SPIRITUALITY STUDIESVolume 3 / Issue 1 SPRING 2017
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S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 1 EDITORIAL Issue content Editorial 1 Martin Dojčár Possibilities and Limits of Religion in the Cyberspace of Digital Media 2 Slavomír Gálik – Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová The Asperian Design 10 Thomas Crowther Education as Spiritual Life – Experience of John Bosco 20 Marek Wiesenganger Yoga Nidrā as a Tool in Yoga Training 26 Gejza M. Timčák Communication as Sādhanā 36 Swami Veda Bharati How Noble the Lord’s Prayer is 54 Míla Tomášová Editorial It seems that constructivists are correct when they define human existence as conditioned. There is no doubt that we all as humans are determined in multiple ways biologically, culturally, and socially. However, constructivists are not right when they try to impose the same conditioning on the primordial human experience of conscious being, primordial subjectivity subsisting in oneself. “I am and I know that I am” is a verbal expression of that experience going far beyond ordinary human state, transcending every conditioned modality of being and establishing its unconditioned modality. Nevertheless, we can argue, “is something like that possible at all”? When we look deeply into the history of spirituality, or into our own experience, as some of the authors have done in this issue, we may find strong arguments to support our initial claim. At the very moment when we happen to eliminate our identification with a particular form, our authentic identity is restored. As long as our sense of ourselves is no more derived from the form, but from the awareness that is aware of every form, both physical and mental, sense of self arises from the awareness as unconditioned awareness which is aware of, and at the same time distanced from, everything that can be perceived. In this very moment, a projection of the self into the sphere of objectivity is broken, at least for a while. It is this shift of identity from a form to the awareness aware of itself that deconstructs an unauthentic self-image and uncovers the ever-present primordial identity of the pure “I am”. The idea of identity resonates on the pages of the Spring issue of The Spirituality Studies Journal in various forms. It is discussed in regard to the alternative world of cyberspace by Prof. Slavomír Gálik and Dr. Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová, and to the original state by Dr. Thomas Crowther. It is related to education by Dr. Marek Wiesenganger, as well as to the yoga training by Doc. Gejza M. Timčák, and applied to the processes of communication by Swami Veda Bharati. As a symbolic dot after the issue can be considered a prayer of a great contemporary Czech mystic, Dr. Míla Tomášová, a prayer that points out to the transcendence itself and evokes transformational processes of human consciousness. ←← Cover: Míla Tomášová Copyright @ 2017 Milan Špak Spirituality Studies 3-1 Spring 2017 Publisher: The Society for Spirituality Studies Published in partnership with Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and European Union of Yoga Available online: www.spirituality-studies.org Editor-in-Chief: Doc. Dr. Martin Dojčár PhD. Graphic Design: Martin Hynek Contact: editor@spirituality-studies.org ISSN 1339-9578 Martin Dojčár
2 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 Possibilities and Limits of Religion in the Cyberspace of Digital Media Received February 8, 2017 Revised February 22, 2017 Accepted March 1, 2017 The authors of this paper study possibilities and limits of religion in the cyberspace of digital media, especially in theWorld of Warcraft videogame. Based on various research cases, they claim that videogames can saturate religious needs of the hypermodern human. Nevertheless, they cannot substitute them totally, since there is the humans’ body, a barrier between virtual and traditional religion. In the first case (the so-called external limitation), the body is irreplaceable in religious ritual such as Baptising in Christian religion or Mindfulness of Breathing (ānāpānasati) in Buddhism. In the second case (the socalled internal limitation), when the body (or its nerve centre) is linked to technologies, the boundary lies in the depth and validity of spiritual experience. The authors state that even if positive cyber-spiritual experience could be reached, it would still be necessary to plant it into broader moral and cognitive frames. Only in such case it could represent a positive stimulus for the spiritual journey. Key words Religion, spirituality, Christianity, Buddhism, cyberspace, videogames, World of Warcraft Slavomír Gálik – Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 3 SLAVOMÍR GÁLIK – SABÍNA GÁLIKOVÁ TOLNAIOVÁ 1 Introduction Every day we spend long hours in the virtual space of digital media searching for information, communicating, learning, buying and selling but also entertaining ourselves. The cyberspace of digital media thus becomes a new existential dimension for human, a dimension that broadens, complements, enriches and influences also the old, conventional human that rests deeply in his physical 3D world. In various spheres of life, for example in the speed of communication and search for information, this cyberspace undoubtedly wins over the old ways of communication. Dominance of the Internet and new types of media in general changes the culture and society as well. Stevan Harnad (1991) states that the Internet is a new, fourth in the row (following spoken, written and printed word), revolutionary form of media. Jean Lohisse (2003, 167) speaks similarly of the Internet being a new unprecedented medium that creates a new culture and society. Thomas Hylland Eriksen (2009, 17) even claims that the 21st century starts in 1991, with the rise of the Internet and its world-wide web application (www). For this reason, as Gregory Price Grieve and Heidi A. Campbell (2014, 53) say, we can assume that the Internet or cyberspace of digital media will have a great impact also on religion: “Walter Ong argues in ‘The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History’, that different media may make different religiosities possible. Ong suggests that religion began in an era of orality, was transmitted into visual form through manuscript writing as well as print, and has now entered the world in a new way via electronic media.