Theatre and healing

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Clive
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Theatre and healing

Post by Clive »

Day in day out they are expected to play out a 'part'. Many are the days, and the situations where that outward paid for and demanded public performance is far out of sync with what the Pastor inwardly and privately thinks or believes, but must keep to himself.
From laying cards thread.

I have been recently looking at relationships between theatre and healing. The above quote seems to be an example of these matters not being resolved!

I get the impression religion has captured and institutionalised a major part of society that is actually about free actors relating openly and honestly with others.

Can anyone point me to academic discussion of these issues?

My background is sociological.
"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
Clive
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Clive »

Found a fascinating summary
This paper was conceived in a psychodrama training group when I heard Zerka Moreno say that in ancient Greece, theatre was considered a religious ritual. I imagined a "healing theatre of Ancient Greece" separate from "regular" theatre; where Greek physicians might actually prescribe theatre as a part of treatment; where whole theaters of sick people (I imagined a dark cave as in Plato's Republic) watched a comedy or tragedy and were cured.

Perhaps there was something inherent in the whole philosophy of, approach to, and therefore production of ancient Greek theatre as a whole that had a purposeful healing quality. I knew that J .L. Moreno had been influenced by Aristotle's idea of catharsis in formulating his psychodramatic theories. I was drawn by the idea that an entire society might have known theatre of a quality closer to that of psychodrama and Playback Theatre; one which had the intention of bringing harmony, wholeness, freedom from distress, and even cleansing or purification to its participants.

Using that intention as my meaning of healing, I needed a working definition of theatre. An in- depth discussion would be beyond the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say for our purposes that a theatrical event is one whose action communicates a symbolic as well as a mundane meaning; which presents and represents.

In my research I have discovered that the theatre of ancient Greece existed within a cultural context vastly different from anything we experience today and should only be examined and accepted on its own terms. In this paper I will describe that cultural context and then the events within the culture where I looked for "healing theatre:" festivals, the mystery cults, and the Temple of Asclepius.
http://www.playbacktheatre.org/wp-conte ... rvatin.pdf
"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"
Clive
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Clive »

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Ar ... anity.html
have hurled blow upon blow against the portals of Christianity, because they saw in it a pernicious slave morality, the denial of life,
I propose the damage caused by Christianity and its sibling Islam are far greater than realised.

They have destroyed the human ability to heal, to dance, to do art and science, calling these things evil and pagan and replacing them with a cold dreary iconoclasm and puritanism that is hierarchical, rule following and male.

We are actually unable to recognise what has been lost, although people like Carl Sagan in Cosmos got a glimpse.
Greeks were involved with religion to a degree which is very hard nowadays to understand." (Muir, p.194) To experiment with this idea, think of almost any aspect of the Judeo- Christian/Mohammedan experience, and see how the Greek experience is different: sacred "Word of God" text? None. Prophets? No. Ten commandments? None. Creed and dogma? No. Authoritative body which defines laws and decides what is correct and incorrect? Non- existent. No heresies, no wars of religion to convert the infidel or the heretic. Instead of a formal institutionalized body called "priesthood," citizens were elected by drawing lots. They watched over the religious activity of the community for a year or less. A number of men and women were involved in the care of the temples, however they were not permanent priests and priestesses.

Following from what we now know of Greek character, this description from John Gould is not surprising:
. . . for all its weight of tradition..., Greek religion remains fundamentally improvisatory. ... though the response to experience crystallizes, on the one hand as ritual, on the other as myth, and both involve repetitions and transmission from generation to generation, there is always room for. . . the introduction of new cults and new observances: Greek religion is not theologically fixed and stable, and it has no tradition of exclusion or finality: it is an open, not a closed system. There are no true gods and false, merely powers known and acknowledged since time immemorial, and new powers, newly experienced as active among men and newly-acknowledged in worship Not bound to forms hardened and stiffened by canonical authority, but mobile, fluent and free to respond to a changing experience of the world. (Gould, p.8)
http://www.playbacktheatre.org/wp-conte ... rvatin.pdf
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Leucius Charinus
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

And don't forget. Its a serious business. Laughter is inappropriate in the basilicas. Jesus never laughs in the canonical books. But those vermin scum bag blasphemous gnostic fucking heretics had Jesus laughing in their collection non canonical books. The bastards. That mystery the Jews traduce, the Greeks deride, but we adore is a serious mystery, male dominated and no laughing out loud!


