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?”
This lecture took part in a session organized by Yotam Yizraeli in the framework of the 6th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Religion and Spirituality (Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro was a member at its sceintific committee), on the subject: “The Scholar-Believer – On the tension between Sceintific Objectivity and a Spiritual Participation in the Current Religious Research”.
The session was conducted at Tel Aviv University, on April 23rd, 2014. While some sessions were conducted in English, this one was in Hebrew.
The lecture presented part of a research project by Ruah-Midbar Shapiro on the complex negotiation between academic discourse and the contemporary alternative spiritualities.
The abstract and presentation (in Hebrew) are available below. Unfortinately, there is no film.