Yogins and Yoga
Steve Bruce
Oxford Scholarship Online October 19, 2017 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198805687.003.0003 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that world-affirming Hinduism-inspired movements in Britain succeeded more than world-rejecting ones but became more secular in the process: Transcendental Meditation's Lancashire alternative-society project failed and its technique spread only as secular psychotherapy, while yoga became popular as exercise. Contends that interest in reincarnation and karma shows Christianity's weakened ability to stigmatize alternative religions, and that limited interest shows secular indifference to spirituality. |
Abstract
Examination of the fortunes of various Hinduism-inspired new religious movements (such as Rajneeshism and Transcendental Meditation) shows that the most successful were world affirming rather than world rejecting, and that their relative success was bought at the price of becoming patently more secular. Transcendental Meditation’s project to create the core of an alternative society in Lancashire failed and its meditational technique became well known only once it was marketed as an entirely secular psychotherapy. Positional yoga has become popular as an exercise programme. That reincarnation and karma have become at all popular ideas shows Christianity’s loss of the power to stigmatize alternative religious cultures; that they have not become more popular shows the largely secular society’s indifference to religion and spirituality.