Paper short abstract:

This paper explores collaboration between spiritual seekers as a way of developing not only their own individual spiritualities but also a socially constructed sense of connection within the local environment and community that provides a means for ongoing religious transmission.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on fieldwork from an ethnographic study exploring religious transmission among spiritual seekers located around Hebden Bridge, a former mill town and prominent centre of alternative religion in Yorkshire, UK. One of the ways these seekers frame their religious practice is through the local landscape. Many are incomers to the area, who actively collaborate with one another on an ongoing basis to develop their own individual spiritualities. This is achieved in part through socially constructed sets of resources such as myths, rituals and shared experiences. These serve to provide not only self-directed religious paths for the individuals concerned, but also a sense of connection within the local environment and community. This paper will argue that the creation and ongoing use of such resources by spiritual seekers provides a way that transmission of religious ideas and practices successfully occurs in the absence of traditional religious hierarchies and doctrines.