"Mostly, the Vedization process will continue to expand because we are increasingly becoming a nation of pragmatic mystics. More and More Americans draw from spiritual teachings that make sense to them, regardless of their source, and they utilize whatever methods work. As long as the Hindu-Buddhist-Tantric-Vedantic-Yogic menu continues to serve up transformation and transcendence, people will fill their plates. Similarly, the Vedantic worldview will continue to be adopted as long as those principles hold up to reason and help people make sense of the cosmos we inhabit.

"Everything points to a further expansion of spiritual choice, which should make fans of free-market consumerism proud indeed. In the American spirit of autonomy and religious freedom, and the Vedantic spirit of personalized sadhana, religion is becoming both increasingly nonsectarian and increasingly individuated. Already 24 percent of American adults worship outside their own faith, according to a 2009 study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life. This does not portend a do-your-old-thing spiritual anarchy, as traditionalists fear. Nor will organized religion disappear. It simply means that individuals are taking responsibility for their own relationship with the divine. The trend parallels the evolution of health care away from the physician-as-God model to one that sees patients as educated consumers who make autonomous decisions in consultation with experts. There will surely be backlash from the forces of exclusivism and triumphalism, but they are on the wrong side of history."