"Uses and Abuses of Power in Alternative Spiritualities" Conference

Abstract: The misuse of power in alternative spiritual communities is similar and different than the misuse of power in most mainstream religious communities. In this workshop we will explore an archetypal understanding of leadership and power. Specifically, we will explore the Nature Based Map of the Human Psyche, a tool that maps our facets of wholeness as well as our four sets of fragmented or wounded subpersonalities that form during childhood. We will primarily explore the leadership facets and the fragments posing as true leadership. Specific examples will be described We will also discuss how the NBMHP can be used for leaders and organizations as well as for entire spiritual communities that wish to reduce their potential to cause harm and to cultivate individual and community wholeness.

Presenter bio: Brian Stafford, MD, MPH is a former Endowed Chair of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Public Health and now practices as a vision gast guide, ecotherapist, psychedelic assisted psychotherapist, and independent scholar. He was raised in Evangelical Christianity but went “wild” and has lived in and served as a consultant to many progressive intentional communities and organizations. He has published over 50 scientific papers and given talks on every continent covering various topics of human development and spirituality, He is the Director of the Wild Mind Eco-Depth Psychotherapy Training Program at the Animas Valley Institute.

Presenter affiliation: Animas Valley Institute

Abstract: “Ancestors & Money: The Spiritual Dimension of Reparations Work for White People” is a learning journey for white people with class privilege committing to redistribution of money, land and power. This approach is designed as a contribution to the Black and Indigenous-led spiritually-oriented social movements fighting for reparations for colonization and enslavement. This presentation discusses the use of unearned power inherited by white people under racialized capitalism, and the potential of surrendering it in spiritually-grounded acts of repair. This pedagogy was offered as a student-led course at Harvard Divinity School in Fall 2022, and has been offered to the public four times from 2021-2023, see morganhcurtis.com/ancestors-money. It weaves reparative approaches to wealth redistribution with attention to healing whiteness as a spiritual sickness, informed by nature-based rites-of-passage work, restorative justice, the Work That Reconnects, and European ancestral reclamation work as its primary communities of spiritual practice.

Presenter bio: As a facilitator, money coach, organizer and ritualist, Morgan is dedicated to working with her fellow people with wealth and class privilege towards redistribution, atonement, and repair of ancestral harms. She is in the process of redistributing 100% of her inherited wealth and 50% of her income to primarily Black- and Indigenous-led organizing and land projects. Morgan is a resident of Canticle Farm, a multi-racial, inter-faith, cross-class, intergenerational intentional community in Lisjan Ohlone territory (Oakland, CA). She is currently a Masters of Theological Studies student at Harvard Divinity School, focused on racial justice and healing.

Affiliation: Harvard Divinity School

Abstract: Through an examination of social media content moderation frameworks applied to moderate the activities and reported abuses and harms of alternative spiritualities, this paper discusses the challenges, power dynamics, and authority placed over the activities of alternative spiritualities online. Centered on the moral inheritances of secularism and how it operates within content moderation decisions in ways that can subjugate faith practices outside of dominant secular and Christian understandings of spirituality, this paper examines the ways social media technologies by design replicate vs. transcend social inequities and religious/spiritual hierarchies.

This paper offers opportunities to highlight the powerful role religious literacy and scholarship can play in the future of tech governance in order to peacefully address the reproduction of structural forms of inequity that have been inherited and masked through governing assumptions about faith and religion."

Presenter bio: Jenn Louie is a former Head of Business Integrity Operations at Facebook. She previously served as the first Head of Trust & Safety at Meetup and established her career in policy and Trust and Safety at Google. Jenn has spoken on online risk and tech policies at SXSW, IDEO, Techweek NYC, and the Microsoft Social Computing Symposium. She is an innovator, entrepreneur and graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, where she is learning about moral formation and religious literacy in order to inform her development of The Moral Innovation Lab. Jenn aspires to dismantle social inequities that are recreated through masked moral inheritances transferred to tech governance and design. She is the founder of the Spiritual Care Project and an industry expert in Integrity and Trust & Safety Operations and Tech Policy.

