Introduction to Volume IV

RELIGION, THE OCCULT, AND THE PARANORMAL

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RELIGION, THE OCCULT, AND THE PARANORMAL

Critical Concepts in Religious Studies

Edited by Carole M. Cusack and

Helen Farley

Volume IV Pop Oc/culture, Media, Modern Mythology

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First published 2016by Routledge2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Editorial material and selection © 2016 Carole M. Cusack and Helen Farley; individual owners retain copyright in their own material.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data[CIP data]

ISBN: 978-1-138-01509-8 (Set)ISBN: 978-1-138-91770-5 (Volume IV)

Typeset in 10/12pt Times NR MTby Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Publisher’s NoteReferences within each chapter are as they appear in the original complete work.

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CONTENTS

VOLUME IV POP OC/CULTURE, MEDIA, MODERN MYTHOLOGY

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction to volume IV 1

PART 1

Occulture: approaches and theory 7

54 Survival of occult practices and ideas in modern common sense 9 sabinedoering-manteuffel

55 Occulture 23 christopherpartridge

PART 2

Supernatural themes in media/art 63

56 Devilish consumption: popular culture in satanic socialization 65 asbjrndyrendal

57 Demons, devils and witches: the occult in heavy metal music 90 helen farley

58 Religion in The Wicker Man: context and representation 106 steven j. sutcliffe

59 “I see dead people”: spiritualism in film 121 carrolllee fry

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60 Metaphysics and transcendence: His Dark Materials: ‘The Republic of Heaven’ 164

j’annine jobling

61 Pop goes religion: Harry Potter meets Clifford Geertz 185 iverb.neumann

62 Paranormal in popular culture 205 annettehill

PART 3

Media-themed religion 237

63 Fiction-based religion: conceptualising a new category against history-based religion and fandom 239

markusaltenadavidsen

64 Alien selves: modernity and the social diagnostics of the demonic in “Lovecraftian Magick” 258

justinwoodman

65 The mystical teens 285 lynn schofieldclark

PART 4

Miscellaneous 309

66 Cryptozoology in the medieval and modern worlds 311 peterdendle

67 A benevolent and sceptical inquiry: exploring ‘Fortean Geographies’ with the Mothman 329

deborahdixon

68 Baseball magic 355 georgegmelch

69 The politics of Muslim magic 366 dawnperlmutter

Index 375

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ACKNOwLEDGEMENTS

The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reprint their material:

Sage for permission to reprint Sabine, Doering-Manteuffel. “Survival of Occult Practices and Ideas in Modern Common Sense.” Public Understand-ing of Science 20, no. 3 (2011): 292–302.

Bloomsbury for permission to reprint Christopher Partridge, ‘Occulture’, The Re-Enchantment of the West, vol. 1 (London: T&T Clark, 2004), pp. 62–86.

Brill for permission to reprint Asbjørn Dyrendal, ‘Devilish consumption: Popular culture in satanic socialization’, Numen, 55:1 (2008): 68–98.

Ashgate for permission to reprint Helen Farley, ‘Demons, Devils and witches: The Occult in Heavy Metal Music’, in Gerd Bayer (ed.), Heavy Metal Music in Britain (London: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 73–88.

The author for permission to reprint Steven J. Sutcliffe, ‘Religion in The Wicker Man: Context and Representation’, in Jonathan Murray et al. (ed.), Constructing the Wicker Man (Glasgow: Crichton Publications, 2005), pp. 37–56.

Associated University Presses for permission to reprint Carroll Lee Fry, ‘ “I see dead people”: Spiritualism in Film’, Cinema of the Occult: New Age, Satanism, Wicca and Spiritualism in Film (Cranbury, NJ: Rosemont, 2008), pp. 200–244.

Bloomsbury for permission to reprint J’annine Jobling, ‘Metaphysics and Transcendence: His Dark Materials: “The Republic of Heaven” ’, Fantastic Spiritualities: Monsters, Heroes and the Contemporary Religious Imagination (London and New York: T & T Clark, 2010), pp. 63–83.

Sage for permission to reprint Iver B. Neumann, ‘Pop Goes Religion: Harry Potter Meets Clifford Geertz’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9:1 (2006): 81–100.

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Routledge for permission to reprint Annette Hill, ‘Paranormal in Popular Culture’, Paranormal Media: Audiences, Spirits and Magic in Popular Culture (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), pp. 37–65.

Taylor & Francis for permission to reprint Markus Altena Davidsen, ‘Fiction-based religion: Conceptualising a new category against history-based religion and fandom’, Culture and Religion, 14:4 (2013): 378–395.