The Christian patron saints of healing are the legendary physicians Cosmas and Damien.
Their emblems adorned the medical theatres they ruled from the late 4th century until the Renaissance.

But public theatres were for the illiterate to hear clever words.

"That mystery the Jews traduce, the Greeks deride, but we adore" says Athanasius in On the Incarnation of the Word, Chapter 1 - Creation and the Fall

The Greeks obviously derided the Bible Mystery in the theatres!!!!!


Hello Arius? Where are you Arius? You're going to be past needing a doctor Arius ....



LC
Last edited by Leucius Charinus on Tue Dec 09, 2014 9:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A "cobbler of fables" [Augustine]; "Leucius is the disciple of the devil" [Decretum Gelasianum]; and his books "should be utterly swept away and burned" [Pope Leo I]; they are the "source and mother of all heresy" [Photius]
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Leucius Charinus
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

Clive wrote:I propose the damage caused by Christianity and its sibling Islam are far greater than realised.

They have destroyed the human ability to heal, to dance, to do art and science, calling these things evil and pagan and replacing them with a cold dreary iconoclasm and puritanism that is hierarchical, rule following and male.

"Socrates critical questioning (of the "<INSERT YOUR CHOICE OF HOLY WRIT HERE>") is a menace to the state".




LC
A "cobbler of fables" [Augustine]; "Leucius is the disciple of the devil" [Decretum Gelasianum]; and his books "should be utterly swept away and burned" [Pope Leo I]; they are the "source and mother of all heresy" [Photius]
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Leucius Charinus
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

the role of theatre in health care?

The health care system of the Roman Empire was represented in a network of temples (some of them most ancient and highly revered) and shrines to the Graeco-Roman healing god Asclepius, son of Apollo, son of Big Z.

This network of temples serves as a public hospital system in antiquity. Have a close look at the Pool of Bethsaida and you'll see Asclepius. Hippocrates. Galen. Giants in the history of medicine. Therapuetae [followers, attendants] of the god Asclepius.

Gymnasia. Therapeutic exercising. The larger temples would have included a theatre. Lectures by Galen?

But the public theatres were the equivalent of our modern "Hollywood".

Here's the local theatre.
What's on Friday night?
Plato's Republic.
Cool.
You going?
Nah.
Why not?
BBQ at the Venus Temple.


Sometimes the best medicine is laughter.


LC
A "cobbler of fables" [Augustine]; "Leucius is the disciple of the devil" [Decretum Gelasianum]; and his books "should be utterly swept away and burned" [Pope Leo I]; they are the "source and mother of all heresy" [Photius]
Clive
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Clive »

The forgotten "rock" 7 Jan 2014
By Bette Inman - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

This book was commission by the AMA (American Medical Association) to identify the roots of the Hippocratic Oath.

But, in the process, they have thrown back the curtain on where some of the religious myths that we attribute to Jesus came from. Any serious religious scholar should avail themselves of this resource and the culture at the time that Peter founded x-tianity on is "rock" - a term lifted from the prevailing god of healing at the time - Asclepius.

This book actually has two sections of translations - the second section starting on page 421 that is a summary and analysis of the translations. I would recommend that the reader read that section first and then read the paragraph by paragraph translations in section II.

I see this as one of the most significant books for serious students of forgotten history that roots so much of our current world view. If it were up to me - I would move this book to the theology reading list and make it mandatory reading!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asclepius-Inter ... +asclepius
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Leucius Charinus
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

Clive wrote:
The forgotten "rock" 7 Jan 2014
By Bette Inman - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

This book was commission by the AMA (American Medical Association) to identify the roots of the Hippocratic Oath.

But, in the process, they have thrown back the curtain on where some of the religious myths that we attribute to Jesus came from. Any serious religious scholar should avail themselves of this resource and the culture at the time that Peter founded x-tianity on is "rock" - a term lifted from the prevailing god of healing at the time - Asclepius.

This book actually has two sections of translations - the second section starting on page 421 that is a summary and analysis of the translations. I would recommend that the reader read that section first and then read the paragraph by paragraph translations in section II.

