- Office of Distance Learning
Florida State University
Mail Code 2550
296 Champions Way
Tallahassee, FL 32306 - (850) 566-0973
John L Crow
Florida State University, Office of Distance Learning, Faculty Member
- American Religious History, History of Religions, Comparative Religion, Science and Religion, American Religion, Online Learning, and 44 moreBody (Religion), Digital Pedagogy, Contemporary Religion, Theosophy, Spirituality, Theory of Body, Gender Studies (Religion), Embodiment, Western Buddhism, Buddhism in the West, Buddhist Studies, Digital Humanities, Digital Culture, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, New Religious Movements, Material culture of religion, Contemporary Spirituality, New Religions, Western Esotericism (Anthropology), Magic and the Occult (Anthropology Of Religion), World Religions, New Age spirituality, Esotericism (Anthropology), Occultism, Nineteenth Century Occultism, Theosophical Society, Thelema, Golden Dawn Tradition, Voudon Tradition, Aleister Crowley, Ordo Templi Orientis, Magick, Sex Magick, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Freemasonry, Western Esotericism, Magic, Theosophical History, H. P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Edgar Cayce, Western Esotericism (History), Occult Sciences, and Esotericismedit
- I am an Instructional Development faculty member at Florida State University’s Office of Distance Learning. I earned ... moreI am an Instructional Development faculty member at Florida State University’s Office of Distance Learning. I earned my Ph.D. from the Department of Religion at Florida State University. As both a technologist and historian, my research interests are wide ranging, dealing with the interactions between religion and science, body & embodiment, materiality and emplacement, technology related to engaged learning online and in-person classes, digital humanities, and the development of eastern religions within the West, particularly Buddhism in the West.edit
Sectionalism denotes the division of a country, such as the United States, into sections based on shared cultures, religions, and racial, economic, and political identities. These sections then compete, putting their interests over those... more
Sectionalism denotes the division of a country, such as the United States, into sections based on shared cultures, religions, and racial, economic, and political identities. These sections then compete, putting their interests over those of the other sections. In the case of the United States, one of the most significant sectional conflicts was the Civil War, where North and South battled due to conflict over racial, economic, religious, and political differences. However, sectional conflict can be seen as early as British colonialism during which time the colonies competed with each other and with their governments in Europe and later as other sections such as the West developed its own characteristics and interests. Religion and race were frequently at the core of sectional conflicts, in everything from the Revolutionary War, the drafting of the Constitution, the failure of compromise regarding slavery, and the intermittent battles with Native Americans over land and religious practice to the emergence of the West and the great immigration and religious innovation that took place there. In all these cases, sections constructed identities in which race and religion were fundamental and were also significant points of contention. Even today, at the beginning of the 21st century, sectionalism continues with geographic sections still battling for dominance, and cultural sections square off in what is commonly called the culture wars.
Research Interests: Native American Religions, Regional Geography, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Native American Studies, American Legal and Constitutional History, and 40 moreReligion and Politics, Law and Religion, Bodies and Culture, Slavery, North American West, Civil War, History of Slavery, American Religion, Abolition of Slavery, Southern History, American West, African American Religions, Cultural Identity, National Identity, Regionalism, Anti-slavery, American Civil War, Race and Religion, African American Studies, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Caribbean Slavery, Religion and Violence, Religion and Popular Culture, American Religious History, Spanish American colonial studies, French and Indian War, Spatial Humanities, Geography of Religions and Belief Systems, American Revolutionary War, Comparative Regionalism, Geographies of religion and spirituality, Sectionalism, Religious Identity, Urban and Regional Development, Social geography, History of Geography, French and Indian War-America 1700-1775, Regional geography and regional development, Bill of Rights, Law, Religion and Violence, Colonialism, Slavery and Religion, and Sectional Conflict
In New York City in 1875, a group interested in Spiritualism and occult science founded what would become the Theosophical Society. Primarily the creation of Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society went... more
In New York City in 1875, a group interested in Spiritualism and occult science founded what would become the Theosophical Society. Primarily the creation of Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society went through a number of early incarnations. One original version promised to teach occult powers. After Blavatsky found that she could not honor earlier promises to teach occultism, she shifted the focus of the Society to one that promoted Universal Brotherhood instead, highlighting notions of the body and demanding the control of emotion as a means to rebuff demands for training. With this refocusing, Blavatsky reestablished control of the Society and asserted herself as the central channel of esoteric knowledge. Thus, by shifting the focus from the attainment of occult powers to the more ambiguous “spiritual enlightenment,” Blavatsky erected an elaborate, centralized system of delayed spiritual gratification, a system contingent upon the individual's adoption of specific morals and values, while simultaneously maintaining control of the human body on all its levels: spiritual, social, physical, mental, and especially emotional.
