Format: on Shaninka campus and online
Language: Russian, English
Moderators: Ksenia Sirotkina (EUSPb PhD student), Daniil Kos’kov (EUSPb PhD student)

Various spiritual practices involving the magic and supernatural powers steadily go mainstream in Russia and all over the world in recent years. However, the analytical framework often fails to keep up with these changes. In this section, we want to update one of the research concepts - Cultic Milieu.

In 2012, the British sociologist of religion Colin Campbell gave a lecture in Leipzig and proposed to reconsider the concept of "cult environment" that he had introduced forty years earlier. He pointed out that the definition of this term has become problematic (Campbell, 2012). He used to define Cultic Milieu as beliefs and practices that are not orthodox, as well as groups of people who are associated with these beliefs (in contrast to the dominant cultural orthodoxy). These beliefs included “the worlds of the occult and the magical, of spiritualism and psychic phenomenon, of mysticism and new thought, of alien intelligences and lost civilizations, of faith healing and nature cure” – all beliefs that could justifiably be considered unorthodox, if not entirely deviant, at that time. Currently, we examine it as New Age (Campbell, 1972).

In his lecture, Campbell emphasized that the New Age has already firmly established itself in contemporary Western society. The “traditional” religions boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred, and the institutions of the dominant culture are losing the fight against "dissent" and seeking assistance from governments (Campbell, 2012). The identification of the "cult environment" with deviant / marginal beliefs (convictions) is no longer appropriate because many of them are evolved into mainstream. And if we define it as deviant or unorthodox in contrast to the established orthodox mainstream, does a homogeneous dominant culture really exist? Can its content be considered orthodox?

We want to revise Campbell's "cult environment" and its pros and cons for investigation of communities or movements whose narratives and practices are focused on specific locations. We invite researchers to discuss "places of power" popular in New Age culture; archaeological and historical sites that attract alternative historians and become places of spiritual practices; "scary places" and fans of legend tripping, anomalous zones, UFO-communities, etc.