Ruben Mowszowski
The rift between science and religion and how it might be healed has been one of the hot topics at the Parliament of World Religions. But there is a sense of a discussion taking place too late. A marriage of a kind – one between spirituality and technology – has already taken place and it’s not only Buddhist monks carrying cellphones. Where it’s taking place is on the Internet.
Isaac Tigrett, founder of the Hard Rock Caf, is in Cape Town to announce the launch of his newest enterprise, a website called Spirit Channel. It will be up and running in January 2001 but in the meantime delegates can link into the Word Foundation, an intranet for dialogue between all the different faiths, which will be both contained within his website and one of the guiding institutions for it.
The Internet, he says, is forming itself into niches where like-minded people can meet. Spirit Channel, he says, will be a place where the vast and growing mind- body-spirit cyber culture can be take place. The alternative medicine business in the United States is now worth $30- billion a year and is largely unregulated. With the support of its advisory institution, Duke University, the website will provide reliable information on alternative medicines, practitioners and practices. The idea is to allow people to make their own choices.
With cameras mounted in various locations, one will be able to “go” to places of pilgrimage, Mecca or Jerusalem, for instance, to pray. Or consult one’s spiritual teacher on the other side of the world, or join a million other people in global meditation. And in case you’re looking at the picture on your computer screen and wondering how effective this will be, hyperspace is about to become “three-dimensional”. (If you want to know what this means, ask your kids who’ve been glued to their video game since last Christmas.) It’s called broadband and what it means is that there will be a vast increase in the amount of information that can come at you on your screen.
To take place, it needs to be commercially viable. A business paradigm shift in the US took place in Christmas 1998, when 20% of all goods were sold on the Internet. E-commerce says Tigrett, has been defined. E-culture is just beginning to be defined. And this is where he comes in.
Some people just naturally give good parties. The difference with Tigrett is that, using money as the engine, he creates the cultural space in which the party he likes can take place and, being a generous man, he makes a few of them. First it was rock’n’roll (Hard Rock Caf), then alternative music (House of the Blues). Now it’s spirituality and this time, because it’s cyber, the cultural space can accommodate everyone.
For Tigrett there is no dichotomy between commerce and religion. Churches have always raised 25% of their income by selling things, he says. “Let’s not get too pious about these innocent theologians – they need money.” Two million dollars of seed capital has been provided by a group of 19 investors and he is now seeking another $30-million. This will leave him, after he has distributed shares to employees, with about 15% of the equity.
Why has he not funded it himself? Most of the money Tigrett has earned he has given away to various institutions and causes. (Half of the $60-million he earned from the sale of his five Hard Rock Cafs went towards the building of a hospital in India.)
At the age of 24, the tall Southern Baptist from Tennessee came in touch with an “obscure Indian guru” called Sai Baba, who currently has an international following of about six million followers. “Basically he teaches multiculturism,” Tigrett says. Tigrett translated the teachings into business practice. He put “Love all, serve all” on more than a billion T-shirts, buttons, caps, badges and cheques, involved his businesses in social issues and took a benign interest in the well-being of the more than 10 000 young people who worked for him at different times. “People think I’ll lie and cheat and steal to get my cash and then I’ll be a nice guy.” Spirituality, he says, is every waking moment. It dictates a certain moral lifestyle.
“I get no particular charge out of accumulating wealth,” he says. He quotes Danny de Vito in a line from the film Other People’s Money. Someone asks De Vito “What are you doing this for?” and De Vito replies, “Don’t you understand? Whoever has the most money when they die wins.” Tigrett laughs as if it’s the biggest joke in the world.
If someone has to host the wedding party then I’m glad it’s him.