Channeling, Agency, and Strategic Information: The “Semiotic Ideologies” of New Age Culture

Abstract

One important aspect of religious practices and representations concerns the way information is handled. This article understands religion as a form of imagination, giving human properties to “nonhuman” agents (and vice versa), and thus, the rules of communication and interaction with such agents play a special role in religious culture. Webb Keane’s theory of “semiotic ideologies” is one tool that facilitates the study of religious norms, expectations, and rules. In New Age culture, practices of “information exchange” with imaginary superhuman agents and transpersonal forces are based on specific psychophysical techniques, often called “channeling” or “contact.” The analysis of specific ethnographic examples related to ufological channeling demonstrates that this practice forms new types of collective agency, a distinctive feature of New Age culture itself.