“ Religion, or more precisely its oldest forms (magic, shamanism) were developed under the influence of spoken word. World religions such as Christianity of Buddhism were primarily formed by the means of spoken word and later also written word. Spoken word can draw those who communicate into presence, create unity and find meanings in the depth of communication. Written word breaks up this harmony, since it represents an external medium that is based on sequencing of linearly spread characters (phonetic writing). Such a medium supports a perspective visual perception, subject-object duality in learning, linearity of time (past–present–future) and distance in communication. Written words, especially their linear pattern of characters, bring discipline into thinking and expressing ideas and therefore launch the process of scientific thinking. On one hand, the media of spoken word and written word contribute to each, but on the other they are also very different. We believe that in Christianity this difference emerges in the complicated relationship between faith and reasoning, theology and philosophy. In Buddhism, especially in Theravada school, we can find a great importance of rational knowledge. For example, in About the authors Prof. PhDr. Slavomír Gálik, PhD. (1965) is a philosopher who specializes in philosophy of mysticism, philosophy of media, and history of philosophy. He had published extensively on these issues. Among his most important publications are books Philosophy and Mysticism and The Spiritual Dimension of Crisis of Contemporary Man. As a head researcher, he lead a research project on phenomenon of “mystical death” in European and extra-European spiritual traditions. He currently serves as the head of the Department of Mass Media Communications at the Faculty of Mass Media Communications, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia. His electronic contact is s_galik@yahoo.com. PhDr. Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová, PhD. (1973) is a philosopher with special interests in systematic philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of education, and ethics of media. Some of these issues she discusses in her last bookThe Idea of Psychagogy in the Holistic Perspective. She is affiliated to the Department of Legal and Human Studies at the Faculty of Mass Media Communications, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia. Her email contact is sabina.galikova@ucm.sk.
4 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 meditation practice, it is important to recognize every step and stage of meditation. The influence of media on shaping religion is vast, therefore we would like to scrutinize in this paper the extent of digital media’s influence on religion. We understand “digital media” chiefly as a virtual space (cyberspace) into which religious content can be transformed, paying special attention to the videogame calledWorld of Warcraft (WoW). We will be comparing this content with traditional religions such as Christian religion and Buddhism and, in one special case, with Shamanism. We would like to determine the possibilities for digital media to develop religious content for a modern, say secular human and then assess limitations or borders between traditional religion and religion in the cyberspace of digital media. 2 What is Religion? Religion is a highly complex phenomenon that incorporates myths, rituals, prayers, ethical standards, community and similar aspects [1]. In reference to Ninian Smart, Robert M. Geraci (2014, 15) defines seven primary dimensions in religion: doctrine (teachings), myth, ritual, experience, institutions, and material culture. A different, somewhat more complex and general definition of religion could be found in two great representatives of modern religions: Christianity and Buddhism. In the core of both of them is their founder – Christ in Christianity, Buddha in Buddhism. Then it is the doctrine, which is incorporated in the New Testament in Christian religion in both written and oral traditions, andDharma in Buddhism. Further, there is the Christian fellowship of people who actively worship Christ, while in Buddhism there is Sangha– a spiritual community [2]. Such a definition of religion can be applied to all religions, including myths and rituals. However, it does not necessarily mean it is universal. For instance, in certain syncretic religions, like the New Age, there is no creator or perhaps the creator is not crucial. It is important therefore for us to embrace the essence of every religion as generally as possible. The definition constructed by Mircea Eliade can be taken as a typical example; he describes phenomenologically the basic element of every religion –sacred– or the idea of being sacred. M. Eliade (1995, 21) states that “the phenomenon of sacred is an element in the structure of consciousness“, found in any religion (2006, 13) and this unique and elementary structure of sacred opposes the profane way of life. Transcendence from profane to sacral life brings unprecedented spiritual experience. Eliade, for example, mentions the story of patriarch Jacob (Gn 28: 10–22), who we fell asleep on his way to Laban. He dreamt of a ladder that angles were ascending and descending and of God’s promise to him. When he finally woke up, he marked this “horrible” place and set the rock he had been sleeping on as a pillar. This story, as the Bible describes, has two dimensions – the inner one and the outer one. The first depicts an inner spiritual experience, extraordinary, transcendent, sacral and in this case also scary, while the second, following dimension, depicts the act of defining the once ordinary place as a sacred place. A sacred place, according to Eliade (2006, 18) is taken out of the usual homogeneous and amorphous place, it represents the Fullness of Being, centre of the world or perhaps a gate that leads to different worlds. A sacred place is bound to a sacred time, when the sacred happening is retrieved for