This work studies the environment of contemporary alternative spirituality in the Czech Republic, specifically unusual spiritual experiences and techniques for inducing them. It is based on long-term field research utilizing the method of participant observation carried out primarily in the environment of neo-shamanism, but also the use of psychedelics, dark therapy, and other movements and practices. I perceive and analyze these practices both as psychotechnologies - i.e. techniques through which their users strive to alter their thinking - as well as spiritual techniques aimed at establishing and cultivating a relationship with the spiritual world. The focus of this study is a comparison of neo-shamanism and other practices in three main aspects: the induction of experiences, the connection between spiritual experiences and the actor's life as a whole, and the changes in the perception of reality brought about by long- term practicing. I point out that in all these areas, techniques traditionally thought of as closely related exhibit fundamental differences. A non-negligible part of this study consists of methodological and theoretical considerations. I show that the field of alternative spirituality has many specifics compared to other religious environments, and that mainstream methodological...

Text in Afrikaans / The actuality of the pedagogical question concerning the role of ideology, values and norms in the life of man in general and education specifically stimulated the interest of the author and prompted her to examine the past in this respect. The contemporary image of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies are looked at in this study. Particular attention is paid to the ideologies that developed from the Renaissance e.g. Humanistic oriented Realism, Rationalism and Naturalism. Certain role players are briefly referred to. The Communist Educational System influenced more than half of the human race over a period of seventy years resulting in a thorough investigation into this system. The influence of People's Education in education in general was also scrutinized. Because so many South Africans are adherents of Calvinism it was important that attention was paid to: The philosophy of Calvinism; What it entails; How it originated and its impact on South African Education. Particular reference was made to the role of Christian National Education. It is fairly generally accepted that a new period in history of the West in relation to values, norms and education is being entered into. The period discussion is more concerned with spiritual development, culture knowledge and religion of the human race than political and military power, although, the latter is not excluded. It was also necessary to take note of the influence of the New Age movement on values and norms. The study is concluded with the evaluation of ideology, values, norms, personal and global philosophies. Some of the most important conclusions arrived at are that these aspects are interwoven and that education is pertinently influenced by the values, norms, culture, personal and global philosophies of the individual, community and government. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Historiese Opvoedkunde)