Affiliation: Harvard Divinity School

Abstract: The following paper will look at Nordic Animism. Connected politically to progressive movements in Scandinavia and particularly to Environmentalism, Nordic Animism is one of the most innovative forms of Heathenism to emerge in recent years and a movement that seeks to address the issues of race, nationalism, and how it relates to their overall concern with ecology. But the paper will also address how the problems connected with Nordic Animism in their view on indigenous traditions and if there is a tendency to develop a exotic image of indigenous religions as a positive “Other”.

Presenter bio: Fredrik Gregorius is associate professor in the history of religion at Linköping University Sweden. His research focus on the reception and use of pre-Christian religions in contemporary society. He is part of the research project "Back to Blood: Pursuing a future from the Norse Past."

Presenter affiliation: Linköping University

Abstract: Brahma Kumaris, the largest women-led spiritual organization in the world with over 8000 centers in over 110 countries, has successfully countered the imbalances of power in the spiritual realm in which men dominate as spiritual authorities. All administrative heads of the Brahma Kumaris organization are women as a foundational principle, and the Brahma Kumaris centers around the world are also primarily administered and staffed by women. Even in patriarchal societies such as India where the organization is spiritually headquartered, women have been empowered to pursue their dreams of having a spiritual focus. They are learning to teach to spiritually serve people from all levels of society versus being limited to their traditional roles of serving their immediate family members. The majority of the organization is mothers living at home with their families, in addition to tens of thousands of dedicated female teachers who reside at centers.

Presenter bio: Sudarshan Sundar has been a student and teacher of Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Meditation since 2001. Sudarshan helped start and co-coordinated the activities of "Inner Space Meditation Center and Gallery" in Harvard Square from 2012 to 2020. Since 2021, Sudarshan has served as the Spiritual Affiliate for Brahma Kumaris at Northeastern University's Center for Spirituality Dialogue and Service. Sudarshan has been a Software Engineer by profession at Microsoft since 2003 and also serves as a part-time Regional IT Coordinator for the organization since 2011.

Judy Rodgers has been a student of the Brahma Kumaris and teacher of raj yoga meditation for 27 years. She spent much of her working life in media and as a consultant and communication strategist, working with businesses and universities. The emphasis in her work has been on the power of narrative, how the questions we ask ourselves and the stories we tell ourselves affect our life journeys.

In 2004 she co-founded the Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit at Case Western Reserve University. In 2007 she co-authored a book on altruism called Something Beyond Greatness: Conversations with a Man of Science and a Woman of God. Since 2006 she has lived in the Brahma Kumaris’ Peace Village Retreat Center in the Catskill Mountains north of New York City.

Presenter affiliation: Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization

Presenter affiliation: Yale University

Abstract: From the perspective of a former member, this paper employs autoethnography to explore the lived and felt experience of growing up in the Church of Scientology in 1990s Toronto. Using affect theory and psychoanalytic critique, I will examine and articulate the complex, sometimes painful, and undoubtedly generative ways that Scientology’s doctrine and routine practices contributed to my sense of agency as a child -- both in the context of the community and in relation to the outside world. I aim to bring a phenomenological awareness and critical perspective to the realities of childhood in Scientology and to convey that such narratives are crucial to the production of more compassionate and critical discussions of Scientology.

Presenter bio: Amy Jemmett is a doctoral student at the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, where she also earned her SSHRC-funded MA in 2022. Amy’s research focuses on childhood embodiments of religious doctrine and culture, particularly in the context of Scientology. Her work draws from both psychoanalytic and affect theories to create an autoethnographic methodology that attends to the lived and felt experience of growing up in a new religious movement.

Abstract: My paper argues that 1) the absence of critical awareness by many leaders in psychedelic-assisted therapy about the historical origins of the specific metaphysical claims they have taken from the field of transpersonal therapy, 2) bolstered by the proliferation of a reductive and mechanical-empiricist definition of “religious mysticism” that clinical trials with psychedelics have authorized and disseminated, 3) combined with the expectation of clients taking therapeutic doses of psilocybin that they will and in fact should experience a transformative mystical state, 4) in a context where people ingesting the “medicine” are profoundly psychologically vulnerable, creates significant potential for spiritual abuse.