example through a ritual commemorating of the original happening or event. If then every religion is based on spiritual experiences, or if it is revitalised by such experience, then mysticism very well represents such experiencing. In its relation to spirituality, mysticism is an even more strictly defined term, describing its most intimate part. Considering this perspective (from the outside towards the inside), we can describe the following structure: religion–spirituality–mysticism. There are three phases in Christian mysticism –purification, illumination, and union phase. On their journey, mystic adepts are first confronted with their own bad inclinations from which they need to break free. After they have fully succeeded in this, the phase of inner light comes. The inner light represents energy that also unleashes and widens consciousness, which first transcends the physical barriers and then travels further through various dimensions until it reaches unity with God. We meet such a complex mysticism in the case of St. Teresa of Avila, she described it in her work Interior Castle. She depicted her own mystical journey through the “seven mansions”. The first three mansions represent the phase or purification, the fourth mansion is the beginning of mystical experience with the illumination phase, the fifths mansion brings the mystical death, the sixth describes “soul’s flight” and finally the seventh mansion means unification with God. Teresa (1921, 121) describes unification with God as follows: “But spiritual marriage is like rain falling from heaven into a river or stream, becoming one and the same liquid, so that the river and rain water cannot be divided; or it resembles a streamlet flowing into the ocean, which cannot afterwards be disunited from it. This marriage may also be likened to a room into which a bright light enters through two windows – though divided when it enters, the light becomes one and the same.” Even though Buddhism, being a different religious, cultural, and also language tradition, does not talk about mysticism, it still shares some features with Christian mysticism. These characteristics embrace chiefly deeper states of consciousness that
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 5 SLAVOMÍR GÁLIK – SABÍNA GÁLIKOVÁ TOLNAIOVÁ are reached through concentration and meditation. The goal of the Buddhist path is to reach the state of nirvana, unconditioned mind, not limited by any shape and any name. This state of unconditioned and pure mind is not dissimilar to unification with God that St. Teresa of Avila describes. Interesting similarities with her mysticism can be found for example in Jiyu-Kennett’s Zen Buddhism. In her book, How to Grow a Lotus Blossom or How a Zen Buddhist Prepares for Death, she describes her own spiritual experience through meditation. Jiyou-Kennett (1997, 31, 68, 144) describes confrontation with one’s own negative inclinations, release of internal light (the so-called delicate energy, chakras), liberation from the body and finally reaching nirvana. In Jiyu-Kennett’s spirituality, we could find phases that are similar to those in Christian mysticism: purification, enlightenment and unification. However, this similarity is more structural than content-based because the content is defined by a different religion and culture. Spiritual and mystical experiences in religions form a solid base for both Christianity and Buddhism, but, as we can consequently suppose, also other world’s religions. Yet this experience is not purposeless, it leads humans towards a spiritual goal, defined uniquely in each religion (salvation in Christian religion, awakening in Buddhism) but their commons denominator is in transcendence of human destiny. 3 Possibilities for Religion in the Cyberspace of Digital Media What are the possibilities for religion in the virtual space of digital media and namely in the cyberspace of video games? Robert M. Geraci (2014, 11) recognizes two possibilities in the context of World of Warcraft and Second Life videogames: (1) Offering a new space to practice an old religion; (2) Offering a new space for creating a meaningful life without traditional religious communities. Expressed in other words, it is the usual practice of distinguishing religion online and online religion (Gálik and Cenká 2013, 232). In the first case, we talk about providing complex information about religious groups that are established in the society officially, while the second case talks about space for virtual interactive participation, for example in liturgy, prayers, rituals, meditations and so forth. Different criteria, based on a videogame’s influence on the player, is used by Markus Wiemker and Jan Wysocki (2014, 206–207): (1) Religion offers a background for the video game. For instance, Manchester Cathedral, with its main body in Gothic style (Resistance – Fall of Man). (2) Religion is used directly in each videogame (religious stories and similar cases). Even though the players may not be aware of religion, they will be confronted with it during the gameplay (BioShock Infinite, Age of Mythology). (3) Religion in videogame directly influences the players, their thinking, imagination, and believes, for example in Left Behind – Eternal Forces, Bible Adventures. It is generating new religious phenomena in the cyberspace of videogames that is most interesting to study, as Geraci proposes, along with a direct influence on religious belief of the player, described by Wiemker and Wysocki. According to Geraci (2014, 5) online communication on the Internet is becoming a place for a new form of seeking spirituality. Released in 2004, The Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft offers such a place for spiritual realization too. Many countries, for example the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Mexico, participated in creating the game. A year later also South Korea, China, the EU, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong appeared in the list. Having incorporated various symbolic and mythological aspects from different cultures across the globe, the game gained an important status. This game is presently played by some 13 million gamers across the world that