L’ayahuasca est une décoction de plantes originaires de la forêt amazonienne. Elle contient la vigne nommée ayahuasca (Banistereopsis caapi) et un arbuste (Psychotria viridis). Ces plantes contiennent des substances psychoactives. Respectivement il s’agit de l’harmine et de la diméthyle-tryptamine (DMT). Ce mélange est utilisé par plusieurs peuples autochtones du bassin amazonien depuis une époque qui précède la Conquête. L’ayahuasca est utilisée par ces peuples à des fins chamaniques. Au début du 20e siècle, la demande en caoutchouc a engendrée une migration de travailleurs dans ces régions. Un de ces travailleurs d’origine africaine est entré en contact avec cette substance. De croyance chrétienne, il a interprété son expérience comme une rencontre avec le divin. Ceci l’a amené à fonder dans les années 30 une église syncrétique nommée Santo Daime. Depuis, l’utilisation rituelle d’ayahuasca est répandue dans le monde. Aujourd’hui, On retrouve au Québec des groupes faisant un usage rituel d’ayahuasca. Ce mémoire est une ethnographie d’un groupe actif au Québec. Ce groupe a fait l’objet d’observations participantes durant l’été 2010. L’étude a démontré que la participation aux cérémonies d’ayahuasca engendre des prises de conscience et le travail de groupe en permet l’intégration dans le quotidien des participants. De plus, la structure rituelle garanti un usage non abusif. / Ayahuasca is a decoction of mainly two plants from the Amazonian forest. The vine (Banistereopsis caapi) and the shrub (Psychotria viridis) are its components. Both contain psychoactive subsances. They are respectively Harmine and DMT. It has been used long before the Conquest. People in this region use it as a shamanic tool. However, during the early 20th century, rubber industry brought workers in this region. One Christian rubber tapper of African origin founded a syncretic religion based on the use of ayahuasca. The religion is named Santo Daime. Today, the ritual use of ayahuasca has spread over the world. In Québec, there are spiritual groups that ritually use ayahuasca. This is the ethnography of a group active in Québec. The main purpose of this research was to describe this group. The fieldwork took place during the summer of 2010. This research has shown that the ritual use of ayahuasca brings about insights that are integrated in the participant’s life through the group workshop. Moreover, the ritual structure prevents abusive comportments towards this substance.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:49:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AZIZE MARIA YARED DE MEDEIROS.pdf: 632127 bytes, checksum: ff4b65477993129c93063a23fbbd58d3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-14 / The objective of this study is to investigate the permanent process of searching for the holy through experience within New Age s context. It also tried to look for the causes of the beginning of that phenomenon in the rationalistic western society. It was tried to clarify the relationship between a highly scientific, technological and informative society and a Movement that aims to live a mystical bodily and emotionally experience outside conventional religions. It was also studied how western rationalistic thought was built, its influences in religions and in which way it was established in the world what we call post-modernism. It was possible to analyze how this Movement fits in global and pluricultural contemporaneous societies. The study showed that this is an urban peregrination Movement without a settled place keeping as the main goal the own search itself. The results indicate that this Movement has within its essence the proposal of living according to an epistemology that accepts emotions and body sensations as the necessary basis to obtain knowledge and give meaning to the world. The New Age Movement has revealed itself as a constructor of a post-modern ontology where Being is defined especially by feelings. / Este trabalho teve por objetivo investigar o permanente processo de buscar o sagrado, via experimentação, no universo do Movimento Nova Era. Pretendeu também investigar as causas do surgimento desse fenômeno em meio à sociedade ocidental racionalista. Para tanto, buscou-se esclarecer a relação entre uma sociedade altamente científica, tecnológica e informativa e um Movimento que procura viver uma experiência mística corporal e emocionalmente fora do espaço das grandes religiões organizadas. Investigou-se como foi construído o pensamento racionalista do ocidente, suas influências nas religiões e de que modo estabeleceuse o que chamamos de pós-modernidade. Foi possível analisar de que maneira o Movimento se insere no contexto das sociedades contemporâneas, globalizadas e pluriculturais. A investigação mostrou que se trata de um Movimento de peregrinação, urbano, sem espaço fixo, cujo objetivo principal é o próprio processo de buscar. Os resultados indicam ser esse um Movimento que contém implicitamente, em seu bojo, a proposta de viver uma epistemologia que reconhece as emoções e as sensações corporais como a base necessária para obter conhecimento e atribuir significado ao mundo. O Movimento Nova Era revelou-se construtor de uma ontologia pós-moderna, em que o Ser é definido sobretudo pelo sentir.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabio L Stern.pdf: 2128171 bytes, checksum: b6e86071e8095d21802ed1e6db9e678a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-18 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This thesis aimed to investigate the relationship between Naturology in Brazil and the New Age movement, starting from the hypothesis raised by Teixeira that the emergence of Naturology in Brazil is related to the New Age arrival to this country. To this end, 292 questionnaires were applied in naturologists graduated by the two Brazilian universities with Naturology courses recognized by the Brazilian Ministry of Education. In order to measure the degree of adherence to the New Age movement, a Likert scale was applied with 25 items related to major trends of the New Age movement highlighted by Hanegraaff. The results showed 51.7% of the naturologists objectively consider themselves newagers, and the active naturologists are precisely those who demonstrate the greatest degree of identification with the title. It was also verified that the Likert scale results were high in all categories, with averages exceeding 3 (out of 4) / A presente dissertação objetivou investigar as relações entre a Naturologia no Brasil e o mo-vimento da Nova Era, partindo da hipótese levantada por Teixeira de que o surgimento da Na-turologia no Brasil estaria relacionado à chegada da Nova Era ao país. Para tanto, foram apli-cados 292 questionários em naturólogos formados nas duas universidades brasileiras com cur-sos de Naturologia reconhecidos pelo MEC. Para aferir o grau de adesão ao movimento da Nova Era, uma escala do tipo Likert foi aplicada, com 25 itens referentes às grandes tendên-cias do movimento da Nova Era ressaltadas por Hanegraaff. Os resultados demonstraram que 51,7% dos naturólogos consideram-se objetivamente novaeristas, e que os naturólogos atuan-tes são justamente os que demonstram o maior grau de identificação com esse título. Também foi atestado que o grau de adesão da escala do tipo Likert foi alto em todas as categorias, com médias superiores a 3 (de um máximo de 4)

