Esoteric Concepts Research Articles

Round 'Ere: Developing a novel method to engage community on the design of wellbeing data hubs

The promise of community benefit from health data linked at scale is often missing the perspective of communities themselves. This paper outlines a recent project on developing a peer research and public engagement methodology to build community-designed linked and open wellbeing data hubs. Drawing on action research and appreciative inquiry, we aimed to develop a novel method to engage community on the use of linked local data. In Spring 2023 we recruited and trained 15 community researchers in Widnes, UK to co-design and run a project on what feeling well meant for their community. We trained our community researchers in listening skills, methods, and data concepts. Over Summer 2023, they interviewed over 200 of their fellow residents. We then ran three design workshops to analyse their findings and co-design a data and community insights hub with local policymakers and voluntary sector representatives. Through repeated, comparative semi-structured interviews we tracked the community researchers’ progress. We used thematic analysis to explore the benefits and challenges at each stage of the project: recruitment, training, and field work. Benefits ranged from the practical value of capacity building through the research training to the key role of confidence in how community researchers perceived their own success during the project. Challenges ranged from more esoteric concepts like managing expectations of impact to practical concerns around diversity and interview recruitment. Overall, the project evidenced the value of peer research methodologies in involving public in data science both for the participants but also to wider community.

‘Something Completely New in Art’

Abstract According to writer and poet Charles Cammell (1890–1968), Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) believed that through his influence and guidance, he could significantly improve an artist’s nascent abilities. Crowley claimed success for the musical achievements of Leila Waddell (1880–1932), the poetry of Victor Neuburg (1883–1940) and the artistic talents of Frieda, Lady Harris, née Bloxam (1877–1962). In 1938, Crowley invited Harris to illustrate The Book of Thoth, his last major magical work, designating her “artist executant.” Their partnership extended far beyond the requirements of the Thoth Tarot paintings: not only did Harris become Crowley’s magical pupil; they formed a strong and enduring friendship that lasted to the end of Crowley’s life. Harris had already achieved moderate success as an artist, but Crowley showed her how she could express esoteric concepts in her paintings, thereby creating “something completely new in art” (Harris to Crowley, Letter, 10 December 1940). Harris’s correspondence with Crowley shows that she eagerly embraced his guidance, determined to manifest the Tarot images in accordance with his vision. At the same time, she applied the same techniques to her own works and came to the realisation that art was the true basis of her spiritual path. Using extracts from Crowley’s and Harris’s correspondence, Crowley’s diary entries, and examples of Harris’s artwork, this article will argue that in the case of Frieda Harris, Crowley did indeed draw out her nascent artistic skills, and in doing so, enabled her to manifest Tarot designs, which on his own admission, “any given card is something beyond anything I had ever contemplated” (Crowley to Harris, Letter, 25 January 1939).

Иконология иллюстраций к книгам Г.В. Голохвастова: Авинов и Добужинский)

Russian New York poet Georgy Golokhvastov was one of the key figures in Russian artistic America, specifically of its part focused on the achievements of esoterically colored symbolism. The artistic design of his books was an integral part of the concept of adapting world culture for prestigious consumption. The study for the first time reconstructs the iconological program of illustrations for the poem The ruin of Atlantis (1938), made by Andrey Avinoff, and for the poetic arrangement of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign (1950), belonging to Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (Dobujinsky). The author analyzes in detail the place of these illustrations in the work of artists of the émigré period. The paper proves that Golokhvastov waged an artistic polemic with radical futurism, understanding its technocratic projects as a continuation of symbolist lifebuilding, which deserves a response using esoteric concepts, and that the translation of The Tale of Igor’s Campaign confirmed the symbolist program of the author-demiurge. The research provides an analysis of Avinoff’s artistic legacy, including his promotion of the aesthetics of Russian icons in the United States and his reinterpretation of the heritage of Western symbolism in terms of the twin myth and vertical montage of timeplans. The author argues that both Dobuzhinsky and Avinoff approved of Golokhvastov’s ambition to find a new synthesis of epic and lyric, and consciously placed the culture of opera and ballet scenery at the service of these ambitions.

