# Research ## expand\_more "We are committing ourselves to the "trans" in Transcendence & Transformation: Movement across and beyond, a dialect of stability and instability, an urge to stretch ourselves and others, to explore ourselves and others, and to embark on an adventure into this world and into others."—*Charles M. Stang, Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions* ## 2025-26 T&T RESEARCH PROJECTS [### Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art ](https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/occult-movements-mexican-mural-art)This project investigates the influence of Theosophy and other esoteric currents on Mexican muralism, the state-sponsored artistic movement that emerged after the Revolution of 1910 to shape the cultural identity of modern Mexico. It examines how leading muralists engaged with these traditions to imagine Ancient Mexico as central to the construction of modern national identity and art. ![Mural_The Birth of Our Nationality by Rufino Tamayo](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-05/Mural_The%20Birth%20of%20Our%20Nationality%20by%20Rufino%20Tamayo.jpg?itok=DSRILIG8) [### Saint Children, Psilocybin, and Epistemic Rupture ](https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/saint-children-psilocybin-epistemic-rupture)Drawing from the Tina and R. Gordon Wasson Ethnomycological Collection at the Harvard Botany Library, this project will investigate the curing modality that healer María Sabina practiced, along with the epistemic rupture that followed as psilocybin has become the drug of choice in psychedelic-assisted therapy. ![Sunrise over a forest](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/honza-reznik-Qw56T0INXkE-unsplash.jpg?itok=jLWN9QGR) ## 2024-25 T&T RESEARCH PROJECTS [### Symbiotic Resonances: Sounding More-than-human Worlds ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/symbiotic-resonances-sounding-more-human-worlds)The project analyzes soundscapes as sites where human and nonhuman agencies fold together through processes of transduction and examines below-ground mycorrhizal networks as sites of interspecies communication, memory formation, and distributed intelligence. ![Grainy photo of a tree at Harvard Divinity School](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/Photo_Elitza%20Koeva%20Research_crop_0.png?itok=dUhIk-lz) [### Divination, Ritual, and “Miraculous Cures” in Afro-Cuban Religions ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/divination-ritual-miraculous-cures-afro-cuban-religions)This project focuses on “miraculous cures” at the intersection of Afro-Cuban religion and modern medicine and asks how to better understand and theorize contemporary ritual healing through religious practice. ![Mural of a mermaid holding a flower](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/Photo_Eugenia%20Rainey_research_0.jpg?itok=-gpyUlsF) [### Occult Movements and Mexican Mural Art: What Role Did Occult Movements Play in Mexican Mural Art During the Interwar Period? ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/occult-movements-mexican-mural-art)This project examines the influence of theosophy and other occult movements on Mexican mural art, focusing on the original contributions of underrecognized female artists such as Cordelia Urueta, Anita Brenner, and María Izquierdo. ![Artwork of columns and a figure](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/Photo_Mariano%20Villalba%20research.jpg?itok=24Tvu0ZF) [### Indigenous Medicine and Psilocybin Mushroom Rituals in Mesoamerica ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/indigenous-medicine-psilocybin-mushroom-rituals-mesoamerica)This project analyzes Indigenous medicine, especially psilocybin—a classic psychedelic or serotonin agonist that preferentially activates the 5-HT2A receptor subtype—which can enhance symbolic behavior, promote collective rituals, and amplify synchronicity. ![A statue](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/PHOTO%20PROJECT%20%20OSIRIS%20GONZALEZ%20CSWR%20INDIGENIUS%20MEDICINE.png?h=3f98f183&itok=-2pK2GWq) [### Sacred Plant Medicines of the Muysca of Suba ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/sacred-plant-medicines-muysca-suba)This project focuses on the use of sacred plant medicines by the Muysca community of Suba, an urban Indigenous community in Bogotá, Colombia. ![Ritual materials](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/Photo_Paola%20Andrea%20Sanchez%20research.jpg?itok=FgWtRa2-) [### Orienting the Astral Plane ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/orienting-astral-plane)This project will offer translations of all of Sabhapati Swami’s relevant diagrams, and provide a free online resource to enable scholars and the general public to better understand and appreciate the importance of South Asian yogic and tantric contributions to the theory behind the astral plane. ![Astral plane diagram](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/Photo_Keith%20Cantu%20Research.png?itok=yNt34gGs) [### Novel Psychedelic Spiritual Communities ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/novel-psychedelic-spiritual-communities)This research seeks to understand the ways in which psychedelic use is both informing, and reforming, religion in North America. The project engages diverse psychedelic communities through fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and digital ethnography. ![Wooden frame ceiling of a chapel](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/jacob-bentzinger-bmVnWfm6M00-unsplash_small.jpg?itok=GdQmmQt3) [### Saint children, psilocybin, and epistemic rupture ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/saint-children-psilocybin-epistemic-rupture)Drawing