Introduction

Summary

The pagan and the paranormal have colonized the twilight zones of pop media.

This book is an inquiry into the relationship between the creation of alternative personal metaphysical systems, fantastic narrative and contemporary popular digital cultures. Focusing upon the Otherkin as an exemplary group, this project is an exploration of the bodies of knowledge that contribute to the creation of such belief systems, and contextualizes such apparently deviant beliefs within the nexus of religiosity and culture of which they are a part.

At the core of this study is a group called the Otherkin, a loosely affiliated network of individuals who believe that they are to some degree non-human. The Otherkin are by no means alone in their beliefs, but constitute a specific manifestation of religiosity particularly oriented to the late modern Western world. This book explores the origins and implications of such a belief, looking both towards contemporary Western esoteric and occult traditions as well as pertinent elements of the broader contemporary society of which they are a part. Rather than providing an exhaustive exploration of the Otherkin community, I instead focus on investigating some of the myriad influences that have supported the development of this metaphysical framework.

Of central significance here are the dual influences of speculative (primarily fantasy) fiction and communication media in the creation of alternative metaphysical systems. This relationship is an immensely complex one, and does not so much constitute a direct inheritance from the former to the latter, or vice versa, as it does related and reciprocal bodies of knowledge: convergence rather than borrowing. As such, the notions of the cultic milieu and occulture are used as central interpretative frameworks. Both these frameworks highlight the interwoven and overlapping nature of the various distinct ideologies that, in combination, constitute a broader culture of alternative ideology and spirituality.