The show is a kind of spiritual “Parts Unknown,” in which religions are ingested like sea-urchin roe—but without Anthony Bourdain's lovable loutishness. In six episodes, Aslan spends time with human-flesh-eating sadhus in Varanasi, an ark-building Hawaiian apocalyptic cult, goat-sacrificing Haitian vodouistes, excommunicated Scientologists, devotees of Santa Muerte in Mexico City, and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. The first episode examines the Aghori sect of Hinduism, some of whose adherents deploy spectacular practices, like eating human remains and lying on corpses, in order to combat traditional Hindu notions of purity and pollution. In one scene, Aslan is chased by an Aghori nomad who, after feeding him a piece of human brain, tries to urinate on him. The episode's dénouement, in which Aslan tours a modern Aghori orphanage, elementary school, and leper clinic, and finds, as he puts it, “the Hinduism I was looking for,” did little to assuage Hindu activists protesting outside CNN offices, who felt that the show was sensationalist and short on substance.
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