Kumaré: Experiment That Was The Brainchild Of Vikram Gandhi

The film “Kumaré” is a documentary of an experiment that was the brainchild of Vikram Gandhi. Gandhi is an American of Indian descent, and from a deeply religious family, a Hindu family to be specific. Kumaré is a persona that Gandhi develops and fully immerses himself in, living as Kumaré for a period of time to teach what he believes are the important parts of religion. He also wants to prove a point about religion to the world, a truth that he struggled with himself. As I referred to, Kumaré, the persona and the film, was a social experiment with religion at the center of it. To begin, Kumaré explains that he believes religion is basically a hoax perpetuated by religious leaders. He shows several religious leaders who claim to have …show more content…
One man in trying to explain what he felt for Kumaré described it as literally an attachment, and you can see how the people truly are attached to him when you watch the documentary. Attachment theory starts very early in life when infants attach themselves to caregivers. This perpetuates into adulthood but shifts from an actual physical attachment to a mental one, such as gods or other religious figures. There were people in the film who believed that Kumaré was a manifestation of god, some thought he was a prophet, others used the term messenger, even at the end of the film after he had revealed himself there were still some who believed he had supernatural powers. With position people held him in, in their minds, and the language they used to describe their experiences, the psychological lines draw themselves to attachment …show more content…
That is essentially what Kumaré was able to do when practicing what he called the “blue light” meditation. Kumaré himself even claimed to forget at times that it was all an act, and to feel the effects the others claimed to. This even relates to something I discussed in the last paper as well; the religious contemplatives, of different religions, all claiming the same psychological and physiological experiences when meditating or praying. The brain activity during these specific activities was always the same, the part of the brain that creates a barrier between the body and the outside world was shut off and a feeling of oneness was created. This feeling was very similar to what Kumaré’s followers claimed to experience and was definitely very real to all of