Living in two worlds: pastoral responses to possession in Singapore

Possession behaviour and exorcism have become more common in Singapore churches since 1972 with the increasing popularity and influence of the charismatic movement. This study aims to describe, analyse, and evaluate the responses of pastors in Singapore to people who display possession behaviour. The in- depth interview of 16 pastors involved in exorcism/deliverance ministry forms the primary material for this study and is complemented by interviews of subjects of possession, psychiatrists, and other informed persons. The study is divided into three phases.In the descriptive phase (chapters 3-5), the pastors' worldview and understanding of the epidemiology, symptomatology, and therapeutic management of possession behaviour are described. They espouse a traditional spirit worldview which views life as a battle between God and and a hierarchy of evil spirits who play an intimate role in the daily lives of people. People are believed to be possessed by evil spirits through contact with occultic and non-Christian religious practices. According to the pastors, people from the lower socio-economic strata, and those with emotional problems and other needs are predisposed to such contact: Demon possession is said to manifest itself through the emergence of an alternate personality, with accompanying personality and behavioural changes and disturbances. The pastors' respond in such instances by attempting to exorcise the "demon" through a deliverance session.In the analytical phase (chap 6-7), the pastors' understanding, explanation, and response to possession behaviour is compared with competing paradigms from the scientific disciplines (eg psychiatry and social anthropology). The similarities between the two sets of discourses are shown using their epidemiological (and phenomenological) description of possession suggesting that they may be describing similar phenomena. However, the fundamental tension between the two discourses emerges when their hermeneutic understanding of possession is examined. This tension is centred in competing epistemological and cosmological assumptions. The pastors' accounts are constructed around a two-worlds worldview while the scientific accounts are based on modern science's one- world worldview. The pastors respond to the competing scientific paradigm by attempting to live between both their worlds in various ways. Some focus on the other (spiritual) world, while others attempt to live in one world at a time. Yet others try to live in between both worlds. Analysis of the pastors' approach shows that their demonological paradigms are created and reinforced by various social and psychological factors largely centred around the theme of competition played in various arenas: ecclesiastical, religious, professional, and personal. While such hermeneutics of suspicion a.re employed to unmask the motivations of the pastors and the way their worldview is shaped, this does not mean that science and scientific explanations can provide the metanarrative with which we can evaluate the pastors' response.The evaluative phase of the study (chapt7-8) develops this question further by looking at the limitations of modern science and contemporary theologies constructed around the scientific paradigm. This is done by examining the theological questions of epistemology, theodicy, and cosmology. The limitations of reductionist epistemologies and theodicies are shown with a critique of both modern science and theology, and charismatic demonology. The model of living in both worlds simultaneously is proposed using the cosmological understanding of Orthodox theology and Christology, thus recovering the patristic paradigm of a spiritual universe and embodied spirituality. The implications of this for pastoral responses to possession behaviour are then outlined centering on the theological vision of two co-existing worlds (a spiritual universe) and the pastoral task of unmasking and resisting evil in all its varieties and depth

Monitoring ultrashort pulses by transverse frequency doubling of counterpropagating pulses in random media

The authors study experimentally the transverse second-harmonic generation of counterpropagating pulses by a quasi-phase-matching in a medium with a random ferroelectric domain structure. The authors show that this parametric process results in a direct realization of the cross correlation of two optical signals and, therefore, it can be employed for direct characterizations of ultrashort pulses including their temporal structure and pulse front tilt.The authors acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council

Correlates of Job Stress and Job Involvement among the Employees of Private Industries Limited, Tiruchirapalli District