Research Interests: Astral Magic, Spiritualism, Theosophical Society, Astral Projection, American Religious History, and 9 moreWestern Esotericism, Human Body, H. P. Blavatsky, 19th century American Religious History, Charles W. Leadbeater, Religion and the Body, Emotion and religion, W.Q. Judge, and Theosophical Writings
Claims of traveling in the astral planes, the techniques and experiences recorded by individuals in such nineteenth-century groups as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society have been common since the late... more
Claims of traveling in the astral planes, the techniques and experiences recorded by individuals in such nineteenth-century groups as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society have been common since the late nineteenth century. During these astral travel episodes, the individual imaginatively leaves her or his physical body and travels to places in this world or another dimension. The travelers claim that their inner selves travel into an imaginative environment generally accessible only to themselves. Here they encounter various entities, objects, and structures with which they can interact. In 1895, prominent Theosophist and clairvoyant, Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854–1934) published The Astral Plane, which described the various sceneries, phenomena, and human and non-human inhabitants one might encounter in the astral environment. Within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a nineteenth-century initiatory occult organization, travelling or “descrying” on the astral plane was an important activity an initiate was required to master in order to “obtain a clear idea of the relation of Man to the Universe, and to the spiritual planes”. These notions of the astral and the abilities and techniques to travel in it were adopted by many occultists, such as Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) and Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), and transmitted into the twentieth century. By the mid- to late twentieth century these ideas and techniques were diffused and incorporated into numerous groups and esoteric religions, the most prominent being New Age and neopaganism. With the emergence of computer technology, and the Internet specifically, various groups of people began to transfer the imaginative quality of the astral environment to cyberspace, and language that was previously used to refer to the astral was now used to describe cyber realms.
As Erik Davis, a self-described culture critic notes, “Both cyberspace and magical space are purely manifest in the imagination. … Both spaces are entirely constructed by your thoughts and beliefs.” Yet there were still significant impediments to cyberspace becoming just like the astral plane as described by nineteenth- and twentieth-century occultists. One was that text and static images on web pages still required the individual to look at the content and then imaginatively construct the “cyberastral” with their imaginations. The Internet was simply a way to deliver the content, but the person still had to imaginatively assemble it to bring the cyberastral realm alive. This process significantly changed with the emergence of three-dimensional graphical representation on the Internet. Another problem was the physical body. What happened to one’s body while in the astral? This question similarly occupied nineteenth-century occultists. Yet contemporary practitioners in the cyberastral have found new ways to deal with this question, or significantly adapted older solutions. The newest three-dimensional virtual worlds do provide the possibility to convincingly represent a cyberastral world, and some esoteric religious practitioners are using these worlds as places to practice their religion. One of these virtual environments is a computer system called Second Life. More than just seeing Second Life as an alternative place for communicating with others in virtual reality, some esoteric religious practitioners understand it to actually be the astral world. That is, they see no substantive difference between an imaginary astral plane described by the early occultists and the Second Life computer system itself. Moreover, this cyberastral environment has an added benefit that the astral environments visited by nineteenth-century occultists lacked: one can travel to the cyberastral and communicate with others while doing so. Thus the transfer of ideas about the astral plane to cyberspace and the development of sophisticated three-dimensional virtual worlds has led to the emergence of a particularly new type of astral plane, one that is imaginative, embodied, computer generated, and most importantly, social.
As Erik Davis, a self-described culture critic notes, “Both cyberspace and magical space are purely manifest in the imagination. … Both spaces are entirely constructed by your thoughts and beliefs.” Yet there were still significant impediments to cyberspace becoming just like the astral plane as described by nineteenth- and twentieth-century occultists. One was that text and static images on web pages still required the individual to look at the content and then imaginatively construct the “cyberastral” with their imaginations. The Internet was simply a way to deliver the content, but the person still had to imaginatively assemble it to bring the cyberastral realm alive. This process significantly changed with the emergence of three-dimensional graphical representation on the Internet. Another problem was the physical body. What happened to one’s body while in the astral? This question similarly occupied nineteenth-century occultists. Yet contemporary practitioners in the cyberastral have found new ways to deal with this question, or significantly adapted older solutions. The newest three-dimensional virtual worlds do provide the possibility to convincingly represent a cyberastral world, and some esoteric religious practitioners are using these worlds as places to practice their religion. One of these virtual environments is a computer system called Second Life. More than just seeing Second Life as an alternative place for communicating with others in virtual reality, some esoteric religious practitioners understand it to actually be the astral world. That is, they see no substantive difference between an imaginary astral plane described by the early occultists and the Second Life computer system itself. Moreover, this cyberastral environment has an added benefit that the astral environments visited by nineteenth-century occultists lacked: one can travel to the cyberastral and communicate with others while doing so. Thus the transfer of ideas about the astral plane to cyberspace and the development of sophisticated three-dimensional virtual worlds has led to the emergence of a particularly new type of astral plane, one that is imaginative, embodied, computer generated, and most importantly, social.
