Category Archives: Weekly Updates

Announcements // April 20 – April 26

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We’ve made it! It’s the last week of content for this course, wahooo! 

But of course, before we wrap up, a few friendly reminders of upcoming due dates.

Group Discussions

Group Discussion #6 is due Sunday, April 26th and will cover the topics of Yoga and Indigenous Healing

Midpoint Self- and Peer- Reflection is also due on Sunday, April 26th via iCollege Assignments

Make sure you read the assignment details and understand my expectations for comments on your self- and peer- participation. Reflections that lack detail, or indicate participation by students that were clearly not present, will be returned and a “zero” assigned until the issues are remedied. 

Turn the reflection into individual assignment on iCollege. 

 

Reflection Journals

Make sure you’ve posted all of your reflection journal entries by Monday, April 27th. There should be four new entries since classes restarted on March 30th. 

If you’d like to make-up for a previously missed reflection, I encourage you to write an additional reflection about the connections you see to the COVID-19 pandemic and topics that we’ve covered in this course. Make sure that your entries are thoughtful and engaged with material that we’ve covered in the course, not simple summaries of your experience.

 

Course Reflection Paper

The course reflection paper is due Sunday, May 3rd. 

You can find details of the reflection assignment here. Submit your reflection paper as your final entry in your reflection journal (and make sure to title it appropriately!).

April 20 – April 26 // Indigenous Healing and Neoshamanism

This week, our readings parallel those of our last few weeks: first a reading that documents the ethnic and cultural community out of which an alternative healing method arises, and a second reading that discusses the same (or similar) healing modality within the context of the Holistic Health and New Age movements — almost always practiced by middle-class white Americans. 

Dr Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, on her lecture “Historical Trauma: Understanding the Past, Empowering for the Future”

“Native American Medicine” provides important historical context, that of colonization of the western hemisphere and systematic genocide and forced assimilation of Indigenous communities by European-Americans, and how this Intergeneration Trauma effects the health outcomes of current Indigenous Americans. It also discusses the important relationship between Retraditionalization and individual and communal healing for these communities. 

“The New Age Sweat Lodge” discusses just that: the history, typical ritual pattern, and the “healing logic” that informs the use of the ceremonial sweats when practiced within the New Age movement, as well as many of the criticisms aimed at the appropriation of this healing ritual. 

 

“Native American Medicine: The Implications of History and the Embodiment of Culture”, Wendy M. K. Peters, Julli M. Green, and Pilar E. Gauthier (pg 172-195) – iCollege

  • What do Indigenous cosmologies (creation stories) reveal about their culture, rituals, and worldview? To their understanding and approach to healing and wellness? 
  • How has colonization of the western hemisphere affected the health outcomes of Indigenous communities? 
  • What is “Soul Wound”?
  • What are some of the symptoms of Intergenerational Trauma? 
  • Why is historical context so important for understanding how Intergenerational Trauma impacts Indigenous peoples? 
  • Why was Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart’s research on Intergenerational Trauma so groundbreaking? How did it transform care within Indigenous communities? 
  • How do the course themes of resistance appear in this article? 
     
  • What is the relationship between Retraditionalization and healing? How is healing defined in this context?
  • Why is cultural competency within the  biomedical healthcare system so important in relation to the care of Indigenous peoples? 
  • What are some examples of culture-based interventions? 
  • What is the relationship between healing and religion in Indigenous communities? Why might they be hesitant to share insight and information about their cultural practices?  

 

“The New Age Sweat Lodge”, William M. Clements, (pg 143-162) – iCollege

  • What are some of the features of New Age sweat lodges? Why do some of the New Age communities feel the need to keep their “sweat” locations secret?
  • What is a standard pattern for a New Age sweat lodge? (What is the typical “formula” of the ritual?)
  • What critiques have been leveled at the New Age appropriation of sweat lodges? 
  • What function do Sweat Lodges play within Indigenous communities?
  • In what ways is the New Age appropriation of the Sweat Lodge ritual ceremony  harmful to Indigenous communities? 
  • Why aspects of the Lakota Sweat Lodge ceremony lend it to particularly “easy” reinterpretation by New Age communities, as opposed to other forms of Indigenous healing? 
  • What themes in the Sweat Lodge ceremony parallel the spiritual sensitibilies of New Age movement? 
  • In the New Age sweat lodge context, how is “healing” defined? What is healed? How is it healed? 
  • What socio-historical contexts inform the “healing logic” of the New Age sweat lodge?

 

Vocabulary: 

    • Monism
    • Cosmology
    • Historical Trauma / Intergenerational Trauma
    • Soul Wound
    • Manifest Destiny
    • Epigenetics / Memetic transmission
    • Retraditionalization
    • Culture-based Intervention
    • Medicine people / Shaman
    • Biopsychosocial
    • Sweat Lodge
    • Plastic Medicine Man
    • “Playing Indian”
    • Noble Savage
    • Humoralism
    • Rite of Passage

 

  • Communitas

 

  • Mother Earth Ceremonies / Earth People philosophy
  • Healing Logic

 

Announcements // April 13 – 19

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Please see the detailed announcement for the upcoming week: 

 

Choice Projects

The Choice Projects have been reviewed and grades have been updated via iCollege. If you are interested in individual feedback, please email me directly and I am happy to provide it. 

If for whatever reason you are unhappy with your grade and would like a chance to improve it, I am offering a period of revise-and-resubmit for a higher grade. If you would like to do this, complete the following steps: 

    1. Email me with a request for specific feedback and advice for improvement, 
    2. Complete the edits and revision by Sunday, April 19, 
    3. Notify me (again via email) that the revisions are complete with details about the changes you made. 

