This AMC panel focuses on Spirits of the Space Age (Oxford 2024), Kelly E. Hayes's study of the Valley of the Dawn. The largest new religious movement in Brazil with a growing international presence, the Valley is known for rituals of spiritual healing performed by adepts dressed in colorful vestments. Drawing on fieldwork at the Valley's Mother Temple near Brasília, Spirits of the Space Age demonstrates how NRMs respond to socio-cultural transformations that have marked the late twentieth century. Where NRMs in Europe tend to emerge in contexts of state-sponsored secularism, Brazil's Valley of the Dawn combines Catholic, indigenous, and esoteric traditions to address adepts' practical concerns. Founded in the early 1960s amid Brazil's dramatic modernization—marked by rapid industrialization, massive rural-to-urban migration, economic fluctuations, and the construction of Brasília—the Valley offers a distinctive response to these transformations. The founder Aunt Neiva, who migrated to Brasília to work as a truck driver, created an elaborate ritual system and material culture addressing the dislocations and aspirations marking Brazil's efforts to become modern. Since Aunt Neiva's death in 1985, the Valley has grown into a global movement with over 800 temples worldwide. Hayes argues this success stems from the movement's capacity to offer an alternative vision of modernity—one where the promises of collective progress, justice, and prosperity are made tangible rather than remaining unreachable ideals. While mainstream institutions in Brazil often perpetuate inequality and social isolation, the Valley provides free spiritual education, collective healing work, and restorative justice practices that embody the ideals secular modernity has failed to create for many. This case study demonstrates how religious movements create institutional alternatives that engage with and reflect the failures of the secular nation state.

Religious Studies, Anthropology, Sociology