The business of spirituality: Are we buying into an age-old form of religious capitalism?
By Anna Freeman
To complete our three-part series, we look at the ways capitalist drives are shaping our connection with spirituality
We ask whether the spirituality industry is the new face of money-making religious movements
Spirituality is big business. The burgeoning global market of self-fulfilment is now worth $2 billion annually, according to industry analysis firm IBIS World. Mindfulness, meditation, psychic readings, astrological practices, you name it, are the order of the day. Following on from our examining the boom of interest in astrology among young people, it seems logical to put millennial occupation with spirituality and destiny into the socioeconomic context. With traditional religion in decline, wage growth in Western countries like the US and the UK stagnating, and house prices and value of goods climbing, the buying and selling of spirituality is a natural fit for a demographic letting go of old customs at the same time as looking for new ones. ‘What are we going to spend our money on?’ asks Banu Guler, co-creator of astrology app Co-Star, ‘We can’t afford to buy houses.’
Commercialisation of fringe cultures is an inevitable by-product of capitalism. Whereas mindfulness and meditation once belonged to religions like Buddhism and Hinduism, they are now common practices in mainstream society. Just look at , the Silicon Valley start-up app that made meditation into a $250m business. Millennial appetite for finding inner spirituality is enormous. In 2015, the meditation and mindfulness industry alone rakes in $1 billion. Taking a more cynical stance, Gabrielle Wood, Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies at Christopher Newport University, Virginia, says: 'A lot of what passes for spirituality today is actually a commercial venture of one kind or another. It should be seen for what it is - business, and not serious, genuine spiritual knowledge.’
It can be difficult to pry apart authenticity from fashion trends. Everything becomes blurred when a couple of Instagram filters and a hefty price tag replace the ‘real deal’. But mindfulness, meditation, and astrology are certainly the pseudo religions young people are flocking to. Self-care and teaching yourself how to access a higher spiritual plane are revered so highly that it’s easy to feel like you’re missing some big cultural moment if you don’t buy into it. But, like with traditional religion it’s as much a money-making machine as it is a place of holy fortitude. Life-long astrologer Kimberly Dewhirst says that with saturation in any industry comes bad practice and exploitation. ‘The more and more something is available to you, the more there will be people pretending to be astrologers, healers etc.’ People ready and waiting to cash-in on the latest wellness trend.