Mandrake of Oxford and the author for permission to reprint Justin woodman, ‘Alien Selves: Modernity and the Social Diagnostics of the Demonic in “Lovecraftian Magick” ’, Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, 1:2 (2004): 13–47.

Oxford University Press for permission to reprint Lynn Schofield Clark, ‘The Mystical Teens’, From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 95–116. © 2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Taylor & Francis for permission to reprint Peter Dendle, ‘Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern worlds’, Folklore, 117:2 (2006): 190–206.

Sage for permission to reprint Deborah Dixon, ‘A Benevolent and Sceptical Inquiry: Exploring “Fortean Geographies” with the Mothman’, Cultural Geographies, 14:2 (2007): 189–210.

The author for permission to reprint George Gmelch, ‘Baseball Magic’, Trans-action, 8:8 (1971): 39–43. Subsequently revised; this version 10 April 2013.

Dawn Perlmutter, ‘The Politics of Muslim Magic’, Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2013, 73–80.

Disclaimer

The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of works reprinted in Religion, the Occult, and the Paranormal (Critical Concepts in Religious Studies). This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies whom we have been unable to trace.

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IntroductIon to Volume IV

Helen S. Farley

this final volume of Religion, the Occult, and the Paranormal is mostly con-cerned with how the supernatural is finding form in popular culture, in everyday life, and among the youth, with their apparently insatiable appetite for all that is different, macabre, alien, or sitting outside normal society. Film franchises based on paranormal themes are among the biggest grossing films of all time. the Harry Potter franchise appeals to adults and children alike, as does the Lord of the Rings franchise. these films are invariably released at holiday time so parents can take their children, buy them some themed merchandise, and escort them to various dress-up events populated by hundreds of small Harry Potters and Hermione Grangers. religious and supernatural ideas are integral to the appeal of these films. Several chapters in this volume explore that unlikely relationship. the current also flows in the other direction, with popular culture providing the stuff of emerging religions. most are familiar with Jediism, drawing its inspiration from the Star Wars franchise and the noble ideals of the Jedi Knights.

the volume opens with two chapters concerned with methodologies and theories to explain the boundless enthusiasm the West has for the paranormal and the occult, including christopher Partridge’s introduction of the term ‘occulture’ to describe the pot of popular culture treats from which a seeker can assemble a personal spirituality (chapter 55). And the volume concludes with a number of chapters that could not be readily accommodated elsewhere in this series. to my mind they are among the most interesting presented here. topics as diverse and tantalising as Forteanism, cryptozoology, and superstition in sport are all housed here.

Occulture: approaches and theory

the whole premise for the creation of these volumes can be summed up in the first chapter by Sabine doering-manteuffel, ‘Survival of occult Practices and Ideas in modern common Sense’ (chapter 54). this gets to the very question at the heart of this enterprise: why, in a society dominated by tech-nologies brought to us through scientific advancement, is belief in occultism

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and the paranormal so prevalent? this chapter forms an excellent intro-duction to the volume by describing some of the manifestations of the enchantment with occultism in new Age society. the article briefly examines a number of the main streams of new Age belief, including guardian angels and astrology. the author posits that part of the reason for this explosion in belief is the medium of the internet, which allows for easy dissemination and discovery of information but also for easy communication (p. 000).

the next chapter in Part 1 has had a significant influence on how scholars view religiosity in the modern age, particularly with regard to popular cul-ture and other non-traditional forms of belief. In his chapter ‘occulture’ (chapter 55), christopher Partridge first posits the idea that serves as a ‘reservoir of ideas, beliefs, practices, and symbols’ (p. 000). the extent to which participants interact with occulture varies greatly. they can dabble or be connoisseurs of what is on offer, picking and choosing from here and there to create a personal spirituality where the individual is the spiritual authority. Partridge also places the idea of occulture among the other the-ories of modern spirituality, making this chapter invaluable in this volume.

Supernatural themes in media/art

Part 2 begins with a chapter from Asbjørn dyrendal, ‘devilish consumption: Popular culture in Satanic Socialization’ (chapter 56). dyrendal proposes that popular culture acts as a scene for socialisation in much the same way that church attendance or attendance at certain schools provides scenes for socialisation in christianity. this chapter follows closely on the heels of the previous one, claiming that Satanists draw heavily from occulture; indeed much is drawn from popular fiction, film, and music. Black metal and death metal in particular are musical forms resplendent with appropriate themes. Following the idea of modern spiritual traditions drawing from popular culture, Helen Farley, in ‘demons, devils and Witches: the occult in Heavy metal music’ (chapter 57), traces the thematic and musical lineage of devilish and supernatural themes in blues music, through the heavy rock music of Britain, with bands such as Black Sabbath and led Zeppelin, to the modern black metal and death metal so popular in Scandinavian countries.

