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-How would Artemidorus in a Greek clinic interpret Avraham's dream below? Would it be a "bad" or "good" omen or neither? Would he consider the dream and its message valid?  : 
 "I saw myself walking on a plateau (full) of sand, and it was terribly hot there. Then I was running together with all those people (of the synagogue). I was so thirsty that I almost fainted. I began to tremble all over my body. Suddenly I saw a mountain on which a rabbi was seated holding a big book in his hand. All the grass around him was made of big snakes. He looked around and said: "Woe to the one who enters this place, I'll send the snakes against him!" I stood up and he said: "No, you can come; you shouldn't be afraid, come on, hold this stick!" All the snakes lowered their heads, and I entered. He filled a glass of water for me and I drank it. He said: "Do you know who I am!" I said: "No." He said: “I am Rabbi Ya'aqov Abu-Hatsera." Then she said: "You should proceed (in your way). You won't be lacking anything," (Bilu, 92).  
                                                                                                                                                         -Annabel 

- Dreams in Greece were very personal, they applied only to the dreamer and no one else. With this in mind, what would Artemidorus's thoughts on the phenomenon of other people having dreams about Avraham being the messenger or intermediary between Rabbi David U-Moshe and the people be? What would he have thought caused this phenomenon? 
                                                                                                                                                         -Annabel  

The biggest take away point for me in Marco Zivkovic’s reading, as he asserted is that “what is authentically ethno is by definition pristine, unspoilt (by modernity, industry, civilization and culture) thus close to nature, hale, whole healthy and wholesome. What is ethno is also by definition eco. And what is eco, since it is close to pure nature, is also ethno since the local almost inadvertently takes on some hues of ethno (182).” In Serbia this concept seems to be meditated and legitimated by the Orthodox Chuch. In our current society, how do we suppose ethno and eco are mirrored by the powerful ideological forces of Western religion? 

 -John

Basso suggests that “fueled by sentiments of conclusion, belonging and connectedness to the past, sense of place roots individuals in the social and cultural soils from which they have sprung together, holding them there in a grip of shared identity, a localized version of self identity (85).” Obviously as the readings point out a sense of place is best developed by increasing our knowledge of the locality or topography in question - living there, becoming engaged with the surroundings, and getting beyond the surface. However, in modern Western society, seeing as people are extremely diverse, do you think that it is truly possible for us to have a shared, common understanding or interpretation on how our sense of place is formed? Further, which tools and processes are most appropriate to manage/inhibit change among the way residents and visitors construct meanings and evaluations of a place in part through their direct experience with it and its community?

-John 

As Bilu’s essay mentioned, visitational dreams in the revival of the folk-veneration of saints (tsaddiqim) in Israel, provided the town with an aura of sanctity. Here the saint impresarios struck a collective cord through dream accounts that were answered in their prospective communities leading to a lively discourse amongst believers around the local shrines. In this instance, there’s an intense resonance between  the personal and the shared cultural framework of a wider community which ultimately resulted in the construction of authority. What are some modern day examples of this that you can think of? 
-John

Dreams are like prophesies.  Prophesies foretells the future. According to this prophecy it is foretold that Serbia, more specifically Kremna region,  will become a kind of Noah's Ark. Kremna possess "vibrations and the power circulating through you all the way to the center of the earth... (which makes it the) perfect places for healing" and "...(its) mountains are placed in a certain way."(177) In addition, Kremna "uncannily resembles both the map of Serbia and that of former Yugoslavia rotated 90 degrees -- thus showing itself a fractal replica and microcosm of the nation as a whole. ....Kremna is fatefully connected to the destiny of the country of which it is a part..." (177) It sounds like that the nature placed and created Kremna in a certain way for a reason. Is this God's doing for actually hinting that Kremna is a place of salvation? Or was it that the way it resembles the shape of Serbia and Yugoslavia and its special healing powers really just a 'reknown' factor that "objectified as natural landscape ...of concentrated power?"(184) Can it be sait that it is just a destiny, a coincidential happening? Relate it to Kremna Syndrome on how unproved/unexplainable supernatural powers that a certain landscape or location have has to do with its meaning to people or nation. A source of hope, deity, something to believe in, destiny, sign or warning?
-Heeju 

"'naturally Serbian' way of life (is) epitomized by peasants."(173) 
Under conception of rural utopia of healthy living, how is the "eco-patritism" and "Romanticized" ecology have to do with today's typical lifestyle and why is increasing number of people crave it? Try prophesizing the near future; how will the continuously increasing population in rural ecologic lifestyle shape the population / lifestyle? Will the romanticized ecology fade out and the widely-known places of healing ever vanish or change into something else? Also the fragility and vulnerability of a location has to do with its authenticity (in other words, its identity). Comment on "'true' national identity, can only be found in ever receding (vanishing) places."
-Heeju

(from the lecture) 
Buses are widely thought to be a way to get to places (a transportation). Marko Zivkovic's notion of bus as a place that heals is something to note on. A bus becomes a way of realization and enlightenment to noticing a problem or flaw of systems of the country. In some ways buses seem to have intimacy, but some deny it.  To some buses are a "clusterphobic bubble," and to some buses are a gathering space. What are the thoughts on buses as healing space or place?
-Heeju