ארכיון Science/medicine and technology - Page 3 of 3 - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Lecture: What is Hypnosis? A Critical Inquiry in Light of the Scientific Disputes

"There's no finding the border between acting and hypnotizing" - thus is said in an Israeli verdict in the case of White accused in using hypnosis while violating the law. If the Israeli law forbids using hypnosis (except of limited cases), and one doesn't know why actually hypnosis is - how can the law be enforced?! The lecture deals with the juristic and enforcemental problematicalness in Israel, in light of studying the sceintific discourse that has a "hard time" agreeing on the definition of "hypnosis".

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November 21, 2022

Read more about the article Lecture: Science as Religion – The Scientific Discourse of Hypnosis and Its Correlation with Religious and Spiritual Phenomena

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Mind and psychology / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Lecture: Science as Religion – The Scientific Discourse of Hypnosis and Its Correlation with Religious and Spiritual Phenomena

What is "hypnosis"? It seems we all know the answer… but - do we indeed? In this research the sceintific discourse (of hypnosis) becomes an object of critical examination. It appears that the scientific controversy revolvong the simple question of "what hysnosis is" is so fierce, that in fact the answer isn't clear at all. Actually, the spiritual-religious sphere is a "significant other" that influences the formation of the sceintific discourse. The sceintific definitions bear significat implications both on the therapuetic aspect and the public and legal ones. The lecture's title at the conference was: "Science as Religion – A Critical Outlook at the Scientific Discourse of Hypnosis and Its Correlation with Religious and Spiritual Phenomena".

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February 9, 2022

Read more about the article Lecture: Kursi, From the Miracle of the Swines site to the Enchanted Bench Site – An Alternative-Spiritual Invention of Tradition Revolving a Christian Site Sponsered by the Israel Nature And Parks Authority

Economy and business / Geography / Israel / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Lecture: Kursi, From the Miracle of the Swines site to the Enchanted Bench Site – An Alternative-Spiritual Invention of Tradition Revolving a Christian Site Sponsered by the Israel Nature And Parks Authority

This lecture describes the sanctification process of a (historically Christian) site in the Land of Israel, by the Alternative Spirituality, or Neo-Pagans/Shamans, and analyses the invention of tradition revolving Kursi. In addition to this lecture, there is another one, as well as two articles (in English and Hebrew) that describe different aspects of the sanctification process of Kursi. See links below. The lecture takes part in a research project that deals with the Alternative Sacred Geography of the Land of Israel, by Ruah-Midbar Shapiro. The lecture was included in a session dedicated to "A Geography of Memory", chaired by Anat Kidron, held at the 60th conference of the Israeli Geographical Association - 2020, at the University of Haifa.

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January 31, 2022

Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Bio-Medicine and Alternative Medicine – From a Modernistic Paradigm to a Postmodernistic Paradigm

This study compares the conventional bio-medicine's worldview with the one of complementary/alternative medicine, indicating the parallel lines between those worldviews to modernism and postmodernism (respectively). The studt identifies a new and innovative group of therapy, with a logic yet to exist - neiter in the modern nor the traditional world (thus we also present a comparative reference to traditional, pre-modern, therapy). The comparison's focus is the issue of language's role in the therapeutic process. The novel worldview isn't caracteristic to every new or alternative therapy, thus I named this innovative group of therapy methods "the new alternative medicine".

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January 19, 2022

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / History / Methodology and models / Myth / Science/medicine and technology

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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January 17, 2022

Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Article: Abracadabra! Postmodern Therapeutic Methods – Language as a Neo-Magical Tool

"There are only two things in the world – nothing and semantics." (Werner Erhard) This paper (some 6,000 words) argues that a new genre of therapy has appeared in the arena of contemporary spiritual alternative healing, which expresses an outlook never-before-seen in the history of medicine: postmodern therapy. Postmodern therapeutic methods (PTMs) express a popularization of postmodernist philosophy in regards to language and its role in the therapeutic process. These methods will be illustrated, and then analyzed in comparison to two other groups of methods: traditional magic, and modern medicine. In addition, we shall characterize PTMs as neo-magic, as they exercise the psychologization and rationalization of magic.

