Espiritualidad y neoliberalismo: Self en participantes chilenos de la Nueva Era / Espiritualidade e neoliberalismo: o Eu nos participantes chilenos da Nova Era / Spirituality and neoliberalism: Self in Chilean New Age participants / Spiritualité et néolibéralisme: le Soi chez les participants chiliens du Nouvel-Âge

Resumen Hace algunas décadas se observa la masificación en Latinoamérica de las así llamadas "espiritualidades alternativas", como la Nueva Era (New Age). Esta investigación tuvo por propósito explorar el self de los participantes de la Nueva Era en un contexto neoliberal de transformación subjetiva. Para esto, se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas de historia de vida a seis practicantes de la Nueva Era del sur de Chile. El análisis de contenido de los relatos de los entrevistados reveló dimensiones en el self de los participantes, tales como: empoderamiento, búsqueda de plenitud, renuencia de las instituciones formales, redención, un terapeuta en las relaciones, las cuales pueden ser conceptuadas desde elementos del neoliberalismo, resultados compatibles con la idea de un emprendedor y consumidor espirituales presentes en esta espiritualidad de culto al self.

Resumo Há algumas décadas, observou-se a massificação na América Latina das chamadas espiritualidades alternativas, como a Era Nueva (Nova Era). O objetivo desta pesquisa foi explorar o Self dos participantes da Nova Era dentro de um contexto neoliberal de transformação subjetiva. Para isso, entrevistas semiestruturadas de história de vida foram conduzidas com seis praticantes da Nova Era no Sul do Chile. A análise de conteúdo das histórias dos entrevistados revelou dimensões no Self dos participantes como: empoderamento, busca de realização, relutância de instituições formais, redenção, terapeuta nas relações, que podem ser conceituadas a partir de elementos do neoliberalismo, resultando compatíveis com a ideia de empreendedor e consumidor espiritual presente nessa espiritualidade de culto a si mesmo.

Abstract In recent decades, Latin America has observed the massification of so-called alternative spiritualities, such as the Nueva Era (New Age). This research sought to explore the Self of New Age participants within a neoliberal context of subjective transformation. Data was collected by semi-structured life history interviews carried out with six New Age practitioners from southern Chile. Content analysis of the interviewees' stories revealed dimensions in the participants' Self, such as: empowerment, search for fulfillment, reluctance of formal institutions, redemption, a therapist in relationships, which can be conceptualized based on neoliberal elements, resulting compatible with the idea of a spiritual entrepreneur and consumer present in this spirituality of self-worship.

Resumé Au cours des dernières décennies, l'Amérique latine a observé la massification des spiritualités dites alternatives, telles que le New Age (Nouvel-Âge). Cette recherche visait à explorer le Soi des participants du New Age dans un contexte néolibéral de transformation subjective. Les données ont été collectées par le biais d'entretiens semi-directifs sur l'histoire de vie de six praticiens du New Age du sud du Chili. L'analyse de contenu des récits des interviewés a révélé des dimensions dans le Soi des participants, telles que : l'autonomisation, la recherche de l'accomplissement, la réticence des institutions formelles, la rédemption, un thérapeute dans les relations, qui peuvent être conceptualisées à partir d'éléments néolibéraux, résultant compatibles avec l'idée d'un entrepreneur et d'un consommateur spirituel présent dans cette spiritualité du culte de soi.

Varieties of Religious (Non)Affiliation: A Primer for Mental Health Practitioners on the "Spiritual but Not Religious" and the "Nones".

Given changing demographics of religiosity and spirituality, this article aims to help clinicians understand contemporary trends in patient religious and spiritual orientation. It first identifies and describes the evolving varieties of religio-spiritual orientation and affiliation, as identified in survey studies. Particular attention is given to the examination of those who identify as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) and None (i.e., no religious affiliation), which is important to mental health practice because many patients now identify as SBNR or None. Next, empirical data are considered, including what the literature reveals regarding mental health outcomes and SBNRs and Nones. We conclude with a summary of the main points and five recommendations that mental health practitioners and researchers need to consider regarding this increasingly large portion of the population.

