Abstract

Practice centers (dojos) in the Japanese new religion Mahikari are perceived to be spaces suffused with divine light. This article examines this understanding in terms of the enactment of a particular kind of atmosphere – a lightscape – which is deemed to be capable of automatically producing transformative effects. As a key ethnographic example of this idea of atmospheric effects, I consider the case of the primary training course, participation in which is the means of entry into Mahikari. Although the course itself appears to be didactic in design, I suggest that, as an event, a different dynamic is at work, in which the major aim is less about the transmission of information than it is about the elicitation of transformation, a change which is understood to be largely a consequence of the atmospheric conditions in the dojo.

摘要

日本新宗教 Mahikari 中的实践中心（道场）被认为是充满神圣之光的空间。本文根据一种特殊的氛围——光景——的制定来检验这种理解，这种氛围被认为能够自动产生变革性的效果。作为这种大气效应思想的一个关键的人种学例子，我考虑了初级培训课程的情况，参与是进入 Mahikari 的手段。虽然课程本身在设计上似乎是说教的，但我建议，作为一个事件，一种不同的动力正在发挥作用，其中的主要目标不是关于信息的传递，而是关于引发转变，这种变化是被理解为主要是道场中的大气条件的结果。