Great Freedom and the Concept of Awareness
Reading an Ambiguous New Religious Movement through the Lenses of Gergen, Giddens and Lyon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v1i2.161Keywords:
Candice O'Denver, Great Freedom, Awareness, Identity, postmodernity, Lyon, Giddens, GergenAbstract
Great Freedom is new socio-religious movement centring on the teachings of American Candice O’Denver. It teaches that Awareness – the space of individual existence observable between thoughts and emotional responses – is the true location of individual identity for all human beings, and the beginning point for acceptance of the self. The group, which was founded in 2003, conducts meetings and short courses at which the teachings are promoted and described in detail. The group’s website (www.greatfreedom.org) also hosts many written publications, audio, and video teachings free to the public. The core of the Great Freedom teaching revolves around the explanation that the human condition is one of frustration, angst, and constant searching for psychological and emotional relief, though not because such things have become ‘uncoupled’ or ‘free floating’. Instead, Great Freedom argues that these sensations arise in the face of a lack of knowledge about the permanent comfort available in Awareness. Modern life is understood to have become saturated and overly self-improvement oriented, implying that happiness and wellbeing are states to be searched for. The realisation of the nature of Awareness is believed by the group to bring psychological relief. This belief is examined in light of David Lyon’s (2000) argument of a shift in the parameters of religious thinking and engagement towards ‘secularised’, individuated, and highly subjective modes, and that modern religiosity is bricolage in response to the postmodern fragmentation of identity. Following from this, Great Freedom is read as a response to an understanding that modern life is highly saturated, in Kenneth Gergen’s (1991) sense, and, as Anthony Giddens’ (1991) notion of a ‘project of the self’ intimates, overly self-improvement oriented.
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