While shamanic healing methods are varied, there is a great deal of ritual similarity across time and space: trance, sucking, rattling, manipulation, and suggestion. The more dramatic the performance, the better. This historic and geographic continuity is not the result of cultural diffusion. Shamanic healing methods are similar across time and space because they can improve therapeutic outcomes.

I was reminded of these things while watching the intense trailer for Balian, a documentary in progress by filmmaker Daniel McGuire:

“Balian,” a documentary by filmmaker, Dan McGuire, tells the story of the rise and fall of a charismatic Balinese shaman (or “Balian”) named Mangku Pogog. In Bali healers enter powerful trance states in which they embody their spirit help, often drawing the patient into trance as well. Mangku Pogog engaged in full embodiment trance states curing conditions like blindness and leprosy by guiding the power of spirit through yoga postures, large stones, heavy sticks, and sucking extractions.

Join Dan and host Christina Pratt as they explore the world-view of Balinese healers and their attitudes towards sickness, health, and the healing power of transformative ritual. Through the story of Mangku Pogog we can see the effect of globalization on the belief systems of traditional people. What new challenges are presented to traditional healers as people come for healing with different worldviews and diverse beliefs about healing? Will traditional wisdom survive or be changed by “spiritual tourism.”

Compelling stuff! Dan is trying to complete the film and is running a Kickstarter Campaign. I encourage everyone to get involved with what promises to be an important film.

What could be wrong with a large-scale movement that emphasizes meditation, morality, and mingling? Apparently quite a lot, if a recent “Photo Essay” over at Foreign Policy is any indication. The essay’s title contains all kinds of code words calculated to set off alarm bells: Close Encounters of the Buddhist Kind: An Exclusive Look Inside a Booming Multibillion-Dollar, Evangelical, Global Thai Cult.

It obviously took a bit of hard work to insert all the allusions, because this has just about everything. Far out and crazy, akin to UFO beliefs and Heaven’s Gate or Scientology (“Close Encounters”)? Check. Secretive and shadowy, but we have the Enquiring scoop (“An Exclusive Look Inside”)? Check. A dubious spiritual profiteering scheme (“Booming Multi-billion Dollar”)? Check. Enthusiastic, zealous, and irrational (“Evangelical”)? Check. Expansive, dangerous, and conspiratorial (“Global”)? Check. And the inevitable kicker, bringing to mind Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Reverend Moon: it’s a “cult.”

As if these clumsy connotations were not enough, the caption “essayist” (Ron Gluckman) absurdly trots out the Nazi analogies, complete with “scare quotes”:

Picture this: millions of followers gathering around a central shrine that looks like a giant UFO in elaborately choreographed Nuremberg-style rallies; missionary outposts in 31 countries from Germany to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; an evangelist vision that seeks to promote a “world morality restoration project”; and a V-Star program that encourages hundreds of thousands of children to improve “positive moral behavior.” Although the Bangkok-based Dhammakaya movement dons saffron robes, not brown shirts, its flamboyant ceremonies have become increasingly bold displays of power for this cult-like Buddhist group that was founded in the 1970s, ironically, as a reform movement opposed to the excesses of organized religion in Thailand.

Take cover! These mass-meditating Buddhists are poised for world domination! If Dhammakaya practitioners were carrying Mausers instead of flowers and clamoring for more meditation Lebensraum, the connection would be complete. Or not.

The photos in this feature are arresting and beautiful (excellent work by photographer Luke Duggleby), but caption “essayist” Gluckman tells us virtually nothing about Dhammakaya. It amounts to a hatchet job, which may or may not be deserved. One thing is for certain: Gluckman has not provided us with any information by which to judge the issue. His non-stop train of pejorative cliches and negative connotations speaks to an agenda. Instead of providing us with analysis, we are given only Gluckman’s judgments.

Whatever else it might be, Dhammakaya appears to be a dream come true for cultural anthropologists looking for a field site or subject. If anyone is aware of ethnographic work that situates this movement in a meaningful or informative way, please let us know. In the meantime, we can all channel our inner Leni Riefenstahl while contemplating scenes from the main temple complex:

Some worship at the altar of gold (the gold standard to be exact), whereas others sacrifice to the god of free markets and cast aspersions at devils like government or regulation.  Freedom itself — that greatest of blessings bestowed by a loving God — supposedly exists only where markets are private and unregulated.

Although there are secular versions of this story, and non-religious economists or politicians who proclaim it, even the secularized version(s)  feel oddly religious and zealous (e.g., Ron Paul).  What accounts for this?

