Paper short abstract:

Police officers, ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation, had seen the “face of Anini” in crowds, and opened fire. As Lawrence Anini, nicknamed “Robinhood,” re-appears a decade after his execution, how do religion and new media technologies co-produce esoteric spiritual forms?

Paper long abstract:

Nicknamed “Robin Hood” and “The Law,” Lawrence Nomayagbon Anini, notoriously stole from banks and wealthy Nigerians, receiving wide community support as he dashed the poor with money in public markets. During his crime spree across southwest Nigeria, Anini and his companions killed nine police officers, and Anini reportedly vowed to “slaughter fifty more” before being caught and executed in 1987. A decade later, in the predominately Muslim, Hausa-speaking city of Kano, Nigeria, several police officers, ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluations, described seeing the “face of Anini” in crowded public markets, and they opened fire with live ammunition. They feared Anini had returned from death to kill them. In this paper, I explore the co-productions of religion and media, as the persona of Anini re-appears a decade after his death. How do religions and new media technologies co-produce esoteric spiritual forms, with material affects? What critical engagements with Bori and Islamic healing and biomedical psychiatry resonated in the politics of health and state security?

Paper short abstract:

Based on the case of Chinese esoteric divinatory knowledge, this paper explores as how body-based esoteric techniques are now widely transmitted through videos on social media, thus redefining the social basis of both masters/teachers and disciples/students in contemporary societies.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines changing patterns in the transmission of traditional knowledge in contemporary Chinese societies, based on the case of esoteric knowledge and know-how in the field of Chinese divinatory arts. Specialists of divinatory arts rely on body-based techniques to perform computation and assimilate, manipulate, and transmit complex notions. In the long history of divinatory arts in China, such techniques constituted a secret know-how that was selectively transmitted from master to disciple. However, starting in the 1990s in Taiwan, some practitioners sought to establish a new paradigm of sharing divinatory knowledge. They launched a popularization process that questioned traditional modes of knowledge transmission and reformulated concepts and theories to make them fit modern societies’ expectations. This process went a step further more recently with the boom of social media. Based on a mixed methodology combining digital ethnography and anthropological fieldwork among practitioners of horoscopy in Taiwan and China, this paper examines tensions in the vulgarization process of esoteric knowledge. In particular, I explore how body-based esoteric techniques are now widely transmitted through videos on social media such as You Tube and Bilibili. I analyze to which extent social media technologies challenge or complement body-technologies, threaten or nourish the strategic disclosure or concealment that characterizes esoteric practices, and redefine the social basis of both masters/teachers and disciples/students in contemporary societies.

Paper short abstract:

In atheist and scientist societies like the former Soviet Union, practices that are usually regarded as esoteric were perceived as advanced technologies that were developed in special secret laboratories through the collaborative efforts of psychics, spiritual teachers, and visionary scientists.

Paper long abstract:

In modern societies dominated by atheism and scientism, esoteric knowledge often collaborates with cutting-edge science. Interest in paranormal phenomena - psychic healing, clairvoyance, telepathy and the same - was very high in the late Soviet Union, however, these abilities were not perceived as esoteric or spiritual. They were studied in the laboratories of the USSR Academy of Sciences and this research was to lead to the creation of special technology for the development of the superhuman, or in the language of Soviet parapsychologists, to the unlocking of the hidden potential of the human body. One of the methods of developing the hidden human potential - the anthropomaximalogy by Prof. Vladimir Kuznetsov - was in reality an esoteric practice of mastering superpowers. Other examples are the cold strengthening and spiritual healing method called Detka ("Baby") by mystical teacher Porfiry Ivanov, and the method of waterbirth and intensive post-natal water training of babies by Prof. Kuznetsov's university assistant Igor Charkovsky. Self-transformation practices shared a faith in the malleability of human nature or hidden human potential and the ability to master it through special technologies provided by new knowledge and intense training but also by spiritual means - connection and communication with higher spiritual entities, forces and esoteric spaces.

