Seeking the enlightened self: a sociological study of popular teachings about spiritual enlightenment

This is a study of self and authority in the popular spiritual field. Since Heelas's The New Age Movement (1996), the notion of a common Self-spirituality in which seekers trust the authority of the Self has been familiar within academe. Yet, contrary to the direction of Heelas's earlier work on indigenous psychologies and self-religions, the different ways participants conceive terms like seeker and self has largely escaped analysis. This omission allows scholars to homogenise diverse activities and portray broad cultural trends. But, it also black boxes the self, side-lines how authority actually works, and obscures conflicts between participants. I address such gaps by examining four international enlightenment cultures, each with a guru (Andrew Cohen; Gangaji; Tony Parsons; and Steven Saunders of Holigral ). Research materials include field experiences, recorded events, and participants printed and online publications. Combining multi-site ethnography with sociological conversation and discourse analysis, and drawing upon science and technology studies throughout, my argument addresses three themes: seekers; gurus; and truths. Developing Heelas's earlier work, I show seekers are not pre-constituted but configured in interactional practices which draw upon various cultural idealisations of the self. An enlightened self is likewise configured differently in each culture. I show such mundane local practices constitute gurus as experiential experts through associating their personas with participants configured experiences of self. Different configurations of self are consequential, implying differing modes of engagement with wider society and figuring in credibility contests between different cultures. I provide a way of understanding enlightenment cultures which avoids homogenising them, considers their respective potentials to promote social change, and accounts for antagonisms between them. As tangential themes, through a literary Seeker Self voice, I address issues of distance and engagement in studying spirituality and the often transparent penetration of academic discourse by the discourse of spirituality, or its spiritual repertoire

A comparison between matter wave and light wave interferometers for the detection of gravitational waves

We calculate and compare the response of light wave interferometers and matter wave interferometers to gravitational waves. We find that metric matter wave interferometers will not challenge kilometric light wave interferometers such as Virgo or LIGO, but could be a good candidate for the detection of very low frequency gravitational waves

miR-786 Regulation of a Fatty-Acid Elongase Contributes to Rhythmic Calcium-Wave Initiation in \u3cem\u3eC. elegans\u3c/em\u3e

Background: Rhythmic behaviors are ubiquitous phenomena in animals. In C. elegans, defecation is an ultradian rhythmic behavior: every ∼50 s a calcium wave initiating in the posterior intestinal cells triggers the defecation motor program that comprises three sequential muscle contractions. Oscillatory calcium signaling is central to the periodicity of defecation. The posteriormost intestinal cells function as the pacemaker for this rhythmic behavior, although it is unclear how the supremacy of these cells for calcium-wave initiation is controlled. Results: We describe how the loss of the mir-240/786 microRNA cluster, which results in arrhythmic defecation, causes ectopic intestinal calcium-wave initiation. mir-240/786 expression in the intestine is restricted to the posterior cells that function as the defecation pacemaker. Genetic data indicate that mir-240/786 functions upstream of the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) receptor. Through rescue analysis, it was determined that miR-786 functions to regulate defecation. Furthermore, we identified elo-2, a fatty-acid elongase with a known role in defecation cycling, as a direct target for miR-786. We propose that the regulation of palmitate levels through repression of elo-2 activity is the likely mechanistic link to defecation. Conclusions: Together, these data indicate that miR-786 confers pacemaker status on posterior intestinal cells for the control of calcium-wave initiation through the regulation of elo-2 and, subsequently, palmitate levels. We propose that a difference in fatty-acid composition in the posterior intestinal cells may alter the activities of membrane proteins, such as IP3-receptor or TRPM channels, that control pacemaker activity in the C. elegans intestine

Conceptualising industrial relations in the "risk society"

This paper contrasts the characteristics of different types of modernities, noting the present transition occurring between its simple and reflexive manifestations. It then demonstrates how mainstream industrial relations theories have long been framed by a collectivist \u27risk insurance principle \u27. In combining these two observations the argument is made that theories built around institutional dependencies that rely on the evidence or assumption ofoperable risk insurance principles and collective guardianships of workplace well being make less sense in a world of emerging personal narratives ofchoice and dependency that centre around individuals taking personal responsibility for avoiding or diminishing the risks of their engagement with uncertain labour markets. The discussion concludes by setting out the social and epistemological conditions under which future industrial relations theorising might beframed so as to accommodate these emerging conditions in a manner that is both realistic and relevant.<br /