
<p>TB Joshua was immersed in a lot of controversies. These arose partly due to his involvement in and “unpopular” positions on sensitive socio-political and health issues, and partly due to his “unorthodox” ways of worship. </p>
<p>For instance, there was the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/23/ghana-pastor-stampede-tbjoshua">stampede</a> that led to the death of four worshippers in a rush for his “holy water”; the “misleading” <a href="https://theconversation.com/obituary-tb-joshua-nigerias-controversial-pentecostal-titan-162232">narrative</a> he gave explaining the cause of the 2014 tragedy in which 116 people died when a guest house attached to the Synagogue Church of All Nations building collapsed; the suspension of his YouTube channel following his claim that he could cure <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56771246">homosexuality</a>; his unfulfilled political and sports <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/nigerias-tb-joshua-explains-unfulfilled-us-election-prophecy-520711">prophecies</a>; and his claim to have powers to cure <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/millionaire-preacher-sends-4-000-bottles-holy-water-ebola-cure-9674136.html">Ebola</a> and <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/controversy-surrounds-nigerian-healer-1753217">HIV</a>, and to have remotely healed COVID-19 patients from an isolation centre in Honduras, <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/world/2020-08-04-watch--theres-no-vaccine-for-covid-19-but-tb-joshua-healed-patients-through-virtual-prayer/">Central America</a>.</p>
<p>He was also criticised by mainstream <a href="https://www.keepthefaith.co.uk/2019/12/11/reinhard-bonnke-tb-joshua-and-overcoming-division-in-the-body-of-christ/">churches</a> for being heretical and deceitful for his routine way of administering healing by selling holy morning water and stickers.</p>
<p>One <a href="http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/tbjoshua.html">critic</a> urged Christians “to stay far away” from Joshua and those who that mix “Christianity and paganism in a very enticing manner”.</p>
<h2>What legacy will he leave?</h2>
<p>Joshua’s death has left a vacuum that will take a while to fill. His unmistakable mannerism and courage, his philanthropic disposition, and his “spiritual gifts” will be missed by his followers. </p>
<p>However, his greatest legacy, the Synagogue Church of All Nations, is likely to live on, possibly under the leadership of his wife and children as well as the numerous pastors who trained under him. </p>
<p>History shows that churches usually outlive their founders and in some cases grow even bigger. One example is the case of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which has been expanding vigorously under Enoch Adejare Adeboye, who became the general overseer following the death of the founder, <a href="https://dacb.org/stories/nigeria/akindayomi-josiah/">Josiah Olufemi Akindayomi</a>, in 1980.</p>
<p>There are, however, also examples of churches that died with their founders. One example is the Mai Chaza Church, which shrank after the death of its Zimbabwean founder, Theresa Nyamushanya, in 1960.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Nche does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Nigeria’s TB Joshua wasn’t just known for his evangelism and controversies. He was also a beloved philanthropist.
George Nche, Postdoctoral research fellow, Department of Religion Studies, University of Johannesburg
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161162
2021-05-20T12:23:23Z
2021-05-20T12:23:23Z
How theater can help communities heal from the losses and trauma of the pandemic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401745/original/file-20210519-13-y6818z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C61%2C4999%2C3340&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Community storytelling can help participants remember, cope with and heal from traumatic experiences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/">Marc Romanelli/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden began his presidency by memorializing the 400,000 American lives <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/19/biden-coronavirus-memorial-us-deaths-ceremony">that had been lost up to that point</a> to COVID-19. The ceremony, held on the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/watch-live-biden-harris-speak-at-memorial-ceremony-in-honor-of-covid-19-victims">steps of the Lincoln Memorial</a>, was arguably the first official moment of nationwide public mourning in the U.S. </p>
<p>“To heal, we must remember,” Biden said. “It’s important to do that as a nation.” </p>
<p>But how do we acknowledge our collective suffering as the toll of the pandemic continues to grow, with hundreds of thousands <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/06/994287048/new-study-estimates-more-than-900-000-people-have-died-of-covid-19-in-u-s">possibly undercounted</a>? How do we talk about healing or justice when <a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-the-debate-over-public-health-versus-jobs-the-same-people-suffer-the-most-either-way-157316">the mortality rates in communities of color</a> are so much higher? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">As a scholar of Greek literature</a>, I argue that ritual practices from ancient Athens, particularly its plays and communal theatrical events, may have some answers to these questions. </p>
<h2>Mourning mass tragedies</h2>
<p>In ancient Athens, leading politicians commemorated military deaths by offering an annual “epitaphios” – a funeral speech for those who died fighting for the city. But these official speeches were not the only public forms of mourning and remembrance. Ancient Athenians also held annual competitions in which playwrights responded to events “in real life” through myth and storytelling. </p>