"A kind of agonie in my thoughts": writing puritan and non-conformist women's pain in 17th-century England.

The relationship between pain as a physical and emotional experience and the concept of suffering as an essential aspect of sanctification for faithful believers was a paradoxical and pressing theological and phenomenological issue for puritan and non-conformist communities in 17th-century England. Pain allows the paradox of non-conformists' valorisation and suppression of corporeality to be explored due to its simultaneous impact on the mind and body and its tendency to leak across boundaries separating an individual believer from other members of their family or faith community. The material world and the human body were celebrated as theatres for the display of God's glory through the doctrines of creation and providence despite the fall. Pain as a concept and experience captures this tension as it was represented and communicated in a range of literary genres written by and about puritan and non-conformist women including manuscript letters, spiritual journals, biographies and commonplace books. For such women, targeted by state authorities for transgressing gender norms and the religion established by law, making sense of the pain they experienced was both a personal devotional duty and a political act. Three case studies comprise a microhistory of 17th-century English puritan and non-conformist women's lived experience, interpretation and representation of pain, inscribed in a series of manuscripts designed to nurture the spiritual and political activism of their communities. This microhistory contributes to a better understanding of pain in early modern England through its excavation of the connections that such writers drew between the imperative to be visibly godly, their marginalised subject position as a proscribed religious minority and their interpretation of the pain they experienced as a result.

Spiritual formation, secularization, and reform of professional nursing and education in antebellum America.

The origin story of professional nursing associated with antebellum American faith communities is all but lost. This paper provides historical evidence for professional nursing for that period using a case study approach that examines three faith communities: the Sisters and Daughters of Charity, the Shakers, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The purpose is to present an historical analysis of the three communities' health beliefs, recipes and remedies that were foundational to the spiritual formation and education of professional nurses within their communities. The focus of the analysis is to place the evidence for professional nursing in these faith communities within the broader context of the contemporary American narrative of the "secularization" of professional nursing associated with the adoption of the Nightingale Training Model after 1873. Nursing became a profession in America because of the courage and passion of many for spiritual formation in community around a need to relieve suffering and demonstrate kindness. The history of American nursing is comprised of stories of powerful nurse ancestors that have the potential to inspire and unite us in that same purpose today despite the ambiguities that may still exist around spirituality, religiosity, and secularization.

Between East and West: A diachronic overview of Finnish death culture.

Finland holds a unique place in the geographical and cultural map of Europe by being situated between the East and the West. This article will offer a historical overview of Finland's death culture from the point of view of the various religious and ideological practices that reflect influence from these two sides. I also explore the factors that may explain the Lutheran Church's hegemony over death and dying in Finland.

[Witch hunt and hypotheses loss]. / Von Hexenverfolgung und Hypothesenverlust.

At this time randomized controlled studies (RCT) in clinical trials usually have high quality. But this quality is only true for the included patients (intrinsic validity). It is common to generalize the results to more or less similar patients. This inductive method is prohibited in epistemology what is known for 250 years (D Hume, K R Popper). Therefore the external validity for the data of RCT is low. To solve this problem additional clinical and pathophysiological based data are necessary to generalize the results. Unfortunately RCT show less quality in their premises. This is partly due to the influence of the pharmaceutical industry. A loss of universality of the hypothesis for RCT decreases basically the extrinsic validity. The articles describe this problem with examples.

Finding revelation in anthropology: Alexander Winchell, William Robertson Smith and the heretical imperative.

Anthropological inquiry has often been considered an agent of intellectual secularization. Not least is this so in the sphere of religion, where anthropological accounts have often been taken to represent the triumph of naturalism. This metanarrative, however, fails to recognize that naturalistic explanations could sometimes be espoused for religious purposes and in defence of confessional creeds. This essay examines two late nineteenth-century figures--Alexander Winchell in the United States and William Robertson Smith in Britain--who found in anthropological analysis resources to bolster rather than undermine faith. In both cases these individuals found themselves on the receiving end of ecclesiastical censure and were dismissed from their positions at church-governed institutions. But their motivation was to vindicate divine revelation, in Winchell's case from the physical anthropology of human origins and in Smith's from the cultural anthropology of Semitic ritual.