“Beating the Drums in God’s Wrestling Arena”: Spirituality Translated into Local Metaphor in Wolof Sufi ʿAjamī Poetry

Abstract How do ʿAjamī scholars translate Sufi spirituality and esoteric concepts into a language accessible to their audience? The body of Senegalese Wolof ʿAjamī poetry often seeks to translate divine concepts into a language that is local, both in time and place. This translation takes place within the local language in all of its literary dimensions. For the Wolof ʿAjamī poet, proverbs, parables, and metaphors are key literary devices that facilitate understanding among listeners. Studying ʿAjamī poems opens a window into a historic locality, teaching the contemporary reader-listener about both Sufi spirituality and the particular contexts in which the poems were produced. Through these metaphors, the poet ʿAjamizes, conferring sacred meaning onto practices and devices that otherwise might be outside the Sufi realm. In the process, metaphors become vessels of divine meaning. This article treats the metaphor as a key literary device whose understanding is paramount for grasping the meaning of the religious message. Treating the poems as social documents and works of literature also offers scholars new possibilities for understanding the everyday life of ordinary users in Senegambia.

Design in the service of topology and the classification theorem

Topology is considered an advanced field in mathematics, and it might seem off-putting to people with no previous experience in mathematics. The classification theorem, which lies within the field of algebraic topology, is fascinating, but understanding it requires extensive mathematical knowledge. In this manuscript, we present a modular object that provides a glimpse into the construction of surfaces as defined by the classification theorem. This allows any user to explore different options and discover possible surfaces with three holes or fewer. This tactile experience of exploration grants the user intuition about the meaning of the theorem, without needing the rigorous proof; thus, it simplifies the depth of the classification theorem and its respective proof for non-mathematical audiences. We strive to accurately illustrate these esoteric concepts by giving them a form and to describe the modeling process of creating a tangible, touchable sculpture designed to intrigue and invite simple understanding. We believe that this playful object will be exciting for a variety of communities: university students, graduate students, teachers, professional mathematicians, and especially designers, who can use it to produce new tools.

Sonic thinking as a tool for creativity, communication, and sensory awareness in music production

Sonic thinking connects art and science with the phenomenological and tactile experiences of focused listening. Inspired by multiple fields, including sound studies, music education, and philosophy, sonic thinking embraces an open-ended inquiry process—one that values a personal connection to sound and its associated meanings and contexts. Aural awareness and critical listening comprise essential skills for audio engineers and musicians training for careers in music production. However, more research is needed to understand better how educators can inspire these skills in a holistic manner that avoids overreliance on technocratic pedagogical models. There are gaps in the disciplinary boundaries of acoustics and sonic thinking. The cognitive and communicative binaries between recorded and non-recorded media are also challenging to integrate cohesively. What does it mean to “feel” sound in the body and model that connection for others in the recording studio and beyond? How does an audio engineer communicate abstract and esoteric concepts about sound to the artist? This article examines the practical and theoretical implications of sonic thinking and how educators guide students to a holistic and multifaceted understanding of sound and creative practice in the recording studio.

Central nervous system infections after solid organ transplantation

Significant advances to our understanding of several neuroinfectious complications after a solid organ transplant (SOT) have occurred in the last few years. Here, we review the central nervous system (CNS) infections that are relevant to SOT via a syndromic approach with a particular emphasis on recent updates in the field. A few key studies have advanced our understanding of the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of several CNS infections in SOT recipients. Risk factors for poor prognosis and protective effects of standard posttransplant prophylactic strategies have been better elucidated. Newer diagnostic modalities which have broad clinical applications like metagenomic next-generation sequencing, as well as those that help us better understand esoteric concepts of disease pathogenesis have been studied. Finally, several studies have provided newer insights into the treatment of these diseases. Recent findings reflect the steady progress in our understanding of CNS infections post SOT. They provide several avenues for improvement in the prevention, early recognition, and therapeutic outcomes of these diseases.