Presenter bio: Amy Koehlinger is Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion at Oregon State University where she teaches courses in North American religious history, U.S. Catholicism, the spirituality of nature, psychedelics and religion, and theories of religion. Dr. Koehlinger’s scholarly publications include work on the racial activism of Catholic sisters, Catholic masculinity and the sport of boxing, white Christian privilege in the U.S., the influence of the social sciences on Catholic structures. She also is in first cohort of individuals training to become licensed facilitators for the Oregon Psilocybin Services Initiative which legalized psilocybin-assisted therapy starting in 2023.

Presenter affiliation: Oregon State University

Abstract: In recent years, a renewed scientific, public and commercial interest in psychedelic medicines can be observed across the globe. While honoring positive research findings, therapeutic promise, and spiritual possibilities in relation to the medical use of psychedelics, this presentation aims to shine a light on some underlying psycho-cultural shadow dynamics in the unfolding psychedelic renaissance. It explores whether and how the multi-layered collective fascination with psychedelics may yet be another symptom pointing towards a deeper psychological and spiritual malaise in the modern Western psyche as diagnosed by C.G. Jung. The question is posed whether the West’s feverish pursuit of psychedelic medicines—from individual consumption to entheogenic tourism and capitalist commodification—is related to a Western cultural complex. As part of the discussion, the archetypal image of the Hungry Ghost, known across Asian cultural and religious traditions, is explored to better understand the aforementioned shadow phenomena and point towards mitigating possibilities.

Presenter bio: Helge Michael Osterhold, PhD, MFT (USA) is an Associate Professor of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies and previously taught at Golden Gate University and at UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco, California. The author of The Body’s Code – Synchronicity and Meaning in Illness and Injury (2015), Dr. Osterhold teaches Masters and PhD level courses in Depth Psychology, Dreamwork, Spiritual Counseling, and the Psychology of Death and Dying. He maintains a private psychotherapy practice with a focus on life transitions. Email: hosterhold@ciis.edu

Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold is the director of facilitation for psychedelic therapy at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), a faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), and a mentor at the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research (CPTR). A practicing psychotherapist for over 25 years, Gisele is specialized in the treatment of trauma, using an integrative approach rooted in Somatic, Humanistic-Existential and Transpersonal psychologies. She is dedicated to diversity and inclusion in her clinical, academic and research engagement

Presenter affiliations: California Institute of Integral Studies (Osterhold); University of California San Francisco (Fernandes-Osterhold)

Abstract: This presentation will address the issue of harm to children in alternative spiritualties. Eight specific groups, chosen as cases where children were abused or experienced maltreatment, will be described and analyzed in an endeavour to identify factors that contributed to harm. Problematic issues will be identified such as millennial expectations, charismatic authority, sectarian attitudes, "defamilialization", ascetic practices, and reliance on faith healing. The impact of militarized state raids on children will also be addressed. This presentation draws on the results of a five-year SSHRC-funded research project at McGill University, Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control, and features original academic studies of Ogyen Kunzang Chöling, Ecoovie, The Body of Christ, and The Old Order Mennonites of Westboro, Manitoba. It offers a comparative analysis of cases of child abuse, social conditions and sanctions in three “Jesus People" movements: The Jesus Army, Jesus People USA, and the Children of God/The Family.

Presenter bio: Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She is also Lecturer at McGill University and Principal Investigator of the research project, Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control, funded by the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council of Canada. She has authored twelve books; notably, Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers (1994); Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion (2004); The New Heretics of France (2011); The Nuwaubian Nation: Black Spirituality and State Control (2016); Storming Zion (co-authored with Stuart Wright, 2015), and The Mystical Geography of Quebec (2020).

Presenter affiliation: School of Religious Studies, McGill University and Department of Religions and Cultures, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract: This paper presents empirical findings from a qualitative study of affiliation/disaffiliation processes applicable to individuals choosing, changing, or leaving spiritual communities. It is argued that the processes involve internal dynamisms in one’s search for meaning and the acceptance of the proposal to join an organization, seen as capable of satisfying one’s needs and aspirations. The exercise or denial of personal agency in the affiliation/disaffiliation process has important implications for the psychological outcomes of the individual. Therefore, it is crucial to include the element of personal agency in discourse about power dynamics and potential for empowerment or harm within spiritual groups.

