A New Religious and Healing Movement in the Philippines

Abstract

This article aims to extend the scholarly understanding of new religious movements by applying a new conceptual framework to the analysis of a movement in a country which has so far received scant attention in the West for its religious innovations. The analysis breaks new ground in three ways. First, it describes the beliefs and practices of participants in Pranic Healing, a new religious and healing movement in the Philippines which has never been studied before. Evidence collected in an empirical examination of this movement in Manila shows that, contrary to many theoretical expectations, Pranic Healing has attracted relatively wealthy and well-educated followers who aspire to integrate their new-found spiritual and therapeutic interests into their working lives as professionals or business people. Second, the article attempts to account in part for the socio-economic profile of Pranic Healing participants in terms of the affinities that they experience between their educational and professional experiences on the one hand and the movement's teachings, practices and forms of organization on the other hand. Informants tended to attribute their attraction to Pranic Healing to these affinities. Third, and again contrary to many theoretical expectations, interviews with participants generated evidence that the holistic stance of Pranic Healing disposes them towards an ethic of global responsibility as well as towards a search for material prosperity and personal growth. The conclusion is that the prevailing wisdom about the attractions of new religious movements and about their implications for participants' life styles will have to be modified to take full account of Pranic Healing and similar new religious healing movements.