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It is interesting that such religious hysteria was actually possible though. Honestly at least personally this whole idea of enclosure is quite disturbing. I w
by rayhendricks 7y ago
It is interesting that such religious hysteria was actually possible though.
Honestly at least personally this whole idea of enclosure is quite disturbing. I wonder if conditions were that bad such that this was the rational choice?
- sterlind 7y agoIt seems like extreme ascetism, a step farther than eschewing the material world in Buddhism and a step up from the punishment for Roman vestal virgins who broke their vow. I can see why they'd encourage it, though. A death sentence to solitary confinement would induce a radically altered state of consciousness, and provide visitors with the closest thing to an oracle who's experienced death. I'd definitely have many questions. Wouldn't want to volunteer!
- noneeeed 7y agoJust looked up the Vestal Vergins. That was grim reading. People really can be incredibly awful to one-another when they put their minds to it.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoThere are plenty of examples of other, arguably even more extreme forms of slow religious self-sacrifice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallekhana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallekhana
- emmelaich 7y agoBuñuel made a movie about Simon the Stylite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_of_the_Desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_of_the_Desert
- taneq 7y agoI guess compared with your prospects as a woman in the middle ages (especially one being pursued by an unwanted suitor) the prospect of being sequestered away in a cell with lifetime free food and lodgings has its merits.
- emmelaich 7y agoIt still happens to an extent; e.g the cloistered nuns of the Carmelites. Also related; the female members of Opus Dei never look directly at a male; even though they are engaged preparing food in an all-male residential college.
- cafard 7y agoI knew a cloistered Discalced Carmelite nun, though as I recall she met my stepmother and me (male) in the convent garden for a handoff of plants. Are you sure about Opus Dei? I've known at least a couple of kids who went to OD-affiliated high schools in the Washington area, and none of the moms had difficulties making eye contact with men.
- emmelaich 7y agoIt's not about the mothers; it's about the (typically) non-married devotees who work in Opus Dei run institutions. My specific experience was with the servers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrane_College,_University_of_New_South_Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrane_College,_University_of...