From music, the focus turns to film, where Steven J. Sutcliffe, in his chapter, ‘religion in The Wicker Man: context and representation’ (chap-ter 58), considers how the depiction of religion in this 1973 film (remade in 2006) reflects changes in the broader society. In particular, he examines the popular practices and depictions of religion, by which he means the practice of religion in everyday contexts by non-specialists (p. 000). the film itself focuses on a murder investigation which takes Police Sergeant neil Howie to Summerisle, an isolated island where the inhabitants have abandoned christianity in favour of celtic Paganism (Hardy 1973).

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religious themes in films also forms the focus of carroll lee Fry’s chap-ter, ‘ “I See dead People”: Spiritualism in Film’ (chapter 59). In the film The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan 1999), disturbed child cole Sear sees ghosts and unwillingly works with them to help them achieve some kind of justice on earth. cole sees child psychologist dr malcolm crowe in order to get to the bottom of his fears. It’s not until the end of the film that the audience realises that crowe is also dead. Fry begins with a brief history of spiritual-ism before examining a number of films, including The Sixth Sense, that feature some form of spiritualism. Fry concludes by speculating that the perennial popularity of films with spiritualist themes reflects the larger desire to know about life after death (chapter 59, p. 000).

From film to print: J’annine Jobling, in her chapter ‘metaphysics and transcendence: His Dark Materials’ (chapter 60), examines the post-christian religious themes of the Philip Pullman book series His Dark Materials. Pullman is a strident critic of organised religion, yet acknowledges that the religious impulse is central to the human condition. the spiritual ideas found in this series are drawn from a diverse array of sources. the three he is most indebted to are William Blake, John milton, and Heinrich von Kleist, yet he draws from a staggering diversity of sources, including Buddhism (the primary focus of this chapter), norse mythology, and Kabbalism (p. 000).

the next chapter in this volume examines the Harry Potter phenomenon that has swept the world since the J. K. rowling novels about a young wizard first appeared in 1997. In his chapter, ‘Pop Goes religion: Harry Potter meets clifford Geertz’ (chapter 61), Iver B. neumann first posits that the popularity of the book series and resultant film franchise reflects the general resurfacing of religion in europe and the united States. He further claims that the fantastic worlds described bear many similarities to those described in early modern accounts of european witchcraft. Further, he uses anthropologist clifford Geertz’s idea of ‘slippage’, to describe how readers move in and out of the fantastic worlds of Harry Potter. In this way, neumann argues that Potter contributes to the decentralising of religion in our lives but also to the individualisation of that religious urge.

the final chapter in Part 2, from Annette Hill, begins with the claim that Halloween could be the new christmas, as young people are encouraged to hold a dinner for the dead, cast a spell, or make a jack-o’-lantern (chapter 62, p. 000). the surge in popularity of Halloween is thought to reflect the surge of interest in the paranormal and supernatural. It may also represent a desire to know about what happens after death. Hill asserts that the incorporation of supernatural themes into popular culture makes them more ‘ordinary’. She goes on to explain that the paranormal is loosely based around science, and yet belief in the paranormal is mostly concentrated in non-scientific communities. Some common themes are explored in the chapter, including spirits appearing as lights, spiritualism, the desire for uniqueness, and

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the popularity of dead characters. For example, the latter is reflected in the number of television series about vampires such as True Blood and The Twilight Saga film franchise.

Media-themed religion

the chapters in this volume so far have considered what happens when paranormal, occult, and religious themes are presented in popular culture. this first chapter of Part 3 looks back the other way, to what happens when popular culture becomes the source material for religion. markus Altena davidsen, in ‘Fiction-based religion: conceptualising a new category against History-based religion and Fandom’ (chapter 63), proposes a new category of religion, namely ‘fiction-based religion’. He argues against Adam Possamai’s term ‘hyper-real religion’ by claiming that the inspiration from popular culture is not metaphorical as Possamai claims (Possamai 2005). As the name suggests, these religions draw their inspiration from fictional narra-tives. davidsen further posits that though these religions draw from fiction, they are in fact real religions as they refer to supernatural entities which exist in the real world. religions that fall into this category would include the church of All Worlds, which draws from robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), the tale of a martian-raised messiah, Valentine michael Smith, and Jediism, which emerged in response to George lucas’ Star Wars franchise (chapter 63). continuing on this theme, Justin Woodman’s article ‘Alien Selves: modernity and the Social diagnostics of the demonic in “lovecraftian magick” ’ (chapter 64) is focused on the practice of chaos magic based on the fictions of the cthulhu mythos of H. P. lovecraft’s novels. Woodman considers the reasons why this form of religiosity has emerged and contends that, in part, it is due to the familiarity and lack of threat from ‘otherness’ seen in modern society, but also to an adaptation to the ‘to the disorienting consequences of modern-ity’ (p. 000).