Presenter bio: Raffaella Di Marzio holds three degrees: in Psychology from La Sapienza University and Pontifical Salesian University; in Historical Religious Sciences from Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, La Sapienza University; and in Religious Sciences from Pontifical Lateran University. She received a PhD in Psychology from Salesian Pontifical University (Rome). Since 2017, she is Professor of Psychology of Religion at Master in “Terrorism, prevention of subversive radicalization, security and cybersecurity. Policies for inter-religious and intercultural integration and for deradicalization”, University of Bari Aldo Moro. She is member of the Italian Society of Psychology of Religion (SIPR) and Director of The Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC). For more information, please see her profile page, list of publications, and the LIREC website.

Presenter affiliation: Italian Society of Psychology of Religion (SIPR), Center for Studies on Freedom of Religion Belief and Conscience (LIREC), University of Bari (Italy)

Abstract: When we live in a system that is fundamentally abusive of Earth’s systems and marginalized peoples, how do ecocentric religions and spiritual communities acknowledge and counter these abuses? How have eco-religions grappled with this question—both in their scriptures and statements as well as their practices and activism? This panel includes a variety of perspectives from Paganism, Gaianism, and other ecospiritualities that provide an exploration of this question as well as an opportunity to learn from each other and cross-fertilize.

Presenter bio: Erik Assadourian is the director of the Gaian Way, an eco-religious philosophy and community founded in 2019. He has been a sustainability researcher, writer, and communicator since he started his career in 2001 as a researcher with Worldwatch Institute. He worked with the Institute until it wound down in 2017. He directed or co-directed seven books, focusing on consumerism, eco-education, global security, and economic degrowth. He writes a weekly Gaian Reflection at Gaianism.org and helps coordinates the Gaian community.

Presenter affiliations: The Gaian Way (Assadourian); GreenSpirit (Mowll), and Novasutras (Merrill).

Abstract: This workshop will begin with the foundational background in how mystics from many world traditions cultivate through prayer and meditation mindful awareness through original innocence. Contemplating as a group through a PowerPoint of the Chinese Chan Ox Herding Pictures, participants will engage with the stages of spiritual growth outlined in the poetry and paintings. Finally, we will participate in a visualization meditation culminating in writing our own poems through the discovery of our own ability to be and experience our world through our original nature. [Please bring pen and paper.]

Presenter bio: Dr. Maria Jaoudi, Professor of Humanities & Religious Studies at California State University Sacramento, is a painter exhibiting in France and the United States, as well as a poet/author of books on world religions, mysticism and art, including Mindfulness as Sustainability: Lessons from the World Religions (SUNY Press, 2021).

Presenter affiliation: California State University Sacramento

Abstract: What if the change we are trying to create can only be actualized in relationship to the amount of change we are able to cultivate within ourselves? What if the more we seek to care for our bodies and care for others equally - we can organically create the shifts we want to see in the world? The Curiosity as Inner-Alchemy workshop offers you a journey through exploring your own spiritual practices and belief systems in contrast to how you express yourself and interact with the world. During this workshop in a large group we will learn a framework to process your personal context and have a large group share back regarding how uses and abuses of spiritual power in alternative spiritualities has impacted you, impacted others, and what you desire to see in the world moving forward.

Presenter bio: Tianna Renee Arredondo (they/them) is an artist, facilitator and environmental justice (EJ) organizer. Most of their work has focused on supporting fossil fuel divestment efforts supporting campaigns at the United Nations Conference of the Parties as well as focused on protections within United States through supporting local battles. Tianna has served as a climate change generalist creating and supporting intergenerational and intersectional strategies to work towards having clean air, clean water, affordable housing, equitably priced electricity, nutritious food, and other EJ efforts. They have created more than 600 unique paintings, journaling prompts, and poems used as tools for their storytelling studio and regeneraetive consultancy genuinely curious. They make music as the artist vssl on all streaming platforms. Writing is what fuels and supports all of their work. They hope to create an archive of scholarship, screenplays, and other forms of engaging content that shares stories from colliding of lived experience, research, and art.

