This thesis discusses hybrid forms of spirituality and their social trajectories in the modernizing city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Referring to three commercialised spiritual centres, the Paguyuban Tritunggal [PTT], the Bhakti Nusantara [BN], and the Bioenergi, I will show how spirituality is constructed, transformed, and commodified in this city. The study addresses the following aspects: (1) The forms of hybrid spirituality of the centres, emphasizing the practical efficacy of spirituality for this-worldly success, rather than piety and morality for social control. (The centres emphasize instrumental rationalization, rather than value ended rationality, as part of their strategies to respond to the challenges and opportunities of modernity). (2) Possible parallels between the Western Human Potential Movement (HPM) and the Eastern form of HPM in Yogyakarta spiritual centres. (3) The potential upsurge of subjective-life spirituality in a modernizing Muslim-majority society (such as has taken place in the West), in which something like the "subjective-life spirituality" develops alongside "life as religion' (Heelas, 1996; Heelas & Woodhead, 2005). (4) Trajectories of spiritual hybridization resulting from the spread of globalization. (5) Trends of commodification of spirituality in this modernizing city, and their sociological consequences in relation to the durability of religion. After discussing the historical transformation of spirituality and spiritual groups in Indonesia in chapter two, I then explore three spiritual centres, each with their unique responses to the challenges and opportunities of modernity. Chapter three examines how the Paguyuban Tri Tunggal reconstructs Javanese spiritual tradition as a means for cultural resistance. Chapter four examines the transformation of the Bhakti Nusantara from occult-based spirituality to Sufi oriented spirituality, and chapter five analyses the spiritual enterprise of the Bioenergi, and its objectification of spiritual efficacies in modern and secular landscapes. These spiritual centres all exemplify what I call 'hybrid spirituality', in which spiritual ideas are combined with other elements, such as Javanese spiritual legacies, Sufism, humanistic psychology, selfmanagement and scientific justification. Based on my ethnographic research, this study makes several findings. First, the hybrid spiritual centres in Yogyakarta mark the transformation of spiritual movements from piety promotion to spiritual efficacy, thus resembling businesses that sell spiritual efficacy, not just through training programs, but also through material objects which are promoted as being spiritually powerful. Second, the development of Yogyakarta spiritual centres is, to some extent, equivalent to the Western Human Potential Movement [HPM] in terms of their charismatic leadership, their entrepreneurial character, their ever developing packaged spiritual training programs and material products, their combining of spirituality with humanistic psychology and other popular scientific considerations, and their promotion of spirituality as part of self development aimed at acquiring prosperity in this world. These parallels indicate that the three hybrid spiritual centres in Yogyakarta exemplify, in certain respects, an Eastern form of HPM, However the Eastern forms differ from the Western, in that the former borrow popular science from the West and combine it with Eastern spiritual traditions, while the Western forms borrow Eastern spirituality to be merged with Western humanistic psychology.Third, as can be seen from globalization studies, hybridization and glocalization of spirituality are apparent in the three Yogyakarta spiritual centres. The processes come about partly as the result of modernization and globalization that have taken place in Yogyakarta. The social dynamics of modernization in this city have created markets for various types of products, including in religious and spiritual fields, based upon the amalgam of traditions of both local and global origin. The blend of internal-local spiritual legacies with external-global ones in the three Yogyakarta spiritual centres demonstrates what Berger calls 'hybridization' (2002, p. 10) or what Robertson refers to as 'glocalization' (1992; 1995, pp. 25-44). Fourth, referring to Heelas' and Woodhead's notion of 'subjective-life spirituality' versus 'life-as religion' (1996, 2005), Indonesia could be said to have what might be called 'life-as spirituality,' instead of 'subjective-life spirituality,' as a complement to 'life-as religion.' In this regard, Carrette's and King's (2005) prediction, that selling spirituality could silently take over organized religion, does not seem to have occurred in the spiritual commodification taking place in Yogyakarta. In Indonesia, instead of being taken over by spirituality, religion has successfully absorbed spiritual ideas, for the benefit of a higher degree of religious consumption by the population. Fifth, none of the hybrid spiritual centres in Yogyakarta promoting spiritual efficacies intends to be an independent spiritual group, disassociated from the official religions of Indonesia. They are all 'ecclesial', claiming that their spiritual services are dedicated to developing the religiosity of Indonesian people. The higher level of consumption of spirituality, resulting from spiritual commodification, leads to a higher level of religiosity. The more religion and spirituality are consumed, the more the world will be re-sacralized, lessening the impact of secularization. It can be said, therefore, that the commodification of spirituality in Yogyakarta is another manifestation of the durability of religion in a society in the process of modernization.
| Date of Award | 2012 |
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| Original language | English |
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