"Isto só pode ser malária!": produção de saberes e práticas locais na prevenção, diagnóstico e tratamento da doença e, as relações entre os doentes, os curandeiros, os pastores ziones e os técnicos de saúde, no sul de Moçambique / "This can only be malaria!": Production of local knowledge and practices in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and relationships between patients, healers, Zion herders and health workers in southern Mozambique

As sociedades do distrito de Chókwè, no sul de Moçambique, caracterizam-se por uma diversidade de etnomedicinas, nomeadamente a biomedicina, a medicina tradicional e a cura espiritual. No âmbito das atividades de controlo da malária, analisaram-se os conhecimentos e práticos relacionados com a sua etiologia, o diagnóstico, a prevenção e o tratamento, de acordo com os diferentes provedores de cuidados de saúde consultados. A análise deste fenómeno foi realizada à luz de uma perspectiva interpretativa e crítica, integrando fatores de ordem económica, social, política, organizacional e cultural, que são frequentemente marginalizados na compreensão desta doença.Com base numa abordagem multidisciplinar e qualitativa, concluiu-se que a construção social da enfermidade emerge não só da experiência psicossocial dos doentes e grupos sociais mas também de todas as dinâmicas que integram a vida em sociedade, em especial da teia de relações socioculturais, ideológicas, políticas e vivências, simbolismos, fluxos de informação e os múltiplos atores, que compõem a complexa arquitetura do Sistema Nacional de Saúde, em Moçambique. Recusando a "monocultura epistémica", as histórias de vida relativas aos provedores de saúde tradicionais (curandeiros e pastores) e os discursos sobre a sua identidade evidenciam os conflitos e as tensões existentes bem como as tentativas de harmonização, cooperação e complementaridade terapêutica. Do mesmo modo que o mosquito Anopheles resiste e se adapta às alterações do meio, também os conhecimentos, as práticas terapêuticas e as relações sociais respeitantes à saúde e à doença estão em constante mutação. Em ambos os casos, desconhecem-se as subsequentes modalidades e configurações.

The societies of Chókwè's district in the south of Mozambique are characterized by a diversity of ethnomedicines, including biomedicine, traditional medicine and spiritual healing. Focusing on malaria control activities, knowledge and practices related to malaria's etiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment were analyzed, according to the consultation of different health care providers. The analysis of this phenomenon was based on an interpretive and critical perspective, integrating economic, social, political, organizational and cultural factors, which are often marginalized in the understanding of illnesses. Based on a multidisciplinary and qualitative approach, it was concluded that diseases' social construction emerges not only from the psychosocial experience of patients and social groups, but also from the social dynamics, especially socio-cultural, ideological and political relationships as well as experiences, symbolisms, flows of information and multiple actors that constitutes the complex architecture of the National Health System in Mozambique. Refusing the "epistemic monoculture", the traditional health care providers' oral histories (traditional healers and pastors) and their discourses about identity illustrate the current conflicts and tensions as well as matching attempts to achieve therapeutic cooperation and complementarity. Just as the mosquito Anopheles resists and adapts to environmental changes, also the knowledge, therapeutic practices and social relations relating to health and disease are constantly changing. In both cases, we are unaware of subsequent arrangements and configurations.

Hallucinogenic drugs in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures.

INTRODUCTION: The American continent is very rich in psychoactive plants and fungi, and many pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures used them for magical, therapeutic and religious purposes. OBJECTIVES: The archaeological, ethno-historical and ethnographic evidence of the use of hallucinogenic substances in Mesoamerica is reviewed. RESULTS: Hallucinogenic cactus, plants and mushrooms were used to induce altered states of consciousness in healing rituals and religious ceremonies. The Maya drank balché (a mixture of honey and extracts of Lonchocarpus) in group ceremonies to achieve intoxication. Ritual enemas and other psychoactive substances were also used to induce states of trance. Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec used peyote, hallucinogenic mushrooms (teonanacatl: Psilocybe spp) and the seeds of ololiuhqui (Turbina corymbosa), that contain mescaline, psilocybin and lysergic acid amide, respectively. The skin of the toad Bufo spp contains bufotoxins with hallucinogenic properties, and was used since the Olmec period. Jimson weed (Datura stramonium), wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), water lily (Nymphaea ampla) and Salvia divinorum were used for their psychoactive effects. Mushroom stones dating from 3000 BC have been found in ritual contexts in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence of peyote use dates back to over 5000 years. Several chroniclers, mainly Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, described their effects in the sixteenth century. CONCLUSIONS: The use of psychoactive substances was common in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican societies. Today, local shamans and healers still use them in ritual ceremonies in Mesoamerica.