 

Group Discussions

Group Discussion #5 is due tomorrow (Sunday, April 12th) and will cover the topics of Mindfulness Meditation and Ayurveda. 

 

April 13 – April 19 // Yoga and the Healing Marketplace

Swami Vivekananda

This week, our readings focus on the development of yoga in the United States from its early modern period as divergent, countercultural practices, to a part of popular culture within the global consumer culture.

What similarities do you see between the postural yoga systems that became so successful, and other CAM modalities we’ve explored this semester. What are they resisting (Culturally? Religiously? Medically?) How do the relate to biomedicine and science? Why are they so appealing (or specifically marketed to) New Agers, and eventually the public at large?

While I’m not formally assigning this reading, if you have a few minutes, I highly recommend you read #Namaslay, or How Black Women Are Using Trap Yoga As a Mode of Spiritual Resistance. In it, you’ll see parallels to other conversations we’ve had about representation within CAM spaces, the spiritual bypassing that happens in many wellness spaces, and how Black women are creatively reinventing wellness practices to meet the needs of their specific community. 

B. K. S. Iyengar

 

“From Counterculture to Counterculture”, Andrea R. Jain, Selling Yoga (20 – 41) 

  • What was early modern yoga resisting? 
  • What social changes in the middle of the 19th century were important to the context and development of yoga in the US? 
  • Who was Ida C. Craddock? Describe her socio-religious and sexual reform agenda. How does Craddock’s life reflect the development of early modern yoga? 
  • Who was Pierre Bernard? What aspects of early modern yoga does his interpretation of yoga reveal? 
  • How did the religious landscape of the 19th century in the US affect the response to yoga? 
  • Who was Swami Vivekananda? What was his role in the spread of transnational yoga? How did he present Hindu religious and cultural tradition?  
  • What does Jain mean by “yoga from the neck up” and “ascetic, Protestant yoga”? 
  • What is the relationship between global physical culture and the development of modern yoga? 
  • What is the relationship between science and modernity on the development of modern yoga? 
  • What themes / historical patterns define the development of early modern yoga? (late-19th to mid-20th century) 

“Continuity with Consumer Culture”, Andrea R. Jain, Selling Yoga, (42 – 72)

  • What are the three developments that enabled the global popularization of postural yoga? 
  • What does it mean that “consumer choice is a self-conscious process”? How does the consumer-oriented approach to religion effect the development of yoga? 
  • What differentiated preksha dhyana from other forms of Jain asceticism in the 1970’s? 
  • Why were postural yoga systems so successful, while many devotional yoga systems did not? What similar themes do you see between this development and the desires of New Agers and spiritual “seekers”? 
  • How does postural yoga system integrate biomedical language into their practice and marketing? 
  • What was the influence of B.K.S. Iyengar on postural yoga as a body-enhancing system?
  • What does the development of yoga tell us about the history of religion in general? 

Vocab: 

  • Heterogenous 
  • Modern yoga
  • Ida C. Craddock
  • Tantric yoga
  • Pierre Bernard
  • Raja yoga
  • Hatha yoga
  • Theosophy
  • Vivekananda
  • Postural yoga
  • Metanarrative
  • Heretical Imperative
  • Bricolage
  • Sheilah-ism
  • Soteriology
  • Modern Soteriological yoga / modern denominational yoga
  • Godmen / godwomen
  • Siddha yoga
  • Preksha dhyana
  • B.K.S. Iyengar

Announcements // April 6 – 12

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A few due date reminders for this week: 

Choice Projects

Your choice project is due by this evening, Sunday, April 5th

Make sure you’ve reviewed the assignment descriptions, including the directions for submission. Some assignments simply require text and images, while others you must embed your outside media directly into your dedicated EduBlog page.

 

Group Discussions

Group Discussion #5 is due Sunday, April 12th and will cover the topics of Mindfulness Meditation and Ayurveda. 

 

Transplant Ayurveda in the United States

This week’s first reading explores Transplant Ayurveda. In contrast to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Buddhist folk healing, and other Asian ethnomedicine modalities we’ve discussed, Ayurveda’s spread in the United States is related to its specific marketing to and consumption by white Americans, rather than originating in cultural enclaves of Asian-American immigrants and then permeating out (Reddy, 99).* 

*It’s always tricky when running a syllabus for the first time, to notice the gaps and mistakes in reading assignments. I meant to include a reading that focuses on the use of Ayurveda and religious healing within South Asian Indian-American communities, but I included the wrong details and didn’t catch the mistake until it was too late to correct. If you’re interested, you can find the reading posted in iCollege: “Health, Faith Traditions, and South Asian Indians in North America”, Prakash N. Desai, Religion and Healing in America. 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

At the center of this reading is the Ayurveda practitioner-providers: should they present themselves as medical practitioners compatible with the biomedical system (and thus pursue licensure), or lean into the metaphysical healing qualities that attract New Age sensibilities (and now the broader public) including a resistance to the medical mainstream, a preoccupation with things deemed “natural”, and a desire for “holistic” approach. 

