ABSTRACT
Kama muta is approximately what Durkheim called “collective effervescence.” But contra Durkheim, religion comprises many practices, relationships, emotions, beliefs, and institutions; kama muta is prominent in some, but not all of these. Religious kama muta occurs when people feel united by participating in a ritual, when sharing suffering with each other or with a divinity, at the culmination of pilgrimage, and above all when worshippers feel united with a loving deity. Kama muta is rare in other components and aspects of religion such as declarations of doctrinal faith and cosmological texts. Kama muta is a rewarding experience, and people like to tell others about it and recruit others to join in worship that evokes it. This may be a major factor in the endurance and spread of the world religions, in contrast to local and ephemeral religions that evoke little kama muta.
