We caught up with Dr. Xygalatas while he was doing research on the island of Mauritius, a remote former British colony where devotees of the world’s major religions go to extremes.
Your Experimental Anthropology program sounds like a lot of fun. I think so. We work both in and out of the lab. The purpose of the lab is to develop the methods and the technologies that we can apply in real-life situations. We have done studies in football stadiums in Brazil, basketball stadiums in the US, at fire-walking rituals in Spain, and at religious temples in Turkey—and of course lots of studies here on Mauritius. I have a big team of students with me now, both an educational program for undergraduates to learn the methods and a group of graduate students doing research.
Why Mauritius?
I did my doctoral fieldwork in Greece and Spain on fire-walking rituals. In Greece, they dance for the better part of three days at the brink of collapse, and at the end of that they walk on fire—repeatedly. It’s extremely stressful. When I placed physiological monitors on these people, I saw heart rates of 240 beats per minute before going into the fire. So, 240 beats per minute was just the anticipation—which seems crazy.
After that, I wanted to explore rituals that were even more extreme, more painful. I wanted to find the most extreme rituals because of the biggest question I was asking: Why do people engage in things that appear to be pointless, wasteful, or risky? This is a puzzle for any ritual you look at, but it’s a bigger puzzle with a very painful ritual. Why do people do things that involve so much suffering and that might be dangerous?
This story is from the September/October 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September/October 2022 edition of Spirituality & Health.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
ONE WORD TO BEAT WINTER BLUES: BIOMIMICRY
CREATURELY REFLECTIONS
THINKING ABOUT RESTITUTION
THE HEART OF HAPPINESS
WAITING IN LINE
OUR WALK IN THE WORLD
ENTER THE SAUNA
Journalist Emily O’Kelly shares some uplifting research on the benefits of sweat bathing, a global healing practice not just limited to Northern climes.
the trail of ATONEMENT
One Ashkenazi Jewish family escaped pogroms in Russia and then flourished in South Dakota, but the “free land” of their new homestead had been unfairly taken from the Lakota by the United States. Generations later, a celebrated investigative journalist set out to tell the truth of the Lakota and her family, calculate The Cost of Free Land—and pay it back.
STALKING YOUR Mind
Stalking the Mind is part of an ancient Indigenous American Medicine Way to tame your guilt, fears, and shame. What we’re “stalking” are our thought patterns and beliefs that seem to create the opposite of happiness and wellbeing. It’s a powerful psychotherapeutic journey of healing without the diagnosis or labels.
LEAVING MESA VERDE
After 21 years of service at Mesa Verde National Park, RANGER DAVID FRANKS recently guided his last tour of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. He says he was fortunate to assist the archeologists with a variety of work and never lost his amazement with their ability to figure out how and when things happened. The question he still wrestles with is much deeper: Why they left?
BECOMING YOUR OWN LEAD RESEARCHER IN HEALTHCARE
PEGGY LA CERRA, PHD, downloaded a health app to aggregate her medical records and was stunned to see the phrase \"aortic atherosclerosis.\" What she did next is a helpful model for all of us.
ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY
\"Is astrology true?\" is the wrong question, writes RABBI RAMI SHAPIRO. He suggests that the truth is out there, but out there is really in here.
WELLNESS IN THE WILD
Spa aficionado MARY BEMIS takes the [cold] plunge at Mohonk Mountain House.