ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the use of satellite broadcasting by Agonsh, but before introducing the different ways in which Agonsh transmits rituals, a brief overview of the group and its teachings is necessary. It discusses the promotion of religious practices through mass media together with the ability to package traditional practices, such as esoteric Buddhist fire rituals or Shugend training. In modern garb-transforming the rites into 'saleable, consumable products' that can be 'experienced' through the screen and repeated infinitely via DVDs are the keys to understanding Agonsh's success in the 1980s. Rituals are performed in Agonsh for two main aims: to realise the wishes of living people and to liberate the souls of dead ancestors. The rituals, both live and mediated by the screen during the satellite broadcasts, cannot be consumed in a private space, but only in a public space controlled by the group.
