2 Therapeutic and spiritual landscapes
In recent years geographic scholarship on therapeutic spaces has utilised non-representational and post-phenomenological approaches to attend to the significance landscape, affect and embodiment play in constituting emotional and spiritual experience (Conradson, 2005; Williams, 2010; Foley, 2011; Maddrell, 2013a, 2013b; Perriam, 2015). Geography 's ‘emotional turn’ (Bondi, 2005) has also been developed by feminist geographers of religion (Hopkins, 2009; Vincent 20143) to emphasise the emotional geographies of religious space and identity, and bring more critical understandings of how ‘different groups of men and women with different markers of social difference – race, class, age, disability, sexuality,
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Building on the post-phenomenological work of Rose and Wiley (2006: 475), spiritual landscapes concern the tension between absence and presence – the performance, creation and perception of something unseen but profoundly felt. The spiritual - the excessive, ineffable, ghostly presence, or haunting – is not confined to religious experience; but rather the spiritual, denotes the non-material virtual world, which Dewsbury and Cloke (2009) argue, is constitutive of a mixture of representative and non-representative registers. Through this, spiritual landscapes foreground the different ways otherworldly senses of spirit are staged and allowed to act through certain performances and architectures of potential, and highlight how spiritual presences ‘produce actual bodily dispositions, leaving marks in the landscape of existence, and affective memories, or traces within the body’ (Dewsbury and Cloke, 2009: …show more content…
Rather it is to suggest the need for social scientists to take seriously a more heterodox account of “other” actants (God, Higher Powers, spirits) that co-constitute the material, bodily, sensational and sensory worlds of religious subjectivities. Critical geographies of religious experience entails an investigation of the poetics as much as the politics of religious space, identity and performance (Kong, 2001), leading to a theorisation of religious experience that does not take ‘authentic’ religious experience at face value, but neither does it dismiss the ontological status of the divine in the lifeworlds of believers (Meyer, 2006). Instead, anthropological perspectives highlight the somatic, kinaesthetic and haptic dimensions of religious practices (see Reinhardt, 2014; Meyer, 2011; Krause, 2014). Such an approach offers an ‘object-subject’ reading of religious experience, emphasising the mediatory forms (or ‘sensational forms’ Meyer, 2006) that ‘make the transcendental sense-able’, for instance, the solicitation of the sacred or the divine through objects – images, texts, buildings – which address and involve participants in a specific manner and induce particular
The transcendental journey into the spirit realm is most realized thru the arts. The only platform that can embody all the elements: image ,symbolism,colors and emotions ,in one is the artistic work of a spirit ,crying to come forth and be heard,in silence.
The world is not what it appears to humans, but there are things that may be recorded, repeated, and experienced by others. Though each person is different, it is believed that we all experience the world in the same way more or less. Touch, taste, sight, smell and sound are the ways we interpret our environment. However, from time to time people have experiences that occur beyond those five senses and defy explanation as anything other than an otherworldly. Those experiences became a large part of religion, yet the manner in which most occur begs the question – why?
Lindsay, D. (2007). OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE: THE DEFINITIVE AFTERLIFE RESEARCH TOOL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. Journal Of Spirituality & Paranormal Studies, 30109-119.
ABSTRACT: Religion acquired a bad press in philosophical modernity after a rivalry developed between philosophy and theology, originating in philosophy’s adopting the role of our culture’s superjudge in all of morality and knowledge, and in faith’s coming to be seen as belief, that is, as assent to propositional content. Religion, no longer trust in the face of mystery, became a belief system. Reason as judge of propositional belief set up religion’s decline. But spirituality is on the rise, and favors trust over reason. Philosophy could make space for the spiritual by acknowledging a difference between belief as propositional assent and religious faith as trust, a distinction lost with the mixing of Greek philosophy and Christian faith. Artistic or religious truth disappeared as authentic forms of knowing. But Michael Polanyi reintroduced knowledge as more than can be thought. Also postmodern and feminist thought urge us to abandon autonomous reason as sole limit to knowledge. We have space again for philosophy to look at openness to the spiritual. If spirituality confronts us with the mystery of the existential boundary conditions, religion may be a form of relating to the mystery that confronts us from beyond the bounds of reason. That mystery demands our attention if we are to be fully in touch with perennial issues of human meaning.
