Bos, Elske
(2025)
Reiki on Tiktok: Experiences and Interpretations of the Spiritual Dimension of Digital Healing Content.
Bachelor thesis, Bachelor Religiewetenschappen.
Abstract
This thesis analyses how TikTok users understand the spiritual dimension of
their engagement with digital Reiki healing. Through combining Lived Religion
Theory, Contemporary Religion Theory, Digital Religion Studies, and the concepts
of embodiment, narrative, and emotion, it investigates the intersection of
“spirituality”, “healing”, and “belief” on Tiktok. Using digital ethnography in the
form of participant observation, four semi-structured interviews, and discourse
analysis, this thesis investigates how the digital realm of TikTok enables embodied
engagement with Reiki content and creates grounds for varying individually
interpreted spiritual dimensions. It argues that TikTok-Reiki constitutes a “digital
sacred space”, where spirituality is not inherently based on belief but is achieved
through embodied practices and narrative meaning-making. Perceived efficacy of
Tiktok-Reiki is conditioned by individual openness, sensory experience, and different
forms of belief, demonstrating the nuanced relationships between healing,
spirituality, and belief. By centering the complexity of individual experience, this
research shows that belief and embodiment combined can influence how a spiritual
dimension is recognized, and suggests a way to bridge binary understandings of
science and religion in a contemporary digital context.
| Type: |
Thesis
(Bachelor)
|
| Supervisors (RUG): |
| Supervisor | E-mail | Tutor organization | Tutor email |
|---|
| Kakati, A.K. | | Faculteit GGW, Vergelijkende Religiewetenschap | a.k.kakati@rug.nl | | Knibbe, K.E. | | Faculteit GGW, Vergelijkende Religiewetenschap | K.E.Knibbe@rug.nl |
|
| Degree programme: |
Bachelor Religiewetenschappen |
| Academic year: |
2024-2025 |
| Date of delivery: |
03 Feb 2026 10:48 |
| Last modified: |
03 Feb 2026 10:48 |
| URI: |
https://rcs.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/856 |
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