Many single working mothers are challenged with the task of balancing work and home demands. Prolonged exposure to stress can threaten individuals' physical and emotional health and well-being. Listening to music is one commonly used positive coping mechanism for stress management and relief. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of single working mothers who regularly listen to New Age music for stress relief. Participants were single working mothers, 30-45 years old, with self-reported stress, who were employed at least part time and who had at least 1 child under 18 years of age in the home. Participants were interviewed on their experiences with home and work-related stress, motherhood, and listening to New Age music for stress relief. This inquiry was guided by feminist theory, and data was analyzed using Moustakas' modification of Van Kaam's method of data analysis. The responses from these interviews identified the stress factors experienced by these single working mothers, which included finances, workplace stress, childcare, transportation, and working mother stereotypes. Participants also described the calming effects of New Age music on self-reported symptoms of physical and emotional stress. These reported effects include the promotion of mental focus and an immediate physical and emotional release from stress. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by highlighting the benefits of listening to New Age music as an alternate means of stress management and relief; this implication could indirectly save employers considerable expense in stress-related health care and missed work. These findings may serve as a basis for future quantitative research into the use of music for stress relief.

L’ayahuasca est une décoction de plantes originaires de la forêt amazonienne. Elle contient la vigne nommée ayahuasca (Banistereopsis caapi) et un arbuste (Psychotria viridis). Ces plantes contiennent des substances psychoactives. Respectivement il s’agit de l’harmine et de la diméthyle-tryptamine (DMT). Ce mélange est utilisé par plusieurs peuples autochtones du bassin amazonien depuis une époque qui précède la Conquête. L’ayahuasca est utilisée par ces peuples à des fins chamaniques. Au début du 20e siècle, la demande en caoutchouc a engendrée une migration de travailleurs dans ces régions. Un de ces travailleurs d’origine africaine est entré en contact avec cette substance. De croyance chrétienne, il a interprété son expérience comme une rencontre avec le divin. Ceci l’a amené à fonder dans les années 30 une église syncrétique nommée Santo Daime. Depuis, l’utilisation rituelle d’ayahuasca est répandue dans le monde. Aujourd’hui, On retrouve au Québec des groupes faisant un usage rituel d’ayahuasca. Ce mémoire est une ethnographie d’un groupe actif au Québec. Ce groupe a fait l’objet d’observations participantes durant l’été 2010. L’étude a démontré que la participation aux cérémonies d’ayahuasca engendre des prises de conscience et le travail de groupe en permet l’intégration dans le quotidien des participants. De plus, la structure rituelle garanti un usage non abusif. / Ayahuasca is a decoction of mainly two plants from the Amazonian forest. The vine (Banistereopsis caapi) and the shrub (Psychotria viridis) are its components. Both contain psychoactive subsances. They are respectively Harmine and DMT. It has been used long before the Conquest. People in this region use it as a shamanic tool. However, during the early 20th century, rubber industry brought workers in this region. One Christian rubber tapper of African origin founded a syncretic religion based on the use of ayahuasca. The religion is named Santo Daime. Today, the ritual use of ayahuasca has spread over the world. In Québec, there are spiritual groups that ritually use ayahuasca. This is the ethnography of a group active in Québec. The main purpose of this research was to describe this group. The fieldwork took place during the summer of 2010. This research has shown that the ritual use of ayahuasca brings about insights that are integrated in the participant’s life through the group workshop. Moreover, the ritual structure prevents abusive comportments towards this substance.