Because these ideas are rooted in the classical economics of Adam Smith (and others such as David Ricardo), the connection is not accidental.  In a short paper (Economics as a Moral Science) that Harvard economist Ben Friedman recently delivered at the American Economic Association meeting, he examines the religious influences on Smith’s thinking:

The commonplace view today is that the emergence of “economics” out of the European Enlightenment of the 18th century was an aspect of the more general movement toward secular modernism in the sense of a historic turn in thinking away from a God-centered universe, toward what we broadly call humanism.

To the contrary, I suggest that the all-important transition in thinking that we rightly identify with Adam Smith and his contemporaries and followers, the key transition that gave us economics as we now know it, was powerfully influenced by then controversial changes in religious belief in the English-speaking Protestant world in which they lived. Further, those at-the-outset influences of religious thinking on what became known as economics not only fostered the subsequent spread of Smithian thinking, especially in America, but shaped the course of its reception.

The ultimate result was a variety of fundamental resonances between economic thinking and religious thinking that continue to influence our public discussion of economic issues, and our public debate over economic policy, today.

As Exhibits A through E through for this continuing influence and the confluence of religion-economics in America, we need look no further than Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, or Mike Huckabee — all of whom have a mystical reverence for free markets.  Moving from the banal to the brilliant, classical acolytes include Friedrich von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman.

As for Adam Smith, he was a Jeffersonian type deist.  He rejected Christianity, believing instead in some kind of creator who initiated things but had no further interaction with the universe.  Smith’s famous “invisible hand” metaphor is a logical consequence of this idea.

While much of the article is devoted to bad architecture and sullied views, the problems run much deeper than mere design:

“It is the commercialization of the house of God,” said Sami Angawi, a Saudi architect who founded a research center that studies urban planning issues surrounding the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and has been one of the development’s most vocal critics. “The closer to the mosque, the more expensive the apartments. In the most expensive towers, you can pay millions” for a 25-year leasing agreement, he said. “If you can see the mosque, you pay triple.”

That mentality is dividing the holy city of Mecca — and the pilgrimage experience — along highly visible class lines, with the rich sealed inside exclusive air-conditioned high-rises encircling the Grand Mosque and the poor pushed increasingly to the periphery.

The issue is not just run-of-the-mill class conflict. The city’s makeover also reflects a split between those who champion turbocharged capitalism and those who think it should stop at the gates of Mecca, which they see as the embodiment of an Islamic ideal of egalitarianism.

Here in the West, and especially in the United States, there are several things we can learn from these developments. First, “Islam” is not a unified religious tradition and individual Muslims can be and are quite different from one another.  There are multiple Islams and all kinds of Muslims. Second, money, consumption, and capitalism — all aspects of modernity against which a small number of jihadists are fighting — are having major impacts on the highly diverse Muslim world.

It should be obvious that huge numbers of Muslims are quite comfortable with modernity and welcome it.  This portion of the Muslim world is growing and will change the international face of Islam over the coming decades.

As is the case with all things it touches and ultimately transforms, commerce will be king.

Over at Intelligent Life, Laura Spinney recounts the origins of Ethnologue, its history, and current status:

Many linguists are uncomfortable with Ethnologue’s missionary roots. Indeed, missionaries have long been blamed for linguicide for the way they impose “killer” languages such as English and Spanish on speakers of minority languages, says Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, a linguist who is now retired from the University of Roskilde in Denmark….Though academic linguists are suspicious of SIL’s religious goals, many concede that the Ethnologue is the best tool of its kind.

It appears that academic and non-missionary linguists not only rely on Ethnologue — they also contribute to it, and therein lies what I consider to be an ethical problem:

Would SIL International ever consider ceding Ethnologue, so that it could become a linguistic enterprise without a religious agenda? This has been discussed, says Lewis, but mostly outside the organisation. The problem is, Ethnologue was built and is maintained with the help of a large number of volunteers and with money provided by Christian organisations. “As I look at the academic world, I don’t see any other institution that could support something of this magnitude over this period of time,” he says.

This puts non-missionizing linguists, which means just about all professional linguists, between a rock and a hard place.

Not surprisingly, this mixing included religion and Afghanistan was once home to many religions, several of which fused comfortably with one another.  Buddhism had an extraordinary presence there, as is evident from the colossal and awe inspiring temple complex at Bamiyan:

Constructed around 500 CE, the two carved Buddhas were the largest in the world and at various times over the centuries, several thousand monks lived at the complex.  Rare Buddhist manuscripts and relics were present in abundance.

In 2001, four hundred Taliban clerics — acting in accordance with their religious beliefs — declared the site and statues idolatrous and ordered Bamiyan destroyed.  Here is an explosion at the site, this one intended to kill Buddhas rather than people:

Although Bamiyan is now largely destroyed, it still attracts curious operators and spooks, as you can see here:

I was reminded of all this yesterday while reading about a Chinese mining company that is moving in on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, and in the process is going to destroy a 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery in Mes Aynak, south of Kabul.  Shall the destruction never cease?

