{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148076883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148075178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148063487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148094435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"","authors":"","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148094436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Virtually Shamans: An Anthropological Perspective on AI Chatbots","authors":"Mark Friis Hau, Jakob Krause-Jensen","doi":"10.1111/anoc.70011","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.70011","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the emerging relationship between humans and AI chatbots through the anthropological lens of shamanic practice, proposing the concept of “virtually shamans” to understand these digital interactions. Drawing on ethnographic traditions of studying magic, spirituality, and technological mediation, we argue that AI chatbot users occupy a liminal position analogous to shamanic intermediaries, navigating between mundane human experience and opaque digital realms of computational knowledge. The analysis examines how prompt engineering resembles ritual practice, requiring specialized techniques to communicate with entities that are simultaneously rational and mysterious. We explore how these interactions challenge conventional boundaries between human and non-human, and tool and entity, creating new forms of postmodern otherworldliness. The paper situates AI chatbots within anthropology's long-standing interest in how occult practices intersect with modernity and technology. Through this shamanic metaphor, we explore the entanglements of human–AI relationships, suggesting that chatbots generate new forms of postmodern otherworldliness. This framework offers a novel perspective on how individuals navigate and create meaning in increasingly digital environments, contributing to broader anthropological discussions on technology, modernity, and cognition, while also addressing the cultural and social implications of widespread AI adoption.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"36 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/anoc.70011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145129125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anthropology of Psychedelics","authors":"Joshua Falcon","doi":"10.1111/anoc.70002","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.70002","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Anthropologists have studied the use of psychedelic drugs across cultures for over a century; however, this literature has yet to be compiled. In providing a brief survey of ethnographic research produced in the Global North on the ‘classic psychedelics’, this article suggests that there not only exists a robust subfield that can be called the anthropology of psychedelics, but that the field also lacks diversity given that it predominately focuses on the Indigenous use of psychedelics or research at the intersection of Indigenous and Global North encounters. Accordingly, there exists a lacuna in the anthropology of psychedelics related to the widespread and variegated use of psychedelics in urban contexts across the Global North. As scientific research on the therapeutic aspects of psychedelics continues to gain momentum, the need for more cultural analyses on the extra-pharmacological dimensions surrounding psychedelic drug experiences and their effects is in greater demand than ever.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"36 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145129174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Anthropological Study of Spirits. By Christine S. VanPool and Todd L. VanPool, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2023. XIX, 247 pp. $179.99 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-3-031-25919-7","authors":"Kyle Montgomery, Erik Stanley","doi":"10.1111/anoc.70006","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.70006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"36 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145129457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reports of Non-Physical Beings Assisting in Reiki Sessions","authors":"Helané Wahbeh, Beth Glick, Juliette Gallo, Garret Yount","doi":"10.1111/anoc.70009","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.70009","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The belief in non-physical beings playing crucial roles in illness and healing is widespread across diverse cultures. Our previous study found reports of alleged non-physical beings during energy medicine sessions. To evaluate the perceived presence and characteristics of non-physical beings mentioned during Reiki sessions. Six seers observed 40 Reiki sessions, and quantitative and qualitative data were collected from the seers, participants, and Reiki practitioners. The presence and function of the non-physical beings during the sessions and the correspondence between quantitative and qualitative data types were evaluated. All sessions had reports of alleged non-physical beings, with angelic beings, spirit guides, and possession/spirit attachments most commonly noted. The reported entities mainly aided the healing process, but some were also linked to pathology. While this study did not explore the effectiveness of treatment, the findings do highlight the potential importance of ostensible non-physical entities in Reiki, warranting further investigation.</p>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"36 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/anoc.70009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145129224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advancing the Anthropology of Psychedelics: Integrating Clinical Evidence, Sociocultural Insights, and Ethical Frameworks","authors":"Liu Yi-Fei, Lien-Chung Wei","doi":"10.1111/anoc.70004","DOIUrl":"10.1111/anoc.70004","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Joshua Falcon's comprehensive synthesis, “Anthropology of Psychedelics,” significantly addresses gaps in psychedelic anthropology, particularly urban practices in the Global North and decolonial considerations. This commentary expands upon Falcon's work by incorporating recent clinical studies and sociocultural analyses that reinforce his proposed directions. Empirical evidence from psilocybin-assisted group therapy among cancer patients highlights the critical role of therapeutic environments, aligning with Falcon's emphasis on “set and setting.” Moreover, recent investigations into psychedelic microdosing illustrate complex user-driven cultural dynamics, advocating deeper anthropological exploration of stigma management and integration practices. Hartogsohn's examination of socio-cultural microclimates and Rose's sociological application of Durkheim's “collective effervescence” further validate Falcon's theoretical approach. Ethical considerations regarding cultural appropriation and Indigenous epistemologies, as discussed by Dupuis and Veissiere, underscore the necessity of culturally sensitive frameworks in psychedelic research. This commentary advocates ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration to enrich the anthropological understanding of psychedelics, emphasizing clinical efficacy, sociocultural context, and ethical integrity.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":42514,"journal":{"name":"ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS","volume":"36 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145129082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}