Abstract
The article considers the conditions of spiritual process in the new-religious movement Lightprayer. Based on the analysis, it is argued that Lightprayer itself and the techniques involved can be seen as new-religious methods of self-awareness and experienced relationship to divinity. To approach the spiritual process I will draw upon the procedures of Bruno Latour’s Agency-Network-Theory. The ethnographic material concerning the Fire Ritual is interpreted from the perspective of ANT in two ways. First, I will examine the human and non-human terms of the spiritual process in the visible world. Second, I will apply the ANT reading also regarding the invisible world of inner religious experience and thus immaterial actors. In both case I will analyze and interpret field notes, photographs and interviews. The intensity of the spiritual process can be considered as a central characteristic in the analysis of the specific traits of religious activities and also the motivations for participating in them. The perspective of ANT foregrounds the contributions and roles of the human and non-human actors in the actualization of spiritual process in Lightprayer. At the same time the research surveys the meaning of spiritual process in general among new and traditional religiousness.
Highlights
This article considers the conditions of spiritual process in the new kind of religiousness called Lightprayer
During the retreat we exercised surrendering to the present moment and took the journey ever deeper to oneself – into who I am – and to feel and experience this moment in the silence of one’s own, as the true being of oneself and together as a group (Blog January 31, 2008). Helena wrote this blog entry during the New Year retreat. To my mind this entry depicts the idea of the spiritual process both in the individual and as a group, and the whole meaning of Lightprayer
The function of Lightprayer and the retreats in particular was to create an environment that supported the spiritual process of the participants with various preparatory exercises and practices, such as ‘I am’ clauses and ‘fire ritual’, to get to know ‘the true being’ of oneself
Summary
This article considers the conditions of spiritual process in the new kind of religiousness called Lightprayer. This article presents Lightprayer from the perspective of the spiritual process that is assumed to take place during retreats. Lightprayer is one example of this change.2 The notion of spiritual process would seem to emphasise the importance of the individual experience in a new kind of religiousness.
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