<p>For example, the story of <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2020/march/plagues-christensen.html">Oedipus and the plague on Thebes</a>, describing how the mythical king struggled to cope with the plague caused by his own murder of his father, was performed as the city reeled from a siege and a plague of its own in 429 B.C.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of Oedipus and Antigone during the plague in Thebes, by Eugene-Ernest Hillemacher (1818-1887)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401746/original/file-20210519-13-k16a4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ancient Greeks held theatrical competitions to remember and memorialize wars, plagues and other traumas. Sometimes these works drew on myths, like the story of Oedipus and the plague on Thebes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/">G. Dagli Orti/De Agostini Editorial via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">For ancient Greeks</a>, this ritualized storytelling, or “tragic performance,” had a therapeutic effect. It created a context to explore and process individual and collective experiences of loss and trauma. Psychologist <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/sociodrama-and-collective-trauma">Peter Kellerman</a> has described this sort of experience as a “<a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/sociodrama-and-collective-trauma">milestone event</a>.” </p>
<p>Indeed, the Greek philosopher Aristotle suggests something like this in his “<a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.1.1.html">Poetics</a>,” a treatise on tragedy and performance. By identifying with characters and experiencing vicarious pain and fear, he argues, audiences achieve “catharsis.” Catharsis is a difficult thing to define, but <a href="https://philosophy.uchicago.edu/faculty/nussbaum">philosopher Martha Nussbaum</a> has described it as a “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fragility-of-goodness/B212012979833A828690B9CA907A87BF">clarification of who we are</a>.” </p>
<h2>Storytelling, community and grief</h2>
<p>Even though we live our lives in relationships with others, traumas are often not shared. But collectivizing emotion through storytelling can be a critical step in recovering from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316154670.006">traumatic events</a>. Experiencing and processing grief together provides people with the emotional capacity to articulate how trauma has changed them. </p>
<p>I and some fellow scholars of ancient Greece – including Paul O’Mahony, founder of <a href="https://www.out-of-chaos.co.uk/">Out of Chaos Theatre</a>, and with the support of Harvard University’s <a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/%22%22">Center for Hellenic Studies</a> – have experienced this ourselves over the course of the pandemic. We began producing the series “<a href="https://chs.harvard.edu/programs/reading-greek-tragedy-online/">Reading Greek Tragedy Online</a>” to keep busy and connected during lockdown. But in the process, it has taught us a lot about the tangible impacts of tragic performance. </p>
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<p>Participants have found that their lived experiences of the pandemic reshaped the meanings of the plays. <a href="https://youtu.be/ZxxMaLqYPu4">Euripides’ “Helen,”</a> a story about an alternative Helen who never went to Troy, became a narrative of isolation and loss of control. The political concerns of participants on the day following the U.S. presidential election sharpened the performance of <a href="https://youtu.be/zCkWZCx1x-g">Aeschylus’ “Eumenides,”</a> which tells the story of the uneasy compromise between the goddesses of vengeance the the gods of law in the creation of trial by jury. </p>
<h2>The biological basis for catharsis</h2>
<p>For a few decades now, both neurobiologists and literary theorists have talked about “mirror neurons” that fire in the same places in the brain when one is either performing an action or watching <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.4103%2F0976-9668.101878">someone else perform it</a>. The understanding has grown that “vicarious emotion” – like crying over the death of a fictional character – creates some of the same neurological feedback as real-life experiences. This echoes Aristotle’s idea that something therapeutic really happens when we watch a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ctn.0.0004">tragic performance</a>.</p>
<p>This effect is no surprise to practitioners of drama therapy such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212575">psychodrama</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547020966561">playback theater</a>, and some have turned to ancient Greek theater and myth to address contemporary traumas and social ills. Bryan Doerries’ <a href="https://theaterofwar.com/projects">Theater of War</a> applies Greek tragedies to help veterans cope with PTSD. Rhodessa Jones’ <a href="https://themedeaproject.weebly.com/rhodessa-jones.html">Medea Project</a> applies Greek myths, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-euripides-medea-and-her-terrible-revenge-against-the-patriarchy-106151">Medea’s betrayal by Jason and the murder of her children</a>, to the lives of incarcerated women. </p>
<p>It has been nearly a year and a half of mass deaths, lockdowns and social distancing, punctuated by social and political upheavals. Now that America’s top elected leaders are openly acknowledging these enormous losses and traumas, perhaps more people can begin talking openly about what they have faced during the pandemic. Communal theater can offer a template for how to do that – just as it did for the Athenians, even in their worst years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161162/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The rituals of ancient Greece – especially public performances of tragic plays – have remarkable resonance with the current moment.
Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159086
2021-05-14T12:46:19Z
2021-05-14T12:46:19Z
Why genocide survivors can offer a way to heal from the trauma of the pandemic year
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400129/original/file-20210511-20-buga1p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3493%2C2297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A gathering of women survivors at a Solace Ministries meeting, near Kigali, Rwanda, in 2010.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Donald E. Miller</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The pandemic has been a period of acute trauma at many levels. More than <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/">3 million</a> people have died globally from COVID-19, including over 600,000 in the United States. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020601">Doctors and nurses</a> have experienced a moral crisis, feeling that perhaps they could have done more in spite of the tremendous demands on their time and resources. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240146">Families separated from loved ones</a>, even those in their dying moments, are dealing with their own trauma. </p>
<p>It is a <a href="https://medicine.umich.edu/dept/psychiatry/michigan-psychiatry-resources-covid-19/specific-mental-health-conditions/posttraumatic-stress-disorder-during-covid-19">collective trauma</a> – one suffered by the young and old, and shared in common around the globe.</p>
<p>I have spent much of my <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1003537">academic career studying genocide</a>, most recently the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which at least 800,000 minority ethnic Tutsis were killed by armed militias within just 100 days. At one level, genocide and the pandemic have little in common other than the loss of life that occurs on a terrifying scale. But they both require a process of healing and recovery after the trauma ends.</p>
<p>The pandemic has traumatized people to a lesser degree but may also affect many well into the future. In interviews that I have done with survivors of the <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343788/becoming-human-again">genocide in Rwanda</a>, as well as elderly <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520219564/survivors">Armenian survivors</a> of the 1915 genocide in Turkey, it has been clear that their trauma lingered for decades. </p>
<p>Looking at such extreme cases of genocide-related trauma can shed light on the experience of loss, isolation and fear that <a href="https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/post-covid-stress-disorder-emerging-consequence-global-pandemic">many people have experienced during the pandemic</a>. The healing process of genocide survivors may offer lessons for post-pandemic recovery.</p>
<h2>Survivor trauma</h2>
<p>The growing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20838">body of research</a> on trauma and the pandemic suggests that these experiences parallel, even if to a reduced degree, some of the characteristics I have observed among genocide survivors. They have shown many of the classic <a href="https://psychotherapyacademy.org/pe-trauma-training-ptsd/understanding-dsm-5-criteria-for-ptsd-a-disorder-of-extinction/">symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome</a>, or PTSD. These include flashbacks of violence; nightmares; alterations in moods and emotions, such as being unable to remember events; difficulty concentrating, irrational guilt; and diminished interest in social interaction. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Members of a survivors group of the Rwandan genocide gather for a meeting on trauma recovery at a place near Kigali." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398728/original/file-20210504-24-hoxv8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of one of the 60 communities of Solace Ministries at their gathering place near Kigali.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Donald E. Miller</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the genocide survivors I’ve interviewed were unable to express positive emotions, including love and affection. They sometimes had dramatic swings in emotion from rage to withdrawal, as well as reckless behaviors including drug and alcohol use. During the genocide, survivors told me, they felt hopeless, disoriented, confused and unable to believe in the goodness of life.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520343788/becoming-human-again">my book on the genocide in Rwanda</a>, I argue that survivor trauma is in part a result of the collapse of the moral structures that make sense out of life. In Rwanda, half of all the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/african-history/christianity-and-genocide-rwanda?format=PB">killings occurred in churches</a> where Tutsis had fled for safety. They were killed by members of the Hutu Power militia, or sometimes by neighbors who had been influenced by government propaganda. </p>
<p>Survivors said they cried out during the genocide, “Where is God?” Neighbors had turned against neighbor, and they felt a sense of hopelessness in feeling that God had not intervened. There was a crisis of trust.</p>
<p>When the genocide ended in mid-July 1994, the <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/?q=scott%20strauss">major institutions</a> of society were gone. There were very few jobs, many survivors were homeless and <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820338910/stuck/">family networks</a> had been destroyed. Many Tutsi survivors I have spoken with expressed an extreme need to heal the rupture that had occurred in their moral sensibilities, the fracture in their sense of community and their personal sense of identity. </p>
