Week 9 - Michelle Nguyen

One of the current struggles with the spirit realm is that it is not taught in academia. For several reasons, people are hesitant to accept it: fear of the unknown, clinging to strict “science”, or perhaps skepticism. Academia avoids the subject out of fear of their students breaking out of the mold and tension of these revolutionary ideas. Still, the spirit realm is a valuable source of learning by teaching students how to be open minded and be in touch with their world. As we enter a world filled with ever increasing distraction and technology, it’s especially important that we and future generations touch base with our spirituality (not necessarily religion) so we can interact and learn “indigenous knowledge” (Ritskes). The way Ritskes describes it, spirituality is also important for people to find their center. Tying this back in to some key points of last week’s mental health article, finding your center could be how people find their general happiness in life. As society works towards improving productivity it makes it more difficult to find our center as we are distracted by work and everything. So really, now more than ever, people need to re-center and learn about spirituality so they can be well-rounded. This reminds me of how stereotypically some doctors become so desensitized through their training that they start to be unable to empathize with their patients. So why aren’t we able to convince more scientists and academics that the spiritual realm is worth studying? I think it’s difficult to change people’s mind but with time, each new generation will become more and more open minded. We just need to be more proactive about teaching them.

*I want to make a point about what I chose as my visual. This clip is from the show Avatar the Last Airbender and the main character Aang is learning how to open his chakras from an ancient monk of sorts. He had to go somewhere special to find this person and that's how I feel spirituality is taught today. Not everyone believes in it and you have to find particular people who are knowledgeable in the subject to teach you. I felt this image represents the future of spirituality in that we need to take action to seek out these knowledgeable individuals so the art is not lost.

References

Ritskes, Eric J. “Connected: Indigenous Spirituality as Resistance in the Classroom.” 2011.

Media 

http://www.claudiayoga.com/2011/12/a-simple-guide-to-opening-your-chakras-by-the-avatar-and-his-guru/