Feb 12 / A Dance of Presence - Natural Energetic Transference

 

 Unit: A Dance of Presence

Theme: Natural Energetic Transfer

I

  Introduction

According to Scientific Spiritism’s explanation of the process of connecting with disembodied entities, the medium, through the electromagnetic fluid present in all things, is able to also serve as the means by which disembodied entities act on the physical realm. This electromagnetic fluid is said to keep the body and the soul connected in this physical world. History Professor Melissa Daggett clarifies that this believe, derived from a healing science called mesmerism, is based on the premise that “everything in the universe including the human body is composed of an electromagnetic fluid and that illnesses developed when the fluid was out of balance” (Daggett, 2016, p. 24). 

 II

 Learning Objectives

• Understand the meaning of dance as a retainer of cultural and spiritual presence
•  Explain the importance of Cordon Dance in providing natural-energetic transfer
• Gain an awareness of the hypnotic state in achieving spiritual communication
• Experience the metaphoric transfer of natural energy for healing
• Reflect on the work done in class
  

 III

 Main Lesson

Examples of Dances of Presence

 

1

 a)

https://youtu.be/gXPxW1ihJeg?si=DYVtYzTjTUem-XTr

Yanomami Woman Dancing.mp4. Planet Doc

 b)

 

Mayohuacan Demonstrations

 

 c)

 

https://youtu.be/KocUMGm31pc?si=eCI7sFZHZfuf_YtR/

Areyto en la XIV Feria Internacional del Libro de Puerto Rico

Puerto Ricans have engaged in the restoration of the Taino People's ritual practices. Not only that, but they have, in many cases, transformed their appearance to look in the way they think Tainos used to look like. This practice, though valid in terms of decolonizing their sense of self-identity, can also be questionable. Is it authentic? How close is it to the real Taino performance ritual practices? Below, we see an example of living culture, presumably derived from the areito of the Taino people, in which the ritual does have a purpose beyond its performative quality.

2

 From Areyto to Cordon

https://scholarship.miami.edu/esploro/outputs/991031787120302976 

 

Cordon Dance

(21:10 - End) 

 

 

3

 

Read the Chapter

 

(Page 199) Psychoanalysis and Cinema 

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Psychoanalysis_and_Cinema/KDYYEZrJ1NAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Raymond%20Bellour%20and%20Guy%20Rosolato

 

 

 

4

 

 

Author Douglas Fowler surmises that "images arising from dreams are the well spring of all our efforts to give enduring form and meaning to the urgencies within," seeing this as the reason why "the deep structure of human narrative is conceived in dreams and the genesis of all myth is dreams."(1) Author Robert Eberwein describes the filmic experience as the merging of a viewer's consciousness with the projected consciousness of the screen's subject, a process whereby the viewer's prior experiences with dreaming "help to create a sense of oneness" with cinema, causing the gap between viewer and what is being viewed to narrow.^[3]: 53 Under this theory, no matter what is being shown on the screen — whether the literal representation of a character dreaming, or the fictional characters of a story going on about their fictional lives — the very process of viewing film itself "replicates activities associated with the oneiric experience. 

(1) Fowler, Douglas (1986). The Kingdom of Dreams in Literature and Film: Selected Papers from the Tenth Annual Florida State University Conference on Literature and Film. Tallahassee: University Presses of Florida. p. 10.

 

So, we want to use the oneiric aspect of the cinematic experience as an analogy that helps us re-think about Cordon spiritism as an instance of dance experience that allows the merging of our consciousness with the projected consciousness of the Condor dancers. Thus, to paraphrase Fowler's  words, the images arising from mindful meditation (enhanced by drumming, chanting and dance) can lead us to a new personal myth.

 

IV

 

A Note to Remember

 

 It was German physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), however, who in the 1770s first observed that his patients went into trances, called magnetic sleep, induced by the magnetized water in which they were submerged for healing purposes. These trances, equivalent to what today could be described as a hypnotic state, allowed patients to “descend into dark spheres inhabited by spiritual beings” (Daggett, 2016, p. 24).

 

 

V

 

Case Studies

 

 Practices Similar to Cordon in Indigenous Communities

 

Suriname Arawakan music and dance that looks like Cordon

 

Kalinago Dance like Cordon in Dominica

 

Wapishana Indidenous people in Guyana

VI

ACTIVITY 1

This electromagnetic fluid is said to keep the body and the soul connected in this physical world. History Professor Melissa Daggett clarifies that this believe, derived from a healing science called mesmerism, is based on the premise that “everything in the universe including the human body is composed of an electromagnetic fluid and that illnesses developed when the fluid was out of balance” (Daggett, 2016, p. 24).

Mindful meditation to achieve healing "balance and connection," the purpose found during meditation last class.  

 

VII

JOURNALING

Write a brief reflection about your experience in class today and post it on Discussion Board. Find two posts you would like to interact with. 

 

 

VIII

Glossary

IX

Sources

X

Students' Work

 

 

 

 

(21:10)