Introduction: A Journey to Elsewhere

  • Lori G. Beaman
  • Sonia Sikka
Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

The aim of this volume is to consider the phenomenon of yoga travel to India as an instance of a broader genre of ‘spiritual travel’ involving journeys to places ‘elsewhere’, which are imagined to offer the possibility of profound personal transformation. These imaginings are tied up in a continuation of the exoticisation of the East, but are not limited to that. We identified themes of authenticity, suffering, space, material markers, and the idea of the ‘spiritual’, to name a few, in our observations of this phenomenon. Our wish was to produce a volume that not only reflected our shared time together during the two-day workshop ‘A Journey to Elsewhere: Spiritual Travel and the Quest for Authenticity’, but also highlighted the insights our disciplinary expertise brought to the conversation.

Keywords

Yoga travel and tourism Religious tourism Personal and spiritual transformation Religion and society Authenticity 
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Copyright information

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Lori G. Beaman
    • 1
  • Sonia Sikka
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Classics and Religious StudiesUniversity of OttawaOttawaCanada
  2. 2.Department of PhilosophyUniversity of OttawaOttawaCanada

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