Legal-type Dopers: a question about religion, energy work and a college class

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, today, we started the unit on Polarity Therapy in my complementary modalities class. May or may not be a crock, but that isn’t the issue.

The issue is, Polarity Therapy is a form of energy work.

I’m a practicing Catholic, and I have really strong objections to engaging in anything occultic. From where I’m sitting, energy work looks like an occult practice. My teacher had assured me that anything taught in the class was strictly a physical technique, physical manipulations of the body to help it do what it’s supposed to do naturally, and that she doesn’t believe in things like “the laying on of hands” I was reassured until I saw the curriculum.

Basically, the therapist places their hands on strategic locations of the body in order to rebalance the “magnetic fields.” Sure looks like the “laying on of hands” to me.

My teacher insists that it’s not “occult” or “voodoo”, but I have serious doubts. It appears to me that some Oriental occultic healing practices have been renamed in “scientific” Western terms.I’ve called my priest and he has agreed to look at the curriculum. If he thinks it is something I should not be involved in doing, then I’m not going to do it. Period.

I’ve already lost some participation points because I decided to sit the hands on part of the class out today. My teacher has told me in no uncertain terms that refusing to participate will affect my grade. I won’t fail the class because of this- it’s only one short unit out of a semester-long course, and everything else is pretty much valid physical massage modalities.

My question is, assuming my priest reviews the curriculum and pronounces anathema on it, can my teacher make it an acedemic requirement that I participate in this kind of energy work? She is aware that I have religious objections to it, and my refusal would be on purely religious grounds. I heard the proverbial “somewhere” that if a student in a public school refuses to take part in a class activity on religious grounds, the teacher must allow the student to do an alternate project, rather than give them an “F” for the day. Would this apply in a (state-funded) community college class as well? Is she legally required to allow me to do some alternate project so that I won’t have to get a lower grade for refusing to violate my religious beliefs?

I’m actually feeling kind of betrayed right now. I feel like this teacher misrepresented what was going to be happening in the class. I also feel she is continuing to be deceptive by trying to claim that the Polarity Work isn’t “psychic” or occultic. Calling a practice by a different name does not change its nature.

2

Tell her this:

A magnetic field is a vector, with magnitude and direction. Furthermore, the magnetic field of a person (who is mostly water) is extremely weak. How can a therapist’s hand (which is also mostly water) affect a patient’s magnetic field? Does it affect the magnitude or direction? What will happen if a patient’s magnetic fields are not balanced? If it really works, why can’t a patient use their own hand to “balance” the fields? Wouldn’t the Earth’s magnetic field be 10,000X larger, and thus negate the whole procedure?

As far as “polarity therapy” goes, check out the info on these pages:

http://www.quackwatch.org/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=Polarity
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/massage.html

3

First, quackwatch.org is an excellent site and belongs in everyone’s favorites.

If your teacher is requiring you to practice something that is clearly against your religious beliefs, you need to take that to whoever your school has to handle that. Especially if you feel you have been misled. We have to sit and listen to alot of crap we don’t believe in but that is different from having to practice something. They really can’t make you do it. If they do, call a lawyer and you could very well own the school.

Keep in mind, the teacher may be just ignorant of the occultic meanings. Some people are so gung ho about things but they never really learn meanings. Hence, they end up practicing the occult (or something they would not normally believe in) without realizing it. As a Christian, I am very careful about the situations I get myself into. I always look into things before agreeing to them. I don’t want to inadvertantly end up in a situation that I would have to back out of. (Part of it is that I know it can be a bit of an inconvience to replace someone, etc. It is just better not to get involved in the first place).

Keep us up to date about what your preist says!! I am extremely interested in how this turns out. Good luck!

4

Wait…don’t you practice reflexology? What’s the difference between manipulating energy in reflexology and manipulating energy in polarity therapy?

5

It may be scientifically ridiculous, but I can’t see how it could be considered occult. It is not calling any any magical forces; just forces 9i.e., magnetism) we know have physical existance in a scientific background. It’s not worshiping anything. So I can’t see why you’re thinking this has anything to do with occultism, unless this is a new definition of occult that I’m not aware of.

It is a waste of time, but it wouldn’t be the first college course to be that. :slight_smile:

6

If the Priest says it is the practicing of the occult, then she can object on religious grounds. And to be honest, I know what she is talking about. Many of these alternative practices are based on Eastern religious thought and mystism. Many of the people who support and practice it, don’t know it.

I think reflexology and homeopathy and the rest like it are a crock. Show me unbiased scientific evidence that says anything of that crap does anything and maybe I would believe it. And don’t even get me started on the religious aspects…

www.quackwatch.org

7

Genuine question: how can you be “engaging” in occultic practices when, in essence, it’s a whole lot of nonsense. No one is laying on hands, communicating with spirits or manipulating energy–it’s just silly superstition and bad science. If we accept that the occult is a whole bunch of crap, how does going through the meaningless motions of so-called polarity therapy impinge on one’s religious beliefs?
:confused:

I can see how one’s scientific belief would be insulted by having to sit through this nonsense, but it seems to me that for your religious beliefs to be affected you’d first have to accept that occult practices are real and dangerous to your faith.