New Age has often been described as a religion pertaining to women and studies has shown that women do indeed constitute the vast majority. A reversal of hierarchy between feminine and masculine attributes and values, common in a modern western society, has also been shown to occur. This study looks at how the feminine is visible in written text and pictures depicting people, more specifically in the periodical magazine Free that has a circulation of circa 25,000. The main bulk of the magazine is advertisements, and one reoccurring part is the article Frimodigt where several of the magazine’s advertisers take part in a short interview. Twelve of these interviews have been analyzed, along with depictions of 518 people from three issues. The theoretical framework that has been applied to the outcome of my analysis has been social constructivism, with particular emphasis on the paper Doing gender by the professors of sociology Candace West and Don Zimmerman. My findings indicate that the feminine, indeed, is thought of as very positive and sometimes contrasted with the masculine. This is not, however, reflected in the visual depictions of people since there doesn’t seem to be any difference between how men and women are portrayed. What sets them apart is how often they are portrayed where women, on average, is depicted 70 % of the time. The invocation of feminine traits in Frimodigt shows that gender roles and norms can be used in marketing by attributing these positive traits to the product being marketed. Furthermore, this indicates that the very act of taking part in this material as a believer can be seen as a feminine act that can make women be more feminine, and men to come in contact with, and develop, their feminine side. Another consequence is that New Age might be seen as very attractive to women because of their appraisal of femininity and the fact that the religion seems to be dominated and ruled by women, in stark contrast to more patriarchal religions.

In recent decades, male protagonists in Australian realist fiction for young adult readers have increasingly become more others-regarding, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware. (John Stephens 2000; Perry Nodelman 2002). Psychologist Roger Horrocks (1995) claims these protagonists are less “tendentious and more realistic” than male protagonists of the past. These boys, despite not bearing the hallmarks of hegemonic masculinity, develop subjective agency and ultimately propose new ways for young men to construct their gender identity. Using Phillip Gwynne’s (1998) Deadly Unna? and David Metzenthen’s (2000) Boys of Blood and Bone as case studies, and my own novel My Private Pectus as creative practice, I explore the construction and deconstruction of hegemonic, complicit, and alternative masculinities in Australian realist young adult fiction. I also analyse the construction of the New Age Boy—a label used by John Stephens for young male protagonists who develop positive self esteem because of their perceived gender differences compared to boys of the hegemonic masculine type. By critiquing the manner in which masculinities are constructed in each case study, and supporting my critique through the literature of leading gender theorists, I question the seemingly homogenous manner in which the New Age Boy gains agency. This question is further explored through my creative practice, as I put into dialogue a protagonist who also recognises his gender differences, but instead of proposing a new and better masculinity, he tries to adhere to and reap the rewards of hegemonic masculinity.

abstract: This dissertation illuminates overlaps in Mormonism and the New Spirituality in North America, showing their shared history and epistemologies. As example of these connections, it introduces ethnographic data from women who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to show (a) how living LDS women adapt and integrate elements from the New Spirituality with Mormon ideas about the nature of reality into hybrid spiritualities; and (b) how they negotiate their blended religious identities both in relation to the current American New Spirituality milieu and the highly centralized, hierarchical, and patriarchal Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study focuses on religious hybridity with an emphasis on gender and the negotiation of power deriving from patriarchal religious authority, highlighting the dance between institutional power structures and individual authority. It illuminates processes and discourses of religious adaptation and synthesis through which these LDS women creatively and provocatively challenge LDS Church formal power structures. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Religious Studies 2012