Comments on: Metrospirituality: Shopping Is a Feeling

By: Bonne Vie » Metrospirituality: A Marketing Trojan Horse?

Bonne Vie » Metrospirituality: A Marketing Trojan Horse? — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:57:20 +0000

[...] away consumerism by being metrospiritual also hit a sour note for me. In this case, writer Tim Boucher was able to pen the feeling I got from this movement quite [...]

By: @tmbchr » A Semiotic Guide To Drug Use

@tmbchr » A Semiotic Guide To Drug Use — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:33:17 +0000

[...] But for most people today, those traditional elements have dropped off altogether - or else been replaced maybe by media and even shopping. Drug use, however, is alive and well and has become a cultural carrier for a lot of the [...]

By: Stoner Rock ‘n Roll Rebel Robin Hood Character Marketing Archetype - [tmbchr]â„¢

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:23:57 +0000

[...] One of the biggest consumer trends I am watching these days is the modulation of mass culture and lifestyle marketing to accomodate the needs of the counter-culture rebel-hero. In a nutshell, lifestyle marketing seems to function by identifying traits and behavior of a particular demographic group, studying their subculture anthropologically and then coming up with a host of products, services to match their needs as a group. And in order to market to any particular subgroup, you also have to clothe your language and imagery in those which are native to that group. You can’t put together an advertisement which is “off-code” because people in that subcultural niche will just laugh it off. So, tons of money and research are put into market segmenting and adaptation to new trends. The BBC documentary “Century of the Self” is a fantastic exposition of this technique, and how it arose out of a combination of psychology and the counter-culture of the 60’s and 70’s in America. The neologism “metrospirituality” is also another more recent example of that same force in action in today’s world. [...]

By: Kylark

Kylark — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:35:04 +0000

Iâ€™m never sure where its going, but I can feel a lot of like latent energy just underneath the surface right now - like thereâ€™s some powerful fascinating explosion just about to break forward.

Anybody else feel like that, or is this one of those â€œjust meâ€ things again?

I definitely feel it. There is a definite resurgence of spirituality, and maybe in that sense this metrospiritual thing can be looked at in a more positive light, a sort of groping forward, as some people have pointed out. I feel that things are becoming very *exciting* and we’re all on the verge of putting together some very important puzzle pieces.

The spiritual waters are lapping at the levee, and they are either going to spill over, washing everybody and everything, or they are going to burst through in a torrent. (That’s just my sense of things.)

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 02:23:03 +0000

No problem. I probably jumped the gun by calling you out like that as well. Sorry. I guess I just feel like we’re all really close to uncovering something really big here together. Each of us brings a different piece to it, and its wild to see how it morphs and develops and strengthens through all our interactions. I’m never sure where its going, but I can feel a lot of like latent energy just underneath the surface right now - like there’s some powerful fascinating explosion just about to break forward.

Anybody else feel like that, or is this one of those “just me” things again?

By: Fell

Fell — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 01:09:30 +0000

Fell, I donâ€™t really see evidence of the prejudice youâ€™re referring to.

Sorry this is probably my jumping the gun. My tone was probably over-exaggerated. What I may have meant is that regardless of the terms used, they can be harmful and beneficial, depending on one’s use. I seem to draw things out as I just write what I think and then hit Submit. I will work on curbing that.

Nothing about Kylark’s comments riled that, I like Kylark’s perspectives. Just my brain firing off diarrhea.

Fell,

That does *not* surprise me!

Uhoh

By: bill m.

bill m. — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:57:01 +0000

one small point– religious symbols, like great art, are such because they transcend conscious thought, uniting the uncounscious with the cosmos. so the idea that a statue of ganesh could have some appeal to a foreigner actually makes more sense than if it meant nothing to them.
i am reminded of the argument of non-scientists using the words ‘quantum mechanics’ without knowing what it really means. it gets used cause those words have power and truth. people will borrow things in all kind of ways. we all go shopping everyday on the internet for a little bit of information, a clue, that will help us form a truth for ourselves, and i dont think many on this website mind too much if it came from mit labs, einstein, the bagavad gita, or whatever. its all fair game.
that being said, i think its important to remember that alot of conspicuous consumption is done by those ‘freshly arrived’ at security and comfort. (material that is). in a way, we are seeing some of them perhaps in heaven itself, and place they strived to get to through deprivation and poverty. i dont think its anything to worry about… look what happens to their children: often the richest kids are the ones who actually follow jesus thing and give all their stuff away. anyone notice that all those dead heads living like hunter gatherers came from security?
its important to recognize which part of the cycle people are on.

adveritising and shopping aspires to be universally understandable and compelling on the unconscious level of religion. so the comparison to religion is i think an apt one, with the caveat that shopping is crude and religion of refined. kind of like the difference between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. big stuff, small stuff, really small stuff. all important, but sometimes we are more focused on one or the other, depending on our place in history and our individual strengths and weaknesses.

