To help organize my thoughts, I created a small map using Coggle to help follow the threads I want to explore further in my fieldstudy. I had some connection problems and ended up having to use a screenshot, so my apologies for the size, but clicking on the picture should yield the original. It should also be noted that I'm very interested in the "Power of Faith" thread, but found it a bit difficult to flesh what I mean out correctly. When I say power of faith, I'm interested in the power of belief to influence the self and outcomes, much like what doctors would call the placebo effect. I'm not making any sort of declaration of what I consider it to be. I'm just interesting in seeing the concept in Islam and hearing stories about those who have had extremely spiritual experiences.
Cam: Thank you! After reading your post, I realize that I winced a little when I read "placebo effect," simply because in using those words, you are implying that having faith is somehow a false hope, a sugar pill, in essence. And, I think that may be offensive to a lot of believers out there. So, textual positioning. It's always working its magic! Instead of saying "like the placebo effect," how about just saying, "I'm interested in people's belief in the power of faith." Blam. That's it. Don't compare it to anything or hint that you already have a predetermined answer to your question. The point is for the question to be open ended, so whether it's a placebo effect or not still remains to be seen. What is faith? Why do people have it? These are the questions I hope you'll be focusing on/around/under/over...Thanks for listening.
ReplyDeleteThank you for helping me clarify that point actually, because I've been trying to get that across when I'd been saying "like the placebo effect" and that "I made no declaration to what I considered it to be," because I had no better way to describe it in my vocabulary. I was trying to get to the question of "something that has the ability to effect lives through a non-physical process" concisely. Though I realize that I probably should have wrote about my view on "placebo effect" in my textual positioning piece, because I think of it a bit differently than many people. Rather than the word implying a fluke of sorts, I consider it "the power of faith in a thing to elicit results by faith alone" (Whatever that faith may be, human power, a tactic of survival, God, is yet undetermined). So in that sense what I'm interested in studying is the manifestation of this phenomena in Islam. The word without context is misleading though, so I'll be searching for a better one!
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