<h2>The healing process</h2>
<p>On my first trip to Rwanda, I met a survivor named <a href="https://crcc.usc.edu/jean-gakwandi-rwanda-ministry-brings-genocide-survivors-hope/">Jean Gakwandi</a>, who invited me to Solace Ministries. Gakwandi established this organization shortly after the genocide. It is headquartered in Kigali and has 60 communities of survivors around the country. </p>
<p>Gakwandi said that at first, survivors who had witnessed their children and spouses being killed could only cry, so he wept with them. He saw that his role was to listen to their stories, comfort them and offer words of hope. As Solace Ministries evolved, the focal point of its weekly meetings – which often last three to four hours – became the opportunity for survivors to stand and testify about their experiences, followed by singing, dancing and warm embraces.<br>
At these gatherings, healing occurred in the context of community. It became a place where one was accepted and could develop a narrative about what happened during the genocide. Members became a surrogate family of widows and orphans who could share and shoulder each other’s burdens. </p>
<p>Solace Ministries developed programs to assist survivors with food, housing, education and medical care. But fundamentally, survivors needed to restore their sense of dignity as human beings, and that involved processing the traumatic events that they experienced. Forgiving perpetrators, if it occurred, happened at the end point of the healing process. </p>
<p>It was at Solace that I videotaped interviews with 100 survivors: orphans and widows of men killed in the genocide. A psychologist colleague, <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/labs/meyerowitz/meyerowitz-faculty-display.cfm">Beth Meyerowitz</a>, also conducted surveys with widows at Solace Ministries, as well as with members of an orphan association of households headed by children. These surveys indicated extremely high levels of trauma. </p>
<p>But at Solace Ministries in particular, many survivors said that they had learned how to manage their trauma. In their words, they had “become human again” as they were able to tell their stories to, and be accepted by, a group of fellow survivors. They found new meaning in the context of a faith community.</p>
<h2>The pandemic and trauma</h2>
<p>The acute trauma of the Rwandan genocide is quite different from the deaths that occur in a pandemic. <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300197396/rwanda">What happened in 1994</a> was a deliberate, hate-filled attempt, orchestrated by a small elite, to eliminate the Tutsi population. But there are parallels, I argue, in terms of the trauma experienced by pandemic survivors, and perhaps even in their healing process. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and a man mourn for a family member who died from the COVID-19 in Kathmandu, Nepal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400133/original/file-20210511-16-eis95t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pandemic will leave behind a considerable amount of trauma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/april-30-2021-a-woman-cries-as-she-mourns-for-her-family-news-photo/1232643523?adppopup=true">Sulav Shrestha/Xinhua via Getty</a></span>
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<p>Symptoms of <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/special/tra-covid-19">pandemic trauma</a> include increased levels of anxiety, fear, depression and suicidal thoughts, even in people who were not on the front lines of medical intervention or did not experience the death of a family member or friend. </p>
<p>Parents have communicated <a href="https://childmind.org/article/anxiety-and-coping-with-coronavirus/">fear to children</a>, while isolation from others has turned people inward. The “unknowns” of the virus, including its <a href="https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/nih-launches-new-initiative-study-long-covid">long-term impacts</a>, have instilled fear. </p>
<p>In the U.S., there are indications that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113312">medical professionals</a> are experiencing heightened levels of trauma-related symptoms, as is the general public. Future research may find the same phenomenon in <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3131843/what-its-not-have-covid-19-india-how-second-wave">India</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7527181/">Brazil</a> and <a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/91255">other places</a> where there have been large outbreaks of the virus.</p>
<p>[<em>3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-3-in-1">Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.</a>]</p>
<p>In my work on the Rwanda genocide, I draw on the research of <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/?s=judith+herman">Judith Herman</a>, who wrote a seminal book called “<a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/judith-lewis-herman/trauma-and-recovery/9780465061716/">Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror</a>.” She believes there are three elements involved in the healing process: Survivors need to reach a place of safety, reconstruct the trauma narrative and restore the connection between individual and community. </p>