By: Kylark

Kylark — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:40:13 +0000

Or am I just imagining that?

Yes, you are.

I’m going to back away slowly from the Internet now….

By: Kylark

Kylark — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 00:36:45 +0000

I pluck my eyebrows. I also work for a salon spa which deals with companies such as Aveda, Guinot, and Yon-Ka. I also regularly receive manicures and facials.

Fell,

That does *not* surprise me!

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:44:49 +0000

This thread is becoming as prejudiced as those that make fun of us for being ardent believers in spirituality.

Fell, I don’t really see evidence of the prejudice you’re referring to. It sounds like you simply took Kylark’s comment about her own personal preferences as some kind of condemnation of your own lifestyle - which I don’t really think it is. What does it matter what she thinks? You don’t even know her, or she you - nor was she talking about you.

When did everybody get so sensitive and defensive? Or am I just imagining that?

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:42:53 +0000

why arenâ€™t people okay with BEING something anymore?

That might just be the best question anybody’s asked here so far. It’s all well and good to rail against labels, but somehow tangled up in that issue I wonder is there an inability to feel comfortable settling down into a niche - into really going WHOLE HOG into being a metrospiritual or a punk or a hippy or whatever. It’s almost like our conception of social roles is so shattered that there are those of us who want to just throw them off altogether. And then people sit around wondering why they lack a sense of identity and purpose…

It makes that whole bit in the Bhagavad Gita seem pretty appealing, where Arjuna comes to understand that it’s simply his duty, the dharma of his social role to wage war and kill his family members - even though he doesn’t want to, and it feels all weird and wrong to him.

By: jp

jp — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:10:39 +0000

i’m definitely a whole foods fan, but they’re really too expensive for regular shopping. we get all our veggies through an organic veggie delivery service (which is awesome and affordable).

yeah, the more i think about this silly metrospiritual thing, the more that’s what it strikes me as: silly. if people want to call themselves ‘metrospirituals,’ then whatever.

of course, i’m also getting tired of hearing people say ‘i hate *ALL* labels.’ you know what that makes you? a label-hater. why aren’t people okay with BEING something anymore?

By: Fell

Fell — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 22:47:04 +0000

What about all the people just enjoying life as is and do not require such tags and labels, yet desire a bit of spiritual influence to surround them in their day-to-day life? Say Richard Gere wants to purchase a $20,000 imported Vedic statue that had been excavated from the coasts of India?

This thread is becoming as prejudiced as those that make fun of us for being ardent believers in spirituality. Maybe they just don’t care and spend their time doing what they prefer. Which may or may not include driving their kids to soccer in a pimpin’ minivan and enjoying swapping their partners and drinking margaritas in their Jacuzzis.

Words imprison and create stereotypes just as much as they help us understand the world around us and aid in creating a order, structure, and way to interact with and navigate the chaos that is the world around us.

Just as much fun as it is to poke at men wearing makeup or whatever, I can say I have friendly acquaintances here in Edmonton, guys that work at MAC and DJ and are embroiled in the whole club culture. They love femininity. I also believe them to be Ã¼ber-vain, and I dislike the politics of the club kids, but I can’t persecute because I simply don’t share their current paradigm.

I can say the same about the dumbass that would pay for a statue of Ganesh and not know what it represents. But then again, this raises issues about what and how things mean to different people. Just cuz a whole civilisation attributes certain symbolic and spiritual attachments to a fat dude with an elephant head, someone might just want it because they think elephants are comforting or look neato.

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 21:20:48 +0000

i cant stand labels like metrospiritual, but honestly, its the consumerist tag like “hippe,” “punk,” or other kind of pre dominant social pattern. we can thank clinton era soccer moms, american buddhists, and happy go lucky americana for this. it’s true that “market” trends are following this population segment. in whole foods they started selling “breast cancer” lip balm that supposdly donates money cancer research. these half attempts at spiritual attitudes seems similar to half cocked attitudes in the early seventys of the make-your-own-reality camps. like everything else, blame women.

