Critical Cyberoccult Studies

Critical cyberoccult studies is my attempt to create a methodology for investigating the intersection of magical thinking practices and digital culture/technology in the 21st century. I use a critical social and historical lens influenced by critical information studies, science and technology studies, critical terrorism studies, and historical studies of digital and pre-digital occult and cultic communities.

Part of what distinguishes my approach is a critical lens that looks at cyberoccult and digital magic practices from the perspective of the social structures and cultural dynamics they change or reinforce, with a specific focus on the information practices and collective belief dynamics of cyberoccult practitioners-believers. Further I take these phenomena not to be an isolated or fringe cultural practice but rather as being highly defused through modern mainstream society, both in Internet culture and offline. Many accounts of contemporary magical practices, the cyberoccult, and digital occulture either approach these topics solely from the inside (where magic practices are defined and discussed in magical terms), or from a psychological or culture and media studies lens focused on outsider and fringe communities.

Concepts for critical cyberoccult studies:

• Participatory Make-Believe
• Post-Information Society

Despite (what I consider to be) my unique approach, this is far from being a novel terrain of research and investigation. Part of what I hope to do here is not only research cyberoccult practices, communities, and beliefs in themselves, but also to research the other methodological and disciplinary approaches to studying the cyberoccult and digital occulture. A reading list of others’ work on this subject will appear here eventually.