Pope Francis meets with comedians at the Apostolic Palace on June 14, 2024, in Vatican City.
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Catholic theologians and monastics have always encouraged humor, emphasizing its power to heal and bring cultures together.
Thousands of Catholics travel by foot to Santuario de Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, during an annual Good Friday pilgrimage.
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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.
An ‘onmyoji,’ an expert on yin and yang, performs divination with counting rods in an Edo-period illustration.
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In medieval Japan, healing might mean taking medicine, undergoing an exorcism or sidestepping harm in the first place by avoiding inauspicious days.
Laws that govern cannabis use are changing across the nation.
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Students are invited to imagine how the social, political and legal landscape for cannabis will look in the future.
Most child sexual abuse involves people the children know.
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With therapy and social support, children and adults who experienced child sexual abuse can regain a sense of control over their lives.
Sound therapy, which uses bells and singing bowls for healing, has gained popularity in recent years.
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A medical anthropologist explores claims about the health benefits of sound baths and how to choose the one to attend.
Talking helps you access your internal resources.
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Grief is a natural response to loss, but if it significantly affects your ability to function, it may be time to seek professional help.
People for millennia have used what grows around them as medicine.
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An anthropology course explores how peoples and cultures around the world use nature-based medicines to heal.
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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.
You don’t have to work through trauma on your own.
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A professor of counseling explains how to find therapists and support communities that can help work through these unique challenges.
A refugee family that fled to Pakistan after the Partition of British India.
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Effects of violence and forced migration on survivors’ mental health have not been acknowledged, despite the trauma being passed down generations.
Proponents claim the stones can promote health and well-being.
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Crystals are part of a larger tradition of metaphysical religions that have a long history in the U.S.
Canadian Howie Mandel is a veteran stand up comic.
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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.
Apparitions of the Virgin Mary have inspired pilgrimages – and souvenirs – in Lourdes, France, for more than a century.
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St. Bernadette’s visions of the Virgin Mary in the 19th century inspired the pilgrimage site millions of Catholics flock to each year.
Have the benefits of meditation been overhyped in the West?
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A scholar studying the relationship of Buddhism and medicine explains how the popular media has misrepresented mindfulness.
Musculoskeletal injuries can cause severe pain and lead to greater problems.
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A biomedical engineer explains how human-made materials inserted in the body hold hope to repair painful injuries more efficiently than bone grafts.
Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims at Lalibela, Ethiopia.
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Ethiopia’s main religions need to take an emotional distance from politics and find a neutral space so they can get moral clarity.
At the beginning of the 12-day celebration of life ceremony, Elder Wendy Phillips performs a smudge.
(Josh Lyon)
October 24, 2021
Jodi John , Queen's University, Ontario ; Angela Mashford-Pringle , University of Toronto ; Heather Castleden , University of Victoria ; Janice Hill , Queen's University, Ontario ; Marc Calabretta , Queen's University, Ontario ; Mark Dockstator , Trent University , and Wendy Phillips , Queen's University, Ontario
Was participating in ceremony despite pandemic restrictions an act of Indigenous resistance and resurgence and did it reflect reassertion of nationhood and self-determination?
A makeshift memorial for the Indigenous children who died more than a century ago while attending a boarding school, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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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.
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.
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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.