From poet Matsuo Bashō's journeys across Japan to the Hebrew Bible festivals, pilgrimage remains one of the most enduring forms of spiritual practice. Today, millions of pilgrims travel to a sacred place as part of the Hajj, Kumbh Mela, or on the Camino de Santiago. According to historian Carole M. Cusack, not all destinations need be religious—think of the trips people take to celebrity graves, war memorials, even Disneyland.1 What makes them pilgrimages, however, is that they are intentional, structured journeys; a transformative rite of passage.
Ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep describes rites of passage as unfolding in three phases: separation, transition, and incorporation.2 In the separation phase, we withdraw from our current situation. During transition, our identity, status, and attachments become undefined and unmoored. In the concluding incorporation phase, we re-enter society with a new social status and renewed social ties.
Anthropologists Victor and Edith Turner emphasize pilgrimage's collective dimensions.3 Focusing on van Gennep's transition phase, they argue that, while "betwixt and between," pilgrims experience a humbling ambiguity that levels distinctions and aligns them.4 Ideally, prince and pauper are walking along the same pilgrim path—even if in practice differences often remain!
As you contemplate integrating elements of pilgrimage in your spiritual innovation work, think about how to design for each of the three phases: separation, transition, and incorporation—and consider the insights of those who've walked and studied these paths before you.
Tip 1: At Separation, Make Space for Multiple Motivations
What constitutes the call to separate? And how might pilgrims' motivations shape our plans?
To answer these questions, let's turn to studies of El Camino de Santiago ("The Way of Saint James"), a network of pilgrimage routes leading to Saint James' interred remains at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. While historically associated with Catholic penitence, the Camino now draws more than 500,000 pilgrims a year—and many of them are not Catholic.
Interested in why people walk the Camino, marketing and mathematics researchers Suzanne Amaro, Angela Antunes, and Carla Henriques analyzed 1,140 post-pilgrimage surveys from respondents in 45 countries.5 Although the Camino is rooted in Christian tradition, most reported spiritual—rather than explicitly religious—motivations. Many also sought new experiences, time in nature, and cultural exploration. Motivations varied by nationality, with spiritual and experiential drivers especially common among women, younger adults, and those who were single or divorced.
Sociologist Christian Kurrat found that people walk the Camino at significant life moments.6 Using narrative interview data, he identified five types of pilgrims: the balance pilgrim (seeking silence and reflection later in life); the crisis pilgrim (making sense of a disruptive event); the time-out pilgrim (looking for a reset during burnout); the transitional pilgrim (marking a life change); and the new-start pilgrim (striving for a fresh start). According to Kurrat, these motivations and moments shape how pilgrims engage socially and physically on the trail—and how they later integrate their experience.
Drawing on surveys and travelogues, sociologists Snežana Brumec, Miran Lavrič, and Anrej Naterer reveal that the decision to walk the Camino is typically emotional before it's rational.7 In other words, motivations often function as justifications rationalized after an initial, felt urge. They also show that pilgrims' motivations are multidimensional—spiritual, religious, and secular all at once—and consistently animated by a searching: for meaning and direction, for a deeper faith or relationship with God, and/or for adventure and new encounters.
As you plan a pilgrimage, consider the life stages and circumstances of those involved. Foreground spiritual and experiential dimensions—but remain flexible. Allow space for varied and evolving reasons for the same call to separate.
Tip 2: For Transformation, Design for Awe and Contextualize Experience
If pilgrims are motivated by spiritual and experiential searching, what helps make a pilgrimage transformative?
To address this question, let's review research on the Kumano Kodo, a web of pilgrimage paths connecting sites of Shinto, Buddhist, cultural, and ecological significance across Japan's mountainous Kii peninsula. Like the Camino, the Kumano Kodo is a UNESCO World Heritage Sacred Site and Pilgrimage Route. Pilgrims who complete both routes are recognized as "dual pilgrims."
Eiji Ito, a Professor of Health and Sport Sciences, and colleagues examined experiences of awe—an emotion that psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt relate to perceptions of "vastness" that require "accommodation"8—along the Kumano Kodo route.9 Pilgrims reported feeling moved by the scale of the natural landscape and the "spiritual ambiance" of sacred sites and "power spots." These encounters often diminished their sense of self and deepened feelings of connection to others. Notably, Ito and colleagues suggest that awe can be structured: in their experimental research, the presence of a kataribe—a local tour guide trained in cultural history and environmental stewardship—significantly deepened pilgrims' experiences by fostering interpretation and meaning.
