Hyper-real religion : an interview with Adam Possamai

Jon Baldwin: You open the introduction to the collection, Handbook of Hyper-real Religions, with the definition, “Hyper-real religion refers to a simulacrum of a religion, created out of, or in symbiosis with, popular culture, which provides inspiration for believers/consumers.” (Possamai 2012: 1) At the end of the introduction, after acknowledging various comments and critiques, the definition is refined and becomes “a hyper-real religion is a simulacrum of a religion created out of, or in symbiosis with, commodified popular culture which provides inspiration at a metaphorical level and/or is a source of beliefs for everyday life.” (Possamai 2012: 20) Accepting then, that the discussion of hyper-real religion is open and on-going, have there been any significant developments in the meantime that would modify the definition further? Adam Possamai: I have discussed recent developments in my new book (Possamai 2018) and extended my analysis on religion and popular culture to society at large. In this work, I observe that the phenomenon of using popular culture for everyday life is not limited to religion. Other new social practices are being created or ‘brought to life’ at the grassroots level. One example is Real Life Superheroes, a movement in which people dress up as superheroes and walk through the streets of cities, acting as a type of neighbourhood watch and reporting to the authorities any crimes they witness. They do not necessarily fight against crime, but rather act as unofficial, and often untrained, social workers helping those in need, such as the homeless (Possamai and Iouchkov 2017). New sports have recently emerged from popular culture texts, such as quidditch from the Harry Potter stories and chess boxing from the graphic novels of Enki Bilal. There are also various events centred around the theme of zombie walks, where people dress up as the ‘living dead’ and wander around the streets of major cities. Anonymous, the international network of activists and ‘hacktivists’, has its members wearing the stylized Guy Fawkes mask as it was portrayed in the graphic novel comics by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in the 1980s, and later on the big screen in the film V for Vendetta. They wear their masks to signify their belief that governments should fear their citizens rather than the situation being the other way around. They are quite active online and oppose Internet censorship and control. To borrow from Greek mythology, what we have today is a Pygmalion process in which social actors attempt to bring to life various elements of art or popular culture. In the Greek myth, Pygmalion was an artist who fell in love with his own sculpture of a beautiful maiden, and made a successful offering to Aphrodite in order that his ‘ivory girl’ be brought to life. Although the digital world has not created this process, it has provided a platform for this effect to develop. People are today able to organise themselves, and share ideas, very quickly on new social media. Something that was more difficult in the age of photocopies and fax machines. Hyper-real religions are part of this larger process. To answer your question, the definition is of course on-going as all sociological definitions should be. As societies and cultures change, so should theoretical concepts that are capturing our reality. By bringing this new social theory on the Pygmalion effect (Possamai 2018), I have recently expanded the theories of hyper-real religions into a wider context.