I have organized an exciting roundtable at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion that will be co-sponsored by the Japanese Religions Unit; The Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Unit; the New Religious Movements Unit; and the Esotericism Unit.
A panel abstract follows:
Responding to this year’s conference theme, “La Labor de Nuestras Manos,” this author-meets-critics roundtable focuses on a brand-new book about Reiki, the therapeutic practice that involves transmitting energy from the hands to heal self and others. Just as Reiki channels flows of energy, Justin B. Stein’s Alternate Currents(forthcoming from University of Hawai`i Press in September 2023) blends microhistory with ethnography to track transnational flows of people, ideas, and ritual practice throughout what he calls the “North Pacific Intersystem.” Matching the expansive geographic scope of Stein’s wide-ranging book, our panel brings together specialists in East Asian, Asian American, and North American religions to discuss how a Japanese American woman turned Reiki into a global therapeutic practice. Our respondents include a researcher of emergent and alternative religions in Japan, a scholar of Asian American religions and migration, a historian of yoga in North America, a historian of Korean religion whose research describes the transnational circulation of blood as a physical substance and metaphysical essence, and an expert on transnational Daoist communities.
Speakers:
Erica Baffelli, University of Manchester
Melissa Borja, University of Michigan
Phillip Deslippe, UC-Santa Barbara
Sandra Park, University of Arizona
Elijah Siegler, College of Charleston