The term ‘Job Involvement’ is an indicator of how much an employee is involved in his/her job. For an organization, it is important that all its employees are highly involved in their jobs, that is, they should have high level of job involvement. Job involvement appears to be a construct that follows directly from the way individuals are affected by their immediate work environment and interpersonal relationships. Job stress comes in different forms and affects the mind and body in different ways. Major stress comes from having too much or not enough work or doing work that doesn't satisfy the person. Conflicts with the boss, coworkers, or customers are other major causes of stress. Psychological strain is often due to the culture and management style adopted within an organization. The main aim of the study is to study the correlation of Job Stress and Job Involvement among the Employees at Private Sectors in Tiruchirappalli District. In this study the researcher attempts to describe the various characteristics of job involvement and job stress and to measure its associates with the related socio-demographic variable and hence the researcher has adopted descriptive research design. The researcher adopted simple random sampling method to collect the samples. The universe of the study is 210 and out of which 157 were selected as respondents using lottery method.The researcher adopted standardized scale developed by Linkers (1998) to evaluate the stress level and to measure the level of job involvement, the researcher used the standardized tool developed by Agarval (1972). The data was analyzed and the finding reveals that more than half 51.6 percent of the respondents have low level of job involvement and less than half 48.4 percent of the respondents have high level of Job Involvement. The overall Job stress more than half 57.3 percent of the respondents have low level of job stress and less than half 42.7 percent of the respondents have high level of Job stress. The researcher suggest that Management has to involve the union at the highest levels as an equal partner from planning, through implementation, and evaluation of employee Involvement. In order to reduce the stress the management need to aarrange work properly, and improve or simplify the work process to avoid long hours of monotonous and repetitive work. Keywords: Job Involvement, Job Stress, Job Autonomy, Job Motivation, Job Commitment

Limited effectiveness of high-dose liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome) for treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in an Ethiopian population with high HIV prevalence.

Due to unacceptably high mortality with pentavalent antimonials, Médecins Sans Frontières in 2006 began using liposomal amphotericin B (AmBisome) for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) patients in Ethiopia who were severely ill or positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Generation of the second-harmonic Bessel beams via nonlinear Bragg diffraction

We generate conical second-harmonic radiation by transverse excitation of a two-dimensional annular periodically-poled nonlinear photonic structure with a fundamental Gaussian beam. We show that these conical waves are the far-field images of the Bessel beams generated in a crystal by parametric frequency conversion assisted by nonlinear Bragg diffraction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. submitte

Spatiotemporal toroidal waves from the transverse second-harmonic generation

We study the second-harmonic generation via transversely matched interaction of two counterpropagating ultrashort pulses in X⁽²⁾ photonic structures. We show that the emitted second-harmonic wave attains the form of spatially expanding toroid with the initial thickness given by the cross correlation of the pulses. We demonstrate the formation of such toroidal waves in crystals with random ferroelectric domains as well as in annularly poled nonlinear photonic structures.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council and the Israeli Science Foundation (grant 960/05)

Comment on the Definition of Eligible Organization for Purposes of Coverage of Certain Preventive Services Under the Affordable Care Act

This comment letter was submitted by U.C. Berkeley corporate law professors in response to a request for comment by the Health and Human Services Department on the definition of eligible organization under the Affordable Care Act in light of the Supreme Court\u27s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Eligible organizations will be permitted under the Hobby Lobby decision to assert the religious principles of their shareholders to exempt themselves from the Affordable Care Act\u27s contraceptive mandate for employees. In Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court held that the nexus of identity between several closely-held, for-profit corporations and their shareholders holding “a sincere religious belief that life begins at conception” was sufficiently close to justify granting such corporations an exemption from the Affordable Care Act\u27s contraceptive mandate pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. More specifically, the Court ascertained that the overall interests of the corporations and their natural-person shareholders were sufficiently identical to warrant ascribing the religious commitments of the shareholders to their corporations. Notably, the Court stopped short of articulating a diagnostic test for determining when a sufficient overlap of interests exists; instead, it concluded that well-established principles in state corporate law should provide such guidance. We believe that state corporate law does in fact provide the diagnostic test the Court desires for determining when it is appropriate to disregard the distinct identity of a corporation for the identity of its shareholders. This test is rooted in the long-standing case law that constitutes the alter ego doctrine (commonly referred to as “veil piercing”). To sustain a claim of veil piercing, state corporate law uniformly requires there to be “unity of ownership and interest” between the corporation and its shareholders. If a corporation is operated as the effective alter ego of its shareholders to such an extent that its separate corporate existence ceases to exist as a practical matter, then a veil piercing claim can be established that effectively attributes the corporation’s legal rights and obligations to its shareholders, and vice versa. A veil piercing conclusion effectively holds that there is no practical difference between the corporation and the shareholders themselves. We therefore propose that for purposes of defining an “eligible organization” under Hobby Lobby, the HHS and other federal organizations should follow the corporate law doctrine of veil piercing. Indeed, to make this doctrine administratively feasible, we further suggest that shareholders of a corporation should have to certify that they and the corporation have a unity in identity and interests, and therefore the corporation should be viewed as the shareholders’ alter ego