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Belvedere meaning “beautiful view” in Italian is a word that many people correlated with the style and design of the Italian Renaissance gardens. The sight of these gardens were truly remarkable in a time where design would settle for nothing less of such. Throughout the report many things will be brought to light in relation to the Renaissance gardens. This report will include many sub-sections that will pertain to the design of these gardens. These sections include, the history of the Renaissance gardens, their influences, the garden’s features and the multiple purposes of the different gardens from the Renaissance. Although each section will prove to be different from the one before it, it will be seen that they all link to one common
Spirituality can be defined as ‘‘ways of relating to the sacred’’ (Shults and Sandage 2006, p. 161) that involve the experience of significance (Zinnbauer and Pargament 2005)”. (Jankowski and Vaughn, 2009, p.82).
In the book, My Antonia, the landscape along with Jim's reactions to it help us to feel all the emotions of the scene. His feelings of lonliness, sadness, awe and happiness are felt through his words and we can form a picture from the descriptions, adding to what we already know. He feels these emotions in the first few scenes. All because he wants a place to call home.
The word sacred has a variety of different meaning to different people depending on what context “sacred” is used. So for definition purposes according to the Oxford English Dictionary (2013) sacred is “Regarded with a great respect and reverence by a particular religion, group or individual” this is just one of the example of the definition as it hold many more but this one incorporates the meaning of a sacred place or space. Sacred Places are found in different countries and cultures, past and present. Such places are marked or embellished by architectural structures and art, therefor having the ability to appeal to a multitude of different people, but still being sacred to each individual person or group in its own specific way. The question is how much of a places sacredness or character is directly linked to the human activity that the place attracts
passed by me, the whirlwind scooped up a dormant pile of leaves lying next to
Geertz defines religion as ‘(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.’ In this essay, I will focus on the Geertz’s idea, and Asad’s subsequent critique, of symbols. (Geertz, Clifford, and Michael Banton. "Religion as a cultural system." (1966).)
Hirsch, E. 1995. “Introduction, Landscape: between place and space” in Hirsch, E. (ed.) The Anthropology of Landscape: Perspectives on Place and Space. Oxford : New York: Clarendon Press.
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” According to Buddha, everyone needs some form of spirituality to define his or her life and existence. Webster Dictionary defines spiritualism as “a system of beliefs or religious practices based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, often times through mediums.” Though this is one general definition of spiritualism, this concept is one that does not hold a conclusive meaning. Each and every single person has the ability and right to create and practice their own idea of spiritualism. From ancient times to present day, the term and practice of spirituality has transformed, particularly from region to region. Despite the discrepancies in practices and overall understanding of this idea, spirituality has had an effect and impact upon all of humanity since the creation of time. This religion that is believed to have been established in the early eighteen hundreds, after two little girls claimed to have the ability to talk to spirits, sparked interest in this spiritual movement, allowing it to spread rather rapidly over many geographical locations. Aside from being recognized as a religion, spiritualism is also believed to be a form of philosophy and a science in which spiritualists believe that there is life after death and try to demonstrate this through the ability of attempting to communicate with those that have passed on. Spiritualism was socially different from other religions in existence at the time because it presented followers with a more tolerant belief system that assimilated the principles and facts from a selection the world's religions. Spiritualism also made it acceptable for women to play a disti...
Spirituality can have many different definitions, depending on who is asked. It can be something as simple as looking for a higher meaning to life, or something so complex that one can base their beliefs, religion and overall life around it. There are several different ways to express one's spirituality; rituals, songs, dances, stories, and writings are all common methods of expression.
According to Hutchison (2015), “religion is symbolic patterns that consists of values, beliefs, behaviors and experiences” (p. 184). I personal conceptualize spirituality as a vital role in my life that helps me during a time of sickness, forgiveness, and needed guidance. Spirituality helps guide me throughout life during the difficult times I have encountered. Spirituality impacts my life in positive ways that influence and regulate my behavior and health. Health is very important to me; I believe the spirit can heal a person from their sickness. It seems that the spirit heals me every time I pray to be healed from sickness. The spirit gives me strength at a time of weakness. When I feel at my lowest point in life I call on the spirit to pick