ABSTRACT
Ephemeral bodies of a subtle substance may seem a galaxy away from the fleshy material bodies of the empirical-based reason that has come to signify the dominant discourse of modernity (yet, of course, such a dualism is far too reductive and general). However, subtle-body models have remained – and are increasingly – a feature of the Western cultural landscape, from self-directed spiritual practices and avant-garde art to Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Part Four illustrates and investigates this vast array of subtle-body practices and cultural formations that feature in Modernity, and also considers the appeal of this model of the body for the contemporary citizen and for comparative cross-cultural academic analysis. The following chapters demonstrate how concepts of the subtle body are assisting scholars to rethink categorical dualisms and divisions, the concept of the ‘self’, varieties of epistemology and indeed the very ontological and ethical agency of contemporary subjectivity.
