{"id":580,"date":"2009-07-02T16:29:06","date_gmt":"2009-07-02T16:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/07\/is-amma-the-new-michael-jackson.html"},"modified":"2009-07-02T16:29:06","modified_gmt":"2009-07-02T16:29:06","slug":"is-amma-the-new-michael-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/07\/is-amma-the-new-michael-jackson.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Amma the New Michael Jackson?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our former Chattering Mind blogger and BFF of Beliefnet Amy Cunningham sent me this incredible video of Amma<\/a>, or Mata Amritanandamayi, or Ammachi, or the Hugging Saint, embracing all kinds of people all around the world. And Amy wrote: “<\/font>Everybody keeps saying that no one will surpass Michael Jackson’s celebrity, but if Amma keeps hugging, she’ll happily assume the mantle, don’t you think?”<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

I would love that to be true–the world would certainly feel a little better. In terms of sheer global celebrity, Amma<\/a> could be squeezing (har) her way into that level of belovedness. She’s hugged more than 27 million people so far and according to one devotee, “has initiated a vast network of charitable activities such as hospitals, educational institutions, disaster relief programs, free homes for the poor, orphanages, and much more.”<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

Amma’s <\/a>on on her latest global tour and I’m planning to see her for the third time for darshan (hugging) next week. (You can check out my tales of hugging Amma here<\/a>  and and here<\/a> a gallery of her beautiful quotes here<\/a>.) So much so that I’ll wait the six-plus hours it will take to get my five-second smoosh. She definitely has that star-power magic, but with a decidedly different form and spiritual filter set to “pure love.” Check out this happy-tear-inducing video of Amma doing what Amma does.  <\/font> <\/font><\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our former Chattering Mind blogger and BFF of Beliefnet Amy Cunningham sent me this incredible video of Amma, or Mata Amritanandamayi, or Ammachi, or the Hugging Saint, embracing all kinds of people all around the world. 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She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}