 

“Asian Medicine in America: The Ayurvedic Case”. Reddy, S (pg 97-120) – iCollege

  • How does Ayurveda’s development differ from other Asian healing transplants in America? 
  • What are the main influencers on the development of transplant Ayurveda in the US? 
  • What is the main professional dilemma facing Ayurveda practitioners? Describe this dynamic. 
  • What has the West typically focused on in their interest in Asian medicine? What are the critiques of these approaches? 
  • How does classic Ayurveda different from transnational Ayurveda? 
  • Where is transnational Ayurveda usually accessed (located)? Why? 
  • What elements of the holistic health movement influence the development of transplant Ayurveda? What connections do you see to our past readings? 
  • How do legal issues related to the “unlawful practice of medicine” effect how transplant Ayurveda is practiced? How it presents itself?
  • How have different Ayurveda practitioners circumvented medical licensing issues? 
  • Describe the four subtraditions, which aspect of Ayurveda they focus on (meditation, massage, religious healing, etc), and its effect on how they approach licensure. 
  • How does the theme of resistance emerge in the practice and representation of transplant Ayurveda?

 

Vocabulary: 

  • Transplant / Transnational Ayurveda
  • Classic Ayurveda
  • Materia medica
  • Humoral diagnostics
  • Tripartite system

Announcements // March 30 – April 5

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I hope the break gave you time to rest, reorient, and take care of yourselves and your families. 

Before we launch back into the course, if you haven’t already, take a moment to read the previous announcement regarding the mid-semester updated syllabus. It includes information about our revised reading schedule, adjustments to course assignments, and other important announcements about the semester moving forward. 

And a few further updates: 

Group Discussions

Grades for the group discussion are up to date. I did not have time to give individual feedback on each student’s participation, but if you have questions about how you could improve your grade moving forward, please email me. 

Also a note on understanding the point value on discussion grades: our mid-semester feedback grade may feel low (say if you got 60/70), but points were given based on what your overall score would be. Therefore, if you’ve participated in the first three group discussions but have a bit of room for improvement, your total score would be 90/100 (30/30 for individual group discussions, 60/70 for mid-semester feedback). Again, email me directly if you need further clarification. 

Group Discussion #5 is due Sunday, April 12th and will cover the topics of Mindfulness Meditation and Ayurveda. 

 

Reflection Journals

Reflection Journals (for ⅔ of the semester) have been graded. Check your iCollege email for detailed feedback and tips for how to improve your grade moving forward. 

There are four more reflection journal posts due between now and the end of the semester. They will continue to be due on Sundays, but you are welcome to post your reflections in advance if you read ahead. 

If you’d like to make-up for a previously missed reflection, I encourage you to write an additional reflection about the connections you see to the COVID-19 pandemic and topics that we’ve covered in this course. A few potential reflection topics: 

    • how complementary and alternative medicine practitioners are approaching wellness during this period, 
    • the concept of “legitimacy” when it comes to CAM practices and COVID-19 (which CAM providers consider themselves “essential” medical providers, and does biomedicine / government view their role differently), 
    • people selling alternative (and questionable, if not outright morally corrupt) “cures”,
    • the role of Indigenous healers during this period,
    • connections you’ve noticed between your personal experience of the pandemic and our course themes

 

Choice Projects

Your first (and now only) choice project is still due on Sunday, April 5th.

I haven’t had a chance to check up on the progress you may have posted over the break, but I will be working on that this week so make sure you’ve updated your project page to your most up-to-date draft. If you need immediate feedback, email me directly (and be sure to include the link to your page where I can see your project). 

Remember that because I’ve reduced your workload to one project and extended the deadline multiple times, I expect excellent work. This is not a project that you can leave until the last minute, especially if you are integrating (new-to-you) technology.

While you’re working on your project, I suggest you take a look at the Project Progress tracking sheet and check out the work of other students tackling the same project-type. This can help you with inspiration (should you feel stuck or confused), but also gives you a community resource of people to reach out to should you run into technical difficulties. 

 

Course Reflection Paper

In lieu of a second project, students will write a three page (750 word) paper exploring course themes, new perspectives gleaned, and general reflections from the course experience. 

You can find details of the reflection assignment here (home page > course documents > course reflection paper). 

 The course reflection paper is due Sunday, May 3rd. 

 

Reading Prompts: 

Reading prompts will now be updated in advance and posted here (home page > reading schedule > reading prompts), should you choose to get ahead.

 

March 30 – April 5 // “Protestant” Buddhism and Mindfulness Meditation

In addition to touching on the above themes, this week’s readings focus specifically on the history of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness movements, as well as folk Buddhist healing traditions in the United States. 

The first reading, “When Mindfulness is Therapy: Ethical Qualms, Historical Perspectives” discusses the historical contexts and cultural movements that influenced the development of mindfulness practices in the United States, including Eastern religious figures (DT Suzuki, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Thich Nhat Hanh), the role of psychoanalysis and eventual medicalization of the practices (Relaxation Response and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), and the critiques that arise when religious practices become decontextualized, (over)simplified, and reappropriated for a secular marketplace. 

It is critical reading for understanding how a religious practice typically associated with non-dualist Buddhist and Hindu traditions (Japanese Zen, Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen, and Theravada Vipassana), transitioned to a therapeutic medicalized practice, and finally to a pop-culture consumer commodity that touts benefits ranging from calmer, more engaged students, more efficiency in the corporate work setting, and even better sex. 

The second reading, “Complementary and Alternative Medicine in America’s New Buddhisms”, echoes points similar to those raised in the readings on TCM. In highlighting the disparate Buddhist communities in America (ethnic / culture Buddhists and convert Buddhists), Numrich discusses how each community approaches Buddhist CAM practices and folk medicine, including herbalism, spiritual / ancestral healing practices, and meditation. In highlighting each communities’ approach and understanding of each Buddhist healing practice, Numrich illustrates the divergent trajectories of their use of CAM, as well points where they overlap – and why. 