Presenter affiliation: genuinely curious

Abstract: The paper intends to explore the tantric and folk connections of the guardian deity of Banaras— Kāla Bhairava, whose genesis is believed to be from the Shiva Mahapurana. The deity being identified as kotwal (a police officer) or daṇḍapāṇi (sheriff) wearing a garland of skulls is also believed to have tantric powers. In Trika Shaivism, he is considered one of the most powerful tantric deities whose consort is Tripurbhairavī. In folk religious practices, Kāla Bhairava is worshipped in his various folk manifestations. The paper would rely on both the empirical and the close textual reading methods for procuring the research material. The article also seeks to explore the folk belief behind offering the deity alcohol, chocolates, biscuits, and many other local items. Also, an attempt will be made to understand Bhairava’s relation with Buddhist and Jain Tantras, where again, he holds a powerful position as a tantric deity.

Presenter bio: Dr. Prabha Shankar Dwivedi is an Assistant Professor at IIT Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. His research interests include Folk Hinduism and Comparative Literary Studies. He has published nearly two dozen research articles in journals of national and international repute. His recent publication includes "Karaha Pujan: A Folk-Worship of Krsna in Eastern Uttar Pradesh," published in Religions of South Asia (Equinox Publishing Ltd.).

Presenter affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology, Tirupati, India

Abstract: This is a scholarly interrogation of mainstream American Buddhism and how queer Buddhists of color offer an evolving, albeit marginalized, set of liberatory possibilities. At both the theoretical and community levels, I find that queer Buddhist of color (QBOC) critique is the newest frontier of dismantling American Buddhism’s deep partnership with racial capitalism and white supremacy. Queer Buddhists of color practice and open up disidentification with American Buddhism, a concept developed by queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz which describes how queer people of color recuperate majority culture and bring new life into it for their own survival and thriving. As such, this critical framework promulgates a novel possibility within Buddhist Studies and related fields which incubates a radical transformation in American Buddhism without divesting from its institutions and resources entirely.

Presenter bio: Matthew “Matta” Zheng (any pronouns) is an MDiv student at HDS from Sacramento, CA. They completed their BAs at Stanford University in human biology and political science, with honors in LGBTQ+ studies. His thesis was a political ethnography of queer political operatives in Washington, DC. Matta investigates white supremacy and racial capitalism as institutional cores of American Buddhism. Furthermore, Matta is deeply called to end-of-life medicine and chaplaincy, and plans to complete an MD/PhD in medical anthropology after Divinity school.

Affiliation: Harvard Divinity School

Abstract: This paper will explore three pathways for effective shadow work that can be supportive for alternative spiritual and healing communities. The first two are grounded in the context of the ceremonial usage of ayahuasca, but can be applied outside of it. These include the integration of trusted non-human guides through the Shipibo Amazonian indigenous practice of plant dieta, shared reflection on ritual experiences of trauma release using western psychotherapeutic paradigms, and a dialogical process called BreakThrough inspired by Advaita Vedanta that seeks to put nondualism in practice. I proceed in five acts, and my observations emerge from experience. Act I: 2 Guides: Shiva & Ayahuasca. Act II: Losing and finding a spiritual home. Act III: Shipibo plant dieta: growing plants within. Act IV: Purge and Release: trauma theory and mirrors. Act V: Dialogical observation of the reactionary mind.

Presenter bio: Michelle Bentsman is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Religion at Harvard specializing in song healing rituals. Her primary traditions of study and practice are Judaism, Hinduism, and indigenous Amazonian Shipibo. Her research is informed by her work in end-of-life and trauma care settings.

Presenter affiliation: Harvard University

Abstract: The return towards recovery of spiritual practices by ceremonial drum-keepers has allowed a cadre of Native American languages to be heard and learned around drum circles as have protocols of sacred protocols. As we move to be a more inclusive society where gender pronouns are Indigenous lands are acknowledged new negotiations and conversations are being had about Two Spirit communities.

Considering the prevalence of testimonial injustice, I chose to challenge this unjust condition and bringing to light some of the negotiations and injustices around "traditional" sacred protocols. In examining these particular issues, I hope we begin to understand how superficial acknowledgment is not enough and, in pushing against testimonial injustice, we can begin to hear the voices of those speaking in ways that need a further developed and adjusted form of listening and learning--a more inclusive way towards epistemic justice.