Other scholars highlight the embodied and relational dimensions of this phase. Digital designers Wen Huei Chou, Pei-Ching Tsai, and Yi-Ying Wu describe how walking pilgrimage routes can cultivate a peaceful "flow state" marked by reflection, clarity, and surrender.10 As pilgrims walk together, their steps can synchronize, producing feelings of social connectedness alongside introspection.11 Professor of Tourism Kumi Kato shows how walking brings a "slowness" to pilgrims' experiences on the Kumano Kodo, allowing for conversation and attentiveness to their local surroundings.12
So, as you design for transformation, create pilgrimage conditions that invite awe. Build in structure and slowness, invite guides to frame parts of the experience, and engage community and context.
Tip 3: Upon Incorporation, Expect Modest Changes Rather Than Miracles
What are common impacts of pilgrimage, and how might we support pilgrims' re-integration?
To shed light on these questions, let's survey analyses of the Hajj, a yearly pilgrimage that, as one of the five pillars of Islam, draws two to three million pilgrims annually to the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Considered a once-in-a-lifetime sacred duty for every capable Muslim, the Hajj is performed over five to six days during the last month of the Islamic calendar.
Professor of Medicine Abdulaziz H. Alzeer and health psychologist Jude Abuzinadah review the research on the psychosocial impacts of Hajj.13 Highlighting the preparatory, ritualistic, communal, and international aspects of the journey, they describe its influence on pilgrims: a sense of achievement and satisfaction; a desire for cooperative inter-group relationships; a deeper sense of unity with other Muslims; and feelings of spiritual resilience and renewal. They also report increases in charitable giving and community involvement upon return.
Economists David Clingingsmith, Asim Ijaz Khwaja, and Michael Kremer highlight the impacts of social interaction during Hajj.14 They show that bringing pilgrims together in a global mass event reduces intra-faith conflict, while also increasing tolerance beyond the Islamic world. Comparing successful and unsuccessful Pakistani applicants to the 2006 Hajj lottery, they found that pilgrims were more likely than non-pilgrims to adhere to principles of equality, inter-religious harmony, and peace. Importantly, their research suggests that these changes stem not from the prestige that can follow a successful Hajj, but from the pilgrimage experience itself.
Anthropologist Kholoud Al-Ajarma examines that prestige more closely, describing how Hajj pilgrims often receive honorific titles that signal expectations of moral and spiritual change.15 Through interviews and fieldwork with Moroccan pilgrims, she found that many return home spiritually renewed and committed to upright character. Yet, sustaining this transformation can prove difficult: family, work, and community obligations can crowd out religious commitments, with older pilgrims—who typically have fewer daily responsibilities—struggling less. Al-Ajarma nonetheless finds promise in this tension, suggesting it underscores pilgrims' humanity and the ongoing nature of self-transformation.
As you work toward incorporation, consider what aspects of the pilgrimage rite—perhaps its rituals, rhythms, and/or relationships—can continue at home. But remember that pilgrimage isn't a spiritual silver bullet that transforms everything! Give people grace as they integrate their experience back into everyday life.
Pilgramige In Practice
In Montgomery, AL, The Equal Justice Initiative had opened a small museum on the first floor of its offices. But when floods of visitors arrived far beyond its small capacity, the team realized they’d need to build something bigger. Now, the Legacy Museum—and its sister sites including the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honors the thousands of Black Americans killed by lynching—have become places of modern-day pilgrimage. The memorial even describes itself as a sacred space, giving a physical destination for people to honor their ancestors or to acknowledge the horrific history that the United States so often tries to avoid. To incorporate action, the museum invites visitors to explore how the history of racial oppression is told in their own neighborhood—and has facilitated hundreds of plaques across the country to honor those killed in racial violence.
Tip 4: Consider Alternate Routes
Explaining pilgrimage's global growth, psychologist Heather A. Warfield shows that it meets significant spiritual needs—for meaning, connection, consciousness-raising, adventure and return, and ritual.16 Yet, environmental scientist Kiran Shinde describes how expanding pilgrimage tourism can strain basic services, increase pollution, and threaten natural resources.17 Anthropologists John Eade and Michael J. Sallnow highlight differences between pilgrims' and locals' interpretations of pilgrimage, raising concerns about power.18
How, then, might pilgrimage—often shaped by the privileges of health, means, and time—be made more accessible while reducing environmental impacts and colonialist dynamics? To explore this question, let's consider pilgrimaging in place.
