Articles about "neopaganism"

Realidades socioculturales

Learning to see and feel the invisible: somatic pedagogy in alternative spiritual practices.

  • Yael Dansac

The article exposes a progressive somatic learning process aiming at the production of a sensitive body capable of interacting with non-human agents promoted in spiritual practices of New Age and neo-pagan inspiration. Contemporary rituals performed at the archaeological site of Carnac, France, are taken as ethnographic and empirical basis by considering them as sensory learning spaces where participants develop their bodily attention to verify the efficacy of the implemented techniques. The analysis shows that the main elements that compose the applied somatic pedagogy are the learning of an alternative sensory language, the execution of body techniques, the practice of visualization and the incorporation of somatic imaginaries.