How do native cultures view psi phenomena?
How do culture-based beliefs and folklore around healing and
psychokinesis differ between places like China, Mexico, and the Australian
Outback? Why are seers and clairvoyants accepted in some cultures but shunned
by others, modern culture included? How are culture-bound/religion-bound magic,
witchcraft, and sorcery beliefs related to psychic abilities and experiences?
This 8-week academic seminar will be a high level overview
of the ideas and beliefs of psychic experiences, the human mind and spirit, and
related areas (life after death, reincarnation, etc.) as those beliefs have
been “seen” by anthropologists and parapsychologists around the world.
We will look at and discuss the possible instances of psi
phenomena best reported in studies of divination, witchcraft and sorcery
beliefs and practices, various cross cultural studies, modern beliefs in the
occult and supernatural, and the application of psychic functioning in
archaeology and anthropology. From the
parapsychological side, we will examine the ways culture affects belief, which
in turn affects the psychic experience.
The format for the seminar course is a short(ish) lecture
and live discussion each week. Additionally, there will be weekly discussion
questions (following up on our live discussions), a short-answer midterm quiz and
short-answer final quiz.