I Want to (Be)Leave! Trajectories for the Experience of Irreligious Conversion in Young Adults Residing in Santiago, Chile

Religion has traditionally provided individuals with a sense of identity and meaning. However, globalisation has disrupted its centrality, giving rise to alternative frameworks. Increasingly, people identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’, seeking alternative sources of belonging. This research sought to identify the journey of the phenomenon of irreligious conversion. Through semi-structured biographical interviews with young Chilean adults, two major typologies were identified based on the emotional life stories told by the participants: the flexible-tranquil narratives and the painful-conflictive narratives. The former are characterised as those transitions which did not involve major difficulties for the secular convert so that their transformative process was carried out peacefully and without much questioning by their significant others. Those with strong prior religiosity demonstrated the application of ‘reconciliation strategies’ to avoid potential conflict. The latter were shown to have a turbulent disaffiliation path, experiencing violent situations in their families and complexities with their own identity. This was especially true for those who came from highly religious groups, as the family style was predominantly permeated by their previous denomination. Ultimately, irreligious socialisation is identified as the culminating event that problematises religious thinking and open the way to alternative frameworks of meaning. The findings advance sociological understanding of disaffiliation in Latin American contexts, contributing to the literature on deconversion by offering a nuanced typology and urging future research of secular and neo-spiritual identities.