<p>These three steps have relevance to healing from the trauma of a pandemic:</p>
<p>First, one needs to feel safe. This feeling of safety is occurring for many in the U.S. as an increasing number of pandemic survivors become <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/whats-safe-after-your-covid19-vaccine">vaccinated</a>.</p>
<p>Secondly, individuals needs to <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-science-based-strategies-to-cope-with-coronavirus-anxiety-133207">reconstruct their own trauma story</a> and integrate it into their larger life narrative. This accounts for the need of people to talk about the pandemic and their experience of it. </p>
<p>Thirdly, the connection between individual and community must be restored, so that the individual can once again experience trusting relationships with others. This connection was especially important in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/human-rights/gacaca-courts-post-genocide-justice-and-reconciliation-rwanda-justice-without-lawyers?format=PB">divide between Tutsi and Hutu neighbors</a> after the genocide and explains the role of Solace Ministries in creating a social structure in which survivors could once again experience their own humanity. Similarly, pandemic survivors are <a href="https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2021/hugging-after-covid-vaccine.html">learning to hug again</a> as they come out of their self-imposed quarantines. </p>
<p>These three elements, in my view, will be relevant as survivors of COVID-19 attempt to deal with their residual fears and anxieties, as well as deeper trauma. The very deprivation of community, the isolation from extended family and friends, and memories of lost loved ones provide prisms for thinking deeply about what’s really important. As the pandemic winds down and people venture outside, the opportunity exists to value life in new ways.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald E Miller receives funding from the Templeton Religion Trust and the John Templeton Foundation. </span></em></p>
A scholar of the Rwandan genocide argues that while a genocide and a pandemic are very different, the experiences of Rwanda’s survivors may provide lessons on how to heal from pandemic trauma.
Donald E Miller, Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159036
2021-04-22T12:24:28Z
2021-04-22T12:24:28Z
What Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ can teach us about reentering the world after a year of isolation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396138/original/file-20210420-19-1fwzqkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=66%2C22%2C4807%2C3259&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Greek hero Odysseus reunites with his wife, Penelope, upon his return to Ithaca, in an illustration from Homer's epic.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/homer-the-odyssey-ulysses-returns-to-ithaca-after-ten-years-news-photo/588182060?adppopup=true">Culture Club/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the ancient Greek epic “The Odyssey,” Homer’s hero, Odysseus, describes the wild land of the Cyclops as a place where people don’t gather together in public, where each person makes decisions for their own family and “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D9%3Acard%3D82">care nothing for one another</a>.” </p>
<p>For Odysseus – and his audiences – these words mark the Cyclops and his people as inhuman. The passage also communicates how people should live: together, in cooperation, with concern for the common good. </p>
<p>Over the past year, we witnessed police violence, increasingly partisan politics and the continued American legacy of racism during a generation-defining pandemic. And for many, this was observed, at times, in isolation at home. I have worried about how we can heal from our collective trauma. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=1be7ee967d45605afddf7da9ad4ca2c049a26c0b">teacher of Greek literature</a>, I am inclined to turn to the past to understand the present. I found solace in the Homeric epic “The Iliad” and its complex views about violence after the 9/11 attacks. And I found comfort in the Odyssey after my father’s unexpected death at 61, in 2011.</p>
<p>Similarly, Homer can help guide us as we return back to our normal worlds after a year of minimizing social contact. He can also, I believe, offer guidance on how people can heal.</p>
<h2>Conversation and recognition</h2>
<p>When Odysseus, a Trojan war hero who returns home after 10 years, first appears in the epic, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+5.80&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136">he is weeping on the shore of an isolated island</a>, watched over by the goddess Calypso, whose name, meaning “one who hides,” further emphasizes his isolation and separation. To make it from this barren shore to his family hearth, Odysseus needs to risk his life at sea again. But, in the process, he also rediscovers who he is in the world by reuniting with his family and his home, Ithaca.</p>
<p>Conversation is central to its plot. While Odysseus’ arrival on Ithaca is packed with action – he dons a disguise, investigates crimes and murders wrongdoers – in reality, the epic’s second half unfolds slowly. And much of it proceeds through the conversations among the characters. </p>
