The Film Kumare:
Paper details:
In the film Kumare, Vikram Gandhi sets out to teach people that they don’t need religious leaders to find spiritual truths.
In your opinion, to what extent is Vikram’s project a success and/or a failure, based on his initial objective? How does the experience of becoming Kumare change Vikram during the course of the film? What is the overall message of the film? In the end, does it matter if Kumare was real or fake? Does the film affect the way you view religion or religious leaders? How this film connects with the qualities of “mystical” experience, which described in “Religious Experience as Feelings Forming the Root of Religion” from “The Varieties of Religious Experience” by William James (See attached document REFFRR.pdf)?
The film Kumare is available on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2A7JR9s-Jk
The William James qualities of “mystical” are:
- Essential Requirements
- Ineffability
- Noetic quality
- Non-essential Requirements
- Transiency
- Passivity