We use local storage
We store your watch history in your browser so you can pick up where you left off. No tracking, no third-party cookies.
Pete Owen Jones presents the definitive guide to faith on earth, with eighty rituals across six continents in the space of a year.
Now playingSeason 1, Episode 1
Watching1. Australasia and the Pacific Ring of Fire
Pete travels to Australasia to find out how tribal faiths have survived into the 21st century. He goes into the Australian outback in search of the meaning of aboriginal dreaming, to Indonesia for the elaborate funeral of a woman who died 20 years ago; to Sydney to witness the survival of ancient persecuted faiths like the Iraqi Mandeans and witchcraft, and to the remote volcanic islands of Vanuatu in the Pacific ring of fire to unravel the mystery of the cargo cult.
2. The Far East
Pete encounters the exotic and inscrutable religions of the Far East, from anarchic Buddhist Naked Man and Shinto Fire festivals in Japan to enlightening Taoist monks in the mountains of China. He visits an obscure Shamanic sect in South Korea, and finds out how war helped to create the biggest church in the world. In Buddhist Thailand he explores the meaning of non-attachment, and in Vietnam he comes under the spell of a divine eye, before giving money away to a mother goddess.
3. Africa
Pete continues his year-long religious odyssey with a gruelling journey exploring the spiritual traditions of Africa. He sets off hoping to get a glimpse of man's first experience of the divine. His journey begins with the ancient practice of voodoo in Benin, where he is confronted with rites that contradict his own deeply held religious convictions. He is forced to decide whether he should even take part. Later, he travels to Botswana to meet the San Bushmen, inheritors of the earliest religious faith on earth. In South Africa, he discovers surprising new developments in religious belief when he meets the members of the 12th Apostolic Church and is stunned to find Afrikaners who believe the world is about to come to an end. In Ethiopia, he finds a group of one of the world's youngest religions - Rastafarians who have set up a Utopian community in this harsh and unforgiving land. His journey reaches its emotional conclusion in the highlands of northern Ethiopia.
4. The Middle East
Pete travels to Israel where he meets the African-Americans who have settled in the Holy Land to live by the principles of the Old Testament - including polygamy. He travels to Syria to explore Islam and meet the Sufi Whirling Dervishes, to Samaria to witness the 3000-year-old Passover sacrifice, and to northern Iraq to track down the ancient and obscure Yazidi sect, who have a curious reputation for devil worship. Pete also visits Jerusalem, revered as the ultimate city of spiritual power, where he takes part in two great rituals - the Christian Via Dolorosa and the Jewish Purim festival. His journey is full of uncomfortable revelations about the roots of religious intolerance, but ends with a redemptive message of peace.
5. North America
Pete discovers a dangerous side to the Bible Belt when he gets too close to the serpent handlers in the Appalachian mountains, before taking his seat at a table-tipping seance. He continues to challenge his own faith when he comes face to face with a miracle-working evangelist and a boy preacher, before witnessing gay rites in California. In Utah, he visits the holy city of Mormonism and ventures into the wilderness to seek out religious outlaws who take many wives. Pete goes native in a traditional Navajo sweat lodge and visits a sect where mummification is alive and well. His journey across the most religiously diverse country in the world reaches an explosive climax in Nevada when he joins 50 thousand revellers to witness the ceremonial burning of a man.
6. The Indian Subcontinent
Pete journeys from the Nepalese Himalayas to the south of India to make sense of the mystery of Indian religions, including the transmigration of the soul, karma, the pantheon of gods and the high regard for gurus. Pete visits a Tibetan Buddhist monastery high in the mountains. In Calcutta, he takes part in the colourful Durga Puja festival and meets the Agori who live amongst the dead. He then travels to the deserts of Rajastan, where he finds Hindu sects ready to walk on fire or even pay the ultimate price for their gurus. In Mumbai, Pete attends a Zoroastrian marriage and explores why one of the world's oldest religions is in danger of disappearing. He discovers how Sikhism had a violent birth when he attends the 300th anniversary of its greatest guru's death, and then journeys south to learn about the remarkable faith of Jainism, which renounces violence against every living creature. Finally Pete spends Diwali in a tiny village at a dung-slinging festival - with inevitable results
7. Latin America
Pete smokes cigars with Saint Death in Mexico, ventures deep into a Bolivian mine to meet a terrifying god of the underworld, and takes a mind-expanding natural hallucinogen with a New Age community in the forests of Brazil. He also discovers how the centuries-old dominance of the Catholic Church is being challenged by a huge explosion of new religions and the re-emergence of dormant practices from the past. But his search to understand the diverse spiritualities of the New World proves to be a testing experience. Pete encounters the radical methods of an influential Pentecostal preacher in one of Rio de Janeiro's most notorious prisons, and has to hold his nerve when the minister tries to exorcise Pete's addiction to nicotine. In Brasilia he witnesses the space-age pageantry of a UFO-worshipping community, where a mediumistic reading gets out of control and Pete has to deal with a dark and frightening presence from the spirit world.
8. Europe
In Europe, he finds a series of unexpected and surprising rituals and sects - huge underground New Age temples in Italy, shamans in Norway, and Europe's only Buddhist republic. Pete also discovers a darker side to faith in the tumultuous history of religion in Europe and finds that his own church was responsible for intolerance, persecution and death. This turns out to be a troubling and deeply personal journey for Pete.
8.0