Bit Di Rumore Bianco: La Psicofonia nell'Era Di Internet

Drawing from an exploration of how spiritualism represented for modernity a negotiation between scientific thinking, magical thinking and religion, the essay explores a particular variation of spiritualism, Instrumental Transcommunication (spiritualism using technological mediation in the communication with the dead), and more specifically one of its sub-disciplines (EVP, or recording of so-called «voices of the dead»). The analysis of secondary texts produced by a subculture made up of Italian practitioners of the discipline shows a process of de «modernization» of the magical thinking that incorporates not only technology, but makes of it a place and instrument of a magic-ritual practice, in Italy, often charged with a strong religious significance. Moreover, the analysis illustrates how new media have become the main platform of the new spiritualism (which ranges from claims of scientific legitimacy and mystical and participatory dimensions of the magical thinking) for the theoretical development, the circulation of knowledge, the recreation of the magical experiences (listening to «voices of the dead») and maintenance processes of the community.