Chris Goto-Jones – författare

The promise of magic has always commanded the human imagination, but the story of industrial modernity is usually seen as a process of disenchantment. Drawing on the writings and performances of the so-called 'Golden Age Magicians' from the turn of the twentieth century, Chris Goto-Jones unveils the ways in which European and North American encounters with (and representations of) Asia - the fabled Mystic East - worked to re-enchant experiences of the modern world. Beginning with a reconceptualization of the meaning of 'modern magic' itself - moving beyond conventional categories of 'real' and 'fake' magic - Goto-Jones' acclaimed book guides us on a magical mystery tour around India, China, and Japan, showing us levitations and decapitations, magic duels and bullet catches, goldfish bowls and paper butterflies. In the end, this mesmerizing book reveals Orientalism as a kind of magic in itself, casting a spell over Western culture that leaves it transformed, even today.

The promise of magic has always commanded the human imagination, but the story of industrial modernity is usually seen as a process of disenchantment. Drawing on the writings and performances of the so-called 'Golden Age Magicians' from the turn of the twentieth century, Chris Goto-Jones unveils the ways in which European and North American encounters with (and representations of) Asia - the fabled Mystic East - worked to re-enchant experiences of the modern world. Beginning with a reconceptualization of the meaning of 'modern magic' itself - moving beyond conventional categories of 'real' and 'fake' magic - Goto-Jones' acclaimed book guides us on a magical mystery tour around India, China, and Japan, showing us levitations and decapitations, magic duels and bullet catches, goldfish bowls and paper butterflies. In the end, this mesmerizing book reveals Orientalism as a kind of magic in itself, casting a spell over Western culture that leaves it transformed, even today.

What is mindfulness? Is it therapy, a religious practice, a philosophy or a practical means of navigating the every day?Using the stories of four archetypal characters - the monk, ninja, doctor, and zombie - this book unpacks the assumptions, motivations and expectations we now bring to the meditative practice of mindfulness. The four types act as our guides through an exploration of mindfulness and the deeply ideological debates surrounding it. The monk stands for mindfulness as spiritual purity, wisdom and enlightenment; the ninja self-mastery and a consummate zen skill and the doctor is the model of meditative practice as used in treatments and professional care. The zombie, far from being an aspirational model, epitomizes a common fear: mindfulness as cult-mentality.Balancing Buddhism, Daoism, Stoicism, contemporary therapeutic paradigms and capitalist imagery with firsthand accounts from teachers and students, this is the story of mindfulness as a various, complex way of living.

What is mindfulness? Is it therapy, a religious practice, a philosophy or a practical means of navigating the every day?Using the stories of four archetypal characters - the monk, ninja, doctor, and zombie - this book unpacks the assumptions, motivations and expectations we now bring to the meditative practice of mindfulness. The four types act as our guides through an exploration of mindfulness and the deeply ideological debates surrounding it. The monk stands for mindfulness as spiritual purity, wisdom and enlightenment; the ninja self-mastery and a consummate zen skill and the doctor is the model of meditative practice as used in treatments and professional care. The zombie, far from being an aspirational model, epitomizes a common fear: mindfulness as cult-mentality.Balancing Buddhism, Daoism, Stoicism, contemporary therapeutic paradigms and capitalist imagery with firsthand accounts from teachers and students, this is the story of mindfulness as a various, complex way of living.

Navigating between society’s moral panics about the influence of violent videogames and philosophical texts about self-cultivation in the martial arts, The Virtual Ninja Manifesto asks whether the figure of the ‘virtual ninja’ can emerge as an aspirational figure in the twenty-first century. Engaging with the literature around embodied cognition, Zen philosophy and techno-Orientalism it argues that virtual martial arts can be reconstructed as vehicles for moral cultivation and self-transformation. It argues that the kind of training required to master videogames approximates the kind of training described in Zen literature on the martial arts. Arguing that shift from the actual dojo to a digital dojo represents only a change in the technological means of practice, it offers a new manifesto for gamers to signify their gaming practice. Moving beyond perennial debates about the role of violence in videogames and the manipulation of moral choices in gamic environments it explores the possibility that games promote and assess spiritual development.