Research Interests: Phenomenology, Magic, Religion and the Internet, New Religions, Mysticism, and 23 morePhenomenology of the body, Golden Dawn Tradition, Western Esotericism (History), Thelema, Occultism, Theosophical Society, Phenomenology of the Body (Philosophy), Neo-Paganism and Western Esotericism, Cyberspace, Astral Projection, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Western Esotericism, Aleister Crowley, Besant & Leadbeater, H. P. Blavatsky, Western Esotericism and the occult, Astral Magic, Medieval Astrology and Magic, C.W. Leadbeater, Charles W. Leadbeater, Contemporary occulture and esotericism, Contemporary Esotericism, Theosophical Writings, and Esoteric Movements
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Focusing on the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 and headquartered in Adyar, India, this dissertation traces how the emplaced body, variously understood and experienced, and discourses of science, as appropriated and applied to... more
Focusing on the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 and headquartered in Adyar, India, this dissertation traces how the emplaced body, variously understood and experienced, and discourses of science, as appropriated and applied to Theosophical doctrine derived from both modern and ancient wisdom texts, were mutually constitutive for members of the Society. That is, Theosophists came to understand their body’s makeup and constitution, how it should be cared for, nourished, and disciplined, as well as its place within the cosmos, and the reason for its existence, through the ideas, discourses, and doctrines of the Society. These ideas, texts, and discourses were presented using the rhetoric of science, and in doing so, were made authoritative. The result was a Theosophical understanding of the body based on the teachings of Ancient Wisdom as combined with, and legitimized by, scientific discourses.
Yet, much like the scientific discourses Theosophy engaged and adopted, the doctrine, texts, and ideas of the Society were not static, at least not completely. They had to respond to the needs and practices of the members, as well as to changes and development on the world stage. Thus, the texts, doctrines, and discourses were created, modified, and ignored based on the unfolding practice of Theosophy by the members. The end result was a dialectic process in which both body and discourse were mutually constituting. Moreover, the intersection of the body and scientific discourses within Theosophical teachings facilitated the mediation of larger sociocultural changes, including secularization and the crisis of faith, ascendency of scientific materialism, and shifting international political structures due to nationalism and colonialism at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Not only were body and discourse mutually constituting, the dialectic process was how Theosophy was able to respond to change, both within the tradition, and to larger sociocultural forces outside it.
Yet, much like the scientific discourses Theosophy engaged and adopted, the doctrine, texts, and ideas of the Society were not static, at least not completely. They had to respond to the needs and practices of the members, as well as to changes and development on the world stage. Thus, the texts, doctrines, and discourses were created, modified, and ignored based on the unfolding practice of Theosophy by the members. The end result was a dialectic process in which both body and discourse were mutually constituting. Moreover, the intersection of the body and scientific discourses within Theosophical teachings facilitated the mediation of larger sociocultural changes, including secularization and the crisis of faith, ascendency of scientific materialism, and shifting international political structures due to nationalism and colonialism at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Not only were body and discourse mutually constituting, the dialectic process was how Theosophy was able to respond to change, both within the tradition, and to larger sociocultural forces outside it.
Review of Diane Sasson's Yearning for the New Age: Laura Holloway-Langford and Late Victorian Spirituality (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2012).
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Women's History, Nineteenth Century Studies, Gender, and 20 moreNineteenth Century British History and Culture, Western Esotericism (Anthropology), Western Esotericism (History), Theosophical Society, Theosophy, Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Nineteenth Century Occultism, Women and Culture, Women Studies in Religion, Book Reviews, Religious Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Book Review, Esotericism, Western Esotericism, Shakers, H. P. Blavatsky, Theosophy and Antroposophy, Nineteeth and Early-twentieth Century American History, and Theosophical History
Review of Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body, edited by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnson (Routledge, 2013)
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Review of Occultism in a Global Perspective, edited by Henrik Bogdan and Gordan Djurdjevic (Acumen Publishing, 2014).