Stereoscopic depth constancy from a different direction

To calibrate stereoscopic depth from disparity our visual system must compensate for an object’s egocentric location. Ideally, the perceived three-dimensional shape and size of objects in visual space should be invariant with their location such that rigid objects have a consistent identity and shape. These percepts should be accurate enough to support both perceptual judgments and visually-guided interaction. This theoretical note reviews the relationship of stereoscopic depth constancy to the geometry of stereoscopic space and seemingly esoteric concepts like the horopter. We argue that to encompass the full scope of stereoscopic depth constancy, researchers need to consider not just distance but also direction, that is 3D egocentric location in space. Judgements of surface orientation need to take into account the shape of the horopter and the computation of metric depth (when tasks depend on it) must compensate for direction as well as distance to calibrate disparities. We show that the concept of the horopter underlies these considerations and that the relationship between depth constancy and the horopter should be more explicit in the literature.

Using design to develop an in-depth understanding of mathematical surfaces: The hairy Klein bottle

ABSTRACT The Klein bottle and hairy ball theorem are important concepts in advanced mathematics and they are both examples of the Poincaré–Hopf theorem. Complex theories such as these usually remain unrealized in the minds of mathematicians. In this collaborative work between a mathematician and a designer, we introduce the concept of the hairy Klein bottle, which is a fusion that explores a continuous non-vanishing vector field on a non-orientable surface. We strive to explain and shape these esoteric concepts accurately and to and describe the modelling process of creating a tangible, touchable sculpture designed to intrigue and invite simple understanding.

Evaluation of clinical quality improvement interventions: feasibility of an integrated approach

BackgroundCardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the largest cause of death and disability in Australia. Australian national guidelines for the primary prevention of CVD recommend that all adults without CVD and aged 45 years or more are screened for their absolute risk of CVD every 2 years. Despite the compelling evidence to address CVD risk, treatment gaps remain and evidence suggests that much of the shortcomings are attributed to the performance of primary care practices. To address this issue, a quality improvement initiative is being implemented in a large urban multidisciplinary primary care practice in the South West region of Victoria, Australia. The key outcome of this intervention will be to increase the use and acceptability of CVD risk assessment guidelines. To ensure the intervention is tracking toward its objectives, a robust monitoring and evaluation framework was established.Method/designA novel framework that assimilates key traditional and theory-driven evaluation practices was developed to assess the impact of the intervention. The framework approach is termed the integrated model of evaluation (IMoE). Researchers and stakeholders convened several times to discuss and develop the evaluation protocol and align it with the quality intervention. The main objective here is to explore the feasibility of an integrated approach to evaluating clinical quality improvement interventions. The sub-objectives are to test the alignment of the IMoE to clinical quality improvement projects and its ability to derive findings to the satisfaction of stakeholders. The design and establishment of the evaluation approach is discussed in further detail in this article.DiscussionThe novel feature of the IMoE is its emphasis on tracking ‘change’ in practices that lead to quality improvement. This emphasis suits the quality improvement theme of this initiative as identification of change elements and explanation behind change is necessary to sustain and promote quality improvement. The other principle behind development of this model, which emphasises practicality in implementation, is to ensure stakeholders gain greatest value from the commissioning of program evaluation. By incorporating practical components and leaving out esoteric concepts, this approach ensures evaluation can be undertaken in realistic timeframes.Ethics approvalThe quality improvement intervention and evaluation framework received approval from the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval Number: 2017-313).

