aPORKalypse?!

Click here (huffpost) for a tongue-in-cheek (albeit still serious) look at one of the latest food security predictions to be making the rounds...

Why might it be, in your view, that economic supply-and-demand dynamics sometimes attract the spiritually-charged language of apocalypse and prophecy??

Visualizing Elijah & Elisha

Click here (flickriver.com) to view a small collection of Medieval Biblical illustrations depicting scenes from the prophets' careers...

Any favorites??

Animal Helping Spirits

Click here (animalspirits.com) to view and listen to some of the many animal spirits that are available to shamanistic cultures...

Which ones speak to you??

[download Real Player, if you cannot access the audio files]

Elijah's Environment

Click here (biblewalks.com) and follow the links to view some of the sites in Israel that are associated with the Biblical prophet Elijah...

Notice the various religious monuments that have been built over the centuries. What are your thoughts/observations about how such Scriptural traditions have been memorialized?

The stuff that dreams are made of...

Click here (dreamstudies) to browse an informative albeit somewhat idiosyncratic site (note the disclaimer) regarding dream cultivation and interpretation...

How might ancient spiritual intermediaries have invoked these types of methods in order to fulfill their social roles?

NASA's 'prophecy'

Click here (YouTube) to view a NASA scientist attempting to explain and dispel rumors surrounding the dreaded Mayan Calendar 2012 prophecy...

Do you think that scientific and religious cosmologies (as different as they are) can find any common ground for discussion? Or are they doomed to talk past each other?

Donkey: 1 Balaam: 0

Click here (YouTube) for a wacky-cartoonish take on the prophet Balaam!

How closely (or not) does this version adhere to the Biblical story? What humor and/or sarcasm do you detect in the original? What purposes might this have served for its ancient Israelite audience?

A Deadly ASC

Click here (petaluma360) to learn about a young American's literally fatal encounter with the 'Vine of Death'...

What are your thoughts/reactions to this incident? Could/should anything have been done (or not done) differently? 

Prophecy's Long Shadows

Click here (USAToday) to view a series of photos surveying this past week's growing protests against a movie (made by an American) that denigrates Islam's holiest prophet, Muhammad...

What are your reactions/thoughts about such widespread (and increasingly violent) anger? Is it indeed all about the Prophet? Are there other societal factors/frustrations involved?

Mind Your Elders

Click here (TimesofIndia) to read about a new study correlating supernatural beliefs with age...

What kind of possible explanations for such beliefs does the study discuss? Do you find them persuasive? Are they potentially cross-cultural, or culturally specific?

All Things Egypt

Click here (BritishMuseum) to browse a site with loads of information about ancient life along the Nile...

Anything in particular catch your eye, or otherwise interest you?

The 'Spirit-Vine'

Click here (YouTube) to watch a short video about a Peruvian shaman ritual involving ayahuasca, the powerful hallucinogenic plant sometimes known as the 'Vine of Death'...

What emic (actor-perspective) explanations are here provided about shamanism? What kinds of questions about the ceremony remain for you as an etic (observer-perspective) individual?

Majestic Prophets and Prophetesses

Click here (italian-renaissance-art.com) to view the Vatican's famous Sistine Chapel paintings of Jewish Testament prophets (and Greco-Roman Sibyls = female oracles) by Michelangelo...

What might Michelangelo's styles/depictions of these characters suggest about early 16th Century notions of Biblical prophets and prophecy? If you had only these paintings to go by, who/what would you imagine a prophet to be?

Shamans of the Khans

Click here (NBC) to get a glimpse of shamanism's resurgence in portions of Mongolia...

What factors are motivating some people to return to shamanic traditions? How might these behaviors interact with institutional religions, such as Islam and Christianity?

Shamanism Down South

Click here (Emory) to learn about a newly opened museum exhibition that explores relationships between artwork and shamanism, both ancient and modern...

What observations/thoughts come to your mind about how the curator has structured and described this exhibit?