 

“When Mindfulness is Therapy: Ethical Qualms, Historical Perspectives”, Anne Harrington and John D. Dunne, American Psychologist (iCollege)

  • What is mindfulness?
  • Who is DT Suzuki, and what was his role in bringing Buddhist meditation to the US?
  • What was Suzuki’s view on the medicalization of Zen meditation? 
  • How did Suzuki’s experience within the United States effect the language in which he presented Zen?
  • Who is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and what was his role in the development of how meditation is practiced in the 1960s? 
  • What is Transcendental Meditation? What benefits did it tout? 
  • What is the Relaxation Response? How was it discovered?
  • Who is Jon Kabat-Zinn? What was his background and why was it important in his approach to meditation in a clinical setting? 
  • What is Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, and what Buddhist practices does it pull from? 
  • To whom did Kabat-Zinn want to tailor his clinical practices to? Why? 
  • What was the effect of Thich Nat Hanh’s endorsement of Kabat-Zinn’s book?
  • What are some of the criticisms of MBSR, reformist Zen and other non-dualist approaches to meditation?

 

“Complementary and Alternative Medicine in America’s New Buddhisms” (342-358), Paul David Numrich, Religion and Healing in America (iCollege)

  • What types of American Buddhists does Numrich identify? How did the various communities within this overarching framework develop historically?
  • What are some of the CAM modalities discussed in relation to American Buddhism?
  • What are some of the distinguishing characteristics of each? How does each community relate to CAM modalities?
  • How do generational dynamics and acculturation affect the use of Buddhist folk healing? 
  • How do the types of American Buddhists relate to each other? 
  • What are the communities’ trajectories overall? In relation to folk medicine / herbalism? To meditation?

Vocabulary 

  • Mindfulness
  • Zen Buddhism 
  • Transcendental Meditation
  • Relaxation Response
  • MBSR
  • Non-dual Buddhism
  • Vipassana meditation
  • Mahamudra
  • Dzogchen
  • Engaged Buddhism
  • Therapeutic mindfulness
  • Culture Buddhist
  • Convert Buddhist

Week 9 : Traditional Chinese Medicine in America: Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture

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In this week’s readings, we’re finally starting to get into the some of the more interesting topics of modern CAM, specifically those healing modalities that originate in the East. In all of these readings, I want you to keep an eye to a few different dynamics:

  • What is involved in the practice? What happens in the healing session? Who is the healer, and who is healed? What are the religious background and philosophical understandings that inform the healing modality?
  • How does the originating community understand, view, and practice the healing modality (ex: Chinese-American practicing TCM)?
  • How do outside communities relate to the healing (white New Agers, etc) 
  • How has biomedicine reacted to the healing system (Ignored? Supported? Appropriated?)
  • What power structures are at play in the consumption of the CAM modality, especially in relation to race, ethnicity, and other forms of minority identity? 

In terms of this week’s readings, Multicultural Approaches to Health and Wellness in America gives good background of what is involved in TCM and how it historically developed in the US. 

(I’m removing the other reading Nature Cures: The Holistic Health Explosion: Acupuncture (only 257-270) chapter from this week’s assigned reading because  Multicultural Approaches does a much more thorough job) 

That being said, I really want you to focus on the argument Barnes makes in the chapter “Multiple Meanings of Chinese Healing in the United States”. It will likely make some people uncomfortable and force you to think about the power dynamics of cultural appropriation when it comes to the consumption of CAM in the American spiritual marketplace. There are a lot of reading prompt questions, and it’s important that your group really dive into the argument (and reflect this) in your Discussion Notes #4.

It’s also important that I highlight the definition of cultural appropriation (rather than cultural exchange) that we use in this course.

Maisha Z. Johnson, in her article for “What’s Wrong With Cultural Appropriation? These 9 Answers Reveal It’s Harm” describes cultural appropriation as

“a particular power dynamic in which members of the dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. 

That’s why cultural appropriation is not the same as cultural exchange, when people share mutually with each other – because cultural exchange lacks that systemic power dynamic.

It’s also not the same as assimilation, when marginalized people adopt elements of the dominant culture in order to survive conditions that make life more of a struggle if they don’t.” 

 

GROUP DISCUSSION

Group Discussion #4 is due on Sunday, March 15th and should covered readings from Week 8 and 9. 

 

CHOICE PROJECT

There has been a bit of confusion about the due date for the Choice Project assignment. Because I was late in getting details to you, I moved the first due date to Sunday, March 22nd. I apparently didn’t update all of the documents to reflect the change; my apologies for this confusion. 

If you have already submitted your assignment, I will work on commenting on your work and note any gaps I see. You are welcome to adjust your assignment based on the feedback to ensure a higher grade. 

If you are still in progress on your progress, I will be working on giving you feedback (via comments on your EduBlog project pages). You should be working on a draft of your assignment and keeping this work up to date in your project page.

The next steps will be finalizing your text and transferring / integrating your information to a platform of choice (assuming that you continue to work on your project over spring break). 

 

GRADES

Over break I plan on catching up on grades. Keep an eye on your iCollege mailbox for an email that includes feedback on your Group Discussion participation and EduBlog reflection journal.