Psychological Torture: Definition, evaluation and measurement, By Pau Pérez-Sales

Psychiatrist Pau Pérez-Sales has compiled a masterful and thorough analysis of an ambiguous but extremely important topic using a multidisciplinary approach. The book's objectives are to define torture, to build a theoretical framework for understanding and re-defining torture, to propose operational criteria for research, to propose working criteria for deciding whether a case constitutes torture and, finally, to propose adjustments in the Istanbul Protocol for documentation of torture. The author has accomplished all of these objectives successfully in a book that is well-written and easy to read, even though he draws from the esoteric concepts and language of legal, political, and scientific fields.

“I joined the Party to keep ourselves out of the System.” Neo-Pagan Survival Strategies in Socialist Hungary

Abstract The paper presents a Hungarian Ethno-Pagan group (Bolyanest) which was established in 1979, active in and around Budapest. In the early 80s the group was a forum for New Age-like ideas: Gaia cult, esoteric concepts, natural-based peace-campaigns, yoga, Reiki and other theories about nature, love, humanity, human potentials and peace. The author analyses how this group shifted slowly from the New Age to the Neo-Pagan characteristics during the 80s. The group had a complex survival strategy, which contained several conscious and instinctual responses to the communist system. One of these was the use of espionage: having an informer within the police from among their membership to provide reports that were to benefit the movement. Another strategy was that some members joined the Socialist Party to reassure the communist authorities of their loyalty. The Hungarian society considered communism as a field of parallel realities: one was the communist system‘s narratives, and the other was the society‘s private discourses. Beside these, Bolyanest members created a third reality: the group‘s own value-system and narratives. The cognitive ability to alternate between the realities was also an important key to survival.

WITH THE DIFFERENCE OF HALF A CENTURY OR TWO ESOTERIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL FINALISM (BASED ON THE WORKS OF ELENA BLAVATSKAYA AND DANIEL ANDREEV)

In this article the author makes a comparative analysis of two concepts of social finalism formulated with the difference of fifty years. Researchers consider. both authors to be esoteric thinkers. Daniel Andreev was fascinated with the doctrine of Elena Blavatskaya. That’s the main reason why the finalistic concepts of the above-mentioned authors are examined as interrelated ones. The definition of «social finalism» is given in the article. According to classical interpretation of the concept, finalism (from Lat. Finalis) means final, being the final goal. So, under this concept the author understands the achievement of a certain final level of social development, according to the goals. Each thinker offers his/her own goals and ways of achieving, the analysis of finalistic concepts helps to identify the most common and often allocated by philosophers, and hence universal goals, ways, means and conditions; which are, in our opinion, the ones reflecting the true preferences of mankind in the choice of the future for people themselves and their descendants. In this case, the esoteric concepts are analyzed. This fact in the author’s opinion is quite relevant, since the number of people who position themselves as adherents of esoteric teachings is steadily increasing. In the social finalistic concept of Blavatskaya the purpose – «brotherhood of all mankind», means of achieving – the Duty, Mercy, Self-sacrifice, and obstacles to the achievement of the final stage of society today are considered. The article shows that all necessary changes to achieve the ideal state of society, according to Andreev, should be carried out in all spheres of public life. This study will help to understand the aspirations and hopes for social transformations of people practicing esoteric approach to the perception of life.

