New and Improved? : The Processes of Globalisation on Spiritual Practices; Illustrated by The Global Spread of Reiki

New and Improved? : The processes of globalisation on spiritual practices; illustrated by the global spread of Reiki.

The processes of globalisation create an open market place for trade, but globalisation is also an exchange of cultures, of ideas and practices. Spiritual practices and rituals are one of the ways in which a culture reproduces itself and as such, is subject to hegemonic forces which act to alter the existing form.

It has been said that Globalisation may be regarded as a threat to regionalized spiritual practices because there is a tendency to standardise them in an Americanised form, which is primarily Christian.

One of the under explored aspects of the Internet is the cultural effects created by the exchange of spiritual ideas and practices online. As more people gain access to the World Wide Web, the diversity of spiritual information available increases exponentially. Exotic cultural practices, once only available to the privileged few who could afford to