Presenter bio: Delores (Lola) Mondragón is practitioner of Native American Religious Traditions and a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara. As a Chickasaw Chicana drummer, veteran, and Two Spirit grandmother, Lola uses an Indigenous Two Spirit Feminist lens to reinterpret the world for herself, her grandchildren, and various shared communities fighting against continued genocide.

Presenter affiliation: University of California Santa Barbara

Abstract: There are all sorts of small groups that help people to deal with particular problems. We know of no groups that help people to deal with the current threat to human survival. Groups of 6-8 people may be composed of Muslims, atheists or the spiritual but not religious. Earth Crisis Support Groups are a safe place to share the truth about how we are feelings about our shared circumstances during our planetary crisis. We also share about what is happening in the world as well as enjoy a pot luck dinner. Twelve step programs, psychology and medical support groups have enabled people who were suffering to form loving bonds. The early church began in people’s homes as house churches and always shared a meal. “Don’t think a small group of people cannot change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.” --Margaret Mead

Presenter bio: Rev. Bonnie Tarwater, a Unitarian Universalist minister, is the founder of Church for Our Common Home, www.churchforourcommonhome.com. She is currently working with Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. and Earth Crisis Support Groups with their new book, Confessions of a Disciple of Jesus and the Living Earth Movement. Rev. Bonnie offers worship every Sunday in the barn with the farm animals. She and her husband Walt Rutherford offer a counseling center, the Secret Garden Retreat Center, and are exploring biodynamic farming with an interfaith Secret Prayer Garden on twelve trees. Counseling, worship and programs offered in person and on Zoom.

Presenter affiliation: Church for Our Common Home

Abstract: This paper shares interviews I have conducted with people who have had spiritual experiences in/of/as nature. These interviews offer a context for, and an exploration of, the ways that alternative spiritualities can counter and challenge the imbalance of power that Abrahamic religions have exerted on an understanding of humans as separate from the earth. Bron Taylor (2010) proposes that “Christianity [bears] a heavy burden for the environmental crisis.” I explore what those who have spiritual experiences in/of/as the earth can tell us about the opportunities and obstacles for a spiritually and environmentally healing path forward.

Presenter bio: Jennifer Ellen Good is an academic – associate professor focusing on environmental communication at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario; an environmental activist – worked for years with Greenpeace Canada; an earth spirituality seeker – born into a Jewish-Christian home, raised with Unitarianism and very much guided by interconnection and earth spirituality.

Presenter affiliation: Brock University

Abstract: In the last fifty years, Brittany has undergone a cultural revival characterized by artistic and linguistic manifestations that emphasize the historic relationships between this French region and other Celtic countries. After centuries of being mocked and denied by the French government, the Bretons’ Celtic identity has become a motive of personal and collective pride and a source of inspiration for diverse activities. Among these, the contemporary Pagan-inspired practices held in local megaliths have drawn my attention. I conducted ethnographic research to understand how members of this ethnic minority creatively relate their rituals to Brittany’s history and Celticity.

Presenter bio: Yael Dansac, anthropologist, is the recipient of a CIVIS3i post-doctoral fellowship co-funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions. She is affiliated to the Université Libre de Bruxelles, in Belgium, and to the University of Glasgow, in United Kingdom. Since 2022 she leads a transnational research project on the contemporary sacralization of European megalithic sites. Her interests include contemporary animism, embodiment, and relationships to non-human beings, visible and invisible. Her most recent book is entitled Relating with More-Than-Humans: Interbeing Rituality in a Living World (edited with Jean Chamel. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

Presenter affiliation: Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions and Secularism of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and Department of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract: In this paper, we will focus on exploring the complex power dynamics in two case studies in which the leaders of small, syncretistic religious movements abused their followers. Mohan Singh and Ali X used idiosyncratic religious teachings to justify abuse of followers, including sexual abuse of female members. We will focus on some of the key structural (such as leadership and membership structure) and cultural factors (such as teachings on gender, sexuality, purification and health and healing) within the movements which enabled this abuse. We will also explore stories of empowerment and agency from former members, as well as enduring ambivalent views of the two leaders.