Walter Lippmann: Public Economist, by Craufurd D. Goodwin

Walter Lippmann: Public Economist, by Craufurd D. Goodwin. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2014. viii, 414 pp. $35.00 US (cloth). His long career dedicated to the history of economic thought, Craufurd Goodwin has written a stimulating policy biography of the most prominent public intellectual of the twentieth century. Walter Lippmann learned about unemployment, trade, monetary policy, and fiscal issues from the likes of Keynes and Hayek. A voracious reader and active correspondent, Lippmann passed on his knowledge through books, articles, reviews, columns (most famously, Today and Tomorrow), and speeches. Teaching the public was his cardinal objective. Lippmann linked economics to larger political, even philosophical, constructs of American life, such as free markets and democracy. It was his job as a journalist to translate esoteric concepts to a public tuned out to national policies and subject to superficial politicians but which, he believed, could choose wise leaders if only it had the facts. Lippmann provided the lay public with such direction. The focus is not on Lippmann the person, as Goodwin cursorily mentions his failed marriage, various residences, and social life. A short bibliography includes some general, contextual works and writings related directly to economics. For an exposition of Lippmann's ideas on economics, however, this book is indispensable. Present at many creations (post-World War I peace planning, the advent of Keynesianism in America, advocacy for a council of economic advisors), Lippmann learned on the fly and changed as circumstances dictated. He remained above the professional and political fray, reluctant to join groups that might want to use or bias him. Goodwin focuses on the period 1931-46, though he sets up the story in Lippmann's formative years and finishes it with the twenty postwar years in which he focused on foreign affairs. This truly public economist dealt with the roots of the Great Depression and ways to avoid a recurrence after World War II. But economics was more than just numbers; it provided the basis for a philosophy of governance, social organization, and national interests. Lippmann moved from being a socialist to an advocate for the New Deal without becoming an acolyte of Franklin Roosevelt, and then evolved into a confirmed Keynesian (well before FDR and JFK adopted that view). Government regulation was the price to pay for avoiding leftist regimentation or rightwing authoritarianism --and the capitalist class's affinity for reckless speculation--and preserving freedom. As the country adjusted, therefore, so did Lippmann. What generated his economic concerns? He obsessed over the preservation of the market capitalist system by good government. He profoundly believed that free markets undergirded freedom, liberty, and democracy, but that laissez-faire thinking was unreasonable. Those who preached free markets actually undermined them by their own selfish, monopolistic interests. Thus, wise government regulations would protect capitalism from itself through countercyclical spending and saving, decent wages, and encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit. Lippmann liked balance, reason, and principles tempered by pragmatism (that is, true liberalism). …

Spiritual Tourism and Frontier Esotericism at Mount Shasta, California

Mount Shasta City, California (pop. 3300) is the gateway to this region’s major attraction, a 14,179 foot volcano that is a sacred site for tourists seeking spiritual ascension, a mystical practice rooted in the Theosophical Society and the Saint Germain Foundation and the post-1950s associational offshoots of these traditions. Analysing 150 years of pilgrim narratives in the Mount Shasta Collection of the College of Siskiyous library, this study charts spiritual tourism and the central role pilgrims play in the foundation and promotion of key esoteric associational groups and concepts in the United States. Pilgrim accounts of encounter and ascent at Mount Shasta effectively create and reaffirm its sacred status. Spiritual tourists transmit and ascribe new metaphysical meanings to the mountain using an ever-expanding repertoire of cosmic attributes and esoteric signifiers.

Spiritual care in the integrated care paradigm: a road map for physiological aging and chronic illness

Background: Spiritual care has been shown to be beneficial for patient in the settings of oncology and intensive care [1-5]. We propose that the quality of care given to the aging or to individuals with chronic illness might also improve as a result of the inclusion of spiritual care interventions in the integrative care models which guide the management of such individuals. The research studies to date that point to a positive impact of spirituality on patient outcomes in this patient population, have been criticized for the lack of a strong theoretical framework [6- 11]. The need for spiritual care is recognized, but a theoretical model has not been developed, and testable spiritual interventions have not been defined. In addition, there are also key reasons that have to do with the conceptualization of integrative care itself — the focus on the integration of ‘services’ which have a direct economic component is reflected in the WHO definition of integrated care: “Integrated care is a concept bringing together inputs, delivery, management and organization of services related to diagnosis, treatment, care, rehabilitation and health promotion. Integration is a means to improve services in relation to access, quality, user satisfaction and efficiency” to the individual [12, p.6]. The person in the WHO scheme is always to be seen as part of an entity and a system of beliefs, culture, religion and a community ecosystem and not to be seen as a single person. Similar reports from the IOM (Institute of Medicine) (13, p.20) focus on the essentials of a “systems engineering” approach to fixing an aliening health care system, defining essential and necessary steps best depicted by the following diagram. The individual, labeled as patient, is the white circle with no subscript. Although the word spiritual evokes fears in some people that esoteric concepts undermine the scientific rationality, we would argue that conceptually spiritual care is based on the rational concept of how we define a person in

