درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

The Holy Quran tells of Allah creating seven heavens and seven earths. These have been traditionally identified cosmologically with seven stars etc. or geographically with seven lands. We provide an alternative interpretation that these refer to seven centers in the spinal cord. Each center has a physical location and a psychic quality. Abraham Maslow has suggested that a human being evolves progressively through seven needs. We suggest this evolution refers to the consciousness of a person rising thorugh the seven centers in the spinal cord. Car G. Jung has commented on the Hindu understanding of these seven centers and endorsed that these have psychic qualities. We find that this understanding is consistent with the Quran. In particular, a Hadith tells of the area from the Prophet’s “throat to lower part of the abdomen” being washed. This is the location of the lower five of the seven psychic centers in the spine. The Hadith then goes on to tell that the Prophet ascended the seven heavens and met with Adam, Jesus and John, Joseph, Idris, Aaron, Moses and Abraham sequentially. In the seventh heaven He was shown Bait-al-Ma'mur or Allah's House which could indicate that his consciousness reached the crown center which is said to be the seat of “spiritual emancipation.”

Some of Donald Barthelme’s works have been undeniably influenced by Michel Foucault’s socio-political philosophy, however, few scholars have explored such concepts in his works, especially the theme of “panopticism.” The purpose of this article, which is library based, is to analyze and scrutinize the panoptic society of Barthelme’s “Subpoena” in the light of Foucauldian “panopticism” which is a segment of his more general concept of power. Keeping the Benthamite “Panopticon” in the back of his mind, Foucault outlines the “new physics of power” represented by “panopticism” as a modern or disciplinary power; he, then, draws our attention to its most important feature, i.e., the penetration into the most trivial and personal affairs of social subjects. It is worth mentioning that the basic characteristics of disciplinary power such as omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence can be discovered in panoptic society of “Subpoena.” In this society, there is always the possibility of resistance and rebellion because wherever power is found, resistance emerges as well, though, eventually, power prevails upon individuals. Barthelme creatively portrays a post-modern society in which disciplinary power, with its meticulous and permanent surveillance, on the one hand, has transformed the subjects into the men of modern humanism, and, on the other hand, has changed the traditional society into a panoptic one. Barthelme successfully finalizes the story with the message that modern society intends to make obedient and useful machines out of the subjects.