 

READING PROMPTS: 

Nature Cures: The Holistic Health Explosion: Acupuncture (only 257-270)

Multicultural Approaches to Health and Wellness in America, Chun Nok Lam and Soh-Leong Lim, “Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Healing Approach from the Past to the Future” – iCollege

    • Describe the philosophical principles that are the foundation of TCM. 
    • How does TCM understand health and wellness? What causes illness? 
    • Describe the TCM diagnostic process. 
    • What modalities are included in the TCM healing system? 
    • What about these approaches to healing mirror the values of CAM healing in the 19th century and 1970’s?
    • What are some of the factors that lead to Chinese-Americans to under utilize healthcare in the US? 
    • What are some of the problems with the biomedical standard of the double-blind clinical trial when it comes to analyzing the effectiveness of acupuncture and herbal medicine? 
    • What is the current relationship between TCM and the biomedical establishment? 

 

“Multiple Meanings of Chinese Healing in the United States”, Linda L. Barnes, (pg 307-331) – iCollege

    • What does Barnes mean by a “racialized framework”? What does she mean by the “Eurocentric polarities of race”? 
    • What qualifies as “religion” in the West? Describe the concept of “a philosophy / way of life, not a religion”. How has this effected the West’s interaction and understanding of  Eastern and Chinese religious systems? 
    • In most cultures (outside of Protestant Chrisitianity in the West), religion, culture and healing are inseparable. How do you see this reflected in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
    • If you plan on visiting an acupuncturists for your “attend a healing” project, do you notice any of the iconography and material culture described on page 213-313? 
    • What parallels do you see between the white American consumers of TCM and our previous readings on the Holistic Health Movement and New Age religious movements? 
    • Draw out (visually represent) the continuum of conversion and appropriation described by Barnes.
    • What is the connection between “vitalism” in American CAM, New Age “universalism” and American understandings of Eastern philosophical terms such as prana, qi, etc? How does this relate to appropriation of CAM healing? 
    • What are the parallels between New Age appropriation and colonial exploitation? 
    • What was the role of the Chinese government in transforming TCM and merging it with the biomedical model? 
    • What is the dynamic between appropriation and power structures when it comes to TCM? Why is it that it is considered cultural exchange when minority cultures borrow and infuse different healing systems, but cultural appropriation when white (dominate) communities act similarly? Hint: imbalance of power (see page 327 and linked article defining cultural appropriation) 

Week 8: The Development of Contemporary CAM

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We’ve made it halfway through the semester! Keep up the good work y’all! 

Last week our readings focused again on fleshing out Baer’s theory of understanding CAM modalities as sites of resistance (to biomedicine and general counter-culture protest movements) and accommodation (through the process of licensure). 

While Baer’s chapters and articles typically focus on the majority of CAM users (white, upper-middle class women), the supplemental chapters last week explored CAM use by cultural and ethnic minorities and what potential experiences might inform these decisions. As you could tell from the slightly different conclusions from these chapters (based on different communities), there is no clear-cut answer to this question. Cultural context and nuanced understandings are always important. That said, it does raise interesting points and I’d like you to keep those findings in the back of your mind as we continue exploring contemporary CAM modalities. 

A quick caution about the reading this week: it is a bit dull (sorry!). It’s filled with acronyms for different CAM associations, institutes and universities. I’m much less concerned about the specific dates and names, and more about the general process and dynamics each healing system has with biomedicine and licensing. I’d also like you to focus on how healing is approaches by each of these systems in a modern context (ex: early Chiropractic vs contemporary manifestations), as Baer gives quick overviews of the systems that many of you will be attending in the coming weeks. 

 

IMPORTANT DATES: 

Tuesday, March 3rd (tomorrow) is the last day to drop the course for a W (withdrawal). If you’re having issues keeping up with the course, please reach out to me tomorrow. I may be able to help you navigate the rest of the semester, but I also may suggest that you withdraw and try again next semester. 

 

CHOICE PROJECT: 

Tomorrow I expect to spend time working through your reflection journals and commenting on your Choice Projects. Make sure you’ve included as much information as possible, including:  issues that you’ve encountered, where you are in the process, what steps you plan on taking next and potential timelines for each step completion. 

Also something to contemplate: have you thought about how you’ll schedule work on your project given that it’s due right after spring break? Would you rather get it done so you can relax over break, or do you use Spring Break as a time to catch up on all your class work? No judgement here, I just want you to be honest with yourself and how you work as a student. 

 

READING PROMPTS:  

Toward an Integrative Medicine: Chapter 2: The Semi-Legitimation of Four Professional Heterodox Medical Systems (pg 25-56)

  • What does it mean to be “professional” in the context of CAM? To be “legitimate”? 
  • What does Baer mean by “semi-legitimation”? 
  • What is the stated purpose of licensure (according to biomedicine associations) and what are it’s unintended consequences?
  • Describe the differences of “mixers”, “specialists” and “drugless general practitioners” in the Chiropractic context. If you’ve seen a chiropractor for an adjustment before, which did they most resemble? How could you tell? 
  • Describe the process of emergence, decline, and rejuvenation of American naturopathy. Why was naturopathy so well suited for a revitalization starting in the late ‘70s ? 
  • Describe modern homeopathy. 

 

Toward an Integrative Medicine: Chapter 3: Partially Professionalized Therapeutic Systems: The Struggle for Legitimacy (pg 57-88)

  • What does Baer mean by “partially professionalized” CAM systems? By “lay heterodox”?
  • What are the general steps that each CAM system goes through in the process of professionalization? 
  • How do “Traditional Naturopaths” distinguish themselves from (and critique) other forms of naturopathic healing? 
  • Although there is little ethnographic research on herbalist healers, where do preliminary studies reveal they operate out of? (in other words: if you are going to see an herbalist, where do they work?)
  • Instead of medical jargon (such as patients, healer, treatment, etc), what kind of language do herbalists use in reference to the people they provide service to? Why is this? 
  • How is Ayurveda different from other forms of Asian medical transplants? 
  • Why is lay midwifery included in Baer’s discussion of alternative healing?