Of course, I stand to be corrected on this point. :slight_smile:

8

Not to be a dick, but what Eastern religious/mystical thoughts or practices run directly contrary to a core tenet of Christianity?

Or perhaps that might be better suited for GD.

9

I’ve noticed a few threads/complaints by you about this-or-that “inteferring” with your Catholicism -

Honest Q: how many things can you imagine doing which DON’T impinge on your religion?

Perhaps you have found that your interpretation of your religion has pretty much precludes a large part of what those around you consider “normal” human life/activity?

What now?

10

To be fair, I’d regard placing “hands on strategic locations of the body in order to rebalance the ‘magnetic fields’” to be outside of “normal” human life/activity.

I’m not religious at all, but I’d be offended–for different reasons, obviously–if I had to sit through such frou-frou nonsense after being assured by a teacher than the class would cover only physical manipulations.

11

Of course, the school could always come back with the observation that “energy work” is just as valid as Catholicism…

12

Hello Thea,

IANA priest or lawyer, but I am a Science & Technology oriented Catholic Christian. May I offer this suggestion (I suspect your priest may offer a similar set of criteria):

Ask you teacher about the underlying theory of how this therapy is supposed to work. If it:

-invokes the action of supernatural entities, i.e. gods/goddesses, spirits, angels, demons, dead people, esp. if you have to communicate or interact with them.

-predicates a world view where the Universe, the earth, or another inanimate object is concious and powerful and you communicate with them.

-states that by manipulating physical phenomenom such as electro-magnetism, vibrations, etc. that you can transform the soul or conciousness of a person, not just their physical body or emotions.

Then it may be a violation of the first commandment about not having / worshipping another God but the Lord.

If it merely claims to manipulate physical phenomenon to affect the physical body, i.e. like acupuncture, then I think you should be ok.

I ran into a similar situation in an aikido class, where we were to bow to the picture of the founder when entering and leaving the mat. I worked out a compromise with the sensei where I would bow to the mat / school, as a sign of respect to our teachers and fellow students, rather then making an act or worship to a dead person.

As to the effectiveness of the therapy, I will leave that to you to decide… (double-blind study with statistically valid results, anyone?? :smiley: )

Good luck, and peace.

13

IANAL, but I do teach art history courses for a public university. While I require my students to discuss many different religious beliefs, I make a conscious effort not to assign any project that requires them to participate in any religious practices. If I assigned something that made a student feel uncomfortable, I would certainly provide an alternative project after consulting with the student to determine how their discomfort was related to their religious beliefs (that is, seeing if there was any way they could complete the project without compromising their personal beliefs).

This “Polarity Therapy” thing sounds pretty New Agey, and I can see how it would conflict with any number of beliefs, or non-beliefs for that matter. If you’ve already made your objections clear, and the professor still won’t allow you to submit an alternate project, then you should take it to her department head or the dean.

14

Legal response: (I am a lawyer, but not yours. This is a general discussion of the law, not legal advice. If you have specific questions, consult a lawyer in your jurisdiction.)

The first question is whether the school is public or private. The First Amendment only applies to governmental entities, so if the school is privately owned and controlled, there is no requirement that the school refrain from imposing its faith upon you, the student. If you don’t like it, find another school.

If the school is public, it may be a closer question, but most likely it is a valid academic requirement. First of all, the First Amendment only prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Though there is a lot of law defining what is included within those terms, they do not require that governments only act in ways that will be inoffensive to everyone’s religious practices. The fact that an academic program requires a student to act in a way that may violate that student’s religious beliefs does not mean that the program is improper under the First Amendment. A public university’s culinary school may, for instance, require course work in meat preparation, despite the fact that some students may have a religious belief requiring vegitarianism. And (unless there’s some express pro- or anti-religious bias to the requirement), I don’t believe that demanding such course work is a First Amendment violation.

Second, your particular course is described in non-faith centric terms. If the instructor teaches that it is magnetic fields involved, requiring you to study the mainpulation of magnetic fields (however scientifically dubious that may be) will almost certainly not violate the Establishment or Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

15

Suggestion: Proactively propose to the teacher the alternative project you would like to do. Take on something that will be equal in workload to the energy work assignments, and that will truly benefit the skills you personally are trying to get out of the class.

Try giving her the benefit of the doubt–she doesn’t understand this to be occult and you do. Propose a truly comparable alternative project and if need be take this proposal peacefully up the chain of command. Maybe your school has a multicultural students liaison? That person should be familiar with requirements for accommodation.

Focus on what is most important to you as an end result. I hope that is living out your own beliefs, not bending others to your will.

Regards, HtS

16

Well, with reflexology, you’re actually manipulating the body in order to get a physiological response in the body. With the other kinds of energy work, you’re actually manipulating the energy itself.

Anyhoo, I talked to Fr. Francis the other night, and showed him the curriculum. He gave me a strange look when he got to the part about the energy field that connects us to organisms in space, but outside of that, he didn’t see a problem. Actually, went on about “Why do you have a problem with this? It’s been proven there’s energy fields in the body, that’s why accupuncture works…” etc. In other words, he didn’t see it as occultic. It’s based on the principles of Oriental medicine, which the Church is cool with.

I actually ended up feeling a bit silly.

Oh, well, small price to pay for peace of mind.