The discovery that two events, symbols, thoughts or texts, while so utterly separated by time and space that they could not “really” be connected, seem, nevertheless, to be the same or to be speaking directly to one another raises the possibility of a secret interconnection of things that is the scholar’s most cherished article of faith.

I had just such a thrill this morning.  It began after reading Geoffrey MacDonald’s story about the thriving spiritualism market in Salem, Massachusetts, where — side by side and with remarkable comity — witches and evangelicals offer services for those who believe the world is populated by all manner of spirits that can be propitiated in one way or another:

Every October, an estimated half-million visitors flock to this city that hanged witches in 1692 and wholeheartedly accepts them in 2010. Amidst the costumed revelry, pagans and Christians say they sense genuine hunger for spiritual depth and strive to help tourists embrace their respective traditions. And in this festival atmosphere, both sides make a point not to vilify the other.

What appears to be a kind of Christian-Wicca syncretism may seem incongruous but it makes sense, given their shared assumptions about the myriad spirits that invisibly operate on everything:

Paying customers were lined up outside witch houses and psychic parlors when 20-year-old Casey Sholes of Willimantic, Conn., finally stumbled across a place offering dream interpretations for free.

Inside, two interpreters at “The Vault” assured the aspiring nurse that despite her weird dream, the Creator has blessed her with special talents and a heart for the elderly.

It wasn’t until she got up to leave that she learned she had just gotten a spiritual reading from Christian evangelists inside a church.

“I didn’t even notice that this is a church,” Stoles said, leaving the former bank building that’s now home to a congregation called “The Gathering.”

Founded 12 years ago, “The Gathering” has become so friendly with local witches that the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel cut its ties and funding, according to Pastor Phil Wyman.

The line between Christianity and witchcraft has always been thin (with many border transgressions), a fact which is on commercial display in Salem.  Though it might be easy for non-evangelical Christians to dismiss this connection as a product of the charismatic imagination, which sees good and evil spirits as real and pervasive forces working on every aspect of daily life, this would be a mistake.  Catholics — they of possessions, exorcisms, saints, rosaries, and transubstantiation — are much in evidence:

Visitors from near and far ask for disciplined direction in matters of love, health and money. Laurie “Lorelei” Stathopoulos, who describes herself as a high priestess of witchcraft, called advice-seeking Catholics “my best clients” at her store, Crowe Haven Corner.

“They come in, they get readings, and they still stay Catholic,” she said. “Their religion has had its ups and downs, so they’re quite confused. They’re not looking for a new religion, but they’re looking for a little more hope and stability … They don’t want to go the church (for advice), but they’ll come to me.”

While reading MacDonald’s article I was of course thinking about Africa, that vast continent where indigenous beliefs mingle so freely and easily with Islam, Catholicism, and evangelical Christianity in particular.  Then — bam — the coincidence that brings so much thrill: I journey over to Slate, where Johann Hari reviews V.S. Naipaul’s new book The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief.  Hari is quite up to his task:

There is a great thudding taboo in any discussion of Africa. Western journalists and aid workers see it everywhere, yet it is nowhere in our coverage back home. We don’t want to talk about it. We don’t know how to. We smother it in silence, even though it is one of the most vivid and vibrant and violent parts of African life. We are afraid—of being misunderstood, or of sounding like our own ugliest ancestors. The suppressed topic? The African belief in spirits and spells and ancestors and black magic.

Where do these beliefs come from? What do so many Africans get out of them? Can they be changed? These are questions that are asked in Africa all the time, but we are deaf to the conversation. It’s not hard to see why. The imperial rape and pillage of Africa was “justified” by claiming Africans were “primitive” and “backward” people sunk in a morass of voodoo, who had to be “civilized” in blood and Christianity.

This “civilizing process” was of course greatly aided by Christian missionaries working closely with European colonial governments.  While various forms of state sanctioned Christianity took considerable root, these efforts pale in comparison to the spiritual movement now sweeping the continent: charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity.

Those familiar with indigenous African beliefs on the one hand and evangelical Christianity on the other are hardly surprised by this.  Both bodies of belief have this in common: the world is heavily populated with spirits who affect everything in it.  People can use a variety of techniques to control and direct these spirits.

Africans themselves do not see much difference between the prayers, intercessions, and exorcisms that evangelicals use to control these spirits, and the rituals used by witch doctors to accomplish the same things.  Neither do I.

• Though I was uncomfortable at the prospect of joining other underdressed white gawkers observing how “locals” pray, I reluctantly decided to go.
• I have always considered prayer an intensely serious and personal act—even when conducted publicly—so witnessing the spectacle of 100-plus tourists watching over a religious ceremony from an observer’s gallery was disconcerting.