identify themselves with various mythological characters, both positive and negative. The game offers a possibility to join in communities and thus fight the common enemy, which makes it even more attractive. The gameplay consists of two fictional worlds called Azeroth and Outland/Draenor. Azeroth spreads on four continents: Northrend, Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Pandaria. The biggest battlefield is in Azeroth, with Aliance and Horde fighting each other. R. M. Geraci (2014, 3) is convinced that World of Warcraft offers a deeper immersion than World Wide Web and greater lifespan than standard videogames. According to him (Geraci 2014, 9) WoW is an active constituent or modern religious life helping to form, authorize and rewrite our religious practice. The author (Geraci 2014, 32) says that for numerous players WoW opens new spiritual possibilities such as community, moral compass, feeling of identity, meaningful goal and transcendent experience. Moreover, Geraci even claims that religious experience in cyberspace of WoW videogame is not less real than in traditional religions because (Geraci 2014, 213) there is no doubt that virtual worlds are real too: “Virtual worlds enable new ways of being oneself and of interacting with others that affect the users of that world and the physical world. The interconnections between conventional and virtual life mean that religious practise and thought developed in, emergent from, and objectified by virtual worlds will help shape everyone’s life in the years to come.“ Geraci (2014, 99) says that videogames bring something sacred virtually, especially in the case of WoW, but they also offer a possibility for spiritual realization for a modern secular man. This author explains that human beings are spiritual by nature, which is now reflected in videogames. In the USA, WoW is popu-
6 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 lar to such extent that it can compete other religions. As the author says (Geraci 2014, 32), there are just a handful of religious denominations in the USA that have more followers than WoW. Jose Vallikatt (2014, 62) spent several years studying the phenomenon of videogame calledWorld of Warcraft and for three months spent three hours a day playing it. He also interviewed some players in several places in India. In this videogame, Vallikatt specifically focused on presence of religious phenomena, such as myths, rituals and establishing of communities that are typical also in traditional religions. In the first case, Vallikatt found many myths that are very similar to usual myths. In the introduction to the game, on its web site, he found a mythological introduction to the story. It was a narrative about the beginning of the world (game) and about the player’s role to re-create the world. In case of a new version of the game he found explanation of the changes that were implemented in the world, usually outbreak of chaos, disruption of the kingdom of Azeroth and the player’s quest to establish order. In the WoW videogame, the fight between “light” and “darkness” usually takes place on the mythical Mount Hyjal, and usually includes defence of the “world tree”. Beside cosmogonic myths, there are also various heroic myths. In the game, the player is transformed to his avatar, who is alone in the beginning of the game, and faces various quests. If the avatar – hero – succeeds, he gets a reward – he reaches higher degrees of skills and gains appreciation from the community. Vallikatt (2014, 164) says that myths in WoW constitute an important part of the game and set the way facts are perceived and the world is understood. Moreover, the players identify themselves deeply with their avatars and start to live their lives. Deep identification with avatars is visible for example when one exclaims, “I was killed” rather that “my avatar was killed”. Another important part of WoW is in rituals that, according toVallikatt (2014, 104), share some features with rituals in religions. He sees rituals in a broader context, as unchanging actions and expressions that repeat in certain sequences. The goal of each of them is to get desirable results. Vallikatt (2014, 108) sees a great deal of rituals in challenges the player is faced with, challenges that are based on rules but also on ritual ways of succeeding in the missions. Some of the rituals are closely bound to myths, for example the ritual of healing the “world tree”, ritual of player’s revival and similar. The third important part of WoW, according toVallikatt, is community. Similarly to religions, various communities are established in order to better cooperate in the fight against monsters and generally against spread of chaos in the players’ world. Valikatt comments (2014, 141) that the players naturally become members of communities because they want to share their experience and values. When asked, many players even stated that players’ communities are often better than traditional communities based on family or religion. One of the players (Muji) even said that the players’ community is very real for him and that he was never able to separate online playing time from real life. Vallikatt (2014, 168) claims that the WoW game offers its players mysterious and transcendent experiences and the player walks, consciously or unconsciously, into the world that has a religious character. In this respect, the WoW game can offer some spiritual satisfaction and the newly arising cyber-spirituality can represent religion for the hyper-modern generation. What possibilities are there for religion in the cyberspace of digital media and, more specifically, videogames such as WoW? We agree with both authors that virtual reality is something unphysical, yet physically real in certain aspects. Connection between virtual reality is realized through our sense-perception, it can also trigger some neuroplastic response in our brain (Gálik and Gáliková Tolnaiová 2015, 12). Similarly, J. D. F. Tuckett and David G. Robertson (2014, 100) state that religion in videogames is taken as real. They refer to approach taken by Wiliam James and Alfred Schutz, who claim that if something exists in a meaningful relation to people then it is real (Tuckett and Robertson 2014, 88). It means that when people assess a situation as real, then this situation brings real consequences (Tuckett and Robertson 2014, 99). Since our fantasy can be taken as something unreal, it may also be understood as virtual reality. For example, if we have a feeling that something is moving in the darkness, then this “idea” will trigger real consequence in the form of fear, racing of the heart and similar symptoms. It is similar in the case when we are involved in a videogame in the cyberspace of digital media. In this sense, reality includes also virtual reality. It means that a spiritual experience online can be as intense as a spiritual experience offline. For this reason, World of Warcraft, for example, can satisfy the religious needs of a present hypermodern man. Despite this, there are still some differences that we will try to explain in the following chapter. 