The term "pilgrimage" is defined as a "journey to a shrine or sacred place". This definition falls woefully short of the modern idea of a pilgrimage. Today, a pilgrimage is a spiritual journey, in the widest sense of the term.
The fact that the meaning of a pilgrimage has changed so dramatically indicates a progressing idea about (spiritual health and its ties to religion. Greater understanding of the importance of psychological well-being is developing in most developed countries, thus leading people to engage in what may be termed a "new age" pilgrimage. However, such a progression of the term "pilgrimage" extends further for the same reasons.
A recent development in thought is identifiable in the general modern populace; this development is the accepted abstraction of the term "journey". It is considered acceptable to speak of any trial or ordeal as if one had traveled. If this is so, it becomes possible to extrude the definition of the pilgrimage further.
Taking the term "journey" in the modern sense, and inserting it into the idea of a modern pilgrimage, one results in discovering that a pilgrimage can be any period of difficult times resulting in increased spiritual health. For example, a person, having survived an ordeal with cancer, resolves upon a more positive outlook on life. This person, according to modern ideas, is a pilgrim.
The fact that such people are deemed to be pilgrims reflects the nature of pilgrimage.
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