 

VOCABULARY: 

  • Semi-legitimate
  • Partially professionalized
  • Lay heterodox
  • Lay practitioner
  • Sanitaria
  • Chi / Qi
  • Midwifery
  • Hostile Licensure

I also wanted to take a moment to include the overlap that I see in my social media consumption (Instagram) and the content that we’re discussing in class. In a few sentences in this chapter, Baer briefly alludes to a dynamic (which can be applied in other instances we’ve discussed in this course) in which middle-class white women consume healing modalities as though it were either a novel and new development (or the opposite, that they’re tapping into an “ancient” universal practice”, that are common-place to peoples of color. His text reads: 

“Cobb delineates four types of birth attendants in the United States: (1) obstetricians; (2) nurse-midwives; (3) lay “granny” midwives, who historically were particularly predominate among African Americans in the South; (4) and “modern lay midwives,” who emerged out of the feminist and natural birthing movements of the late 1960s…As Cobb observes, “at precisely the time when members of low income and rural populations have been persuaded to give up home births, certain segments of white American middle-class are seeking birth at home…” (pg 78-79)

His commentary reminded me of an artist critique (and discussion by an anti-Racist activist / Public Academic) of this dynamic that came through my Instagram feed months ago. 

While this post (and the subsequent commentary) isn’t directly related to our course topics, it’s still related to our broader conversations of healing, alternative medicine, and healthcare in America. Taking posts like this as jumping off point, or exploring the connection you see, is an excellent way to reflect on the course material. 

So I’ll also ask you: what kind of media are you consuming outside of institutional education? Is social media simply a platform for sharing beautiful pictures, funny memes and entertainment? Or have you curated a platform that encourages you to dig a little deeper? 

 

Week 6: New Age (Religious) Movements + Holistic Health

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We began this semester exploring the social and historical contexts surrounding American relationships with healing and medicine, specifically around the themes of a value of things deemed “natural” and distrust of the medical establishment. 

Last week, we started to delve into the Holistic Health Movement of the 1970’s as an extension of American preoccupation with alternative healing. As you learned in those readings, the Holistic Health Movement and New Age religious values are so entangled as to be inseparable. 

This week, we’ll be exploring more about what informs New Age and American Metaphysical understandings of the world, common orientations despite the vast number of practices that fit under the umbrella of New Age practices, and some common criticisms aimed at the movement. 

A few themes that begin in these readings and continue throughout the semester include: questions of re-interpretation and continuity, issues of appropriation and syncretism, and the evolution of the New Age and Holistic Health movements in relation to the spiritual and medical marketplace.

 

CHOICE PROJECTS: 

Last week, part of your assignment was to:

If you haven’t already, do that IMMEDIATELY. 

Next, create a page on your EduBlogs and title it the name of the first project you are going to tackle. 

In this page, I want you to give me as many detail as you can about what project you’ve chosen – what’s the project, what’s the topic or healer or modality you’ll cover, etc. If you’re attending a healing session or interviewing someone, post that information here and wait for approval from me before you reach out to the healer. I’ll communicate with you via comments, so make sure to respond promptly to my comments. 

This is also a space where you’ll post drafts of the materials, so I can keep track of your progress. Again, it’s important that you promptly respond to any comments or advice I post in the comments. I’ll also ask you to make adjustments or turn something in; these individual due dates are always on Sunday evenings, unless otherwise negotiated with me. 

 

READING PROMPTS

“The New Age Movement and Western Esotericism”, Wouter J. Hanegraaff (pg 25-50) – iCollege

  • Describe each of the different stages of development in the New Age movement
  • According to the author, how has the New Age movement transitioned? Do they interpret this as a sign of success or failure? 
  • According to the author, what religious trends are sometimes mistakenly categorized as New Age? 
  • How do the course theme of resistance and accommodation relate to the development of New Age movements? 
  • Describe the relationship of mind, body and spirit in the New Age movements.
  • According to this tradition, what is the relationship of healing to spiritual and physical wellbeing? 
  • What is the relationship between science and the New Age movements? 
  • Despite the variety of practices and beliefs that fall under the umbrella term “New Age”, what are some of the common themes and beliefs? 
  • How does the author articulate the difference between “re-interpretation” and “continuity” in these movements? 
  • What is the role of individualism in New Age values? 
  • Describe the impact of the capitalism market economy on the New Age movement (and religious traditions in general). 

“Metaphysical Healing and Health in the United States”, Brett Hendrickson (pg 347-355) – iCollege

  • How does Mind Cure and New Thought view health, illness and healing? How does this manifest in the Metaphysical / New Age traditions? 
  • How do New Age traditions understand wellness? 
  • Describe the continuum of New Age healing approach the author notes on page 350. How does this relate to earlier readings of taxonomy of healing traditions and our course theme of the process of legitimation that CAM modalities undergo? 
  • What is “universalization”, ahistoricity, and decontextual in the New Age context? Why is it understood to be problematic?
  • What is the relationship of Euro-American Metaphysicals to their own history? 
  • Define the terms appropriation, syncretism and borrowing. How are they different? What is the role of power (cultural, systematic, etc), and when is it “okay”? 
  • What is the relationship between CAM modalities (especially those with New Age and religious undertones), and the overwhelming Christian context in the US? How have different academics and social commentators approaches this syncretic adoption? 