English scholar Kyla Helena Drzazgowski examines the medieval practice of "imagined pilgrimage," in which meditative texts enabled readers to experience pilgrimage spiritually without leaving home.19 Psychologist Don Kuiken likewise shows that deep reading can change self-perception, identity, emotions, and cognition—effects that resemble those reported by pilgrims.20
Drzazgowski connects this tradition to contemporary "virtual pilgrimages," including mileage-based challenges, video games, and virtual-reality experiences. One example she cites is St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Virtual Advent Pilgrimage, which invited participants to walk Jesus's 97-mile journey around Jerusalem from home while gathering online for shared meals and services. Another is Muslim3D, a video game that introduces players to aspects of Islam, including the Hajj. Work by religious-studies researcher Connie Hill-Smith explores the motivations, experiences, and controversies surrounding these digital or "cyber-pilgrimages."21
In Imaging pilgrimage: Art as embodied experience, Professor of Art History and Religion Kathryn Barush describes another approach, showing how pilgrimage artifacts and post-pilgrimage art can memorialize journeys and enable pilgrimage-like encounters for those who remain in place. Through the Berkeley Art and Interreligious Pilgrimage Project, she and collaborators expand access to pilgrimage through artistic engagement with diverse sites and traditions.
Finally, research on the labyrinth—a circuitous path walked or traced by hand and found across spiritual traditions and eras—suggests its power as both an ancient artistic pattern and a form of pilgrimage technology. Clinical psychologist Jocelyn Shealy McGee and colleagues surveyed nearly 500 labyrinth walkers from 19 countries during World Labyrinth Day 2021.22 Despite physical distance and varied contexts, participants reported similar experiences of connection, transcendence, and compassion that inspired action.
Pilgrimage comes in many forms, incorporating intentional small-scale journeys and epic ones, as well as art-making, labyrinth walking, and even reading and reflection. If you're creating a pilgrimage experience, focus on helping your pilgrims set their intention, experience awe on the journey, and incorporate changes on their return. And allow yourself to be changed by the pilgrimage, too!
Additional Resources
Anappara, D. (2026). Short of breath, but finding peace, at 18,000 feet. The New York Times. February 20. A writer's loss-driven account of the kora, the 32-mile trek around Mount Kailash—a sacred site for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and members of the Bon religion—in Tibet.
Association for Jewish Studies. Jewish pilgrimages. Adventures in Jewish Studies Podcast. A conversation about Jewish pilgrimages to and through Jerusalem, Algeria, and Ukraine.
Bloechl, J., & Brouillette, A. (Eds.). (2022). Pilgrimage as spiritual practice: A handbook for teachers, wayfarers, and guides. Fortress Press. A resource for leaders and participants.
Digance, J. (2006). Religious and secular pilgrimage: Journeys redolent with meaning. In D. H. Olsen & D. H. Timothy (Eds.), Tourism, religion and spiritual journeys (pp. 36-48). Routledge. A chapter exploring religious and secular motivations for pilgrimage, and pilgrimage archetypes.
Ekelund, T. (2020). In praise of paths: Walking through time and nature. Greystone books. A reflection on walking as spiritual practice; integrates literary and historical insights.
Gray, M. World pilgrimage guide. A photo-based exploration of more than 2,000 pilgrimage sites across 160 countries; features videos and other resources.
Gubner, J. The awe collective. University of Arizona. A website for awe walkers; includes space to upload photos of awe-inspiring things found along walking routes.
Legacy Labyrinth Project. An effort to create and connect labyrinths around the world; focuses on contemplative labyrinth walkers as activists.
Malleret, C., & Cidades, S. (2026). 'It creates a sense of belonging:' Brazil bets on hiking trails for conservation. The Guardian. March 5. An article exploring Brazil's efforts to use hiking paths (and slow tourism) as "vectors" for environmental investment and defense.
Norman, A., & Cusack, C. (Eds.). (2014). Religion, pilgrimage, and tourism. Routledge. A four-volume exploration of pilgrimage methods, models, history, sites, behaviors, and identities.