It is important to note that these "esoteric technologies" were developed in the Soviet Union under the influence and often in direct collaboration with American esotericists - representatives of New Age (modern Western esoterism) - from the Esalen Institute.

Paper short abstract:

Through this online ethnography on Iranian social media-based esoteric practices, I answer the questions such as: How does the internet affect esoteric practices? How do new-age practitioners communicate with their followers and how these practices connect with material and commercial culture?

Paper long abstract:

Online esoteric practices are getting increasingly popular around the world. Anyone with an internet connection can participate in a wide range of practices, each with its own set of goals, while protecting their anonymity. Online practices are beginning to differ from traditional ones as they become more advertised, transferable, and popular among young people and women.

What are the impacts of the internet on esoteric practices? How do new-age practitioners interact with their followers in this digital realm? How do both practitioners and followers interact with material and commercial culture via social media, and how this media has affected the actual modes and materials in which such esoteric exchanges and rituals take place.

These are some of the questions which will be answered through an online ethnography on the Iranian social media based esoteric practices.

Keywords: online esotericism, social media, cyber anthropology, modern esotericism, and material religion.

Paper short abstract:

We review key developments in the scientific study of mysticism as a technology for union with the Divine since the turn of the 20th century in multiple traditions and disciplines. Identifying five themes and three ambivalences in the literature, we propose a working definition of mysticism.

Paper long abstract:

Considerable scholarship has shown that mystical experiences and traditions have been a persistent, if over-shadowed, core of all religions. The nature of mystical experiences – by definition, not fully describable – and the esoteric structure of mystical traditions have made it challenging to study the topic or even define its object of analysis rigorously. Yet, scholars have, particularly since the late 19th century, approached mysticism from multiple perspectives as a technology for union with the divine. In this paper we review key developments in the scientific study of mysticism since the turn of the 20th century in history, philosophy, social sciences (sociology, anthropology, psychology), natural sciences, and critical theory. While recognizing the importance of different disciplinary approaches to mysticism in different religious traditions, and the challenges to assuming a common core across all traditions, we emphasize a critical realist perspective that appreciates family resemblances in the phenomenon and in the multiple approaches to the technology of mystical knowledge. We go on to identify five, cross-cutting, thematic areas that studies of mysticism may be categorized in, namely methods of studying mysticism, understanding the technologies of ecstasy, discursive relationship between mysticism and religion, interfaith aspects to mystical traditions, and cultural embeddedness of mystics. We also underline three ambivalences in this collected literature, viz., analysis of mysticism as an interdisciplinary common core, access by specialized practitioners of mystical technologies, and critique of the very category of mysticism. To move past relatively isolated and barriered approaches to the topic, we draw on recent studies of religion in critical realism to propose a definition of mysticism that can enable future research in the five thematic areas while respecting the three ambivalences.

Paper short abstract:

Ever since kuṇḍalinī's introduction to the modern world, esoteric circles have elaborated innovative practices and theories. Scientistic approaches linked kuṇḍalinī to biofeedback machines. This paper aims to investigate how esoteric protagonists applied technological means to support their claims.

Paper long abstract:

Ever since the 1880s the notion of kuṇḍalinī shakti had increasingly caught the attention of Indian and non-Indian religious protagonists. While the Theosophical Society had initiated the discourse on the “Serpent Power,” the Indian Pandit Gopi Krishna introduced kuṇḍalinī as a matter of personal experience. Gopi Krishna experienced in 1937 what he perceived as the rising of his kuṇḍalinī energy. Krishna’s systematic and reflective examination of this decisive event culminated in the publication of his autobiographical book “Kundalini. The Evolutionary Energy in Man” (1967), where he defines kuṇḍalinī as a biological mechanism. Against the backdrop of scientism, kuṇḍalinī was thenceforth interpreted as an empirically verifiable element that may be of interest for the scientific community.

