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A New Age Case Study on Contested Models of Science

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A New Age Case Study on Contested Models of Science CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE QI EQUALS MC-SQUARED: A NEW AGE CASE STUDY ON CONTESTED MODELS OF SCIENCE, SPIRITUALITY AND THE ACQUISITION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology By Garrett Sadler December 2014 The thesis of Garrett Sadler is approved: _________________________________________ ______________ Dr. Christina von Mayrhauser Date _________________________________________ ______________ Dr. Sabina Magliocco Date _________________________________________ ______________ Dr. Kimberly Kirner, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Acknowledgements There are many people to whom I am endlessly in debt for their guidance, wisdom, expertise, support, sympathy, counseling, therapy (lots and lots of therapy), and—simply put—genuine care for my success over the course of this project and, more generally, my graduate career. Thank you, Drs. Christina von Mayrhauser, Sabina Magliocco, and Kimberly Kirner. Each of you has played a significant role in developing and honing my skills and intellect in anthropological thought and, perhaps more significantly, in being a good person. Additionally, I would like to single out two students without whose friendship (more accurately, mentorship) I would not have completed this degree: Victoria Weaver and Kevin Zemlicka. Victoria and Kevin, I am honored to have you as such dear friends. From our mutual experiences in this program, I know that our bond is permanent. Please be prepared to keep assisting me with my many neuroses in the future. To all of those mentioned above, know that you have instilled in me aspects of character, personality, identity (or whatever the hell you want to call it) that will remain with me eternally. iii Table of Contents Signature Page .................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................1 Revisiting the Objective Limits of Objectivity ................................................................1 The Reasoning and Approach of this Study ....................................................................2 The Historical Connection Between the New Age Movement, Their Religion, and Scientific Discourse ........................................................................................................4 Why the New Age Example Provides an Ideal Case Study of Science-Thinking ...........8 The Necessity of Multi-Sited Research and the Selection of Appropriate Sites .............9 Quantum Gravity Research ............................................................................................12 Unity of Tucson .............................................................................................................14 15th Annual Conference of the Institute of Noetic Sciences ..........................................15 2013 World Congress of Quantum Medicine ................................................................17 2013 Science and Nonduality Conference .....................................................................18 20th Annual Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference .....................................20 Summary of Key Findings .............................................................................................22 The Motivation for New Age Science ...................................................................22 Boundary-Work and Oppositionality .....................................................................23 Ideology Maintenance via a Complex, Adaptive Cultural Model of Science .......25 The Next Hermeneutical Shift? From Emblem to Idiom to Battle Cry .................28 The Takeaway of the New Age Example ......................................................................30 A Final Note: What this Study is Not ............................................................................33 Chapter 2: The History, Definition, and Scholarship of the New Age Movement ............36 Deliberate Blurriness: The New Age is Hard to Define ................................................37 Historical Precursors of the New Age Movement .........................................................45 The New Age Heyday ....................................................................................................51 The New Age of Today and of this Study .....................................................................53 The New Age in the Academy .......................................................................................54 Chapter 3: Meaning, Doxa, and Authority .........................................................................58 Shifting Focus ................................................................................................................58 Agendas in Anthropology: Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Century ...............................60 Variants on an Agenda of Meaning ...............................................................................62 Meaning is Public ..........................................................................................................62 Meaning is Constructed .................................................................................................64 Meaning is Habitus ........................................................................................................66 Cognitive Anthropology: Meaning is a Momentary, Cognitive State ...........................67 Boundary-Work: Scientific Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies, Selves and Others ...........72 Knowledge/Power and Authority ..................................................................................76 Summing Up: Ideology, Science, and the New Age .....................................................79 Chapter 4: Methodology: Multi-Sitedness and Modeling .................................................81 Methodological Considerations of Multi-Sited Ethnography ........................................81 Site Selection Process ....................................................................................................83 Participant Observation at Field Sites ............................................................................85 Non-Random Sampling and Interview Technique ........................................................86 Schema Analysis and Cultural Modeling ......................................................................87 Chapter 5: Science as the Modern Mystical Tradition: The New Age Cultural Model of Science ..........................................................................89 Scientific Areas of Focus ...............................................................................................89 Quantum Mechanical Roots of New Age Science .........................................................89 New Age Science and Medicine ..................................................................................102 Ideological Arguments Over What Counts as Science ................................................109 New Age Science as a Complex of Cultural Models ...................................................115 Chapter 6: Ethnographic Vignettes of the New Age Cultural Model of Science ............126 Tie-Dyed Bears on the Seats ........................................................................................126 Angelina Jolie’s Double Mastectomy: A Tremendous Loss for Quantum Medicine ..131 Catherin Pépin’s Two Challenges ................................................................................133 Was Buddha Just a Nice Guy? .....................................................................................134 Chapter 7: Conclusions – What Does New Age Science Tell Us About Vernacular Science ...............................................................................................140 The “New Agers” of QGR, IONS, WCQM, SAND, and TSC ....................................141 The Authority of Science .............................................................................................143 Boundary-Work ...........................................................................................................144 The “New Age” as a Battle Cry ...................................................................................144 Qi = mc2: Modern Physics, Consciousness, and Spirituality .......................................145 v Broader Considerations ................................................................................................146 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................150 Appendix A: List of Attended Conference Presentation and Performance List ..............158 Appendix B: Inventory of IONS Conference Bookstore .................................................162
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