How Erik Davis invented networked mysticism
Steph Kretowicz spoke to me for Dazed Digital, and Rita Santillan made an awesome video to boot.
Dig deep into the world of cultural esoterica and you’re bound to find someone who’s dug there before. That’s particularly true of the cults of California and the mysticism of the global online, where Erik Davis has long laid claim. Cali-born and raised, the self-proclaimed “participant anthropologist” has been exploring the world of the weird since the 90s, in the process becoming a cult idol himself. Respected by many, virtually unknown by most, Davis is a journalist, academic and writer whose ‘multiperspectival’ mind generated The Visionary State and Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information. One, a coffee table book of essays and photos documenting the subcultures and belief systems rife in the west coast region where he still lives. The other, a classic media studies text, published in 1998 and evolved into a much-referenced, oft-updated website, techgnosis.com, investigating media, information transfer and conceptual engineering from a standpoint of universal human obsession.