(disclaimer: deliberate sexist remark to set off the moral word police “into” this sort of thing yet by the numbers supported the invasion of say, iraq, among other things)

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:55:42 +0000

I also want to say that I shop at Whole Foods, and worked there briefly a few years ago. Now when I walk into ordinary grocery stores, so much of the food seems totally inedible.

By: Fell

Fell — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:36:27 +0000

Can I just say, as a woman, how very annoyed I am at the Metrosexual trend? I donâ€™t want to date any man who has more â€œproductâ€ in his bathroom than I do, or who shaves more surface area on his body than I do, or who, g_d forbid, *plucks his eyebrows*. Iâ€™m a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of girl. I donâ€™t want a guy who dresses up every day.

I pluck my eyebrows. I also work for a salon spa which deals with companies such as Aveda, Guinot, and Yon-Ka. I also regularly receive manicures and facials.

Not to digressâ€¦ this is an excellent post, Tim!

By: Dodging Invisible Rays » Tim Boucher hits one out of the park!

Dodging Invisible Rays » Tim Boucher hits one out of the park! — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:45:45 +0000

[...] 10 Nov 2005 01:49 pm
Tim Boucher hits one out of the park!

Tim Boucher has written a fantastic post that excoriates “Metrospirituality,” the lat [...]

By: fantastic planet » Spirituality for Sale

fantastic planet » Spirituality for Sale — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:39:06 +0000

[...]

November 10, 2005: : jpspirituality
Spirituality for Sale

Tim has a good overview of this article on Beliefnet about “Metro [...]

By: Kylark

Kylark — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 18:31:35 +0000

Damn, Tim, this is the best entry of yours I’ve ever read. “put your money where your soul is”… brilliant.

—–

Can I just say, as a woman, how very annoyed I am at the Metrosexual trend? I don’t want to date any man who has more “product” in his bathroom than I do, or who shaves more surface area on his body than I do, or who, g_d forbid, *plucks his eyebrows*. I’m a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of girl. I don’t want a guy who dresses up every day.

By: jp

jp — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:57:20 +0000

if it wasn’t so annoying, that ‘metrosexual tarot’ set would be pretty cool.

this article gets my blood boiling, but no part of it annoys me more than this utterly ludicrous list of what’s “in” in spirituality versus what’s “out.”

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17840_1.html

apparently if you practice feng shui, drink beaujolais, shop at pottery barn or play golf you *can’t* be a “metrospiritual,” but if you go to machu picchu, surf, take wellbutrin and knit you’re *A-OK.*

sigh. just gotta sit back and ask yourself what the buddha would have said about the importance of such things.

By: James Russell

James Russell — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:57:50 +0000

So what we’re left believing here is that the magic of shopping is stronger than the power of evil

Actually some people would interpret that idea as having a certain truth to it, if you read “the magic of shopping” as meaning Western capitalism and free trade and “the power of evil” as meaning Islamofascist repression and terrorism.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:58:37 +0000

like the shriek of a bird who’s beak has been stomped on, the spiritual instinct will express itself through whatever means it has.

By: alistair

alistair — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:54:07 +0000

oh, yes, and about spiritual states. when we have one feeling inside there is no room for any other. when we are undecided we are only in one state, not a few. indecision is actually fear. when we take control of our feelings and learn to pick emotions like an artist picks colour then we can choose to be happy for no reason. it`s like protection. it just makes such good sense these days. smile, and whether the whole world does actually smile along with you or not…..it doesn`t matter, because you`re smiling. then you can make better decisions for yourself. like making time for meditation or doing some tai chi or ride a bike or kick the speed bag or read a poem or write one. because then you`re practicing happy. and while you`re doing that all the shit stuff has to sit on the sideline.and you`re smiling, which goes inside and lets your body make powerful shapes of effective living which sets up healing and grounding and choices improve and intuition and coincedance express themselves through you and you can choose to let fear go by and wait for a better emotional bus to stop and give you a ride.

