All tagged spirituality

White Womanhood, Hindutva and Spiritual Bypass: Museum Yoga and the Mass-Participation Spectacle

Over the past decade, postural-yoga classes have grown to become “museum yoga” attracting new audiences to North American and Western European museums and galleries. The author argues that the museum yoga spectacle is a derivative trend that follows International Yoga Day as a virtue-signalling performance. These annual events are largely attended by a global cultic milieu of affluent white women, who organise themselves into a grand spectacle of mass participation. Through their involvement in the museum yoga spectacle, programming staff and participants are “spiritually bypassing”. As an alternative, the author moves towards examples of museum-yoga education that better engage learners.

Religion and ‘Radiation Culture’: Spirituality in a Post-Chernobyl World

How can atomic power be interpreted through the lens of spirituality and mythology as a cultural response? The author shows us by focusing on the Chernobyl explosion in 1986. She proposes the innovative idea of a ‘radiation culture' where nuclear radiation has evolved from a purely scientific concept, first observed in the controlled environment of the lab, to a culture with its vivid beliefs and folklore.

Intimacy 2.0: Guru-Disciple Relationship in a Networked World

Digitally networked media has influenced the possibility and nature of an intimate guru-disciple relationship in the 21st century. This article examines the case of Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation in light of both the tradition from which they emerge and the larger technoculture in which they operate. The author Yael Lazar argues for a new form of intimacy that might be different from the tradition but not necessarily less intimate or real.