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ABSTRACT
By the 1980s, the standard sender-receiver communication model (borrowed from Shannon and Weaver) had largely fallen out of favor in disciplinary circles. Yet, at the same time that communication and rhetoric scholars were taking aim at sender-receiver models, a different conversation about communication was circulating in public spaces. Throughout the 1980s, the rise of both New Age channeling and Pentecostal practices of speaking in tongues was, in their own ways, also re-imagining the concept of communication and the traditional categories of senders, receivers, information, and messages. In this essay, I argue that channeling as a public phenomenon in the 1980s contributed to a lay theory—or paratheory—of communication that simultaneously worked against, alongside, and outside traditional communication models. Further, this para-normal paratheory continues to resonate in some of our most troubling contemporary public rhetoric.
Notes
1 Richard Leviton, The Imagination of Pentecost: Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Spirituality (New York: Anthroposophic Press, 1994), 20.
2 Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 6.
3 James R. Lewis, ed., The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of New Age Religions (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 2004), 12.
4 Gordon Melton, “Whither the New Age?,” in America’s Alternative Religions, ed. Timothy Miller (Albany, New York: SUNY Press, 1995), 349.
5 While the historical context of this revival is complex, many scholars attribute its growth to John Wimbur's Christian Vineyard and several influential teachers at the Fuller Theological Seminary.
6 This joke was so familiar among Pentecostals themselves that the popular Christian singer Carmen used it in his 1989 song “Revival in the Land,” where a demon tells Satan: “When the charismatic movement hit, sir, we were jumping out of windows with all that ‘untie my bowtie who stolla my Honda’ stuff.”
7 Carroll C. Arnold, “What Doth the Future Hold?,” in Speech Communication: Essays to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Speech Communication Association, eds. Gerald Phillips and Julia T. Wood (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990), 336.
8 John Fiske, Introduction to Communication Studies (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2010), 6.
9 Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), 7.
10 Erik Davis, TechGnosis: Myth, Magic & Mysticism in the Age of Information (Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 2015), 83.
11 Joshua Gunn, “Refitting Fantasy: Psychoanalysis, Subjectivity, and Talking to the Dead,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 90, no. 3 (2004): 3. https://doi.org/10.1080/0033563042000206808.
12 John Durham Peters, “Institutional Sources of Intellectual Poverty in Communication Research,” Communication Research 13, no. 4 (1986): 540. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365086013004002.
13 Peters, “Institutional Sources,” 539.
14 Andrew Ross, Strange Weather: Culture, Science and Technology in the Age of Limits (London: Verso, 1991), 37.
15 Adrian Furnham, Lay Theories: Everyday Understanding of Problems in the Social Sciences (Elmsford, New York: Pergamon Press, 1988), 1.
16 Ying-yi Hong, Sheri R. Levy, and Chi-yue Chiu, “The Contribution of the Lay Theories Approach to the Study of Groups,” Personality and Social Psychology Review 5, no. 2 (2001): 100–1. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0502_1.
17 Bruce G. Link et al., “The Social Rejection of Former Mental Patients,” American Journal of Sociology 92, no. 6 (1987): 1328.
18 Link et al., 1330.
19 Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
20 The telegraph as a central metaphor is quite aptly reflected in the title of the first 19th-Century spiritualist newspapers, The Spiritual Telegraph, published from 1852–1860.
21 E.W. Sprague, Spirit Mediumship (Detroit: Self-Published, 1912), 23.
22 Edward Walter Wallis, A Guide to Mediumship and Psychical Unfoldment (Chicago: Progressive Thinkers Publishing House, 1903), 154.
23 Sprague, Spirit Mediumship, 122.
24 Sprague, Spirit Mediumship, 140.
25 Allan Kardec, Experimental Spiritism: Book on Mediums and Invocators (Boston: Colby and Rich, 1874), 51.
26 Kardec, Experimental Spiritism, 292.
27 Hugh Urban, “The Medium is the Message in the Spacious Present: Channeling, Television, and the New Age,” in Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling, ed. C. Gutierrez (Boston: Brill, 2015), 321.
28 Kevin, Ryerson and Stephanie Harolde, Spirit Communication: The Soul’s Path (New York: Bantam, 1989), 6–7.
29 Jach Pursel, Lazaris: The Sacred Journey, You and Your High Self (Beverly Hills: Concept Synergy, 1987), NPN.
30 Jach Pursel, Lazaris Interviews: Book 1 (Beverly Hills: Concept Synergy, 1988), 26–27.
31 Jane Roberts, Seth Speaks: The Eternal Validity of the Soul (San Francisco: New World Library, 1994), 335.
32 Roberts, Seth Speaks, 337.
33 Roberts, Seth Speaks, 337.
34 James W. Carey, Communication as Culture (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2008), 13.
35 Carey, Communication as Culture, 12.
36 McLuhan, Marshall, “Living in an Acoustic World,” University of South Florida Public Lecture, 1974. http://www.marshallmcluhanspeaks.com/lecture/1970-living-in-an-acoustic-world/.
37 Kenneth Carey, The Starseed Transmissions: An Extraterrestrial Report (New York: Stillpoint Press, 1982), 14.
38 Carey, The Starseed Transmissions, 93.
39 Carey, The Starseed Transmissions, 92.
40 Erik Davis, “Techgnosis, Magic, Memory,” in Flame Wars, ed. Mark Dery (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994), 56.
41 Carey, The Starseed Transmissions, 1.
42 John Durham Peters, “The Control of Information,” Critical Review 1, no. 4 (1987): 15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913818708459500.