the idea of a youth subculture is explored in lynn Schofield clark’s chapter, ‘the mystical teens’ (chapter 65). clark remarks that most Amer-ican teenagers maintain an interest in the supernatural. It is these ‘mystical teens’ that consume films and tV shows exploring supernatural themes, often outside of the context of organised religion. these include shows like The X-Files and Charmed, numerous documentaries about aliens and such. clark presents three individual case studies of ‘mystical teens’, illustrating how each forms opinions and beliefs about life beyond the material world, irrespective of their involvement with organised religion. each study consists of an interview with a teenager within quite different social, cultural, and societal contexts. What becomes evident is that the heterodox belief systems are informed by the worldviews of their parents, the popular culture they consume, and their own personal experiences of the supernatural.

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Miscellany

this final section of the series contains a number of chapters that do not fit neatly into the previous categories. It begins with an exposition of cryptozoology. It is not uncommon on a ‘slow news’ day to see a television news story about a mythical creature, whether it be the loch ness monster or Bigfoot, rarely sighted but often pondered over. this is the stuff of Peter dendle’s chapter, ‘cryptozoology in the medieval and modern Worlds’ (chapter 66). these creatures are called cryptids, and the study of them, cryptozoology. dendle proposes that these creatures are projections of our fears of the primordial world, or expressions of human characteristics that cannot be ‘outed’ in the real world. In addition, he posits that these creatures assuage our guilt at the unprecedented levels of extinctions wrought by human activity. these cryptids repopulate the liminal space and render us more humble about our ability to alter the natural world.

the next chapter is focused on American writer and researcher charles Fort (1874–1932), who occupied himself with describing anomalous phenom-ena that lay outside known science. He wrote a number of books on such topics, and those who believe in similar phenomena are called ‘Forteans’ after charles Fort. deborah dixon, in ‘A Benevolent and Sceptical Inquiry: exploring “Fortean Geographies” with the mothman’ (chapter 67), explores Forteanism. the chapter begins with an overview of charles Fort and the movement he inspired. the second half is concerned with a particular favour-ite of Forteans, the mothman. the mothman was a cryptid in the form of a large moth-like humanoid who was purportedly seen periodically over a year from november 1966 to december 1967. dixon charts the biography of the mothman from the first sightings in Virginia to the portrayal in a 2002 film, The Mothman Prophecies, starring richard Gere.

George Gmelch, in ‘Baseball magic’, explores the fascinating world of superstition as it relates to sport in the next chapter in this section of miscel-lany (chapter 68). Players will perform seemingly ordinary rituals, afraid to change any aspect in case doing so will alter their luck. In this way, they hope to maintain some control over the supernatural. Gmelch compares these rituals to the fishing rituals of the trobriand Islanders. He posits that players, after an exceptionally good performance, attribute that success to something other than skill, as that should remain unchanged. they believe there must be something else at play. Gmelch also describes taboos, when behaviours are studiously avoided, and fetishes in the form of good luck charms.

this volume concludes with a controversial article by dawn Perlmutter, ‘the Politics of muslim magic’ (chapter 69) . When reports of witchcraft in muslim countries reach the West, they are usually couched in terms of human rights abuses. Perlmutter argues that this belies the pervasiveness of magical belief across the muslim world. this belief has basis in the

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theological construct of jinn, supernatural entities said to be responsible for illness, wealth, health, position, and much else. In the West, those ideas relating to the occult have been marginalised, but in the muslim world they fors an integral part of the theology. Politically, spiritual leaders ban activ-ities that involve jinn, out of a fear that their authority might be subverte).

References

Hardy, robin (dir.) (1973) The Wicker Man, British lion Films.Possamai, Adam (2005) Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-real Testament,

Brussels: Peter lang.Shyamalan, m. night (dir.) (1999) The Sixth Sense, Buena Vista Pictures.

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