Indigenous Spirituality, New Age Spirituality

Is there anything in common between how indigenous people experience of esoteric, spiritual phenomena and the contemporary New Agers who presume to be their heirs?

If anyone is qualified to begin to answer this question it’s Michael F. Brown, a cultural anthropologist who’s done a deep dive into both of these worlds. 

Back in the mid-1970s, Brown spent a year living with the Awajún also known as the Aguaruna),an indigenous people of the Peruvian jungle, whose ancestors had a reputation as fearsome headhunters and whose cosmology includes beliefs in shamanism and sorcery. 

Peru’s Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s forced Brown to refocus his work elsewhere, to the study of the New Age phenomena of channeling, which was peaking around this time. Just as he immersed himself among the Awajún, Brown spent a season with the channels, their clients and audience. He documented what he discovered in his aptly titled book, The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age. 

In this wide-ranging conversation, Brown discusses his fieldwork in both of these milieu; sorcery and shamanism among the Awajún, cultural appropriation;  and the work of the School for Advanced Research (SAR). where he’s been president since 2014. 

SAR advances creative thought and innovative work in the social sciences, humanities, and Native American arts.

Links:

• Michael F. Brown’s blog and Upriver site
• School for Advanced Research
• The Sacred Inclusion Network’s site
• Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
• Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!

 

Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast

via Tumblr https://ift.tt/37H4Jyl

Talking Across Differences (free Saturday online event): http://bit.ly/talkdiff

via Instagram https://ift.tt/365m6ap

Talking Across Difference

When I confessed to Jim Brown that I routinely block the loudest political voices from my Facebook stream, he told me that my approach was misguided and that I should engage them instead.Brown, who facilitates our Saturday Online Community Exploration, is one of a growing number of bridge-builders who thinks it’s high time, as the title of his book opines, to end our uncivil war. He’ll share how he came to this point of view, how he manages the minefield of social media, and strategies to bridge the them-versus-us divide.It’s an undisputed fact that there’s a higher degree of polarization than ever before. Differences in Ideology, race, and religion mean that many people live in “look-like-me” or “think-like me” silos: crossing divides only when forced to do so. This polarization exists not just in the United States but across the globe, from Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil to Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom to Recept Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey. Jim Brown and a growing numbers of individuals and organizations are working to reverse this trend. Groups like Better Angels bring people together across partisan divides, while AllSides seeks to cover news from all sides of the political spectrum.In our podcast interview, Brown talks about the four strategies he favors to bridge them-versus us divides: service commitment, spiritual renewal, scholastic independence and systematic government reform. This Saturday, we’ll focus on the first two strategies plus practice how to depolarize potentially polarized situations. I hope you’ll join us.You can learn more about Brown by going to his website.Here’s how to participate this Saturday.When: Saturday, January 18, 11 AM EST. Check your timezone here.Where: Online, see belowHow to Participate:

Preregister: Send us a blank email for priority access OR
Show up “at the door” by joining us online: https://zoom.us/j/293138919 at exploration time or  Or iPhone one-tap :
Or iPhone one-tap :US: +16699006833,,293138919# or +16465588656,,293138919# Or Telephone:Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 558 8656 Meeting ID: 293 138 919International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/apPbvogYK

Here’s hoping to see you online,

Read the full article
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/2tbxpAE

In our them-versus-us culture, is it possible to "love one another" anymore? For Jim Brown, the answer is "yes." Find out about a free event to explore this more..

via Instagram https://ift.tt/2NfrwJd

Moving Beyond Them-Versus-Us

Read the full article
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/36HT6Xh

Improvisation and Spirituality: Beginnings

Back in 2013, Ted DesMaisons assembled a group of improvisors at a San Francisco Zen monastery to explore the many connections between spirituality and improvisation. Before long there was a worldwide group of people who were tracing the same pathways that DesMaisons and his colleagues explored during that Bay area event.Many were part of the improvisation community, and included people who saw improvisation as a practice that transcended its theatrical roots. And some were part of what Time magazine’s January 2014 cover story dubbed the “mindfulness revolution,” and were using mindfulness to help them rewire and channel their emotions.As this post points out, there are several points of intersection between mindfulness practice and improvisation: Perhaps the most obvious is their joint emphasis on being present, or in the moment. Another is the importance of embracing uncertainty and observing what’s present without trying to change it.Other points of intersection, which I think are more apparent in improvisation than in conventional solo mindfulness practice, are interdependence, and the spirit of Lila or divine play. In my podcast interview with DesMaisons last year, we explored the idea that improvisation was not merely a way to enhance meditation practice but a way of enhancing our ability to live life to the fullest. This spring, in scenic Sonoma County, we’ll give participants a number of ways to do just that, drawing from the traditions of contemplative practice and improvisational theater. If you register for our event before January 15th, you’ll receive a 15% discount by selecting Early Bird on checkout.We’ll also send you a signed copy of Ted’s new book, Playful Mindfulness. Plus, if you live in the Bay area, and recruit two or more workshop participants to do this with you, one of us one of us will come to your home or site to facilitate a post-conference integration event. The residential workshop will be held at Bishop’s Ranch, a lovely retreat and conference center nestled in a spot amidst the lush valleys, redwood forests, organic farms and world-class vineyards of Sonoma County, about 85 miles north of San Francisco.Workshop tuition includes lodging and meals, Some of the food served will be grown on the ranch property itself, and may include recipes featured in Bishop’s Ranch’s cookbook, The Abundant Table.You can find more information by going to our event site. Here’s hoping to see you in northern California in Spring.

Read the full article
via Tumblr https://ift.tt/36DsLKa

A Transgender Journey

Growing up in a traditional southern church, Christina King quickly learned that she wasn’t accepted. That’s because her church saw her and people like her as anathema:  living embodiments of sin. King at an early age knew that she was a transgender woman.

But to verbalize how she felt about herself wouldn’t have been received kindly by her conservative Lutheran Missouri Synod congregation. Their attitudes were informed by the so-called “clobber passages,” verses some use to justify the belief that any deviance from heterosexual norms is sinful.

King spent much of her youth estranged from the church. She came to a place, she said, “where she had to be herself or kill herself.” That separation was painful because even though she felt ostracized, a part of her missed the congregation’s sense of community.

Her estrangement ended because of the influence of a pastor at  the First Lutheran Church of Galesburg, Illinois, the city she moved to after growing up in the south. This pastor accepted Christina for who she was, but also encouraged her to reach out to others who because of their LGBTQ+ orientation had felt victimized by the church.

King did so and shortly after the 2016 presidential election started a group called Safe Space.  The group has been meeting regularly since then.

In this podcast, King shares her evolution as a transgender woman, common misconceptions people have about trans people, and how a life of prayer helps her stay upbeat in a challenging political climate.

King last year was named Miss Trans Illinois.

Links: 

• The Sacred Inclusion Network's site
• Provoked by this episode? Record a response!
• Like the podcast? Support us on Patreon!

Check out the Diversity and Spirituality’s newest podcast

via Tumblr https://ift.tt/36rt8Hx