43 Peters, “The Control of Information,” 15.
44 Gary Kinnaman, And Signs Shall Follow (Ada, Michigan: Chosen Books, 1987), 61.
45 Pat Rodegast and Judith Stanton, Emmanuel’s Book III: What is Angel Doing Here? (New York: Bantam Books, 1994), 157.
46 Shepherd Hoodwin, Journey of Your Soul (Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 1995), 136.
47 Hoodwin, Journey, 70.
48 Roberts, Seth Speaks, 337.
49 Roberts, Seth Speaks, 319.
50 Urban, “The Medium is the Message,” 326.
51 Urban, “The Medium is the Message,” 336.
52 Robert Perry, Glossary of Terms from A Course in Miracles (West Sedona, AZ: Circle Publishing, 2005), 15.
53 A Course in Miracles (Mill Valley, California: Foundation for Inner Peace, 2008), 286.
54 James W Crocker-Lakness, “New Age Spiritual Communication in A Course in Miracles,” Journal of Communication & Religion 23, no. 2 (2000): 134.
55 Oral Roberts, Unleashing the Power of Praying in the Spirit! (Littleton, New Hampshire: Harrison House, 1993), 149.
56 Roberts, Unleashing, 143.
57 Kenneth Hagin, The Art of Prayer (Tulsa: Faith Library Publication, 1992), 95.
58 Pat Boone, Pray to Win: God Wants You to Succeed (New York: Putnam, 1980), 149.
59 “Interpretation of Tongues during Worship,” Pentecostals of Alexandria, November 28, 2020, YouTube video, 14:28, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Dn3qs7lv8.
60 “Speaking in Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues @ Assembly of God Church,” February 11, 2019, YouTube Video, 8:01, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKDsryHa_Nc.
61 Davis, TechGnosis, 63.
62 Davis, TechGnosis, 63.
63 Gordon describes his Oprah appearance (alongside Mafu) in Channeling into the New Age: The 'Teachings' of Shirley MacLaine and Other Such Gurus (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1988), 106.
64 Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Random House, 1994), 205.
65 Daniel Heller-Roazen, “Speaking in Tongues,” Paragraph 25, no. 2 (2002): 111.
66 Giorgio Agamben, The End of the Poem: Studies in Poetics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 67.
67 Peters, “The Control of Information,” 9.
68 Peters, “The Control of Information,” 9.
69 Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer, Opening to Channel: How to Connect with Your Guide (San Francisco: HJ Kramer, 1989), 203–4.
70 Roberts, Seth Speaks, 147.
71 Christopher Partridge, “Truth, Authority and Epistemological Individualism in New Age Thought,” in Handbook of New Age, eds. Daren Kemp and James Lewis (Boston: Brill, 2007), 244.
72 Catherine Albanese, “Religion and the American Experience: A Century After,” Church History 57, no. 3 (1988): 347. https://doi.org/10.2307/3166577.
73 Davey Alba, “Q” Has Been Silent, but QAnon Is Flourishing,” The New York Times, December 21, 2021, B1.
74 Laura Nelson, “‘Woo-Anon’: The Creep of QAnon into Southern California’s New Age World,” Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2021-06-25/woo-anon-southern-californias-embraces-conspiracy-essential-california.
75 Carey, The Starseed Transmissions, 63.
76 Martin Geddes, “WWG1WGA,” July 11, 2018, https://www.martingeddes.com/wwg1wga-the-greatest-communications-event-in-history.
77 Martin Geddes, On Q, (Creative Commons, 2020): 23.
78 Walter Kirn, “The Wizard of Q,” Harper’s Magazine, June 2018, https://harpers.org/archive/2018/06/the-wizard-of-q/.
79 Michael Flynn, November 14, 2016, YouTube video, 33:15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0CThXL37Jk&t=1585s.
80 Jason Rink, interview with Tom Mullen, “Tom Mullen Talks Freedom,” podcast audio, December 1, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUpgnjlY-IA.
81 Jason Rink, interview with Tom Mullen, “Tom Mullen Talks Freedom,” podcast audio, December 1, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUpgnjlY-IA.
82 Geddes, On Q, 23.
83 Nicole Karlis, “Why Some New Age Influencers Believe Trump is a ‘Lightworker’,” Salon, March 4, 2021, https://www.salon.com/2021/03/04/why-some-new-age-influencers-believe-trump-is-a-lightworker/.
84 Many critics have noted that the popularity of these beliefs sharply increased during and after COVID-19. The podcast Conspirituality, for example, is almost entirely dedicated to examining how such ideas currently circulate online via social media. See also: Marie Heřmanová, “Sisterhood in 5D: Conspirituality and Instagram Aesthetics,” M/C Journal 25, no. 1 (2022). https://www.journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/2875.
85 Laura Marjorie Miller, “What is Light Language? A Celestial Communication for a New Era”, Enchanted Living Magazine, n.d., https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/what-is-light-language/.
86 Heather Hoffman, “Light Language; The New Form of Communication,” Active Vibrations, April 19, 2019, https://www.activationvibrations.com/blogs/light-channels-and-transmissions/light-language.
87 Gentle Red Pill Thoughts, “Trust Your Body Whether to Get the You Know What,” April 15, 2021, Bichute video, 10:38, https://www.bitchute.com/video/zceUmbBGGuGE/.
88 David Avocado Wolfe, “Buckle Up, Folks,” Facebook, June 3, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/DavidAvocadoWolfe/photos/a.10150364951666512/10157236833761512.
89 Jeffrey Schweers, “Fact Checking Florida Surgeon General Lapado: COVID, vaccine comments at odds with CDC,” Tallahassee Democrat, October 25, 2021, https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/state/2021/10/25/florida-surgeon-general-fact-check-joseph-ladapo-ron-desantis-vaccine-breakthrough-natural-immunity/6134660001.