This week, I attended the Digital Religion Symposium &
Workshop, where I listened to Christopher Helland’s speech on “Approaching
Rituals Online.” He has studied and explored the vast religious rituals people perform
while on the Internet that is created by different religious communities. According
to Helland, a ritual is a very diverse thing, of substance and function. “A
ritual is purposeful engagement with the scared (whatever the sacred maybe for
those involved).” Online rituals are preformed on a virtual space where people
can attend while on the Internet. This may look something like the virtual
community of “Second Life”, where people are avatars and can perform almost any
activity they desire while in a virtual world. The virtual space is considered
as a sacred place, because it is where participants go to perform ritualistic activities.
Those who come in and disturb the ritual service are blocked out and are not
allowed back in due to the rituals importance. Religious communities such as,
the Catholic religion, have created virtual ritual spaces online. As technology
has developed, the Catholic cathedrals or churches architecture have been created
to have more visible details like being in the actual place of worship. According
to Helland, rituals are dynamic and always changing thus, is why rituals are
accepted to be preformed on a virtual space.
Here is an example of where a virtual ritual may take place:
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