Environmental Entrepreneurship in the Ontario (Canada) Wine Industry

The purpose of this study is to understand the intent to implement environmental practices as part of operational processes within the Ontario (Canada) wine industry, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Personal Construct Theory (PCT) as the frameworks of analysis. A constructivist approach using multiple case study design was used to explore the determinants of intention with a particular emphasis on identifying the reasoning and sense-making of organizations that took an entrepreneurial stance towards environmental practices. Key personnel from twenty wineries were interviewed and a repertory grid employed as the data collection technique. A content analysis indicated that constructs related to profitability and affordability override more esoteric concepts such as stewardship of the land. The study proposes an updated model for intention applicable to implementation environmental practices. Further research is suggested to facilitate understanding the impact of knowledge and customer perceptions in the actual implementation of environmental practices.

Traces of Lurianic Kabbalah: Texts and their Histories

Traces of Lurianic Kabbalah:Texts and their Histories Morris M. Faierstein Joseph Avivi . Kabalat ha-AR"I, 3 volumes. Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 2008. Pp. 1563. Isaac Luria (1534-72), the most influential figure of the sixteenth-century kabbalistic revival centered in Safed, was at the same time the best known and least understood figure of this important turning point in Jewish religious history. The religious practices that emanated from Safed transformed how Judaism was practiced. New rituals created in Safed and esoteric concepts buried in the Zohar became the centerpieces of Jewish religious life. Kabbalat Shabbat, hakafot on Simhat Torah, ushpizin in the sukkah, and numerous other practices that are universal today were either created in Safed or found in the Zohar and popularized by the Safed kabbalists. At the same time, the mystical theology that animated and explained the mystical significance of these new customs and practices, which came to be known as Lurianic Kabbalah, was the preserve of a select group of elite mystics who went to great lengths to keep these teachings secret and from being disseminated. Thus, we find ourselves in a paradoxical position. On the one hand we know a great deal about the life and activities of Isaac Luria. His personal religious practices and those of his circle formed the basis for the new practices that were so widely disseminated. At the same time, we know very little about the mystical theology that Luria taught his disciples and was the mystical underpinning of these practices. The ban on the public teaching of Lurianic Kabbalah and the copying and publication of Luria's mystical teachings made the accurate transmission of these teachings close to impossible. An illustrative example of this problem is the literary legacy of Hayyim Vital, Luria's most important [End Page 101] disciple. Vital was a graphomane who took copious notes on Luria's lectures and later organized them into longer treatises. During his lifetime he kept these writings in a locked chest and would on rare occasions allow important scholars to read some of his manuscripts for a brief period of time. The scholars who were granted this privilege would try to memorize as much as they could and immediately rush home to copy as much as they could remember. Once, when Vital was very ill and fell into a coma, Joshua Bin Nun, the richest Jew in Safed, gave Vital's brother a hefty bribe for access to Vital's trove of manuscripts. Bin Nun hired as many scribes as he could find and over the three days that Vital was in the coma managed to have six hundred pages copied. Other pieces of Luria's teachings made their way into circulation through other means. It took more than two hundred years before systematic treatises of Luria's teachings were published and made widely available. In contrast, significant portions of the writings of Moses Cordovero, the most important Safed kabbalist before Luria, were published by the end of the sixteenth century. This aura of secrecy gave rise to the myth that Isaac Luria wrote very little and what we have of his teachings was refracted through the biases of his disciples, making it virtually impossible to know with any degree of certainty what Luria actually thought and taught. The stealthy and fragmentary nature of the early transmission of Lurianic teachings also contributed to the corruption of texts and misinterpretations. There were also teachings attributed to Luria by close disciples that seemed to contradict each other. The differing interpretations of Luria's teachings by Vital and Joseph ibn Tabul are the best-known example of these differences. Joseph Avivi has devoted many years of scholarship to answering the basic and seemingly elusive question What did Isaac Luria teach? That is, what was Luria's theory of Kabbalah as he himself wrote and taught it? His attempt to answer this question spans three volumes and more than fifteen hundred pages. It is pursued through three lines of inquiry: First where are Luria's teachings, as he taught them and wrote about them, to be found? Second, what is the process of divine emanation that Luria taught? and finally, what is the...

