Abstract: This contribution reflects on the usefulness of "magic" through the lens of participatory consciousness and the expanded present, as theorized through my ethnographic work among contemporary spiritual practitioners in Southern Italy. For my interlocutors, magic is not a belief system but a mode of being—one that enables a form of sense-making grounded in felt knowledge, affective...
Why do people find conspiracy theories attractive, convincing, or useful? In this article, I analyze conspirituality-that is, the relationships between New Age spirituality and conspiracy theories-in Italy during the COVID-19 lockdown. After distinguishing between conspiracy-believing and belief in conspiracies, I claim that conspiracy-believing could be understood as an aesthetic (sensory and...