Iglesia católica y eugenesia latina: un constructo teórico para el control social (Argentina, 1924-1958) / Catholic church and latin eugenics: a theoretical construct for the social control (Argentina, 1924-1958)

Se abordan aquí interacciones entabladas entre ciencia y religión a través de la formulación de un saber particularmente influyente en el campo del poder, como fue el conformado en torno a una corriente de pensamiento eugénico. Nos referimos a la variante gestada desde la biotipología italiana para atender al control social impulsado por el fascismo y también por países como la Argentina donde llegó a sobrevivir en el tiempo más allá de la segunda posguerra. Esa versión eugénica, caracterizada por un encendido rechazo a cualquier acción pública o privada orientada a la esterilización humana - atento al mandato católico de no intervención sobre los cuerpos, gestión privativa de Dios - propició medidas también tendentes a acelerar una selección artificial vulnerando todo principio de igualdad humana. Tomando la postura oficial de la Iglesia católica ante la eugenesia, entre 1924 y 1958, su relación con la biotipología y la difusión en Argentina de la llamada eugenesia latina, en tanto expresión resultante de esa articulación entre ciencia y religión, se busca dar cuenta de la coexistencia en ese constructo de la identificación, clasificación, jerarquización y exclusión de individuos que caracteriza a todo planteo eugenésico, instrumentados merced a dispositivos coercitivos de índole ambiental (AU)

This paper discusses interactions between science and religion thorough the formulation of the Italian Biotipology, as knowledge very influential in the field of power. That ideology was created around a variant of the eugenic thinking for to give answers to the social control promoted by the fascism; and it was well accepted in different countries, as Argentina, for example. Here, it survived over several years beyond the World War II. The Biotipology was characterized by a strong repulse to any public or private action oriented to human sterilization. Indeed, we must remember that Catholic rules imposed the "no-intervention on the bodies", belonging only to God. On these corpus of ideas, the new Italian science prompted arrangements that attempt to accelerate the artificial selection breaking the human equality principle. Between 1924 and 1958, the Biotipology was the official Catholic doctrine about Eugenics and it was widespread in Argentina from the called Latin Eugenics. In this manner, the identification, classification, hierarchical structure and exclusion of some humans, were instrumented in this country by means of coercive and environmental devices (AU)

Medicina. Brujas, demonios y exorcistas en al España del Siglo XVII / No disponible

No disponible

Back to the future: The AMA and religion, 1961-1974.

U.S. medical scholarship and education regarding religion and spirituality has been growing rapidly in recent years. This rising interest, however, is not new; it is a renewal of significant interweavings that date back to the mid-20th century. In this Perspective, the authors draw attention to the little-known history of organized medicine's engagement with religion from 1961 to 1974. Relying on primary source documents, they recount the dramatic rise and fall of the Committee on Medicine and Religion (CMR) at the American Medical Association (AMA). At its height, there were state-level committees on medicine and religion in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and there were county-level committees in over 800 county medical societies. Thousands of physicians attended annual conferences for clinicians and clergy, and direct outreach to patients included a film viewed by millions. The CMR arose in the context of rapid medical advances, the growth of professional chaplaincy, and concern for declining "humanism" in medicine-conditions with parallels in medicine today. The CMR was brought to a puzzling end in 1972 by the AMA's Board of Trustees. The authors argue that this termination was linked to the AMA's long and contentious debate on abortion. They conclude with the story's significance for today's explorations of the intersection of spirituality, religion, and medicine, focusing on the need for mutual respect, transparency, and dialogue around the needs of patients and physicians.