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Reviewed for Nova Religio 17.4 (May 2014).
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Reviewed for Quest, 101.4 (Fall 2013), 156, 158.
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Reviewed for Nova Religio 17.2 (Nov. 2013), 123-126.
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Reviewed for the Journal of Southern Religion, vol 14 (2012).
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When speaking to her students, on June 20, 1889, H.P. Blavatsky, frustrated, scolded them claiming, " Look here, you Europeans ought never to have been given the seven principles. Well, perhaps in a hundred years you will understand it.... more
When speaking to her students, on June 20, 1889, H.P. Blavatsky, frustrated, scolded them claiming, " Look here, you Europeans ought never to have been given the seven principles. Well, perhaps in a hundred years you will understand it. It would be a thousand times better to hold to the old methods, those that I have held to in Isis Unveiled, and to speak about triple man: spirit, soul, and matter; then you would not fall into the heresies, in such heresies as you do. " This terse response was to a series of questions her students asked about the principles that compose the human body. They were confused because the descriptions H.P.B. gave in The Secret Doctrine were far from clear. With the emergence of Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky inaugurated a new system of occultism which offered descriptions of the subtle bodies that compose the human body. Initially claiming there were three divisions, she later expanded these to seven, ranging from the physical body to the immortal spirit. Yet, these descriptions were constantly changing, having a variety of labels, and arranged up in myriad ways. After her death in 1891, three prominent leaders in the Theosophical movement, Annie Besant, Charles W. Leadbeater, and C. Jinarajadasa took up the challenge of systematizing the representations of the subtle bodies, organizing the terminology, and standardizing the divisions. To do so, they fully embraced the rhetoric and aesthetics of modern science, deploying consistent language and labels, producing numerous graphs, illustrations, charts, and photographs, all in an effort to effectively map the composition of a person, and to have consistent terminology across Theosophical literature. By making a consistent map of the body, and claiming it was occult science, they built a foundation upon which Theosophy could thrive, and it did. During the first three decades of the twentieth century Theosophy grew rapidly worldwide, becoming a movement that counted a membership in the hundreds of thousands.
Research Interests: Bodies and Culture, Embodiment, The Body, Habitus, Sociology of the Body, and 15 moreWestern Esotericism (Anthropology), Magic and the Occult (Anthropology Of Religion), Western Esotericism (History), Occultism, Theosophical Society, Theosophy, History of Medicine and the Body, Neo-Paganism and Western Esotericism, Transcendent theosophy, Nineteenth Century Occultism, Esotericism, Western Esotericism, Theosophy and Antroposophy, Theosophy and the Arts, and Theosophical History
The human body is at the center of all religions, Theosophy is no different. Because the body is ever present, it is often taken for granted or its centrality recedes into the background. Theosophy, in contrast to other traditions, is... more
The human body is at the center of all religions, Theosophy is no different. Because the body is ever present, it is often taken for granted or its centrality recedes into the background. Theosophy, in contrast to other traditions, is more ambivalent about the body as Theosophy has an inherent tension arising from two of its informing ideological undercurrents, Platonic idealism and spiritualized materialism. As a result the doctrine casts the human body and its materiality as both a hindrance to spiritual development and a necessary component for humanities evolution towards spiritual perfection. These body issues are at the center of Theosophical doctrine, both in its regulation and discipline, as well as making the body a primary indicator of human development in by its composition, such as 6th root-race individuals having two spines, or having both sexes in one body. By focusing on the way Theosophy represents and disciplines the human body, we can begin to appreciate the way religions, in general, use the body as the means of both expressing doctrine, and also how traditions differentiate themselves from one another.
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At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were a myriad of racial theories circulating throughout Europe, all of which had their antecedents in the nineteenth century. A common link for these theories was an innate anti-Semitism... more
At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were a myriad of racial theories circulating throughout Europe, all of which had their antecedents in the nineteenth century. A common link for these theories was an innate anti-Semitism that kept the Jewish “race” separate and denigrated. Within occult circles in Germany and Austria, Theosophical theories of race and human evolution were intermingled with Pan Germanic nationalism, anti-Semitism and nostalgic appeals to a Germanic heritage prior to Christianity. This potent cocktail of ideas were consumed heavily by various groups such as the German Order, the Thule Society, and promoted by Ariosophists such as Guido von List (1848-1919) and Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954). Together, these individuals and organizations laid the foundation for a variety of ideas that informed Nazi race theory and contributed to the Nazi Holocaust, claiming the lives of over 20 million. While there are no direct links, most, if not all of these individuals and organizations found inspiration and validation within the work of the Theosophical Society and in particular the materials of Madame Blavatsky.