An intriguing approach to this scientistic interpretation of kuṇḍalinī was carried forward by supporters of so-called biofeedback and related machines. A popular scientistic approach in the 1970s, religious protagonists interpreted biofeedback as a spiritual practice that might have a beneficial effect on one’s spiritual path. One such account was proposed by the American author W. Thomas Wolfe. In his book “And the Sun is up: Kundalini Rising in the West” (1978), Wolfe presents biofeedback machines as the primary key to the potential awakening of kuṇḍalinī among ‘Western’ practitioners. Another protagonist who correlated kuṇḍalinī with a machine, was Itzhak Bentov, who aimed to trigger kuṇḍalinī with a so-called ballistocardiograph to empirically prove its existence.

As this paper claims, the notion of biofeedback was commonly related to kuṇḍalinī in the 1970s and resulted in several research projects. The major aim of this paper therefore revolves around the question how kuṇḍalinī was increasingly linked to technology with biofeedback machines representing but one example.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines QAnon as a religious phenomenon in the context of Web 2.0, specifically focusing on the utilization of religious motifs and narratives. This paper's primary target is to understand how QAnon connects to esoteric traditions, proposing that QAnon employs an occult rhetoric of truth.

Paper long abstract:

QAnon is a phenomenon of a time of change, occurring against the backdrop of unprecedented societal transformations and crises such as globalization, media change, and climate change. Conventional explanatory models are becoming increasingly insufficient, as the speed of communication and abundance of information sources leads to an increase in complexity, which in turn leads to a sense of uncertainty. Alternative explanations, which promise to provide a sense of control and security, are becoming more prevalent as a result. This trend is facilitated by Web 2.0, which allows those who feel excluded from institutionalized truth production to actively participate in truth conflicts and discursive battles over meaning.

QAnon is one of these alternative truth producers, utilizing social media and other digital channels to spread its perspective on the world. Using conspiratorial narratives, QAnon actively constructs the idea of a ‘hidden’ truth whose unveiling is systematically prevented by certain ‘elites’ but actively pursued by an insightful ‘avant-garde,’ who are encouraged to actively decipher and discuss cryptic messages (QDrops) shared on anonymous message boards.

The proposed paper aims to study the practices of evidence production and truth modeling employed by QAnon. From a religious studies perspective, QAnon is understood as a religious phenomenon that is connected to the evidence practices of esoteric traditions and employs an occult rhetoric of truth. This truth is only accessible to ‘initiates’ and can never be completely unravelled. The main research focus is the observed utilization of familiar religious motifs and narratives, stemming from the reservoir of apocalypticism, occultism, and anti-Semitism. This utilization creates a connection to a variety of religious and esoteric traditions, but also undermines them by transforming borrowed motifs and narratives into a ‘master narrative’ of hidden truth through semantic recoding.

Paper short abstract:

The paper will discuss elements of what can be seen as technological procedures in the 15th century anti-Witchcraft treatise Errores Gazariorum. It will pose the question, to what extent were these elements culturally intuitive in the context of late medieval Latin world.

Paper long abstract:

The concept of the Witches’ Sabbath represented perhaps the most notorious element of the late medieval and early modern persecutions of Witchcraft. While it has been thoroughly studied as a patchwork of various learned and popular notions about magic, the Devil, and heretical sectarianism, not much attention has been paid to the practices of Devil worship and diabolical magic, included in descriptions of the Witches’ Sabbath, as examples of, no matter how bizarre, technological procedures. This paper will focus on a famous inquisitorial treatise Errores Gazariorum, written in the 1430s Aosta Valley and widely regarded as an early description of alleged Witches’ Sabbath. I will try to show that an underlying logic of technological method can be identified on the background of the mixture of learned and popular notions, providing a common base for them. I will try to pose the question, to what extent can this base be considered a cultural intuition, vertically pervading different levels of the late medieval society.