Digital Spirituality as a Technology of Resistance

Abstract

This essay will explore, albeit briefly, the potential for digital spirituality to function as a technology of resistance. Let me be clear, this essay does not rely on a thin or romanticized approach to, or understanding of, resistance. It takes seriously the nuanced and multi-dimensional planes on which people engage in resisting. Part of this essay’s underlying assumption regarding resistance is that being alive is a form of resistance. Similarly, life is comprised of relational systems (i.e. societies, ecologies, bodies, etc.). So, the maintenance or evolution of any system (including biological systems) in the midst of the variability associated with ever changing environments is a form of resistance. Avoiding death and decay is resistance. Being an organism composed of interwoven and interlocking systems would also count as resisting entropy, let alone the type of intentionality that goes into countering invisible systems which perpetuate antiBlack disproportionality in socio-political landscapes. In writing about digital spirituality as a form of resistance I will draw connections between resistance and spirituality and technology and spirituality. From there I will explore digital spirituality as a technology of resistance. I think it is important to demystify spirituality from the beginning of this discussion. In 2018 Ahmet Göçer and Habib Özg ̆an performed a literature analysis on multiple definitions of spirituality. Their general consensus alludes to “four themes in explaining spirituality: (1) rising above the self and/or one’s context (transcendence), (2) a deeper connection with others (interconnectedness), (3) finding purpose in life (meaning) and (4) a developmental aspect (innerness).” Previously I have defined spirituality as “the felt and unfelt connection one has with God OR that which is beyond the self, through the physical world (both seen and unseen).” However, I would like to redefine spirituality a bit more succinctly. I define spirituality as a way of life, a lived epistemology—a code. In doing so I collapse the compartmentalization of McGhee and Grant while shifting the focus toward the internal constellation that comprises one’s perception, resulting in one’s behavior. Simultaneously undergirding one’s identity and reality. In this sense, spirituality is not reduced to transcendence, sociality and meaning. Spirituality is part of the murky and mundane elements of life where transcendence, muck and mire meet through embodied behavior. Here, spirituality is not a tool of escape, but immersion in the dynamics of life. Simplistically, spirituality can be framed through questions such as: What does one do every day? What does one believe about one’s self? What does one believe about the world? How do these systems of thought and belief influence the way one carries themselves on a daily basis? What does one believe is possible, and how does one understand the trajectory of one’s reality? Additionally, wrapping spirituality in embodied behavior suggests action is more telling of what people believe than what they say. However people move about the world becomes indicative of their spirituality,