Standards und Normen der Skandinavistik. Versuch einer Standortbestimmung

Scholarly practice requires moving beyond the canon, and therefore standards are constantly being revised. Since the total of 18 departments of Scandinavian Studies ( Skandinavistik ) in German speaking countries differ quite noticeably, it is even harder to pinpoint a common ground for this discipline. It could even be questioned whether Skandinavistik is supposed to be considered one of the philologies. Its historical roots lie with the Germanistik , which comprises linguistics, medieval studies and literary studies. But only few Scandinavian departments today include linguistics, and the greater part is mostly focused on literary studies. The discipline of Scandinavian studies differs from Germanistik in two aspects: It is concerned not only with language and literature, but has been a cultural studies even before the cultural turn. Besides, it usually takes a comparatist viewpoint. While Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are standard, countries such as Iceland, Greenland, Finland, the Faroe Islands or the culture of the Sami are not necessarily included in all Scandinavian departments. Consequently, only Danish, Norwegian and Swedish language competence can be regarded as a norm within Scandinavian studies. Which countries and cultures Scandinavian studies researches changes with the standards in theory. E.g. the inclusion of Greenland only resulted from concepts of postcolonialism. In comparison to its modest size, the theoretical advancement of Scandinavian studies is quite remarkable. Since there is a pluralism of advanced methods and theories, the diversity is multiplied again. But there is also a standard that can be derived from this diversity: the presentation and application of theories has to be plausible and comprehensible. Although it encourages diversity, Scandinavian studies is too small to tolerate hermetic or esoteric concepts. As for its subjects, usually not only literature in a narrow sense is being studied, but cultural phenomena on a broader range. With the exceptions of the knowledge of specific regions and cultures as well as their languages, most of the standards of Scandinavian literary studies are similar to that of other literary studies. An attempt to explicate these standards in detail faces three problems: 1) Competences, like the knowledge of a certain canon, are gradable. It can be disputed what should be considered ›fundamental knowledge‹. Especially a small discipline like Scandinavian studies calls for a certain amount of universality, which can stand in the way of in-depth knowledge. 2) Standards of theory and method change dynamically throughout time. 3) To fix a set of standards and norms would not only require some form of authorization, but might also hinder the potential for innovation. Ideally, all research positions its own standards, on which subsequent researchers can take their bearings.

Tra esoterismo, New Age e mistica cristiana: le dottrine del « Cerchio Firenze 77 »

AbstractOne of the most interesting features of the 20th-century esoteric revival in Italy is the rise of a lively spiritualist culture. Many spiritualist groups, while still paying attention to physical phenomena (levitation, apports, etc.), produced a rich doctrinal literature of increasingly sophisticated content. The 'Cerchio Firenze 77' is certainly the most famous among these groups. It emerged around the Florentine medium Roberto Setti (1930–1984) and was active throughout the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1970s. The doctrines exposed by the 'Masters' to the participants in the séances show a complex interweaving of esoteric themes, mystical ideas and scientific concepts that made the works of 'Cerchio' highly successful, and comparable to the great classics of 20th-century channeling, such as Jane Roberts's 'Seth books'.