Practices

AoL East and West - A Study of the Art of Living Foundation - Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen

Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen [+-]
University of Tromsø.
Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen is currently a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Tromsø. Her research interests include new religious movements (especially Indian-oriented movements) and the New Age, religion and gender, and religion and nature. She has published a number of articles (including on Art of Living) and book reviews in international academic journals, and has several articles forthcoming. Additionally she is co-editor of the forthcoming Nordic New Religions (Brill),
Milda Ališauskienė [+-]
Vytautas Magnus University
Dr Milda Ališauskienė is a professor at the Department of Sociology at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania. She has published more than thirty social scientific research articles on religion in contemporary Lithuania and the Baltic States and contributed to collective monographs and studies on the social exclusion of minority religions and Lithuania’s secularization process.
James R. Lewis [+-]
Wuhan University
James R. Lewis is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University. He is well-published in the field of new religious movements. His publications and edited volumes include The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, Controversial New Religions (with Jesper Petersen), Scientology, Children of Jesus and Mary (with Nicholas Levine), and, most recently, Violence and New Religious Movements.

Description

This substantial chapter links with earlier chapters both in terms of the categories that have been developed in the NRM field and in terms of the history of AoL. Art of Living beliefs and practices are closely related to TM‟s beliefs and practices, as well as contemporary Hinduism more generally. In this chapter we will also trace the most important practices within Art of Living, and bring some perspectives to bear on how Art of Living beliefs and practices are differently/similarly ‘lived’ in different countries. Further, the chapter will present a short overview of AoL courses and some perspectives on yoga in Art of Living. Then we will move on to the movement’s signature practice, Sudarshan Kriya. In this section we will for example examine the frequency of SKY practice and level of involvement in different countries.

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Citation

Bårdsen Tøllefsen, Inga; Ališauskienė, Milda; Lewis, James R.. Practices. AoL East and West - A Study of the Art of Living Foundation. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Oct 2026. ISBN 9781781791332. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=22336. Date accessed: 21 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.22336. Oct 2026

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