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Read more about the article Lecture: Israeli Government Reports on “cults” – a critical study
Disputation or conflict / History / Identity / Israel / Popular culture and mass media / State politics and law / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Israeli Government Reports on “cults” – a critical study

A critical study of the struggle revolving "cults" in the Israeli society, through an analysis of formal Israeli reports - lectures on the subject of this research project featured in various forums (in English and Hebrew), and some articles were published in this project's framework.

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January 17, 2022
Read more about the article Article: Abracadabra! Postmodern Therapeutic Methods – Language as a Neo-Magical Tool
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 Lecture: Lilith’s Comeback in Contemporary Feminist Spiritualities
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

Lecture: Lilith’s Comeback in Contemporary Feminist Spiritualities

What a glorious career did Lilith had in thousands of years! Alas, always as a negative and dark image… However, in the last decades, in the feminist spirituality she's actually admired. So, what does she represent for the contemporary feminist spirituality? Not one thing, but rather different things. The lecture presents a research, that was also published in an Article. See below links to relevant items. The lecture took place at a panel on "New Religious Movements" at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religion, dedicated to the Scriptures (their nature and place in religions). The conference was conducted at Bar Ilan University on March 11th-12th, 2018. This conference's session took place in English. For the conference's program in English.

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January 16, 2022
Read more about the article A lecture: Lilith’s Image in Contemporary Feminist Spirituality and its Meanings
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Feminism gender and sex / Identity / Judaism and Kabbalah / Magic and paganism / Mind and psychology / Myth / Popular culture and mass media

A lecture: Lilith’s Image in Contemporary Feminist Spirituality and its Meanings

"Lilith sets inspiration fo women and men in the contemporary femenist spirituality, a sourse of theological/thealogical imagination, and an image for mimicry." This lecture, on Lilith's Image in Contemporary Feminist Spirituality, took part inSchocken Institute for Jewish Research's workshop on Feminine Spiritual Leadership. The research was awarded a scholarship from the Institute. The research project on Lilith includes more articles and lectures.

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January 16, 2022
Read more about the article A Report on Neo-Shamanism in Israel
Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Israel / Magic and paganism / Popular culture and mass media

A Report on Neo-Shamanism in Israel

The report surveys the neo-shaman movement in Israel, approximately at 2014. Due to the dynamic nature and growth of the movement, currently the Israeli neo-shamanic picture is a bit different than described. The report includes an explanation on neo-shamanism as a global phenomenon, a description of neo-shaman centers in Israel, reference to the mass media's coverage of the movement and criticism of the later, as well as a short bibliographic list. The report was written as part of the activity issued by MEIDA center - An Israeli Information Center gor Contemporary Religions, sponsered by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute (inspired by the British INFORM Centre.

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January 14, 2022
Read more about the article Jewish Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy in Israel
Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Mind and psychology

Jewish Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy in Israel

The research on Psychotherapy that integrates Jewish Spiritually in Israel is conducted by Prof. Ofra Mayseless from the University of Haifa and Dr. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro from Zefat Academic College. This study is part of a wide international research project involving dozens of research teams around the world. The aim of the international project is to expand and deepen the research foundation and knowledge of the integration between psychotherapy and spirituality. The international research and the Israeli research are supported by the John Templeton Foundation and the participation and direction of Brigham Young University, located in Utah, USA.

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January 4, 2022
Read more about the article Lecture: The gates of creativity shall never be locked – A comparative study of the spiritual-musical adaptation of the liturgical poem ‘Im Nin’alu’ in contemporary pop-culture
Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: The gates of creativity shall never be locked – A comparative study of the spiritual-musical adaptation of the liturgical poem ‘Im Nin’alu’ in contemporary pop-culture

This lecture is part of the research project on the current reincarnation of the liturgical poem 'Im Nin'alu' in contemporary western pop-culture. The lecture deals with issues and challenges of coping in the postmodern situation, and presents three models of contemporary spirituality through the study case that is discussed: a spirituality of return to tradition, a spirituality of yearning to the Other, and a remix-postmodern spirituality. I've co-published an English article on this subject in the journal Folklore. The lecture took place in the 2nd international conference of the center of Yemenite Judaism and its culture, conducted on September 2018, marking 400 years of Shalem Shabbazi's birthday, at Yad Ben Zvi in Jerusalem. A simultaneous translation (Hebrew-English) has been executed in the conference.

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January 3, 2022
Read more about the article A research Article: “Trance, Meditation and Brainwashing – The Israeli Use of Hypnosis Law and the New Religious Movements Scene”
Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Mind and psychology / State politics and law

A research Article: “Trance, Meditation and Brainwashing – The Israeli Use of Hypnosis Law and the New Religious Movements Scene”

"Under Israel’s hypnosis law, everyone is guilty of hypnosis—therapists, artists, religious leaders and even mothers who sing nursery rhymes to their children." [Natalie Pik, in Even 2012] This article presents a critical examination of the Hypnosis Law that is unique to Israel - integrating an analysis of the law's wording, an observation of the professional struggle between licensed hypnotherapists and alternative therapists, and moral panics events revolving mind control in Israel. (By the way, since 2018 procedures have been taken in the Knesset that might lead to the law's cancellation.)

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December 20, 2021
Read more about the article Doctoral Dissertation: The New Age Culture in Israel (A Methodological Introduction and the “Conceptual Network”)
Identity / Israel / Methodology and models

Doctoral Dissertation: The New Age Culture in Israel (A Methodological Introduction and the “Conceptual Network”)

The doctoral dissertation was written in the Program of Interdisciplinary Studies of Hermeneutics and Culture at Bar-Ilan University, with the supervision of Prof. Moshe Idel (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) and Prof. Adiel Schremer (Bar Ilan University). The work is written in Hebrew, but entails a long abstract and detailed contents in English. It holds over 450 pages, in two volumes, and was approved in 2006. It was a pioneer big work in the area of the Alternative Spirituality in Israel, and served many dozens of researches that followed. The work surveys the phenomena and trends of New Age culture in Israel, and deals with an array of methodological issues concerning the New Age studies. It offers a model of cultural interpratation - "the ideational/conceptual network". This work was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Moshe Idel (Department of Jewish Tought), Hebrew University, and the supervision of Prof. Adiel Schremer, (Department of Jewish History), Bar-Ilan University.

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December 9, 2021