Abstract

TORRE, Renée de la. Mass media circuits of neo-esoteric supply: New Age and neo popular magic in Guadalajara. Alteridades [online]. 2006, vol.16, n.32, pp.29-41. ISSN 2448-850X.

Mass media technological advancement and the new network economy have allowed new uses and notions of culture in relation to space and time perception. This transformation is not unfamiliar to religion, a phenomenon that currently tends to be less anchored in institutions and even more developed within individual’s consumption practices. A good deal of contemporary religiosity is generated outside institutionalized religions through mass media supply and individual tracks of consumption that generate novel ways through which sacredness is experienced. This paper offers an ethnographic description of neoesoteric supply and demand based on a comparative analysis between the offer of the New Age TV channel Infinito, and the radio program Radio Fantasmas (Ghosts). The latter is a radio program based on esoteric consultation that blends the tradition of local healers with the symbolic capital of oriental cultural merchandise.

Keywords : mass media; self-religion; New Age; neo esoteric; popular religion.