from the Tina and R. Gordon Wasson Ethnomycological Collection at the Harvard Botany Library, this project will investigate the curing modality that healer María Sabina practiced, along with the epistemic rupture that followed as psilocybin has become the drug of choice in psychedelic-assisted therapy. ![Sunrise over a forest](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/honza-reznik-Qw56T0INXkE-unsplash.jpg?itok=jLWN9QGR) [### Psychedelic and Ketamine Chaplaincy ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/psychedelic-ketamine-chaplaincy)In collaboration with Tara Deonauth, the spiritual care manager at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, this clinical research program develops the practice of ketamine integration chaplaincy and investigates related approaches to psychedelic chaplaincy. ![Painting resembling a detail of hands from Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam"](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/claudio-schwarz-k39RGHmLs-unsplash_small.jpg?itok=zTzKQDhP) ## 2023-24 T&T RESEARCH PROJECTS [### Philosophy and Ancient Religious Traditions ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/philosophy-ancient-religious-traditions)This research project will focus on the specific cases of Vasubandhu, the Indian Buddhist teacher, and Evagrius Ponticus, the Christian monastic author. ![Onophrius by Emmanuel Tzanes](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/Onophrius%20%28emmanuel%20tzanes%29.jpg?itok=JDEJPo2h) [### Transcendent Experiences in Society's Transformation ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/transcendent-experiences-societys-transformation)This project seeks to develop an epistemological framework for holding knowledge claims originating in transcendent experience accountable to the demands of discursive rationality. ![Trees and boulders in a forest](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2024-09/What%20is%20the%20proper%20role.png?itok=VTlkywFt) [### Blood for the Blood God! ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/blood-for-the-blood-god)This project explores the transformation with gods and religion in the Warhammer 40K universe and focuses on how Warhammer 40,000 players interact and understand the gods and religions present within their gamenvironment. ![309676777_10159087845209077_165015488675561942_n.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/309676777_10159087845209077_165015488675561942_n.jpg?itok=6V3jDmQl) [### Indigenous Belief Systems in Central Asia ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/indigenous-belief-systems-central-asia)This research project focuses on the intersection of modern biomedicine, traditional healing rituals, and indigenous medical practices in Central Asia. ![indigenous_belief_systems.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/indigenous_belief_systems.png?itok=-6Pg0wkA) [### Magic and Populism in Southern Europe ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/magic-populism-southern-europe)This project tackles the complexity of the phenomena of contemporary populism from an unexplored point of view: that of magical thinking and practices. ![gnoseologies_abstract.jpeg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/gnoseologies_abstract.jpeg?itok=i66GHizi) [### Lived Conspirituality ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/lived-conspirituality)This ethnographic project engages with a multi-sited fieldwork and analyzes the role of conspiracy theories among practitioners of “alternative spiritualities” in the U.S. and in Europe. ![lived_conspirituality.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/lived_conspirituality.png?itok=pNFDrtre) [### Texts and Authors Outside Normative Experience ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/texts-authors-outside-normative-experience)This research project focuses intentionally on texts, authors, and genres where people step outside of normative experience and language, e.g. hagiographic and narrative, spiritual instruction and exhortation, hymns and liturgy, magic and ritual, and moral or comic stories. ![text_and_authors.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/text_and_authors.png?itok=RIgqAz8s) [### Embodied Pedagogies in Religion ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/embodied-pedagogies-religion)One of the aims of this project is to organize a symposium for teachers of religious studies to discuss ways in which they think about and engage the embodied dimension of teaching and learning and how they have created a curriculum to make this manifest. ![embodied_pedagogies.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/embodied_pedagogies.png?itok=d9uTOcnf) [### The Emergence of Eschatological Yearnings ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/emergence-eschatological-yearnings)Focussing on the Shiʿi communities of the Nizari Ismailis, this project examines the declaration, in 1164, of the Qiyāmat-i Buzurg (The Great Resurrection) and its aftermath. ![eschatological_yearnings.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/eschatological_yearnings.png?itok=h6cib1V8) [### Nietzsche's Dionysianism and the Re-Imagining of Human Existence ](/research-programming/transcendence-transformation/research/nietzsche-dionysianism-reimagining-human-existence)This research project is broadly focused on the thought and experience of Friedrich Nietzsche, and how his legacy shapes contemporary efforts to understand religion and humanity in new ways. ![nietzsche_madness_1.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/hds_cswr/files/nietzsche_madness_1.png?itok=0CjZH_xM)