In this video adaptation of the first chapter of his book Emergentism: a Religion of Complexity for the Metamodern World, Brendan Graham Dempsey asks – and begins to answer – whether we can/should reinvent religion to meet the Meaning Crisis.
Kumaré documents American filmmaker Vikram Ghandi’s self-reinvention as the guru Kumaré, in an attempt to explore and expose the guru/disciple dynamic in the cultic milieu. Growing out his hair and beard, dressing like a holy man and imitating his grandmother’s voice, Gandhi invented his own yoga and other rituals on the fly, gathering a devoted … Read more“Kumaré: the True Story of a False Prophet” (2011)
The Lost Tribe enact the sacred ritual of the Tell in this mesmerizing scene from the third Mad Max movie.
Daniel Böttger’s Seven Secular Sermons project offers poetic introductions to/meditations upon seven fields of knowledge – Astrophysics, Molecular Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Biological Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Cognitive Science and Philosophy. Here, Daniel performs an excerpt from the first Sermon, Adrift in Space and Time:
BBC Africa profiles several women who are reviving aspects of pre-Colonial spiritual practice.
The Center for Tactical Magic conjures a radical reinvention of the “witches’ cradle” as an immersive ritual experience.
VICE News reports on the increasing revival of Afro-Caribbean religions such as Voodoo and Lucumi as well as New Age witchcraft among Black American women.
Jamie Wheal argues for the “ethical cult” as distinct from “traditional cults” such as institutionalized religions and “culty cults” a la the Peoples Temple, Nxivm, et al. More detail on the same theme here:
I recorded this unusual and imaginative documentary on VHS tape back when it first screened, and re-watched it several times. During the first two-thirds, comedienne and presenter Ruby Wax lampoons various California New Age therapies and ostensibly mystical practices (or at least provides color commentary as they lampoon themselves) and it’s fun and funny to … Read more“Ruby Takes a Trip” (documentary, 1991)
