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ABSTRACT
Due to historical-cultural factors, Estonians answer that religion occupies a low level of importance in response to European and global surveys. Nonetheless, new spiritualities, rather than scientific materialism, have become increasingly influential in Estonia. Based on material from quantitative and qualitative studies, this article identifies indicators of the changing understandings about spiritual-alternative ideas and practices in Estonia and analyzes the tactics spiritual practitioners use to legitimize their worldviews. The study argues that “fuzzy spirituality” is the dominant mode of religiosity in Estonia and challenges researchers to find new methods and theoretical approaches to study religions.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Because of the large proportion of the Russian minority, the Orthodox Church has become the most popular in Estonia: 16% of the whole population, 41.8% of Russian-speakers and 2.3% of Estonians. The question about religion was optional in the Census and 14% of Estonian inhabitants decided not to answer (Statistics Estonia Citation2013). However, it would be logical to assume that people with stronger and more definite religious commitment would probably not leave this question unanswered.
2. Some examples about the Estonian religious situation: According to a worldwide Gallup poll (2007–2008), 86% of Estonians reported insignificance of religion in their daily lives (Crabtree and Pelham Citation2009) and an Eurobarometer survey of 2010 demonstrated that only 18% of respondents express a belief in God (TNS Opinion & Social Citation2010, 204), compared to 16% in 2005 (Eurostat Citation2005, 9).
3. The representative studies were organized by the University of Tartu and executed by research companies SaarPoll in 2010 (n = 1009) and TNS Emor in 2014 (n = 1100). A nonrepresentative internet-based questionnaire (n = 472) was carried out by the author of the article in 2014. The internet-based questionnaire had both qualitative and quantitative questions and was shared in spiritual Facebook groups and internet discussion forums.
4. The Soviet era affected religion more severely in Estonia than in other Soviet republics like Latvia or Lithuania (Plaat Citation2003). Also, among the Russian minority in Estonia the religious belonging is much higher. Orthodoxy has become an important element for the minority group identity (Liiman Citation2001). Ringvee (Citation2014) points out that Estonia is the first European country to have a minority group religion becoming more popular than the historically-culturally dominant one.
5. It seems that Estonian “typical” personhood contains a discrepancy between explicitly expressed high reliance on the rational scientific-materialistic values (Maimik Citation2011) and the actual popularity of spiritual-superstitious ideas – the “hidden” interest.
6. Skeptics and skepticism in this paper are seen as specific, critical, and condemning position taken toward spiritual-alternative ideas that deviate from scientific-materialistic principles.
7. The construction of spirituality as a field is not necessarily supported by participants. Spirituality can be found in very different spheres of life: in business (Aupers and Houtman Citation2006), medicine – spiritual teachings about health and alternative treatments, and science – quasi- or lay-science. Spiritual insiders perceive it as a promising approach to life in its full complexity, all-encompassing layer and not the sphere that could (and should) be separated. According to Bourdieu, “field” is a social arena where capital is shared and personal habitus shaped. It involves a constant struggle in the pursuit of desirable resources.
8. The very eclectic election coalition (valimisliit in Estonian) “Üle-Eestiline Valimisliit” that bunched together “alternative voices” like ultra-nationalists, spiritual teachers-practitioners, and conspiracy theorists finally collected 437 votes. The most successful candidate was Peeter Liiv (52 votes) whose platform for the elections got much publicity as he promised to give free electricity for the inhabitants of Tallinn and to establish a municipal currency.
9. For example, this idea is strongly presented by the promoter of magical matrix, Arvo Soomets. See his writings on www.maagilinematrix.ee.
10. Crystal therapists argue that crystals have special powers – they can be used for healing, for example.
11. See the web-page of the show at http://r2.err.ee/saated?saade=285.
12. See the web-page of Estonian skeptics at http://skeptik.ee/2011/05/01/umbluu-preemia-2011-err-r2-hallo-kosmos-ingrid-peek/.
13. Conducted in 2014 as an internet-based survey among the members of spiritual Facebook groups, out of the 370 respondents for the question, 278 were against using the term “religion” for spiritual practices, 34 were favorable, and 57 did not take a stance.
14. Estonian skeptics, for example, call the alternative-esoteric field uhhuutajad (to-whoo! – the owl’s phonation) or umbluu (refers to nonsense). These expressions have a double function – both naming and depreciating. With this, skeptics bring together a wide variety of teachings like modern mysticism, New Age spirituality, and parapsychology under the “category of popular superstition, occultism and ‘pseudo-science’ for which their social mission is one of debunking and demystification” (Hess Citation1993, 11). The principle that skeptics follow can be found in Gieryn’s approach (Citation1983) to boundaries and boundary work that explains how the scientific field holds control over authority, emphasizing the importance of the “other” in distinguishing “science” from “non-science.” Skeptics’ main aim is to clear this border between scientific rationality and religious-spiritual ideas.
15. For more information, see the special subtopic on the skeptics webpage, http://skeptik.ee/umbluu-preemia/.
16. The deliberative breathing practices are popular in Estonia, mostly among groups of women (Koppel Citation2013).
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Marko Uibu
Marko Uibu is a Ph. D. fellow at the University of Tartu. His research focuses on the spiritual-alternative practices and practitioners in Estonia. He has published several articles about spiritual subcultures and edited a book about new spirituality in Estonia.