Alyssa Bereznak
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
in speaking about this stuff, I often reference a 2023 Pew poll. They found that 22% identified as not religious, but spiritual.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
And when they asked sort of follow-up questions to understand like what that even means, they said that like these people believed that you have a soul or a spirit in addition to your body and that there's something spiritual beyond the natural world and that there are some things that science can't explain.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
The fact that there are people with these beliefs, but people who are also maybe revolving their lives less around the traditional pillars of religion opens up the space for wellness to sort of fill those cups. These offerings, these wellness offerings are often marketed in a way that speaks to us much more.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
I think about my mom who grew up Catholic and who says that she still has internalized the sense of shame and guilt that came with being a practicing Catholic in America. her particular church. And a place like a yoga studio or a breathwork session or a sound bath, it's all about radical acceptance.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
So I think in terms of marketing, the more capitalistic wellness offerings can sometimes have an upper hand because they're only appealing to the customer as opposed to telling them they did something wrong. Shaming them into joining.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
Our previous Surgeon General in his departing message said, like gave a prescription to America and said, we need more community. Sort of focusing on those individualistic aspects of wellness, like is my body functioning well? Am I fit? Have I meditated today? Like all of these questions individually do not solve this larger problem of community. Like there is a capitalist motive involved.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
in sound baths or yoga or selling a spiritual card deck or a crystal. Like ultimately, that's what you're investing in. You're investing in the companies or the organizations that sell these things as opposed to donating at church on a Sunday. And that money goes back into a community to sort of support the community.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
Absolutely. I think that oftentimes we aren't exposing ourselves to community, to messiness, to this larger group that's focused more on the benefit of the collective than the self.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
Yeah, I recently attended the Conscious Life Expo, which is this long running convention that is, I would just call it the wooest of the woo. And there's like these more mainstream, I would say, workshops that focus on breath work or sound baths or feng shui or what have you. And then there is something called the rabbit hole, which is like where all the conspiracy theorists go.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
That contingent has really grown. I was there a few weekends ago and taking part in something called like a past life regression session. I won't get into that. I was going to say, I don't know what that is. Not worth getting into. Okay. But through the wall, I could hear someone who was like an intense anti-vaxxer and hearing the very like light voices.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
sort of meditative voices of the practitioners from Sedona who were trying to get us to like meditate about a past life regression. And then the contrast of like someone who's very angrily sort of ranting about vaccines, to me that embodied the culture of wellness really well.
It's Been a Minute
Goodbye, church... Hello, Wellness Industrial Complex!
I've also experienced that the wellness industry has collaborated with churches to hold their sessions in these places that feel spiritual. I think it goes both ways. I've been to yoga classes in giant churches or sound baths in the Grace Cathedral Church here in LA, and the two lend themselves to one another.