Summary of SEAA READS, session three, 10/2022
Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality by David Palmer and Elijah Siegler 2017 U. Chicago Press. Ten curious minds assembled across the ether in the gallery boxes of Zoom to meet each other and talk about the ideas presented in the intersection of local Daoist monks and China’s domestic tourists, along with foreign seekers and scholar practitioners, not to forget the ethnographers weaving together the many sides to the stories of holy sites, revered scriptures, and location of important rituals. The complete book title is Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality . The Zoom host who led the session was Jie Yang, who began with several questions springing from this multi-sited study of historical depth, personal profiles, and numerous occasions of participant-observation. In approximate chronological order the conversation across many time zones included the following. --Color slideset of Daoist cultivators in China and a...