Spiritual Sensations: Cinematic Religious Experience and Evolving Conceptions of the Sacred
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The secular, pluralist culture of the West encourages a subjective approach to spiritual truth where stimulating emotional experiences, such as those provided by film, can contribute to personal conceptions of the sacred. Examining Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as the principal case-study and Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void (2009) and Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011) as comparative examples, Sarah Balstrup argues that these directors harness the affective properties of film to generate altered states of perception in a manner analogous to religious practice. Powerful feelings of dissociation and indescribable significance typical of mystical testimony appear in viewer responses to these films, demonstrating the continued sacralisation of such states of mind. In their own way, each film confronts the viewer with an apocalyptic revelation of the impersonal forces of the universe, moving away from personhood and the human narrative, into pure sensation. They present a non-deterministic spiritual truth that can be intuited but not explained, mirroring developments in the religious sphere. Investigating the relationship between cinematic technique and religious experience, Spiritual Sensations offers an alternative approach to the study of religion and film that has been principally focused on narrative symbolism and the dramatisation of values. Spiritual Sensations makes a further contribution to the field by analysing films contextually, considering viewers' subjective responses in light of religious and cultural change. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Note on the Text Introduction: Religious Experience in the Cinema Religion, Film, and Cultural Change Chapter Outline Chapter 1: Religion and Film The Transcendental Style in Film Religious Experience and the Ritual Function of Film Conclusion Chapter 2: Religious Experience Alternative Spirituality Religious Experience and Spiritual Authority The Easternization of the West Conclusion Chapter 3: 2001: A Space Odyssey: Cosmos and Ethos Re-Imagining the Universe Mystery and Potentiality Conclusion Chapter 4: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Meditative Perception Meditative Qualities of Sound, Composition, and Pace Transcendental Style: Structure and Stasis Meditative Practice and Focused Awareness Conclusion Chapter 5: 2001: A Space Odyssey: Crossing the Perceptual Threshol Ineffability Noetic Quality Transiency Passivity Conclusion Chapter 6: Enter the Void: The Initiatory Moment The New Extremism in a Media-saturated Age Agency, Authority, and Epistemology The Initiation of a Director Conclusion Chapter 7: Enter the Void: Trauma, Psychedelics, and the Lightning-Bolt Path Sex, Stasis, and the Spiritual Sensory Possession Profane Paths to the Sacred: Cinematic Journeys of Realization Conclusion Chapter 8: Melancholia: In Dreadful Beauty and Trembling Frontality, Vibrations, and Inversions Mystical Experience Conclusion Chapter 9: Melancholia: Presence in Absence/The Long Withdrawing Roar Longing for Reality Searching the Darkness Conclusion Conclusion: Spiritual Sensations Religion, Film, and the Transcendental Style The Many Paths Sacred Sensations and the Beholding of Truth References Index
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