I see this as one of the most significant books for serious students of forgotten history that roots so much of our current world view. If it were up to me - I would move this book to the theology reading list and make it mandatory reading!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asclepius-Inter ... +asclepius


http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/T ... lepius.htm


The Therapeutae of Asclepius

Which temples did Constantine target for destruction (Aegae, +, ...)? Which priests did Constantine target for execution (Aegae, +, ...)? Which ascetic priests wrote parodies against the ineptitude of the fourth century christian "ministry" of "healing" and of "embodied ascetic wisdom"? (Arius? Pachomius?) Ancient Healers of the Lineage of Hippocrates and Galen, therapeutae (physicians; "sons of the elder", "sons of the monk") of Asclepius: an ascetic ministry and physicians of souls.

They are described by Philo, as distinct from the Palestinian Essenes, living in Egypt, and in Greece. Philo remarks they are ubiquitous in the empire c.20CE. The therepeutae were ascetics (Egyptian and Hellenic). The signature of Buddhist influence is unmistakable. The most popular Egypto-Graeco-Romon hero of the first three centuries -- by the archaeological evidence -- is the Healer Asclepius, his "asclepia" (healing centers), and associated gymnasiums, their associated libraries, and their hierarchy of attendants and priests - the therapeutae of Asclepius.

The history of the medical profession was trashed by the Christian revolution of the 4th century. Asclepius was trodden underfoot by the CHI-RHO standard.

Image

Constantine: Commemorative Coin 327 CE:
Civil War II commemorative coinage 327 CE CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG, laureate head right SPES PVBLIC, chi-rho atop standard of 3 medallions impaling snake A to left, CONSA in ex. Constantinople RIC 19 r4




The Christian regime which had descended with much bloodshed from the Constantinian 318 Nicaean Fathers found another god of healing. The power of Jesus was not strong in the 4th and 5th centuries and so, lo and behold, a pair of Christian Healing Saints were fabricated out of thin air.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Cosmas_and_Damian

What else suffered under the Christian revolution of the 4th century?
What other lights of Greek philosophical and proto-scientific knowledge were SWITCHED OUT for a thousand years?

MEDICINE (See above)
Mathematics?
Geometry?
Astronomy?
Political history?
Literature?
Philosophy?
Logic?
Critical thinking?





LC
A "cobbler of fables" [Augustine]; "Leucius is the disciple of the devil" [Decretum Gelasianum]; and his books "should be utterly swept away and burned" [Pope Leo I]; they are the "source and mother of all heresy" [Photius]
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Leucius Charinus
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0801857 ... eader-link
Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies
Emma J. Edelstein, Ludwig Edelstein, Gary B. Ferngren

  • Book Description

    Throughout nearly all of antiquity, the legendary Greek physician,
    Asclepius, son of Apollo and Coronis, was not only the primary
    representative of divine healing, but also so influential in the
    religious life of later centuries that, as Emma J. Edelstein and
    Ludwig Edelstein point out, "in the final stages of paganism,
    of all genuinely Greek gods, [he] was judged the foremost
    antagonist of Christ."

    Providing an overview of all facets of the Asclepius phenomenon,
    this book, first published in two volumes in 1945, comprises
    a unique collection of the literary references and inscriptions
    in ancient texts -- given in both the original and translation
    -- to the deity, his life, his deeds, his cult, and his temples,
    as well as an extended analysis of them.
A "cobbler of fables" [Augustine]; "Leucius is the disciple of the devil" [Decretum Gelasianum]; and his books "should be utterly swept away and burned" [Pope Leo I]; they are the "source and mother of all heresy" [Photius]
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Leucius Charinus
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Re: Theatre and healing

Post by Leucius Charinus »

BTW since that mega thread on the old board about "Who were the theraeutae in antiquity" I have managed to prepare this WIKI entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapeutae_of_Asclepius

The text of "Vita Contemplavita" is a cornerstone for the (erroneous?) belief about any "Jewish therapeutae".

Who preserved this text?

Well who other than the "church organisation".

Are we not lucky to have such texts?

FFS we are dealing with an utterly corrupt "organisation".

Wake up!

We sleep!

  • O man! Attend!
    What does deep midnight's voice contend?
    'I slept my sleep,
    'And now awake at dreaming's end:
    'The world is deep,
    'And deeper than day can comprehend.
LC
A "cobbler of fables" [Augustine]; "Leucius is the disciple of the devil" [Decretum Gelasianum]; and his books "should be utterly swept away and burned" [Pope Leo I]; they are the "source and mother of all heresy" [Photius]
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