ABSTRACT
Growing out of New Religious Movements, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the importation of Eastern philosophies, alternative spiritualities started to emerge in the 1970s and might have reached an apex at the end of the last century. Subsequently, scholars towards the end of the 20th century were questioning if Western societies were likely to experience a revolution with regard to people leaving churches and being interested in these spiritualities. This chapter highlights that that the revolution never grew the way it was anticipated and at best can be regarded as a mini-revolution. This is due to a decline in numbers and visibility of these alternative spiritualities. However, while in decline, we note alternative spiritualities, which are renowned for their eclectic approaches to religions, and philosophies have, nonetheless, extended their space of inspiration to popular culture – a phenomenon this chapter explores as hyper-real religions.