4 Spiritual Limitations in the Cyberspace of Digital Media Human body, we believe, still constitutes a significant boundary between reality and virtual reality and consequently between traditional and virtual religion. We see the boundary here in two cases, which we determine as external limitation and internal limitation. External limitation. In traditional religion, for example in Christian religion, sacraments, especially baptizing is conditio sine
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 7 SLAVOMÍR GÁLIK – SABÍNA GÁLIKOVÁ TOLNAIOVÁ qua non, an indispensable and essential action to attain salvation: “If a person is not born from water and The Spirit, it is impossible that he shall enter the Kingdom of God.“ (John 3: 5). The sacrament of baptising is realised by either submerging into water or pouring water on the head. In either case, presence of human’s body is an inevitable condition. Virtual baptising therefore cannot be accepted since two physical components are missing – the body itself and the water. Eucharist, another sacrament, is also important for salvation: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.“ (John 6: 53–54). Eucharist is again based on material things (bread and wine) that are consumed, which is, again, impossible in the cyberspace of digital media. Moreover, to attain salvation, both baptism and Eucharist are inevitable in Christian religion. In this point, Christian religion and virtual religion can never meet one another. In Theravada school of Buddhism, there are no such sacraments as in Christian religion (or perhaps their definitions are different, for example initiation at the Sangha), but also here the human’s body is a significant component on the road to freedom. Human’s body is important in respect of mindfulness (vipassanā in Pali language), namely mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) or walking (caṅkama). Mirko Frýba (1995, 151– 160) describes the first meditation as careful focusing one’s attention to breathing in and breathing out, either in the area under the nose or on the belly. Each disruption, for example an idea or feeling, causes a halt in the process and the person who is trying to meditate gets back to the previous stage. Similarly in the mindful walking meditation, when the person who meditates realises each rising of the foot and putting it back, every mental disturbance is taken as a defect. In both cases the mindfulness of action is refined until the stage of awakening is reached (nibbāna in Pali language and nirvāna in Sanskrit language). Mindful breathing and walking meditation that we find in Theravada school of Buddhism cannot be replaced in the virtual space. Perhaps even more intense work with body can be found in Tibetan (Tantrayāna) school of Buddhism, which works with the so-called subtle physiology, energy centres or chakras and nadi channels (Snelling 2000, 126). This school teaches that body offers a way to freedom that can be uncovered and awakened by means of concentration and meditation. If energy (kundalini) is unleashed, it can travel upward and thus open various energy centres from the lowest to the highest one (sahasrāra), in which freedom is achieved. Also in this case, it is utterly unrealistic for virtual surrounding to replace body, an indispensable condition to achieve freedom. We believe that among these boundaries, also interpersonal human communication (Modrzejewski 2016, 8) in either Christian or Buddhist religious community could be mentioned. Human body constitutes a unique realistic principle also in interpersonal communication “face to face”, thanks to which we know that communication with the other person is real and authentic. Reality and authenticity can be seen in the form of physical touch, for example, but also “auratic” radiation of the body. Neither physical contact not “aura” of the second person can be transferred through online communication in cyberspace. For this reason, spiritual experience in traditional, real religious community should be different and more intensive than the one existing in online community, offered by technologies. Internal limitation. The second boundary, though much more subtle, lies in the technological possibility to gain deeper spiritual and mystical experience. Also here Geraci (2014, 213) is an optimist when we says: “Researches at the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California, for example, have used Microsoft’s Kinect to control World of Warcraft using body motions.” Other researches, according to him, use direct brain-computer connection that makes it easier for physically handicapped to control the game of Second Life. Geraci (2014, 213–214) goes like this: “If the user’s body and the game avatar are more closely linked through such technologies, the divide between what happens within the game and what happens outside it will turn fuzzy. […] in the very near future the distinction between ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ will disappear.” The socalled Cyber-Shamanism also takes this direction, as it can use new technologies such as Oculus Rift [3] with the perspective of reaching changed state of consciousness, similarly to real shamanism [4]. The used technology is programmed to simulate changes in consciousness that happen in real trance. As one of