The Spiritual Economy of Nightclubs and Raves: Osho Sannyasins As Party Promoters in Ibiza and Pune/goa

Abstract

Interrogating the fusion of ‘religion’ and ‘leisure’ in contemporary societies, this article analyses how adepts of a countercultural religiosity (Osho sannyasins) have influenced the club and rave scenes in Ibiza (‘clubbing capital of the world’), Pune and Goa (global centers of self-spirituality and digital dance). As ‘rave studies’ has concentrated on the experiential dimension of raving, this article focuses instead on the socio-economic components of a ‘nomadic spirituality’ that underlies multiple forms of digital dance culture throughout the world. It compares four cases of dance parties (exotic, up-market, underground, and resort), all of which are promoted and attended by Osho sannyasins both in Ibiza and India. Such nomadic spirituality is evinced by the conjunction of transpersonal experiences, spatial displacements and expatriate identities found among ravers and sannyasins. The article concludes that the commodification of alternative lifestyles by tourism and entertainment industries indexes not only the ambivalent desires of mainstream societies toward utopian lifestyles; it also suggests that transnational countercultures constitute a privileged analytical site that anticipates emerging social trends and predicaments of complex globalisation.

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