This excellent three-part documentary tracks Church of England vicar Peter Owen-Jones (pictured) as he searches for the meaning of spirituality by exploring different (and, as the title suggests, extreme) religious practices.
The first episode provided a real impact as our intrepid presenter joined a group of Shaolin monks in their remote monastery in the Far East. I have to confess that I did not see all of this episode, but the sheer physical exertion of the monks sticks in the memory. For Peter, it was almost like joining a military boot camp; he did not seem terribly unfit, but he is a 49 year old man who admits to liking a beer and too many cigarettes. Nonetheless, his first morning saw him stretching his body to the point of being physically sick. It seems as though the Shaolin monks demonstrate their devotion to God through the practice of physical discipline, including a daring, almost death-defying display of physical movement by one of the monks on a sloping roof overlooking a cliff-face with a sheer drop of hundreds of feet.
The second programme saw Peter in India, where he visited the Sadhus at a religious gathering in which the holy men first congregate in groups to offer religious and spiritual advice to their followers, many dusting themselves with ash from the holy fire, before getting up to bath in the sacred waters of the Ganges. This latter activity involved the spectacle of a stampede of men, ranging in age from their thirties to their eighties, stampeding naked towards the river - not for the faint-hearted!
The second part of this programme was far more revealing, as Peter made a pilgrimage to the foothills of the mountains to live as a holy man for a week. After a long journey, the local villagers (simple, agricultural peasants) welcomed him by bringing gifts. To me, this showed an important cultural dimension of India that is sometimes hard for us in the West to get used to: people are often very fatalistic, and simply accept their place in the social and economic hierarchies. Peter said that he felt guilty that he had to accept the gifts and could offer little in return. He could not communicate with the villagers as they spoke no English, but the film crews translated some of them as saying that it was simply what they do when the Sadhu is in attendance (although it was a little surprising that he was a white man this time).
The final part of the series saw Peter travel to the desolate plains of northern Africa, to serve as a Christian priest in isolation. Again, this was very revealing in its expose of the contrasts of modern Western lifestyles, in comparison to the meagre existence of the priests of this denomination, who demonstrate their devotion by living in complete isolation, halfway up a dry and dusty mountainside, pausing only to pray. Prior to going up to his post, Peter revealed that he separated from his wife, and finds it difficult that he no longer gets to see his children every day. This became particularly poignant in the early stages of his isolation, where armed with a camcorder, Peter recorded his struggle to come to terms with not having anyone to talk to, and little stimulation other than the mantra-like prayers that he had to recite, plus the demons of his own thoughts. And yet, the final third of his stay saw him visibly less tense, and his movements, body language and verbal communication suggested that the contemplative time and prayers were helping him demonstrate his devotion to God, as well as coming to terms with some of the more difficult challenges posed by modern life.
There is not a great deal I can add, other than to apologise for any factual inaccuracies - it is now over a month since the series was shown, and I am writing from memory. Peter Owen-Jones is a likeable host, clearly dedicated to his task. While this was clearly a personal journey for a man who was seeking ideas about ways of life outside of his parish existence, he also brought the viewer on a journey that was both mentally and emotionally stimulating.
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