the cyber-shamans confessed (Martínková 2008, 48), approximately one hour after an intense immersion into cyberspace he lost sense of time and space and felt thoroughly detached from everything. However, can cyber-shamanism replace traditional shamanism, which sees one of its goals in healing people? Does a cyber-shaman reach real spiritual worlds? Also, how much does such a form of cyber-spirituality transform a man? Our starting point is in the fact that after the cyber-spiritual experience the person’s consciousness and thinking come back to normal. We could also think of the possibility where regular applications of cyber-spirituality lead to permanent changes in nervous system. Yet, it is questionable whether such changes would push people in the right direction. It is true that there are various “techniques” that people use in different spiritual traditions to reach changed states of consciousness, for example drumming, dancing, rhythmical breathing or hallucinogenic drugs, but these are always used in certain spiritual context, with certain knowledge and in order to achieve a concrete
8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 goal. For this reason, cyber-spiritual experience with no further knowledge can only constitute one segment of spiritual life, a segment that cannot replace shaman spirituality or whichever other traditional spirituality. We could think hypothetically about a direct connection between technologies and human’s nervous system. We could imagine irritation of some centres of nervous system, which would result in visions similar to mystical experience. However, would this experience mean a valuable progression on the spiritual path? Will it be strong enough to introduce changes in life? Will it prevent the bad inclinations in us and replace them with high moral standards without which everything would fall back to the old ways? In traditional spiritual traditions, we speak about a whole complex of methods that work with mind and body, not just the spiritual experience itself. For example, Buddhist meditation works heavily with concentration – such as concentration on breathing or certain point in the body, which can trigger changes in the nervous system or, in case of Tantrayāna, energy that will broaden consciousness and mediate extraordinary experience. Yet, also here knowledge and wisdom are necessary for these experiences to integrate into one’s life, and equally important is the virtue of meditation – so that the path is not interrupted. Therefore, if technology-triggered experience started one’s spiritual path, there would have to be also other aspects of spiritual life, such as eager work on oneself, improving self-knowledge, eliminating bad inclinations, meditation and similar. This is the reason why we believe that technologically triggered spiritual experience can at most be merely accompanying or perhaps stimulating phenomenon in the whole context of spiritual and religious life. 5 Conclusions With new kinds of media emerging, we can expect also changes and transformations in religions simply because we express ourselves and communicate through media. Traditional religions, such as Christian religion, grew upon spoken and written words. Spoken words influenced depth, transcendence and the sense of present time, while written words aimed at precision of expressions and thoughts, linearity of time and visual perspective. In context of Christian religion, there has always been a constant tension between these two forms of media, which is reflected in conflict between belief and logical mind, or theology and philosophy. New digital media, such as the Internet or videogames, will also be anything but neutral towards religion, they will influence it in certain ways of thinking, imagination, feeling, but also actions. The Internet, through its great multilateral possibilities in gathering information will favour non-linear thinking in religion, thinking that is realised almost immediately and characterised by domination of images. Different platforms of the Internet, for example social networks, can offer a place for virtual religious community. All of this is, much stronger and with greater immersion in the cyberspace, present in videogames, concretely in the videogame that is the object of our study –World of Warcraft. Together with R. Geraci and J. Vallikatt we admit that videogames can transfer a spiritual experience or perhaps saturate needs of a hypermodern man. We may even suppose that new religious forms will be developed in the cyberspace of digital media. Here, we see some possibilities for religion to evolve in the cyberspace of digital media. However, there is still a boundary for every virtual religion – the human’s body. In the first case, the so-called external limitation, the body is totally irreplaceably for example in Christian ritual of baptism, or mediation in mindful breathing in Buddhism. In the second case, the so-called internal limitation, which is still more or less a matter of science-fiction, we have the problem of connecting modern technologies with human’s body. We will probably see some more experiments in here and it is possible that some partial success will be achieved in, for example, intense experiencing of spiritual visions, feeling of no time-flow and total immersion into sacred spheres. Yet, it is still questionable whether new cyber-spirituality will lead to a religious objective (salvation in Christian religion, freedom in Buddhism) or it will stay, similarly to the case of visual experiencing of the sacred, purely as experience – which is not sufficient according to the traditional approach to religions. Also here, the experience itself would have to be more intense and relatively stable in a wider moral, cognitive and social context if it should be of a mystical value. Mere experience is not enough, it is also necessary to know what kind of experience it is, how much and which way it pushes us on the spiritual path and how to work with it further on. In the worse scenario, cyber-spiritual experience could lead to fixation only on the experience, which could lead to addiction; in the better scenario, it could mean a complement and motivation for real spirituality.