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Since the emergence of the academic study of Western Esotericism, there has been a persistent debate as to where the line between east and west should be drawn. The root question is what, in particular, makes so-called Western Esotericism... more
Since the emergence of the academic study of Western Esotericism, there has been a persistent debate as to where the line between east and west should be drawn. The root question is what, in particular, makes so-called Western Esotericism “western”? Much of this debate is based on tracing the historical continuities of esoteric ideas and practices, polemical conflicts, or academic discourses. Yet few, if any, of these attempts have tried to draw Western Esotericism cartographically. This may be due to many difficulties and limitations associated with Western Esotericism itself. First, by its nature, Western Esotericism seems to manifest in individuals or small groups in a variety of places. This pattern seems to resist the process of mapping esoteric currents, polemics, and discourses. However, with the rise of globalization, mass communication, and the normalization of many western esoteric ideas and practices, opportunities to map the geographical distribution of esoteric phenomenon emerge.
A note about the frequent bibliographic error stating that the book, Thought Forms, by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater, was published in 1901 when it was actually published in 1905.
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Charles Darwin, in his 1859 seminal book, On the Origin of Species, details the seemingly cruel way in which all the parts of nature struggle against themselves for survival. This view of nature permeated the minds and imagination of... more
Charles Darwin, in his 1859 seminal book, On the Origin of Species, details the seemingly cruel way in which all the parts of nature struggle against themselves for survival. This view of nature permeated the minds and imagination of Victorian England. It gave a non-theistic explanation of creation for those rejecting religion and was considered heresy by those who believed in God’s exclusive role in creating the world. While it would be easy to simply describe Darwin’s impact on the view of nature as a polemic, those who agreed and those who objected, the reality is that Darwin’s theory resulted in views that were much more complex. This complexity requires a more nuanced investigation; one in which certain individuals become candidates for exploration because of their backgrounds and positions in society; these people help illuminate the complexity of outlooks regarding nature maintained by others. One such person is Ananda Metteyya (Charles Henry Allan Bennett); the first Englishman ever to become a Buddhist monastic and return to England. His views of nature not only accept and integrate Darwin’s theory of evolution, but he also expanded, converted, and sometimes refuted them based on his background in Theravada Buddhism. Exploring Ananda M.’s views on nature allows us to better understand how Darwin’s theories were accepted, applied, and how they were represented in Buddhism and the scientific view of Buddhism prevalent from the middle to end of the Victorian era.
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Focusing on the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 and headquartered in Adyar, India, this dissertation traces how the emplaced body, variously understood and experienced, and discourses of science, as appropriated and applied to... more
Focusing on the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 and headquartered in Adyar, India, this dissertation traces how the emplaced body, variously understood and experienced, and discourses of science, as appropriated and applied to Theosophical doctrine derived from both modern and ancient wisdom texts, were mutually constitutive for members of the Society. That is, Theosophists came to understand their body’s makeup and constitution, how it should be cared for, nourished, and disciplined, as well as its place within the cosmos, and the reason for its existence, through the ideas, discourses, and doctrines of the Society. These ideas, texts, and discourses were presented using the rhetoric of science, and in doing so, were made authoritative. The result was a Theosophical understanding of the body based on the teachings of Ancient Wisdom as combined with, and legitimized by, scientific discourses. Yet, much like the scientific discourses Theosophy engaged and adopted, the doctrine, texts, and ideas of the Society were not static, at least not completely. They had to respond to the needs and practices of the members, as well as to changes and development on the world stage. Thus, the texts, doctrines, and discourses were created, modified, and ignored based on the unfolding practice of Theosophy by the members. The end result was a dialectic process in which both body and discourse were mutually constituting. Moreover, the intersection of the body and scientific discourses within Theosophical teachings facilitated the mediation of larger sociocultural changes, including secularization and the crisis of faith, ascendency of scientific materialism, and shifting international political structures due to nationalism and colonialism at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Not only were body and discourse mutually constituting, the dialectic process was how Theosophy was able to respond to change, both within the tradition, and to larger sociocultural forces outside it.