Between the COVID-19 Pandemic and Saving the World: Practices and Narratives by the Falun Dafa Community in Bulgaria
Between the COVID-19 Pandemic and Saving the World: Practices and Narratives by the Falun Dafa Community in Bulgaria
Author(s): Aneliya ManovaSubject(s): Social psychology and group interaction, Social Theory, Crowd Psychology: Mass phenomena and political interactions, Health and medicine and law
Published by: Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie Slovenskej akadémie vied
Keywords: Falun Dafa; new religious movements; conspiracy theories; cultivation; apocalypticism; COVID-19;
Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a research case study that explores in depth the question of the function of conspiracy theories and their uses among a religious community during a Global Pandemic. Falun Dafa is a new religious movement that emerged in China and was banned by the Chinese Communist Party. Growing into a global community, it has nowadays followers in many countries, including Bulgaria. The movement’s complex doctrine includes visions of the impending destruction of humanity. Today, they serve as a well-prepared coping mechanism to deal with the crisis, having set their apocalyptic expectations long before the advent of COVID-19. Based on years of observation of the community in Bulgaria, I explore how the conspiracy narratives, underlying this movement, help to reassure and restore psychological balance among followers and how the conspiratorial attitudes get stabilized in such situation of Global Crisis.
Journal: Slovenský národopis
- Issue Year: 70/2022
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 369-391
- Page Count: 23
- Language: English