Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein is a digital editor and writer from Chicago, Illinois (USA). Her writing on arts, culture, religion, spirituality, education and global politics appears in Al Jazeera English, CNN-Explore Parts Unknown, Atlas Obscura, National Public Radio, BRIGHT, Selamta, Saveur, Hemispheres, and PassBlue, among others. Amanda served as the regional editor for sub-Saharan Africa with Global Voices and was based in Zanzibar for 10 years before moving back to the Midwest.
A small, Catholic, Midwestern farming town embraces an Indian ‘hugging saint’
Devotees believe that a single hug from Amma — known as a “universal mother” plugged into a divine, infinite energy source — can heal the world.
