Korean shamanism ( musok) considers problems of physical, social, and mental health to be a result of supernatural intervention. The unique position of male practitioners who become healers within a female-dominated sphere is especially telling as they perform cross-gender behavior that is perceived as related to homosexuality, which is stigmatized in Korea and often labeled as a “mental...
Shamanic and court ritual performance in Shang and Zhou China regulated political and cosmic orders by means of performances that structured the performer-audience relations, moving audiences toward some desired response as a strategy tied to the relation between the cosmos and humans.
The X-Files, a “highly disseminated media golem” analogous to the medieval Kabbalah, signals the increasing presence in the media and the internet of occultism. Kabbalistic occultism traces a relationship between writing as an act, magic, and performance.