Processing Entities

Healing Practices and Body Conceptions in the New Age Group “Spiritual Technology”

Bibliographic Data

ID14714031
AuthorsMaria Pinal Villanueva (0009-0003-8128-0971, University of Belgrade, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume19
Issue2
Publication date2024-08-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEtnoantropološki problemi / Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0353-1589 • E-ISSN: 2334-8801
PublisherUniversity of Belgrade - Faculty of Philosophy - Department of Ethnology and Anthropology (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.21301/eap.v19i2.11
OpenAlexW4401496871
LanguageEN
References cited16

It is virtually impossible to conduct a holistic study of any religious phenomenon without considering its relationship with health, healing, and the body. In the case of New Age or self-denominated "Spiritual" groups, the role of health takes on an even more prominent role, acting as a soteriology or a cultural ideal. This paper focuses on the conceptions of the body, healing, and well-being held by members of the Serbian group "Spiritual Technology," founded by Živorad Mihajlović Slavinski in 1996, and their associated practices. Through an in-depth analysis of various texts authored by Slavinski, healing practices are considered as religious practices, divided into prevention and remediation practices, along with their subsequent stages (diagnosis, treatment, and prescription). Based on an energetic view of the body, where well-being and unwellness are concepts constantly renegotiated between healer and patient, the body is understood as composed of entities, which have been classified and divided in terms of their origin and their influences on humans. This research concludes that these ritualized practices contribute to the creation of ritual bodies as well as common narratives of corporeality, health, and even a shared worldview, serving as an interpretative framework to interact with the self and the surrounding world and, therefore, playing an important role in the formation of contemporary subjectivities

Group (periodic table · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access