Article: The Dynamics of a Cultural Struggle in Academia – The Case of New Age Music Research

The academia is a cultural player, and when it deals with a culturally controversial issue - the academic discourse actually plays a role in the cultural game and struggle between forces. This article - dealing with New Age Music - is a product of a scholarly cooperation between Omri and Marianna Ruah-Midbar, as a crossroad of their sceintific interests. It was published in Berkeley University's journal - Cultural Analysis.

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Lecture: One Can’t Expect Objective Academic Research on Contemporary Spiritualities

In the postmodern condition, it's already cleae that there is no objective academic research. This is all the more truer when the research object is culturally disputed. Thus, one shouldn't expect New Age scholars to have no interests or agendas. This lecture surveys the public debates regarding the New Age in which its scholars are involved, and inquires the leaning and predispositions of the cintemporary research discourse of the field. It's full title was: "What Should One Expect When One Can’t Expect Objective Academic Research on Contemporary Spiritualities?"

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Course: Spirituality in Education

In this course, the students encounter the various combinations of spirituality and education. The focus of the course is wide and theoretical, namely - we address different approacher to spiritual education and their principals. The course has multitude online creative activities, intended for learning and self practicing the material (see examples in the galery).

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Column: “Oriental” is not Necessarily Authentic

"G-d came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them" (Deuteronomy 33:2) This column deals (in Hebrew) with the "easternization of the west" thesis, and its implication to Israeli search for the East. This small piece holds some complex critical moves, and makes some scholarly questions available, along with their relevance to contemporary western, and Israeli, life.

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Article: Historians as Storytellers – A Critical Examination of New-Age Religion’s Scholarly Historiography

It seems the past is not fixed, but rather ever-changing. This study isn't about the history of New Age religion, but rather a critical analysis of the history sceince as it manifests in the scholarly discourse on the history of New Age.

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A lecture on New Age elements in mainstream advertisments in Israel, in a conference at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

The lecture took part in a conference titled "Political, Sociological and Historical Aspects of New Age in Israel", in a panel dedicated to "The New Age and the Israeli Arena: Education, Consumerism and Political Act", chaired by Boaz Huss, and with the participation of Dalit Simchai.

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