Definition
Spiritual consumption describes the behaviors and processes in which people engage when consuming products, services, and places for spiritual reasons/ends. Whereas William James referred to the “varieties of religious experiences”, more recent work looks at the “varieties of spiritual experiences”, demonstrating the role and importance of spirituality in and across societies (see Values and Consumption). Indeed, with approximately 60% to 80% of people worldwide adhering to some sort of spiritual or religious belief according to IPSOS’s 2023 Global Religion survey across 26 countries, spiritual consumption holds considerable importance for consumer research.
Both spirituality and religious practice involve the human relationship to the divine, sacred, or transcendent. However, a growing number of individuals identify as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). Distinguishing between the two terms, religion has an institutional connotation in the form of systems for the monitoring, coding, protecting, and transmitting of information and practices that spirituality does not. Regardless of the specific distinctions between the terms and their underpinning practices, the consumption of spiritual and religious products, services, and places (e.g., pilgrimages) has experienced significant attention from profit-seeking actors that aim to use consumers’ spiritual and/or religious inclinations to encourage consumption.
History
Being a translation of the Latin word spiritualis, which can be traced back to Hebrew and Greek usage in the Bible, spirituality refers to an intrinsic human experience of being with God. Spiritual life was oriented toward cultivating a personal relationship with God, and involved practices such as prayer, fasting, and charity as well as the consumption of certain services (e.g., spiritual rituals) and products (e.g., eating fish on Christmas Eve). Similar themes can be observed across almost all religious contexts. For instance, in Hinduism spirituality is encouraged in the Vedic texts, emphasizing rituals and meditative and moral practices designed to understand the ultimate reality, Brahman. Likewise, in Islam, spirituality is most prominently expressed through Sufism, the Islamic belief in seeking closeness to God.
The philosophical expansion of the concept of spirituality signified its transition from strictly religious contexts to a broader, arguably more inclusive realm that engages with existential, moral, ethical, and personal development themes. This expansion is especially noticeable from the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries onwards, as thinkers began to explore spirituality in terms of individual experience and personal growth, independent of institutional religious frameworks. Spirituality came to be seen more as an individual personal journey toward understanding and the essence of being, focused on a search for meaning, unity, connectedness, and transcendence. Spiritual consumption began to gain further traction in the late 20th century, reflecting a wider mainstreaming of spirituality and a value shift of consumers toward more holistic, authentic, and personally meaningful products and experiences.
Different Perspectives
Spirituality has traditionally induced values and virtues of moderation. From this perspective, the nomos of spirituality, meaning the custom governing human conduct, may reduce the consumption of resources. Religious scriptures from both the East and the West provide commandments to protect the earth as God’s creation, while spiritual practices such as mindfulness and certain meditation practices can advance care for other people and the environment (Isham et al., 2022; see Mindfulness). Indeed, spiritual people feel more connected to others and experience a greater sense of well-being according to Gallup research in 2023. Just as the presence of religious or spiritual beliefs can steer people away from excess consumption, the absence of such beliefs – especially in modern consumption-driven societies – can prompt unsuitable consumption behaviors. With the deterioration of community and shared meaning in modern life, people often seek to fill this void and the growing sense of anomie, meaning, the breakdown of moral values and standards, through acquiring consumer products (see Conspicuous/Positional Consumption, Hedonic Treadmill).
Marketers appear well aware of consumers’ desire for spiritual experiences. Seminal work by Belk et al. (1989) discusses “the secularization of the sacred and the sacralization of the secular” in consumer behavior. In line with this, a commodification of spiritual experiences has been observed by Elf et al. (2023), and the embedding of spiritual value in mundane consumption practices. The commodification of spiritual experiences is evidenced through market offerings such as spiritual tourism – from yoga or meditation retreats, pilgrimages to sacred sites, or shamanic tourism whereby people travel to consume substances such as ayahuasca (a spiritual beverage) in structured ritual settings. These market offerings capitalize on the shift toward individualization and bypass the traditional religious gatekeepers to spirituality, allowing the market to create new forms and types of spiritual experience based upon the demands of the spiritual marketplace.
The commodification of spirituality raises questions about the (in)compatibility of spiritual and material realms. Historically, spiritual consumption has promoted values of moderation, but modern consumer culture is finding new ways of commodifying spiritual experiences that may lack the underlying spiritual values and act merely as a means of boosting wider consumption. While some argue that commodified spirituality lacks authenticity, moral depth, and access to the interconnected community commonly found within institutionalized religion (Carrette & King, 2004), others suggest that it can help revitalize religion and spiritual ideas in different ways.
Application
Our enormously productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.
(Victor Lebow writing in the Journal of Retailing in 1955)
In societies increasingly faced with anomie, the pursuit of meaning becomes a key priority for consumers. Historically, religion has provided a “meaning function” that supposedly helps us to cope with potential discrepancies we encounter daily. It also kept consumerism in check through its virtue components stressing the importance of frugality. But, as Jackson and Pepper (2011: 4) ask, “Who provides the meaning function when God departs (or is excluded from) the fray?” The spiritual marketplace is now playing a vital role in our everyday lives, with material goods occupying a key part in processes of sacralization and world maintenance. In this way, consumerist desires themselves have become the object of human striving.
Indeed, as well as offering commodified versions of traditionally spiritual practices, more mundane practices or products can also be transformed to hold spiritual meaning. New Age, marketable versions of centuries-old spiritual practices such as meditation, pilgrimages, and yoga are sold and consumed in the form of apps and often pricey weekend retreats. Other examples include the ritualization of everyday activities to impart a sense of significance and reverence. For instance, Harley-Davidson fosters a sense of community among its customers to create a collective sense of sacredness. The customization of products (e.g., branded leather jackets) can make consumers feel unique and significant while creating a collective sense of sacredness where ownership and use of their products are part of a larger – arguably, at least in part spiritual – lifestyle.
The transition to a sustainable society cannot hope to proceed, therefore, without the emergence or re-emergence of meaning structures that lie outside the consumer realm. If consumers’ calls for spirituality are met with material products as a meaning-making go-to solution, then this limits traditional spirituality’s potential to facilitate values of moderation and frugality.
So how do we support spiritual striving in the absence of great environmental costs? Numerous practices that can be situated within sustainable lifestyles can support meaning-making and spiritual well-being. Spending time in nature, practicing mindfulness and meditation, decluttering, volunteering, and community engagements are just a few practices that can support sustainable consumption and potentially wider behavior change (see also Voluntary Simplicity, Alternative Hedonism, Eco-Communities). Governments and institutions must find ways of fostering opportunities for such practices across society. This may divert attempts to find meaning and connections in acts of consumption.
Further Reading
Belk, R.W., Wallendorf, M., & Sherry Jr, J.F. (1989). The sacred and the profane in consumer behavior: Theodicy on the Odyssey. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(1), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1086/209191.
Carrette, J., & King, R. (2004). Selling spirituality: The silent takeover of religion. London: Routledge.
Elf, P., Isham, A., & Leoni, D. (2023). Moving forward by looking back: Critiques of commercialized mindfulness and the future of (commercialized) psychedelics. History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, 5(1), 33–62. https://doi.org/10.3368/hopp.65.1.33.
Isham, A., Elf, P., & Jackson, T. (2022). Self-transcendent experiences as promoters of ecological wellbeing? Exploration of the evidence and hypotheses to be tested. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1051478.
Jackson, T., & Pepper, M. (2011). Consumerism as theodicy: Religious and secular meaning functions in modern society. In L. Thomas (Ed.), Religion, consumerism and sustainability. consumption and public life. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306134_2.