Marc Blainey
I received a PhD in Anthropology from Tulane University in 2013. After serving as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) post-doctoral fellow at University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion (2014-2015), I graduated from Luther’s MA in Theology program, in the field of Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy (2018), and completed a Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) residency at Niagara Health in 2019. I am now certified as a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO).
I have trained as a multifaith chaplain and performed spiritually integrated psychotherapy at Homewood Health Centre in Guelph; Grand River Hospital in Kitchener; St. Catharines Hospital; and the Southdown Institute, Holland Landing, Ont. At these clinical sites, I dealt with individuals suffering from mood disorders, addictions, schizophrenia, bereavement, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress, eating disorders, adjustment disorders, and neurological disorders.
In addition to delivering one-on-one therapy, I gained experience leading or co-facilitating various group modalities including a concurrent disorders group (for comorbid addictions and mental illness); three different spirituality groups; a CBT group; a connectedness-and-meaning group; a grief group; a men’s group; and a sexual wellness group.
More information is available on my website: https://sites.google.com/site/marcblainey/
Previously, I conducted cognitive archaeology research on the shamanic ingestion of psychedelics by the ancient Maya culture. This led to three years of fieldwork and interviews with European and North American members of Santo Daime, a Brazil-based religion in which devotees drink ayahuasca as a psychoactive sacrament.
Since Santo Daime is a religion that blends Christianity with Indigenous shamanism and Afro-Brazilian spirituality, over the past decade my interest in applied anthropology has evolved into a passionate commitment to Indigenous truth and reconciliation issues. In particular, I am now collaborating with Indigenous colleagues in Northern Ontario to help foster mutual respect via inter-cultural encounters between First Nations communities and non-Indigenous Canadians.
Moving forward, I am preparing to initiate new research projects exploring the emergent renaissance of psychedelic psychotherapies.
• Charlotte & Otto Heike Memorial Award for Systematic Theology, Martin Luther University College-Wilfrid Laurier University (2018)
• Faculty Award for highest GPA in the Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy MA Theology program, Martin Luther University College-Wilfrid Laurier University (2018)
• SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University of Toronto, Department for the Study of Religion (2014-2015)
• Murphy Institute Center for Ethics and Public Affairs Graduate Fellowship (2012-2013)
• Paul and Elizabeth Selley Doctoral Fellowship in European History, Political Science, and Anthropology (2010-2011)
• SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (2007-2010)
• Social Science & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canadian Graduate Scholarship Program, Master’s Scholarship (2005)
• Blainey, Marc G. (2021). Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2016). Groundwork for the Anthropology of Belgium: An overlooked Microcosm of Europe. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 81(3): 478-507.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2016). Techniques of Luminosity: Iron-Ore Mirrors & Entheogenic Shamanism among the Ancient Maya. In Manufactured Light: Mirrors in the Mesoamerican Realm (pp. 179-206), edited by Emiliano Gallaga & Marc G. Blainey. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2015). Forbidden Therapies: Santo Daime, Ayahuasca, and the Prohibition of Entheogens in Western Society. Journal of Religion & Health 54(1): 287-302.
• Healy, Paul & Marc G. Blainey (2011). Ancient Maya Mosaic Mirrors: Function, Symbolism, and Meaning. Ancient Mesoamerica 22(2): 229–244.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2010). Towards an Ethno-Metaphysics of Consciousness. Anthropology of Consciousness 21(2): 113-138.
• Blainey, Marc G. (2010). Deciphering Ancient Maya Ethno-Metaphysics: Conventional Icons Signifying the King-as-Conduit Complex. Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture 3(3): 267-290.
• Psychiatric anthropology of religion
• Mental health and spiritual implications of mind-altering substances
• Theological and ontological meaning (i.e. Existential/Phenomenological anthropology)