Paper Short Abstract:

Puerto Varas grew 40% in five years as lifestyle migrants sought nature and healing. Ethnographic research shows how their practices produce a “magical” landscape, intertwining spirituality, commodification, and rural imaginaries, reshaping both the environment and personal subjectivities.

Paper Abstract:

Puerto Varas, Chile, has experienced a 40% population increase in the past five years, driven by lifestyle migrants seeking nature, healing, and reinvention. This article examines how these migrants, largely middle- and upper-class urbanites, transform the landscape into a “magical” space through holistic practices, spiritual worldviews, and their interactions with the environment. Drawing on ethnographic research, including interviews with migrants and alternative healers, the study explores how this process intertwines personal transformation, commodified spirituality, and rural imaginaries.

The research highlights how migrants’ search for well-being, inspired by holistic and alternative spiritualities, extends beyond individual practices to actively reshape the environment. Elements such as lakes, forests, and volcanoes are reimagined as therapeutic and energetic agents, mediating relationships between people and the natural world. These dynamics reflect broader trends of neo-ruralism and wellness culture, where spiritual meanings are attached to landscapes, creating a blend of personal and environmental reconfiguration.

This production of a “magical” Patagonia, however, is not solely symbolic; it involves material and social transformations that commodify spirituality and redefine rural spaces. Migrants’ experiences reveal how their practices reshape not only landscapes but also subjectivities, fostering a sense of cosmic connection and holistic well-being. This study contributes to understanding how lifestyle migration intertwines with spiritual, environmental, and neoliberal imaginaries, emphasizing the active role migrants play in producing landscapes as spaces of healing, energy, and transcendence.