<p>When Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, is given refuge by his unknowing servant, Eumaios, the two of them speak at length, telling true stories and false ones to reveal who they are. Eumaios invites Odysseus with the following words: “<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Od.+15.399&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136">Let us take pleasure in our terrible pains</a>: for after time a person finds joy even in pain, after they have wandered and suffered much.” </p>
<p>It might seem strange to think that recalling pain could give pleasure. But what “The Odyssey” shows us is the power of telling our stories. Pleasure comes from knowing pain is behind us, but it also comes from understanding where we fit in the world. This <a href="https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/is-having-a-sense-of-belonging-important">sense of belonging</a> comes in part from other people knowing what we have experienced. </p>
<p>When Odysseus finally reunites with his wife, Penelope, after 20 years, they make love, but then Athena, Odysseus’ patron and goddess of wisdom and war, lengthens the night so they can <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0136%3Abook%3D23%3Acard%3D310">take pleasure in telling each other everything they have suffered</a>. The pleasure lies in the moments of sharing.</p>
<h2>Healing words</h2>
<p>In this past year, I fantasized about moments of reunion as the pandemic dragged on. And I have returned to the reunion of Odysseus and Penelope, contemplating why this conversation is important and what function it serves. </p>
<p>Talk therapy has been an important part of psychology for a century, but conversation and storytelling shape people all the time. The modern psychological approach of narrative therapy as pioneered by psychotherapists <a href="https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/michael-white.html">Michael White</a> and <a href="https://www.taosinstitute.net/about-us/people/honorary-associates/david-epston">David Epston</a> can help us understand this better. </p>
<p>Narrative therapy argues that so <a href="https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/michael-white.html">much of what we suffer emotionally and psychologically</a> comes from the stories we believe about our place in the world and our ability to influence it. White shows how addiction, mental illness or trauma prevents some people from returning to their lives. Narrative therapy can help in these situations and others. It has people <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393705164">retell their own stories</a> until they understand them differently. Once people can reframe who they were in the past, they can have a better chance of charting their course in the future.</p>
<p>“The Odyssey,” I believe, is aware of this too. As I argue in my recent book, “<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501752346/the-many-minded-man/">The Many-Minded Man</a>,” Odysseus has to tell his own story to articulate for himself and his audiences his experiences and how they changed him.</p>
<p>It takes Odysseus one long evening but four books of poetry to tell the story of his journey, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/692867/pdf">focusing especially on the decisions he made and the pain he and his men suffered</a>. Recasting the past and understanding his place in it, prepares the hero to face the future. When Odysseus retells his own story, he traces his suffering to the moment he blinded the one-eyed giant Polyphemos and bragged about it. </p>
<p>By centering his own action at the beginning of his tale, Odysseus rearms himself with a sense of control – the hope that he can shape the events still to come.</p>
<h2>Returning to the world</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Inside Oculus mall at World Trade Center, New York, which is closed due to pandemic lockdown." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396390/original/file-20210421-17-1hwfpk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Malls have remained empty for the past year as many parts of the world went into a lockdown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/all-stores-are-closed-because-of-covid-19-pandemic-inside-news-photo/1210622798?adppopup=true">Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>There’s an important echo here of ideas found elsewhere in Greek poetry: <a href="https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2017/06/03/medicine-for-the-soul-conversations-with-friends/">We need doctors for ailments of the body and conversation for sickness in the soul</a>.</p>
<p>After the past year, some of us may find it hard to express optimism. Indeed, I’ve been through <a href="https://theconversation.com/plagues-follow-bad-leadership-in-ancient-greek-tales-133139">this bleakness in my own life</a> when I had to attend a virtual funeral for my grandmother last year and felt that we were not properly honoring our dead. But this spring, as we welcomed our third child into the world, my story shifted to one of hope when I looked into her eyes. </p>
<p>At this moment, I believe that, like Odysseus, we need to take the time to tell each other our stories and listen in turn. If we can communicate what happened to us during this past year, we can better understand what we need, to move toward a better future.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159036/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Christensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A scholar of Greek literature writes why we need to turn to the past to understand the present – and the lessons that Homer’s hero, Odysseus, holds for us.
Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.