Presenter bios: Sarah Harvey is the Senior Research Officer at Inform and a Research Associate on the ‘Abuse in Religious Contexts’ project. In this project, she is looking at Inform’s data on abuse in minority religions. She also has interests in millennialism and health - her PhD research was on natural pregnancy and birth practices. Suzanne Newcombe is the Director of Inform and a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University. She has expertise in movements with origins or inspirations from Asian and Indian traditions as well as intersections with health and healing. Her PhD research was on the modern history of yoga and she is a leading expert in this field.

Presenter affiliations: Inform (Harvey and Newcombe), King's College London (Harvey and Newcombe), the University of Kent (Harvey), and the Open University (Newcombe)

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to introduce a gender perspective on the study of an emerging spiritual movement called Llave Mariana. This spiritual movement mixes New Age elements –taken from Orientalist traditions– with Catholic figures, especially Virgin Mary. We start from a series of questions: What is the reason for the participation of a female majority within the movement? What are the conditions that lead these women to approach the spiritual world, its wisdom and techniques? What models of femininity do they elaborate and express? Finally, what are the transformations that these practitioners experience at a subjective and intersubjective level during this path?

Presenter bio: Agustina Gracia holds a PhD and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology by the University of Buenos Aires. She was a doctorate grant holder by the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). Since the year 2017 she is an Assistant Lecturer at University of Morón (Buenos Aires). She also taught at University of Buenos Aires and University of San Martín (Buenos Aires). She authored scientific articles in both national and international publications.

Presenter affiliation: University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Abstract: Seven distinctive features of the movement are explored in this paper: outreach to the world; divine “guidance”; metaphor of “family”; centrality of morality; notion of collective leadership; exhortations to sacrifice and service; attitudes towards resources. The paper highlights distinctive facets of this under-researched movement and shows how the “shadow” can creep into a well-meaning group, thus providing object lessons for initiators of alternative spiritualities.

Presenter bio: Margaret Eastman Smith, Ph.D., is Director of Trauma Healing and Community Resilience at the Institute of World Affairs in Washington, DC. She taught for eighteen years in American University’s International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program. Before earning her doctorate at Tufts University, she worked seventeen years for the program of Moral Re-Armament on four continents.

Affiliation: Institute of World Affairs

Abstract: Abuses of spiritual power are not usually associated with the Shakers, a sect now regarded as wholesome and American as apple pie. However, during the late 1830s, spiritual forces unleashed as part of an internal religious revival manifested themselves in violent persecution. Among the victims was Richard McNemar, a leading light in the Kentucky Revival and prominent convert to Shakerism in 1805. McNemar was the indispensable man in the spread of Shakerism throughout Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, from his conversion through the 1830s. However, rather than retirement and peace, at the end of his life he was subjected to public humiliation in the name of the sect's founder Mother Ann Lee. After an extended period of suffering, this persecution resulted in McNemar's death. This paper will trace the chaotic and darks events that unfolded at Union Village, Ohio, during 1838 and 1839, where spirit mediums unleashed hell amidst a purported heaven on earth.

Presenter bio: Christian Goodwillie is the director and curator of special collections and archives at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He has formerly served as the curator of collections at Hancock Shaker Village and the President of the Communal Studies Association, receiving their Distinguished Scholar Award in 2021. Goodwillie has published twelve books and numerous articles on the Shakers, Freemasonry, and other topics. His newest book Richard McNemar: Frontier Heretic and Shaker Apostle was published in 2023 by Indiana University.

Presenter affiliation: Hamilton College

Abstract: This presentation discusses persisting challenges in Scientology research and the path forward. It discusses the emergence of a community of scholars who adopt a significantly more favourable stance on Scientology and have impacted the homogeneity of Scientology research, seeking to refute their central claim that Scientology research had, prior to their intervention, lacked sophistication by focussing on Scientology’s organisational behaviour instead of on its theology, beliefs, and praxis and by unduly relying on the testimonies of former members. In doing so, the presentation highlights how scholars who are favourable to Scientology have more in common with those who oppose Scientology than first appears.

Presenter bio: Phil Lord (J.D. B.C.L. LL.M. FCIArb) is an Assistant Professor at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. His research focuses on public law (principally employment and taxation law), behavioural economics, and new religious movements. He has authored over 25 academic articles, most peer-reviewed.