By: alistair

alistair — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:42:28 +0000

control is all we can ever hope for. endorphins are incredibly powerful things. we are glandular beasts, if we don`t corral ourselves then we`ll end up in the continental suites at the sahara in vegas for as long as the money lasts.
i can certainly tell which ads will work and i`m surprised at how many ineffective ones are made for really large clients.
imagine that you could tell with absolute certainty what a person likes and how they go about liking it . you could then take the time to put your product into the shape and form that would match that person`s desires. people will tell you that stuff in precise detail. all you have to do is ask. they will tell you the colour, the model and the year. they will tell you how they see it and where in thier mind they see it, if you are paying attention. when you calibrate that you can then drop your product right in where thier favorite thing is in thier mind and they then decide to see your thing as desirable. i`ve seen little kids do precisely that to thier parents in a store. “daddy,daddy, look…..” and bang, daddy`s got his visa card out.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:23:09 +0000

Wild. I imagine that what you’re doing is also probably a trimmed down and more free-form version of the type of high-level research and thinking that goes into marketing and sales to begin with.

I’d imagine that what you’re saying about getting people to act out pleasure-states is a major part of what companies try to trigger in consumers. If they can link their products to these pre-existing states, then they automatically link into a huge emotional and physical reserve which is what gives ads and products such power to begin with.

Taking control back into your own hands of your inner states seems to me like it should be a central part of any serious spiritual pursuit.

By: alistair

alistair — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 06:12:45 +0000

what, mini-wheats? but seriously, one approach would be to look at the way a person approaches the act of shopping from a physiological standpoint. we store emotions in our bodies, and by making shapes with our limbs, facial expressions, muscle tension, etc. we can recreate the feelings associated with those body shapes. a way to see how this works is by pretending to be apprehensive in the way an actor would portray apprehension, by cringing, crouching and moving backwards etc. to the point where the feelings come into the body and you actually experience apprehension. then an opposite emotion can be chosen. acting out victory by jumping up and down, pumping the air, yelling and screaming etc. eventually you feel like you won something. two dramatic examples of how to create artificial emotional states that are non specific and safe for most people to try as a first practice.
as the session continues more personal examples can be emulated. minor phobic response, the love for a pet, etc. this allows me to calibrate the persons unique style of storing emotions in the body. then we go directly to the behaviour we want to alter. in this case it`s shopping. i will get the person, who has now learned to go into different modes reasonably smoothly and quickly, to do thier shopping dance and fire off the feelings. i see how the body moves, the facial expressions and breathing patterns that get the client into SHOPPING mode. then i get them to show me a restrictive pattern that they do, such as driving past a police car or explaining thier spending habits to thier accountant, something that would really put them into a limiting posture and mindset. i get them to do that often enough that they can fire off the feelings at will and then i overlay the restrictive pattern onto the idea of going shopping. generally the first time there is resistance because the system knows this is the death of a pleasurable experience but with a reasoned approach the client will comply. once the restrictive pattern starts to take hold of the journey into the mall i can anchor the sensation to whatever signal the client chooses. the word creditcard is effective or merely stepping toward the mall doors with the restrictive patterns operating enough times will make the pleasurable feelings go away. it can be a sad moment but effective and as long as the client is able to continue to access the anchors(and i set up some covert ones, just in case.) they will keep mastery over the feelings. having said that, the intellect can always decide to go to the mall and overspend. that`s free will.
the pysiological response therapy is also fantastic for helping guys(and girls) to talk to people they find attractive. i`ve had some really rewarding sessions with clients that have ended up in starbucks, field testing the new brain chemistry. fucking beautiful.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:31:13 +0000

Man, I love frosted mini-wheats! Now there’s spirituality in a bowl. Alistair, didn’t you say a while back that you did counseling for people with shopping addictions? How does somebody go about re-patterning themselves to be free of that sort of thing?

By: alistair

alistair — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 05:15:19 +0000

it depends how you consume religion and spirituality in the first place. if you are going to church or meditating or doing yoga as a means to accessing an endorphin high then the experience can be directly compared to the physiological, neuro-transmitter response of the puchase experience. i heard it said recently that to experience the american dream you must first go to sleep. from this somnambulistic standpoint it`s all a buzz man. the point of yoga is to get the right outfit and mat. he point of being spiritual is reading the right books, going to the right lectures and doing what richard gere does now that he`s a bhuddist. if you eat the right organic cereal you can be assured, according to the ad, that 10% of the purchase price goes toward peace. (it actually said that in the ad in the magazine. no qualifying statement. just that sentence.) i`ll take the miniwheats thanks.