Functional inactivation of suppressor T cells by heat-killed macrophages (original) (raw)
Religiosity Rejected: Exploring the Religio-Spiritual Dimensions of Landmark Education
International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 2011
, Landmark Education has continuously denied being a religious organization. Despite ample discourse on the religious nature of the group within popular online and print media, a conspicuous void within academia-particularly within Religious Studies -speaks volumes. Rarely are the boundaries of what constitutes a "religion" expanded in order to explore those groups that, though not understood to be "religious" in a traditional sense, clearly contribute to contemporary "spiritual" life. And yet, that Landmark Education is perceived as being somehow religious demands deeper analysis. This article highlights the problematics of "religion" within late Western modernity as illustrated by the contention surrounding the religious status of both Scientology and Transcendental Meditation. A discussion of Landmark Education is offered in light of these issues, along with a dissection of the religio-spiritual dimensions of the organization and its primary product, the Landmark Forum. Incorporating several Eastern spiritual practices, the highly emotional nature of the Landmark Forum's weekend training is such as to create Durkheimian notions of "religious effervescence," altering pre-existing belief systems and producing a sense of the sacred collective. Group-specific language contributes to this, whilst simultaneously shrouding Landmark Education in mystery and esotericism. The Forum is replete with stories of miracles, healings, and salvation apposite for a modern Western paradigm. Indeed, the sacred pervades the training, manifested in the form of the Self, capable of altering the very nature of the world and representing the "ultimate concern." 226 Renee Lockwood
Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies, 2013
Ideas of radical feminism, Goddess Spirituality and Feminist Witchcraft— which originated in the United States during the late 1960s and the 1970s before taking root in Britain—were introduced to British Wiccans during the latter half of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Several United Kingdom-based radical feminists who combined their newfound political awareness with Goddess Spirituality acted as important conduits for the transference of these ideas. In the case of the artist and Goddess-feminist Monica Sjöö (1938-2005), I show some of the ways in which radical and spiritual feminist religious ideas did, contrary to a commonly held view, influence the British Pagan scene in the 1960s and 1970s.