Well + Good, “Spiritual Activist Rachel Ricketts Challenges White Women to Rethink Wellness”

  • How does Ricketts define wellness, in both the individual and communal sense? 
  • How does her activism relate to wellness? How does she define “spiritual activism”?
  • What criticisms of “wellness culture” does Ricketts highlight? 
  • What does Ricketts mean by the statement “wellness is political”? 
  • What does she mean by the phrase “violent experiences” in wellness spaces? 
  • What ideals is Ricketts’ hoping wellness spaces move towards? 
  • How does Rachel Ricketts’ article relate to our readings up until now? What connections do you see? 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3ZmiymnPtX/

VOCABULARY:

  • Western Esotericism
    Transcendentalists
  • Theosophical Society
  • Age of Aquarius
  • New Religious Movements
  • Spiritual Marketplace
  • Chakras
  • Subtle Energies
  • Humanistic Psychology
  • Transpersonal Psychology
  • Neo-pagan
  • Neo-shaman
  • Dualism
  • Reductionism
  • Occultism
  • Self-Religion / (higher) Self
  • Metaphysical Religion
  • Synchronicity
  • “Spiritual but not Religious” / SBNR
  • Mind Cure
  • New Thought
  • Universalization
  • Ahistoricity / Decontextualization 
  • Racist Heteropatriarchy
  • Internalized oppression
  • Spiritual Bypassing
  • Gaslighting
  • Hierarchy of Healing

Week 5: The Holistic Health Movement

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This week we’re jumping ahead another seventy years to the 1970’s and the emergence of the Holistic Health Movement, when alternative health (in a much more recognizable form) starts to explode as a cultural phenomenon. 

Take note that, during this intervening time (especially 1900-1950), a number of huge medical developments happen: the emergence of “scientific medicine” at the turn of the century, the wonder drugs of the 30’s, and the development of antibiotics in the 40’s. The CAM healing modalities we’ll be discussing moving forward are positioning themselves in relation to / against this form of medicine and will referred to as “biomedicine” moving forward. 

Sevananda Co-op AtlantaOur readings this week focus on the Holistic Health Movement (and the deeply interwoven “spiritual” values of the New Age Movement, which we’ll tackle more next week). As you read, I’d like you to start making connections to the “new” natural healing modalities and the themes that emerged in the values of Euro-American natural healing modalities (homeopathy, naturopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic): a strong distrust of regular medicine and a desire for “natural” healing (although “natural” continues to be defined in a variety of ways). 

I’d also like you to keep an eye towards critiques of the Holistic Health Movement. Why does Baer consider it to be engaged in a “limited holism”? What populations is this movement marketing itself toward, and what voices / perspectives are being ignored? 

AlveniaFulton

The last reading, “Alone in a Sea of Rib-Tips’: Alvenia Fulton, Natural Health, and the Politics of Soul Food”, is one of my favorite readings thus far, if not the entire semester. I hope that, as we move forward in the semester, you take note of the communities outside of “White Healthism” that are engaged in creative reimagining and cultural transformation, while simultaneously addressing issues of access, cultural identity and disrupting systems of discriminating to ensure the health and wellness of their communities.

 

Choice Projects: 

Your main assignment for this week is to:

  1. review the overall Choice Project details
  2. explore the assignment details for each of the projects, and 
  3. report in the Project Progress googlesheet what you’d like to tackle first

Moving forward, update your line of the Project Progress every Sunday, including this Sunday, February 16th.

 

Reflection Journal: 

This is a friendly reminder that you are to post to your journals at least once every week, and respond via comments to two other peer posts per week. Every. Week. 

I’ve gotten behind on checking in on your progress because my attention has been focused on the Choice Project, but moving forward I’ll be reviewing and commenting every week. If I comment on your posts, make sure you either respond in the comments or follow up in a longer reflection post. 

 

Reading Prompts:

Nature Cures: “The Holistic Health Explosion: Acupuncture” (only 245-257)

  • What seems familiar about the holistic health movement (in relation to our previous readings?) What is new about the approach? 
  • Briefly describe the trends of the medical development between the turn of the 20th century and the 1950’s.
  • What themes of dissatisfaction with the biomedical establishment mirrorw those of the early 19th century? 
  • What are the main critiques of biomedicine according to the 1970’s holistic health approach? How do these mirror or differ from complaints of the 19th century? 
  • What are the values of the secular humanist counterculture movement? How did these values influence the holistic health movement’s resistance to the biomedical establishment? 
  • What are the guiding principles of the holistic medical approach?
  • Describe the relationship between the rise of holistic approaches and the revitalization of general practitioners and family medicine? 

Toward an Integrative Medicine: Chapter 1: “The Popularization of Holistic Health and New Age Movements”, (pg 1-24)

  • How does Baer describe the relationship between the Holistic Health Movement and the New Age Movement? 
  • What historical events (in American immigration law) led to a more open dialogue and access to Eastern philosophies? 
  • What is the role of healing in the Holistic Health and New Age Movements?
  • What role do food co-ops, health food stores, bookstores and holistic health centers play in the spread of the Holistic Health and New Age Movements? 
  • Who does the Holistic Health Movement typically market itself to? Why? How does this vary depending on the form of the content being consumed? 
  • Describe the contradictory tendencies of resistance and professionalization described by Baer in the Holistic Health movement. 
  • What is the relationship between capitalism, the spiritual (and medical) marketplace and the New Age Movement? 
  • What does Baer mean by his critique that the Holistic Health Movement “engages with a limited holism”? 

