Becoming A Yogi: Resocialization and Deconditioning as Conversion Processes
This article distinguishes between two separate, but interrelated types of religious conversion processes; socialization and deconditioning. Socialization refers to the process by which the roles and norms of a group are learned. Deconditioning is a process where habitual and problematic ways of per...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
[publisher not identified]
1984
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| In: |
Sociological analysis
Year: 1984, Volume: 45, Issue: 4, Pages: 301-314 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article distinguishes between two separate, but interrelated types of religious conversion processes; socialization and deconditioning. Socialization refers to the process by which the roles and norms of a group are learned. Deconditioning is a process where habitual and problematic ways of perceiving reality, resulting from initial socialization, are eliminated. Data from a participant observation study of residents in a Yoga ashram are presented to illustrate the nature of these two processes and their relation to one another.Socialization and deconditioning which influence individuals when they first come into contact with the ashram are described. Newcomers must both learn how to act in the ashram and how to make themselves available to experience an altered state of consciousness. Many of those having these experiences become motivated to live at the ashram and so must encounter socialization and deconditioning processes of a different sort. Data show that socialization processes are initially important for residents, but that deconditioning becomes more salient over time. Detailed descriptions are provided about how the yogic lifestyle and practices contribute to deconditioning and how residents describe changes in themselves over time.The data show that in the ashram socialization processes provide a context for and facilitate deconditioning and that these latter processes bring about changes in residents which are consistent with the stated goals of yoga. These observations are then compared to other typologies of religious conversion and it is suggested that religious groups vary in the extent to which conversion involves socialization and deconditioning processes. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-7873 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociological analysis
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3711296 |