Invisible Partners and Strategic Information: Channeling as "Semiotic Ideology"
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2019-37-4-l67-191Keywords:
semiotic ideologies, cognitive science of religion, agency, new age culture, ufology, channelingAbstract
A significant aspect of religious practices and representations is the way information is handled. If we understand religion as a form of imagination assigning human properties to nonhuman agents (and vice versa), we would expect that the rules of communication and interaction with such agents would play a special role in religious culture. The concept of “semiotic ideologies” by Webb Keane is one of the analytical tools that allow us studying the norms, expectations and rules of such communications. In New Age culture, practices of “information exchange” with nonhuman agents and transpersonal forces are based on specific techniques, mainly the so-called channeling or contact. The analysis of particular ethnographic examples related to ufological channeling leads to the conclusion that this practice creates new types of collective agency, which seems to be one of the distinctive features of the New Age culture as such.Downloads
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