“‘Alone in a Sea of Rib-Tips’: Alvenia Fulton, Natural Health, and the Politics of Soul Food” – iCollege

Fultonia's

  • Describe Fulton’scommunity-oriented work and how it informed her approach to health, nutrition and wellness in the Black community. 
  • Describe the relationship between Fulton’s restorative health program and the Black Freedom Struggle. 
  • Why is health and wellness within the Black community considered an intersectional issue between race, medicine, and political activism? What are some of the conditions that led to Civil Rights activists to focus on disparities in healthcare? 
  • What was the cultural role of Soul Food in the Civil Rights Movement? 
  • Why was it so difficult for nutritionists to convince Black folks to reduce their consumption of Soul Food?
  • What were some of the cultural narratives around Soul Food during the 1960’s? 
  • What role did Soul Food restaurants play in activist communities during this period?
  • Describe the cultural narrative that Fulton reframed in reimagining the historical roots of Soul Food.
  • Describe some of the other “Food Rebel” communities that are emphasizing alternative, plant-based diets for Black Americans.How was Fulton’s approach fundamentally different?
  • What is Fulton’s relationship with “White Healthism”?
  • What are some of the connections between white health programs and eugenics? Note how this is briefly mentioned in this chapter and, has to this point, been entirely absent from the other chapter’s discussions of the Holistic Health Movement…
  • List and describe some (of the many) things Fulton is “resisting” throughout this chapter.

 

Vocabulary: 

  • Biological reductionism 
  • Biomedicine
  • Original (biological) definition of holisim
  • 1970’s definition of holism
  • Secular humanism
  • Biopsychosocial approach
  • Human Potential Movement
  • Religious Universalism
  • Self Actualization
  • Aquarian Age
  • Audience Cult
  • Limited Holism 
  • Vernacular Healer
  • Materia Medica
  • American Healthism / White Healthism
  • Food Rebels
  • Natural Health Food movement

Week 4: Osteopathy and Chiropractic

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This week’s readings focus on two manual CAM healing systems that became (and continue to be) popular in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. While our readings focus on their early histories, rather than their later influence and development, these chapters continue to highlight the social and medical environments in which CAM emerged: a distrust for regular medicine and pharmacological drugs, and well as a desire to utilize pragmatic and “natural” healing methods. 

ddpalmer

As we’ll see in later chapters, Baer describes the process by which CAM healing systems resist biomedical systems, but eventually come to adjust their practice to accommodate medical licensing standards. As you read, think about how this trend is evident in the early development of Osteopathy and Chiropractic.

 

Discussion Groups

Group Discussion Notes #2 is due on Sunday, February 9th (via iCollege)

While I noted it on some of the first submissions, the Group Discussion Notes are supposed to reflect the conversation you’ve had as a group. They may not hit on every question I pose in the readings (although they should touch on each chapter assigned), but they should reflect the breadth and depth of your conversation. 

They should NOT be an amalgamation of different group members submitting individual notes. This type of submission will not be accepted moving forward. 

If you have any questions about what is expected in this assignment, or would like to see another student group example, please email me directly. 

 

Reflection Journals

Adjustments* due on Sunday, February 9th

    • Customize your EduBlog theme and appearance
    • Clear out the “noise” 
    • Add a picture or avatar
    • Adjust your comments setting (most already done) 
    • Adjust your timestamp to Eastern Standard Time (EST)

*For details, see Thursday’s post 

 

Choice Projects

Assignment details are still in progress and will be posted later this week. 


Reading Prompts: 

Nature Cures: The Rule of Artery: Osteopathy (pg 141-163)

    • What do you know about the role of Revival “Camp Meetings” in early American Christianity? What are the parallels you see between Still’s style as an itinerate healer? 
    • What theory of health and disease informed early Osteopathy? 
    • What is the relationship between Osteopathy and Natural Theology? 
    • What does Still mean by the phase, “An Osteopath is only a human engineer”? 
    • Who did the healing system appeal to? Why?
    • What  is involved in the practice of Osteopathy? (What does it look like? What happens to the patient?)
    • What was early Osteopathy’s relationship to drugs? To surgery? How did this change over the course of the system’s development? 
    • How does the course theme of “resistance and accommodation” appear in the history of Osteopathy? 

Nature Cures: Innate Intelligence: Chiropractic (pg 165-190)

    • Describe D.D. Palmer’s theory of health and disease related to the phrase, “Founded in tone”
    •  What is unique about Palmer’s understanding of nerve impingement? 
    • What is involved in the Chiropractic technique? 
    • How do Chiropractic and Osteopathy differentiate themselves from one another? 

 

Vocabulary: 

  • Bonesetting
  • Circuit rider
  • Camp Meeting (Revival)
  • Natural Theology
  • Lesion
  • Subluxation
  • Innate Intelligence

Trigger Warning in Week 3 Reading

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I meant to include this in the Reading Prompts, but somehow missed it while reviewing my notes. 

While it’s late in the week, I assume that most of you don’t get to your readings until the weekend. If not, I apologize for the delay.

That being said, within “Chapter 3: Homeopathy”, on page 74, the author includes a dated quote that is meant to highlight the conflict between homeopathy and regular medicine. This quote contains a racial slur against Black folks.

I find it really inappropriate that the author / historian decided to use the quote directly, and wish I had caught it sooner. Again, I’m sorry that I didn’t and for my delay in alerting you to the issue. I will do my best to do better next time.

If you prefer not to read that section (Allopathic Ridicule of Homeopathy, pages 70-74), you are welcome to. Or you could simply read the beginning of the chapter (49 – 70) and move on. 

For my Black and Indigenous students, please let me know if you have any concerns about this issue, or suggestions on how to handle similar situations moving forward. I welcome and value your input.