KRÆFTPATIENTERS BRUG AF REIKI-HEALING SOM MAGISK PRAKSIS

Almost half the number of Danish cancer patients are involved in alternative or complementary treatments while receiving conventional cancer treatment. reikihealing is one of the alternative treatments they often seek out. It is a treatment that has a spiritual and holistic approach to both the person and the illness, claiming to transmit energy from the hands of the healer to the one being healed. This creates a contradiction with the concurrent use of conventional treatment which rests on a biomedical understanding of cause and effect. In this context, the use of reikihealing can be regarded as a kind of magical practice by cancer patients, who might not necessarily share the same underlying worldview as the reiki-healer. The basis for this article is a qualitative study called ‘Reiki-healing as Experienced by Cancer Patients’, undertaken at the University of Copenhagen and financed by the Danish Cancer Foundation. Here the cancer patients reported their experiences during reiki-healing and were asked to describe how they understood the treatment and what effects it had for them. Most of them referred to the healer as a gifted person who has the power to influence their minds and bodies or, notably, the way they conceive of themselves. These statements support the interpretation of reiki-healing as a magical practice, which is characterized by the placement of a magical agency as one of the components of a ritual – in this case, the healer. If the cancer patient shares the same holistic approach as the healer, the use of reiki-healing can turn out to be a spiritual or religious coping strategy, which helps the person to find meaning and support in times of crisis. In both examples, reiki-healing is used as a magical practise because of the opportunity it offers to influence the illness and life situation, which otherwise would be beyond the reach of conventional medicine. Keywords: Healing, reiki, religious coping, healing ritual, cancer &nbsp

KRÆFTPATIENTERS BRUG AF REIKI-HEALING SOM MAGISK PRAKSIS

Almost half the number of Danish cancer patients are involved in alternative or complementary treatments while receiving conventional cancer treatment. reikihealing is one of the alternative treatments they often seek out. It is a treatment that has a spiritual and holistic approach to both the person and the illness, claiming to transmit energy from the hands of the healer to the one being healed. This creates a contradiction with the concurrent use of conventional treatment which rests on a biomedical understanding of cause and effect. In this context, the use of reikihealing can be regarded as a kind of magical practice by cancer patients, who might not necessarily share the same underlying worldview as the reiki-healer. The basis for this article is a qualitative study called ‘Reiki-healing as Experienced by Cancer Patients’, undertaken at the University of Copenhagen and financed by the Danish Cancer Foundation. Here the cancer patients reported their experiences during reiki-healing and were asked to describe how they understood the treatment and what effects it had for them. Most of them referred to the healer as a gifted person who has the power to influence their minds and bodies or, notably, the way they conceive of themselves. These statements support the interpretation of reiki-healing as a magical practice, which is characterized by the placement of a magical agency as one of the components of a ritual – in this case, the healer. If the cancer patient shares the same holistic approach as the healer, the use of reiki-healing can turn out to be a spiritual or religious coping strategy, which helps the person to find meaning and support in times of crisis. In both examples, reiki-healing is used as a magical practise because of the opportunity it offers to influence the illness and life situation, which otherwise would be beyond the reach of conventional medicine. Keywords: Healing, reiki, religious coping, healing ritual, cancer &nbsp

Genfortællingens kraft

Essa

Et udvidet moralsk laboratorium: En autoetnografisk undersøgelse af det danske begravelsesritual, og hvordan dets praksisser genforhandles som følge af COVID-19

I denne artikel har vi fokus på begravelseshandlingen i den klasse af ritualer som Arnold van Gennep – og senere antropologen Victor Turner – har ka- rakteriseret som overgangsriter, der er kendt for at udspille sig, når menne- sker skifter social status i fællesskabet. Med begravelseshandlingen som det antropologiske omdrejningspunkt undersøger vi, hvordan det kulturkristne begravelsesritual i Danmark strukturelt måtte genskabes som en direkte føl- ge af regeringens retningslinjer ift. COVID-19, og hvordan denne genska- belse influerede afskeds- og sorgprocessen

Tracing Uncertainties in New Prognostics of Consciousness

Uncertainty is a basic condition of medicine - in research, in the clinic and in the intersection between the two domains. Prognostics is in its very nature an attempt to address and manage the uncertainty of the future. New technologies are continuously developed in order to make prognostics more precise and hence make the future more predictable. However, such technologies may not always serve to decrease uncertainty, but rather enhance or introduce new uncertainties, and thereby open other futures than those imagined. Our study follows an interdisciplinary Danish research group currently seeking to advance methods of neuroimaging in prognostics for unresponsive patients with uncertain consciousness due to anoxic brain injury after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Applying an interdisciplinary approach combining ethnographic methods and philosophical analysis we trace the experience of uncertainty in this context of tool development at the intersection of scientific and clinical reasoning around disorders of consciousness. Specifically, we employ and develop the three-dimensional framework of uncertainty developed by Han, Klein and Arora (2011). We identify salient uncertainties from the perspective of the researchers and show how these lead to different uncertainties experienced by the clinicians. Additionally, we show that while ambiguity may be the source of different kinds of uncertainty, the context determines the nature of the source. Our investigation has a descriptive and theoretical focus, however, uncovering these details may serve as a basis for normative discussions of strategies for uncertainty management, as well as evidence evaluation in research and the clinic in the future.&nbsp

Hvordan oplever vi kærlighed? Mikrofænomenologi som metode til beskrivelse af subjektive oplevelser

Det mikrofænomenologiske interview tilbyder antropologien en tilgang til at undersøge, hvordan vi som mennesker oplever den verden, vi er en del af. Metoden tager udgangspunkt i konkrete og som regel ganske korte subjektive oplevelser. Gennem en ikke-inducerende interviewteknik guides den interviewede til at genkalde sig en konkret oplevelse, hvorefter intervieweren systematisk spørger ind til, hvordan oplevelsen udfoldede sig. Teknikken gør det muligt at beskrive aspekter i en oplevelse, som vi ellers normalt ikke er opmærksomme på. I denne artikel demonstreres metoden gennem eksempler fra et antropologisk forskningsprojekt om oplevelser af kærlighed