Mantras, Meditations, and Spiritual Bodies: Healing in Tantric Traditions

This course introduces students to the esoteric traditions of South Asia and their complex systems of medical knowledge and healing practices. We will explore the connections between contemplative practices, healing rituals, spirit possession, and the various understandings of physical and mental well-being in the esoteric streams of Hinduism and Buddhism. What can the esoteric (tantric) religious traditions of South Asia contribute to medicine and healing today? How did the tantric traditions understand immortality, and how can it be attained? How do these traditions differently construe the relationship between mind and body, and how can these models contribute to our understanding of illness and health? We will approach these and other questions related to healing through primary sources (sacred texts) and studies that reconstruct the traditional understanding of health and medicine in Tantra.