Routledge studies in pilgrimage, religious travel and tourism book series. A book series collating global perspectives on pilgrimage and history, landscapes, gender/sexuality, politics, and more.
Taseer, A. (2023). A pilgrimage year. The New York Times Style Magazine. November 12. A multi-part article on pilgrimage across three faiths—Catholicism, Buddhism, and Islam; contains photos and videos. (See Behind the story for more on the author's pilgrimage preparation.)
Technological University Dublin. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. A peer-reviewed open-access journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of pilgrimage.
Warfield, H. A. The weekly popper: Psychology of pilgrimage. A Substack by a psychologist of pilgrimage; highlights international pilgrimage news and includes links to interviews with scholars. (See also Warfield's YouTube channel and Spotify.)
William and Mary University. Institute for pilgrimage studies. An online resource for leaders and academics; contains teaching and research insights, as well as symposium information.
Footnotes
1 Cusack, C. M. (2022). Pilgrimage. In G. D. Chryssides & A. R. Whitehead (Eds.), Contested concepts in the study of religion: A critical exploration (pp. 93-98). Bloomsbury Academic.
2 van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage. (M. A. Vizedom & G. L. Caffee, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.
3 Turner, V., & Turner, E. (1978). Image and pilgrimage in Christian culture: Anthropological perspectives. Columbia University Press.
4 Turner, V. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Aldine Publishing.
5 Amaro, S., Antunes, A., & Henriques, C. (2018). A closer look at Santiago de Compostela's pilgrims through the lens of motivations. Tourism Management, 64, 271-280.
6 Kurrat, C. (2019). Biographical motivations of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, 7(2), 11-18.
7 Brumec, S., Lavrič, M., & Naterer, A. (2023). Examining motivations to walk the Camino de Santiago: A typology of pilgrims. Pastoral Psychology, 72, 479-500.
8 Keltner, D. J., & Haidt, J. (2003). Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(2), 297-314.
9 Ito, E., Kono, S., Tanisho, K., & Kawanishi, T. (2025). Awe experiences on Kumano Kodo with a kataribe. Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, 52, article 100966.
10 Chou, W. H., Tsai, P-C., & Wu, Y-Y. (2026). Spiritual transformation through pilgrimage: A grounded theory analysis of experiences in Taiwan, Japan, and Spain. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 18(1), 103-118.
11 O'Mara, S. (2020). In praise of walking: A new scientific exploration. W. W. Norton & Company.
12 Kato, K. (2017). Walking to care: Pilgrimage as a slow tourism development – Kumano-Kodo pilgrimage, Wakayama, Japan. In C. M. Hall, Y. Ram, & N. Shov (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of walking (pp. 232-241). Routledge.
13 Alzeer, A. H., & Abuzinadah, J. (2024). Beyond borders: Exploring the mental, emotional, and spiritual significance of Hajj. Annals of Thoracic Medicine, 19, 179-89.
14 Clingingsmith, D., Khwaja, A. I., & Kremer, M. (2009, August). Estimating the impact of the Hajj: Religion and tolerance in Islam's global gathering. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1133-1170.
15 Al-Ajarma, K. (2021). After Hajj: Muslim pilgrims refashioning themselves. Religions, 12, 36.
16 Warfield, H. A. (2018). From existential to ideological communitas: Can pilgrimage connect and transform the world? In H. A. Warfield & K. Hetherington (Eds.), Pilgrimage as transformative process: The movement from fractured to integrated (pp. 33-42). Brill-Rodopi.
17 Shinde, K. (2007). Pilgrimage and the environment: Challenges in a pilgrimage centre. Current Issues in Tourism, 10(4), 343-365.
18 Eade, J., & Sallnow, M. J. (Eds.). (2000). Contesting the sacred: The anthropology of Christian pilgrimage. University of Illinois Press.
19 Drzazgowski, K. H. (2024). Imagined pilgrimage in late medieval England [Doctoral dissertation, The University of British Columbia]. UBC Theses and Dissertations.
20 Kuiken, D. Reading research. Don Kuiken, PhD.
21 Hill-Smith, C. (2011). The (virtual) reality of online pilgrimage experience. Religion Compass, 6(6), 236-246.
22 McGee, J. S., Katzenmeyer, C., Boddie, S. C., Meraz, R., & Wood, S. (2023). A sense of connectedness, transcendent experiences, and insights for compassionate action emerge through an international collective labyrinth walk with a shared intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1232784.
