Profane Experience and Sacred Encounter: Journeys to Disney and the Camino de Santiago

 This article explores the connection between religious pilgrimages, such as walking the Camino de Santiago, to the consumerist obsession with places such as Disney. 

    I think this idea is a very interesting concept. I feel like we as a society are entering an era where religion is fundamentally different than what it has ever been before. Religion is still a major part of many people's lives, but it is increasingly rare to find people who are genuinely devoted to their religions in the way that people have been for most of human life. There are countless religions throughout the world, and all of them are practiced differently. In past eras, people clung to religion and for most of human existence religion was the primary, or one of the primary, focuses of peoples lives. Their was pure and complete devotion in ways that are increasingly harder to find in modern times. This is partially because the world has moved into a much more scientific focus and people feel the need to rationalize things more and more. Religion can be very hard to rationalize. The unbreaking devotion to something you can not physically see nor fully comprehend scares many people, and they would rather fall to what is fully comprehensible. This is not to say that science is bad and religion is good, this is of course completely incorrect, but it would explain why things are moving into a more consumerist focused world rather than a religiously focused one.

    Many people find comfort in devotion, I know I do. Being devoted to something allows people to feel safe and secure, to feel in control in the unpredictable chaos of life. For a long time this devotion was given to religion, but this is slowly changing, as I discussed above. So people are changing what they devote themselves too, and for many it is consumerism and nostalgia. Places like Disney take full advantage of this. Disney is a symbol of happiness for many people, it is something they grew up with and often allows people to escape the uncertainties and fear of life and bring them a sense comfort and protection, very similar to how religion works for some people. This enters an almost dystopian connection where some people seem to almost worship companies such as Disney. Disney does not care about these people, they simply want money, but in the eyes of some this is not the case. Disney cares, Disney is safety and security. And thus, 'pilgrimages' to places such as Disneyworld and land become religious like experiences. The unfortunate thing is is that the only thing that is really happening is this billion dollar company is taking the money of these people, bleeding them dry, and dressing it up as love.

   What I find interesting is that legitimate religions have done this in the past, such as the Catholic church during the Lutheran reformation, where they were exploiting the people who trusted the church. They forced people to give them money and in return they were told they were devout and that they would be saved from hell. This is happening again with Megachurches were the pastors demand donations which they keep for themselves allowing them to become grossly rich and give their followers a false sense of devotion and safety. People are inherently greedy while others are desperate for a sense of belonging and peace, and because of this, things that were once seen as sacred, such as the Santiago de Camino, become tainted and lose some of their significance and value in the eyes of the capitalistic societies that have been normalized.