It also appears that no Harlem service is complete without an incongruous Yankees fan: “The first five pews were taken up by about 50 well-dressed black parishioners and one exuberant white worshiper in a Derek Jeter jersey. The middle and back rows were packed with tourists, mostly from Europe.”

To their credit, some of the tourists seemed troubled by their participation in this trade.  Some parishioners are troubled as well: “It’s Like a Safari, and We’re the Zebras.” Ouch.

None of this would surprise the sociologist Daniel Bell, who wrote about this sort of thing in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976), or the critical theorist Frederic Jameson, who describes this postmodern milieu in “The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.”

I was reminded of this the other day while reading Electa Draper’s story in the Denver Post about a 17-year-old Tibetan boy named Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche who recently visited Boulder’s far-out Buddhist center.  Rinpoche supposedly is the reincarnated “emanation of beloved and revered master Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who died in 1991 at the age of 81.”

The young Rinpoche has no memory of his “past life” and seems none too happy about being chosen or “recognized” as the incarnation of the recently deceased Rinpoche.  With refreshing honesty, Rinpoche said several things that might have dampened the enthusiasms of the adoring and credulous Boulderites who came to revel in the presence of his greatness.  Talk about cold water:

“I can’t really say I enjoy being a rinpoche,” the robe-clad teenager told the mostly youthful audience of 250 to 300. “It’s a big job.”

“Supposedly I am the incarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. It doesn’t mean I have all his knowledge. I am the same as a normal boy.”

A young boy asked Yangsi Rinpoche, “How does it make you feel knowing you’re a big past-life guy.”

“I don’t really think about that,” Yangsi Rinpoche said. “[The Dalai Lama and my] teachers chose me. I sometimes wonder why they chose such a weird boy.  I’m not saying I hate my life. There are some things I like about my life.”

“But there’s not one thing in my life I can point to as really, really enjoyable.”

When the children asked for tips on meditation, he said, “I’m not such a big fan of meditation.”  He said he wasn’t disciplined.

“I’m just a cloud,” he said. “I’m just a laid-back, boring boy.”

Yangsi Rinpoche said that to be known as the incarnation of a great teacher yet not have any of that teacher’s qualities sometimes makes him feel ashamed.

Unsurprisingly, none of this seemed to bother the parents who brought their kids to witness his holiness:  “Julia Hellerman, a 38-year-old Boulder mom, is not Buddhist, she said, but she wanted her two children to have this experience with a great person.”

Rinpoche sounds like a normal American kid who wants to do his own thing, but is guilt-ridden because father enthusiastically expects him to carry on the small-town, fourth generation family hardware business after dad passes away.  If anything, Rinpoche seems more like the Tibetan incarnation of Holden Caulfield.

Over at Rupert Murdoch’s transformative Wall Street Journal, the 20-something Brett McCracken churlishly warns his cohort about the “Perils of Hipster Christianity,” and discusses some of the uncool ways in which churches are making themselves over in an effort to win the hearts and minds of his generation:

There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated “No Country For Old Men.”

For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub (as is the case for L.A.’s Mosaic church, whose downtown location meets at a nightspot called Club Mayan).

This however is just the tip of the uncool iceberg — some iChurches exist only online and twitter the Good News, while others offer the simulacra of sex:

Evangelical-authored books like “Sex God” (by Rob Bell) and “Real Sex” (by Lauren Winner) are par for the course these days. At the same time, many churches are finding creative ways to use sex-themed marketing gimmicks to lure people into church.  Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia, created a website called yourgreatsexlife.com to pique the interest of young seekers.

Flamingo Road Church in Florida created an online, anonymous confessional (IveScrewedUp.com), and had a web series called MyNakedPastor.com, which featured a 24/7 webcam showing five weeks in the life of the pastor, Troy Gramling. Then there is Mark Driscoll at Seattle’s Mars Hill Church—who delivers sermons with titles like “Biblical Oral Sex” and “Pleasuring Your Spouse,” and is probably the first and only pastor I have ever heard say the word “vulva” during a sermon.

This kind of play is not limited to competitive religious markets; governmental-religious authorities in Malaysia are equally worried about the youthful lack of interest in traditional Islam and life according to Sharia.  To pique interest, they have turned to un-reality television and produced a show called “Imam Idol.”  Over at Spiegel, Nicola Abe reports on the series that is sweeping adoring and fashionably hijabed Malay teenage girls off their feet:

It’s like American Idol. Except in this Malaysian reality TV show, the goal is to find a religious role model. Young men compete in challenges such as washing corpses and ferreting out unmarried couples. The winner gets a MacBook and the chance to lead prayers in public.

It is not, in other words, really like “American Idol” but is a religiously refracted subversion of the authentic article.  Somewhere simon is crowing and Jean Baudrillard has posted on Facebook: “The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth — it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.”