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 9 SLAVOMÍR GÁLIK – SABÍNA GÁLIKOVÁ TOLNAIOVÁ Acknowledgement This article is a partial outcome of a research project VEGA no. 1/0284/14Kyberpriestor ako nová existenciálna dimenzia človeka [Cyberspace as a New Existential Dimension of Man]. Notes [1] Etymology of the Latin word religio or religere reveals its basic meaning – to regain bond between; in this context to regain bond between humans and God, the sole Supreme Being, the Creator, etc. [2] Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are seen in Buddhism as the Three Jewels. [3] “Oculus Rift“ is a device that brings a very strong experience of virtual reality. [4] Mircea Eliade and Ioan P. Culianu (2001, 231) define shamanism as a set of ecstatic and therapeutic methods to meet parallel but invisible world of ghosts and earn their interest to interact with human matters. References Eliade, Mircea. 1995. Dejiny náboženských predstáv a ideí I [A History of Religious Ideas I]. Bratislava: Agora. Eliade, Mircea. 2006. Posvátné a profánní [The Sacred and The Profane]. Praha: Oikoymenh. Eliade, Mircea and Ioan P. Culianu. 2001. Slovník náboženství [Dictionary of Religions]. Praha: Argo. Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2009. Tyranie okamžiku: rychlý a pomalý čas v informačním věku [Tyranny of the Moment: Fast and Slow Time in the Information Age]. Brno: Doplněk. Frýba, Mirko, 1995. Psychologie zvládání života: aplikace metody abhidamma [Psychology of the Life Management: Application of the Abidhamma Methods]. Brno: Masarykova univerzita. Gálik, Slavomír, and Radoslava Cenká. 2013. “Twilight of Christianity in TeleView of the World: From Homo Religiosus to Homo Videns.” European Journal of Science and Theology 9 (5): 225–236. Gálik, Slavomír, and Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová. 2015. “Influence of Internet on the Cognitive Abilities of Man: Phenomenological and Hermeneutical Approach.” Communication Today 6 (1): 4–15. Geraci, Robert M. 2014. Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life. New York: Oxford University Press. Grieve, Gregory Price, and Heidi A. Campbell. 2014. “Studying Religion in Digital Gaming: A Critical Review of an Emerging Field.” Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 5: 51–67. Harnad, Stevan. 1991. Post-Gutenberg Galaxy: The Fourth Revolution in the Means of Production of Knowledge. Accessed November 5, 2016. http://cogprints. org/1580/1/harnad91.postgutenberg.html. Jiyu-Kennett. 1997. Jak pěstovat lotosový květ aneb jak se zenový buddhista připravuje na smrt [How to Grow a Lotus Blossom or How a Zen Buddhist Prepares for Death]. Bratislava: CAD Press. Lohisse, Jean. 2003. Komunikační systémy: Socioantropologický pohled [The Systems of Communication: Socio-Anthropological Approach]. Praha: Karolinum. Martínková, Libuše 2008. “Computer Mediated Religious Life of Technoshamans and Cybershamans: Is there any Virtuality?” Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 3: 43–60. Modrzejewski, Arkadiusz. 2016. “The Personalistic Aspect of Truth and Dialogue in the Context of Karol Wojtyła’s Philosophy: John Paul II’s Ethics of Media.” Communication Today 7 (1): 4–16. Teresa of Avila. 1921. The Interior Castle or The Mansions. London: Thomas Baker. Tuckett, J. D. F., and David G. Robertson. 2014. “Locating the Locus of Study on ‘Religion’ in Video Games.” Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 5: 86–107. Snelling, John. 2000. Buddhizmus [The Elements of Buddhism]. Bratislava: Media klub. Vallikatt, Jose. 2014. Virtually Religious: Myth, Ritual and Community in World of Warcraft. Melbourne: RMIT University. Wiemker, Markus, and Jan Wysocki. 2014. “’When people pray, a god is born…This god is you!’ Introduction to Religion and God in Digital Games.” Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet 5: 197–223.
1 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 The Asperian Design Received December 20, 2016 Revised January 9, 2017 Accepted January 9, 2017 Reality is two-fold, composed of the lighted world as revealed in Genesis, and the darker primordiality which preceded it. The illuminated represents that which the human mind can comprehend, manipulate and re-order to its will: a “designed” and mechanical universe of parts. But behind it, in the backspace of reality, remains the darkness. A formless state of pre-creation, the darkness exists as an endless series of intertwining “signatures”– single possibilities waiting to be created in the illuminated forefront of reality. Permitting each and every part of the lighted world to be connected to the rest, it possesses a “design” all of its own. The question is, if we are blind in the dark, how could we ever come to know it? Key words Liberty, perfection, genesis, universal, omniversal Thomas Crowther
S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 1 1 Thomas Crowther 1 Introduction: Genesis before the Dawn “Creation” is the watchword of life, conjuring images of light triumphantly breaking forth out of darkness. But though the power to draw the non-existent into reality lies at the heart of all things, it is the human mind’s capacity to comprehend this power that doubtless makes it one of the most brilliant things our universe can boast of. As a product of that universe however – imprisoned to the body, to time, and to all the limitations of mortality – the mind is also inclined to take a restrictive view on creation. Drawing upon the promethean tale of Eve, this article explores this relationship between human perception and creation, arguing that two distinguishable truths (or “designs”) potentially underlie it: the Universal and the Asperian. Both seek absolute states: the former, “perfection”; the latter, “liberty”. Both seek a complete understanding of the universe. And both vie for the redundancy of the other. But before exploring these two “designs”, we need to first enquire into their source. In other words, we need to begin by asking a fundamental question: what (if anything) is the precondition of creation? The familiar creation tale of the Old Testament provides us with an answer in its very first verse –“In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth” (Genesis 1: 1). Of course, one then inevitably asks, what is the precondition of God? As a child, I asked the same, and querying upon a potential back-story, I