ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as a response to critiques of being Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR) as complicit with contemporary neoliberalism and market capitalism, and the reduction of consumer spiritualities to mere consumer sell-outs. It suggests such critiques fail to account for the ways being SBNR shares certain qualities with traditional religions, including ritual and mythological components. These critiques also depend on the assumption that there is an original, static tradition to be preserved (for example, Indian yoga), one that preexisted the profanation of religion through commodification, and consequently they produce nostalgic representations, mirroring the essentialisms of consumers themselves. This chapter considers some of the religious qualities of being SBNR while not slipping into nostalgia about the past or a kind of relativism that renders commercial spirituality immune from serious criticism. By analyzing Bikram Choudhury, the multimillionaire who has exploited the cultural cache and economic capital of yoga, claimed copyrights on yoga postures, pursued litigation against rival yoga franchises, and battled allegations of sexual harassment and even rape while also creating Bikram Yoga, a practice some practitioners deem deeply transformative, it demonstrates how commercial yoga can betray ritual, mythological, and other religious qualities, but it is also an industry that operates by the same logic as multinational corporations. Consideration of the religious qualities of commercial yoga and being SBNR generally need not avoid a critique of neoliberalism itself.