Presenter affiliation: Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Lakehead University

Abstract: In this workshop the results of a study in Intentional Communities in Germany will be presented that indicate that naturalistic ideas of mother and fatherhood, non-violent communication and certain aspects of spirituality may enable genderspecific narcissistic abuse and gaslighting in families. This is highly relevant because narcissistic behavior and character traits are on the rise in the western world. Especially in Spiritual and Intentional Communities narcissistic abuse, gaslighting and re-traditionalization of gender roles may occur via spirituality, Peace Work and the aim of authenticity. As this sort of abuse is often based on commonly shared beliefs and stereotypes, victims often do not realize the abuse and identify with their abusers. These mechanisms will be explained in detail using examples from Spiritual and Intentional Communities. Ways of detecting it early and avoiding it will be explored.

Presenter bio: Dr. Maria Burschel is sociologist and professor for Social Work at IU - International University of Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on family research, separation and divorce, narcissism, and social sustainability and transformation. She has research experience at the German Youth Institute and SOS Childrens Village, and in Intentional Communities in Germany.

Presenter affiliation: IU - International University for Applied Sciences

Abstract: This paper explores psychedelic-using spiritual communities operating at the annual Burning Man festival. The paper focuses on communities-of-care and harm reduction practices which allow the 70k person city to function, as well as rituals and spiritual practices co-operating with these care practices. The paper weaves the author’s personal experience from his five Burns (where he worked in psychedelic harm reduction and as a Temple Guardian) with an analysis of the primary and secondary literature on Burning Man and North American psychedelic churches. This paper will discuss both positive practices of psychedelic communities at Burning Man and areas of abuse and risk.

Presenter bio: Jeffrey A. Breau is a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, where he focused on psychedelic spirituality and chaplaincy. His current research interest is communities-of-care in ‘underground’ psychedelic spiritual communities. Prior to Harvard, he oversaw an Ashram founded by Ram Dass and spent six years as a Google program manager.

Presenter affiliation: Harvard Divinity School

Abstract: In January 2020, women came forward detailing sexual misconduct and other abuses by Yogi Bhajan (b.1929-d.2004), the spiritual teacher of the "Healthy Happy Holy" (3HO) community of Kundalini Yoga/Sikh Dharma practitioners. Through my scholarship and lived experience raised in this community, this talk will address the ways in which current and former members are now grappling with the contradictions between "the teacher" and "the teachings," finding community online to share their stories and address wider systems of abuse, appropriation, discrimination, and silencing. The second generation are now going through a reparations process due to their own traumatic experiences of child separation at young ages, sent to live with other families and to boarding school in India where many abuses occurred. This talk examines the path forward by looking to the varied responses within this community and by other communities who have gone through their own processes of reconciliation and restorative justice.

Presenter bio: Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa-Baker, Ph.D. is Senior Instructor, Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles where she served as Acting Director of Graduate Yoga Studies (2019-2020) and Clinical Professor of Sikh & Jain Studies (2015-2018). Nirinjan was born into the 3HO Sikh Dharma community and studied Sikh drumming from a 13th generation exponent who honored her as its first female exponent. Her scholarship examines Sikhi through the lenses of embodied practice, pedagogy, philosophy, mysticism, ethics, identity, gender, and decolonization. Nirinjan currently serves as co-chair of the Sikh Studies Unit at AAR and on the editorial board for Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory.

Presenter affiliation: Loyola Marymount University

Abstract: Self-help books are one of the most accessible and prolific methods of spiritual education available. However, many of the most popular and well-regarded self-help books may still be causing harm. Using my background as a domestic violence educator and advocate I analyze the New York Times best seller The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer from the lens of a domestic violence survivor and explain how the methods may re-traumatize readers by recreating power and control dynamics and emotionally abusive tactics. I go on to show how normalized these tactics are in the spiritual self-help sector.

Presenter bio: Chelsea Irys Rendlen is a spiritual activist and author. She holds a M.A. in Spirituality Mind Body, Psychology in Education from Columbia University, has her own Healing Practice, Irys Healing Arts, and is the Executive Director of the YWCA Vermont Camp Hochelaga where she creates socially and spiritually conscious spaces.

Presenter affiliation: YWCA of Vermont