envisioned a solitary, male figure alone in a great expanse of nothingness. I thus assumed God had created his universe as a kind of leisurely distraction, as a bored child might. But aside from the obvious paradox behind a creator’s origins, I found the nature of God’s initial universe fearful indeed. For as is stated in the Bible, the earth which was first formed was “without form and void; [with] darkness [being] upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1: 2; see also Job 26: 10; 38: 9; Campbell 1973, 297; Chupungco 1977, 82; May 1939; Niditch 1985, 72). This is an inherently unsettling image, presenting us with a nightmarish vision of pre-existence, depicting a dark, formless and somewhat anarchic primordiality preceding the appearance of the illuminated, ordered and organised cosmos. But what I find interesting is that the story uses both water and darkness as the metaphorical precondition of creation; a common theme in creation myths around the globe (see Cameron 1992; Helms 2004; Knipe 1989; Van Over 1980; Wakeman 1973, 86). This is hardly surprising, because preceding and sustaining all life on the planet, water acts as the universal in-between – between that which is solid and vapourous – within which we are suspended, as in the womb, where we await our emergence into the world. But perhaps more important still is the disturbing image of the deep darkness which also precedes the emergence of the lighted cosmos. The darkness before the dawn can often seem disquieting, as it is within the dark that we can slip into the “Other”; the unconscious; the “unsure”, where the laws of the lighted world are equally suspended (Heijnen 2005; Morris 2011). About the author Thomas Crowther (1986) holds a PhD from Durham University, UK. An archaeologist by profession, he also writes in philosophy, anthropology and spirituality and has previously had work published with the American Humanist Association. His email contact is tgw.crowther@gmail.com.
1 2 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 This makes the dark an intimidating, but at the same time, liberating “otherworld”; a state of unsettling chaos for some and uplifting liberation for others, in which we await the solidness of the real world (i.e. the conscious universe) which light heralds in. Both water and darkness are thus elements in which we await creation, and as such, I cannot imagine the Old Testament’s dark and watery precondition as a kind of void of nothingness or as a state of pure darkness and absolute absence. Such a void alludes to the impossibility of creation, for something cannot spring into existence from nothing. So instead, I would present this dark and watery primordiality as a condition of pure expectation before creation – of pure possibility. Rather than a blank slate of nothingness, I imagine this as a slate upon which all possibilities exist, but where no one possibility has yet been created. A place (if you can call it such) where a “signature” of every possibility exists prior to creation, and where no one possibility dominates another; a theme I have previously touched upon (Crowther 2014). This is what I identify as the “omniversal Potential”, and putting the concept of “God as creator” aside for a moment, it is this which acts as the precondition of all creation. The act of creation is when a possibility is removed from the omniversal Potential – from this dark and watery void of infinite possibility – and becomes something apart from it: a “creation”; that is, a possibility created. In the Genesis narrative, the “Spirit of God” moves across the dark and watery void of the omniversal Potential, and, guided by a vision of what his universe will consist of, he removes a single possibility so as to construct that universe, uttering those immortal, albeit now hackneyed words, “let there be light”. In so doing, the ordered solidness of his new creation (i.e. the original universe as stated in the bible) is revealed. light thus represents the act of creation here; that is, a possibility previously in the dark, previously only a possibility in the omniversal Potential, being formed and revealed. The creation of light does not eliminate the darkness which preceded it however, but separates a world apart from it. likewise, the creation of the lighted universe does not eliminate the omniversal Potential which lies behind it, and from which it was essentially sourced. Significantly, the Genesis tale suggests that the possibility which is separated from the omniversal Potential (i.e. the universe which was formed and revealed) is one that is designed and therefore, limited. And in Eden, the heart of this new creation, God resolves to craft a species that will dwell within and eventually dominate this new world: humanity. But the greed inherent within the human design becomes clear early on, as is hinted in the actions of Eve; the intriguing and tragic antagonist who unwittingly triggers the fall of the human race. It is perhaps unsurprising then that she is now regarded by her descendants as the original sinner, the heretic, and the weaker twin of God’s last creation, man. But I’ve always pictured her in a rather different light: flawed, yes, but also as a bold firebrand who personifies some of our most cherished values. It is this version of Eve which I wish to share. 2 The Torch Bearer: Eden and the Fall “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2: 9–10). Between the lines, one can sense the Garden of Eden to be the embodiment of abundance, harmony and most of all, perfection. Indeed, when we imagine Eden, we often think of a place where the material and spiritual aspects of life have been harmonised; a Utopia if you will – that grand idea of perfection we dream of (re)gaining. In the Genesis narrative, perfection is embodied in one element: the Tree of Life, which is in reality and in legend the source of eternal life, guarding Eden against the “evils of fear, decay and corruption; a warden of the garden’s imperishable state. However, as Genesis clarifies, the Tree of Life has a counterpart; an element of the garden I believe to be one of the most resonant symbols in human history. Hanging over the very edge of creation, over the edge of Eden, stands the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. With its roots extending into
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