Joseph Rivera: Image and Pilgrimage

An interesting topic discussed in Turner’s Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture was the topic of pilgrimage as a liminoid phenomenon. The idea is that a pilgrimage is a period where an individual escapes from every day normal activity of the mundane world and travels through a plane to reach the spiritual world. While at this state the individual is changed and is able to rejoin reality. I find this interesting because it is maybe something that everyone seeks to accomplish one way or another while they are on their pilgrimage, whether or not it is their main goal or a secondary thought. What I find to be a problem is that I do not believe this happens to everyone when they go on a pilgrimage. I believe this because people go out and have returned unchanged in any way, and I feel like the pilgrimage as a liminoid phenomenon should create some change in the individual that should improve them as a person in some sense.