Class and William James

 Yesterday we learned about Australia and a bit about their way of life and religions. 

What do you know about Australian Religions? I asked myself, before the video started I wrote down. -Dreaming -Rainbow Serpent -Baby Smoking -Rock Painting. Most of which we talked about before. Baby Smoking comes from a bbc documentary called Around the world in 80 faiths presented by Peter Owen  Jones. My dad showed me the documentary the summer before I decided to go on a Pilgrimage. I cite it as one of the sources that made me want to go. If you have acorn  you can access it, but you can access his extreme pilgrimage series on youtube. I actually took the book of the same name with me on my Pilgrimage to Santiago. 

    We started class by watching a music video Yothu Yindi by Dijapana. Some aboriginal people playing guitars and hamming it up Jimmi Hendrix style. As we watched I was reminded how sound can be thought of as scared. Tibeaten Singing bowls sing in harmony and help balance your chakras. I will have to write more about that experience in Phoebus on Saturday. I am trying my best to be more concise. Sound is how we transmit the sacred . Sound is how we tell others about religion. 

    William James’s The varieties of religious experience Lecture III “The reality of the unseen” 57-77, I feel gives us some framework to understand religion. Though looking at this class in a very critical look- what does religion do for us and how does talking/writing impact that? James gives us guideposts in an unfamiliar world. James says that Belief is belief in the unseen. Think about it, those Aboriginals did not actually see a dream time hero turn into rock but they fully believed her did. James calls attention to the physiological response of belief. Since we can not actually see Dream time heroes we can pay attention to what the followers are doing. Like climbing a torturous mountain because of a belief that it is important (hawk dreaming?) James talks about Christian religion because that is the one we are most comfortable with, I picked this quote out. “The whole force of the Christian religion, therefore, so far as belief in the divine personages determines the prevalent attitude of the believer.” (57) since again we can’t see we need to measure what the believer does. James says  religion is full of abstract ideas. 

    I will now recap the rest of the class, I will try my best to be quick. We then acknowledge the power structure that goes along with a dominant culture forcing indeginous people to convert. I am reminded of my studies of Foucault and wonder what he would have to say. Like the women around the world in 80 faiths, they know they must smoke the babies to make them strong but don't know why they do. (Babies are not harmed in baby smoking) 

    Then we talked about Bruce Olstand and how he helped people who were getting sick, but was ostracized by anthropologists. He would have been Ostracized in Starfleet too! That goes against the Prime Directive.Don’t interfere with a culture. While I was doing some thinking about it, I came up with the idea that yes it's a good idea not to interfere with a culture and impose your values and religion on them, but you can interfere if people are going to die. Just like they did in Season Three of TNG “Who watches the watchers?” When Beverly Crusher brought that man aboard the enterprise, because he was going to die if not treated. 

We talked about how painting connects you to the dream time, how your signature is a way of saying “I am here”. We also watched the animals scared of the tribe one of them was Morabuti (a bird- hawk or seagull?) and I am reminded of the Harpy Eagle that is sacred to the people in MesoAmerica. Seriously they look spooky go look up Harpy Eagle. 



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