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January 17, 2022

Read more about the article Article: The Sacralization of Randomness – The Theological Imagination and the Logic of Computerized Divination Rituals

Magic and paganism / Science/medicine and technology

Article: The Sacralization of Randomness – The Theological Imagination and the Logic of Computerized Divination Rituals

Have you ever had your cards read online? …Hoe is it different than reading cards from a deck? In this article all the divination (foretelling) rituals are analysed, in their new, virtual version: what changes in the virtualization process, in terms of the inner logic of believers? In my opinion, in the course of this process, a new logic is emerging, that gains popularity in our cultue - a logic of sactifying randomness. The artcile (about 13,500 words) was published in Numen: International Review for the History of Religions - a first-rate world-renowned journal in the field of Religious Studies (considered by many scholars in the Humanities as the top Religious Studies journal in the world).

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January 5, 2022

Read more about the article Article: Witch-Hunt or Women’s Oppression? The Secularization and Re-Enchantment of the Witches of Ashkelon Tale by Contemporary Spiritualities’ Leaders

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / History / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Myth / Popular culture and mass media / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Article: Witch-Hunt or Women’s Oppression? The Secularization and Re-Enchantment of the Witches of Ashkelon Tale by Contemporary Spiritualities’ Leaders

This study (some 10,500 words; and a similar one published in Hebrew- as follows) deals with contemporary spiritual interpretations of an ancient Jewish legend - on a witch hunt executed by Rabbi Shim'on ben Shatach at Ashkelon in the 2nd century B.C.. It presents a comparison of three spiritual leaders in Israel, each re-designing the old story in a different way, thus expressing various values - in relation to Judaism, to their feminism's character, and to the place of magic in the world. The article was published in the important journal of Jewish Studies, pronted by the Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies - Journal of Jewish Studies.

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December 14, 2021

Read more about the article Research article: “The Enchanted Benches” at Kursi National Park as Case Study for the Formation Processes of Alternative Sacred Geography

Economy and business / Geography / Israel / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Research article: “The Enchanted Benches” at Kursi National Park as Case Study for the Formation Processes of Alternative Sacred Geography

This article deals with the sanctification process of a (historically Christian) site in the Land of Israel, by the Alternative Spirituality, or Neo-Pagans/Shamans. The article analyses the factors that made Kursi a suitable candidate for a sactification process, and presents a model that examines various aspects and elements that contribute to an Alternative Spiritual sactification process of factors in the site. In addition to this (8,500 words, Hebrew) article, there is another (English) article that describes different aspects of the sanctification process of Kursi, and a lecture on a similar subject. See links below. The article takes a part in a research project that deals with the Alternative Sacred Geography of the Land of Israel, by Ruah-Midbar Shapiro. The article is part of a special issue of Horizons in Geography (edited by Anat Kidron) that was dedicated to the "Functional Places and Collective Memory" (how functional sites - such as a road signs, sports stadium or film theatre - are designed as to construct a collective memory and conciousness). Horizons in Geography ("Ofaqim bGeographia") is a journal published in Hebrew by the University of Haifa.

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November 23, 2021

Methodology and models / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Thinking of the New Age as an “Ideational Network”

The (Hebrew, about 20 min.) lecture took place at the 8th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities' plenum, at the University of Haifa (December 2015). The lecture presented the model of "the Ideational Network", that was Ruah-Midbar's doctoral dissertation's fruit (see link below). Ruah-Midbar Shapiro was also the co-chair of this conference, and actually the initiator and founder of the series of ICSCS. This lecture opened the final session of the conference, that was on "Spirituality Now - Israel 2016: Conceptualizations, Major Trends, and Central Issues". The session's chair was Boaz Huss.

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November 18, 2021