Olga Khristoforova: "Passion for the occult comes to the people from the elite"

- What caused the growth in popularity of esotericism?

- We are now seeing another increase in interest in esotericism, in the occult sciences. It didn't start yesterday, but it's coming in waves. In the 1990s there was a rise, in the 2000s this interest was less. Now there is a big wave, which is associated with several reasons. First, fashion. In the 1990s, there was a passion for palmistry, astrology - natal charts, all that. Then it went away. Fortune telling on cards is now fashionable, especially among the youth it is very popular, teenagers are completely passionate. Fortune telling on Tarot cards was also in the 1990s-2000s, but did not enjoy such great popularity. The wave of fashion usually captures what has already been heard, then takes this phenomenon out of sight. For example, in the 1990s, the books of Carlos Castaneda were popular, in the 2000s - 2010s, young people no longer knew this name, but now it is again on hearing. Partly because he is remembered in online communities dedicated to esotericism. Under the influence of fashion, the passion for certain theories and practices becomes very common, but quickly fades away.

How does a hobby become mainstream?

- There is a cultural mechanism that explains the mass fascination with the occult. In folklore there is a theory of reduced values, reduced culture. The values that are inherent in high culture, the elite, the aristocracy descend at some point into the people. This applies to names, clothes, habits, etiquette, language expressions, anything. This also applies to practices.

For example, among Russian peasants, spiritism as table-turning was popular at the beginning of the 20th century. He got there from the nobility. In medieval Europe, alchemy was an elitist occupation, but in the 17th and 18th centuries there were publications specifically for the common people, so that the common people could enrich themselves. And alchemy became folk practices. They, of course, were simplified, but people tried to actively use the published recipes.

In Russia in the 1990s - 2000s, the practice of self-development and spiritual growth, individual coaching, yoga, and tarot reading were rather for rich people. Now it has become cheaper and widespread among those who used to like to drink beer on the day off and watch a series on TV. The youth are also interested. Why did this happen? Because Internet resources contributed to this in many respects.

Previously, to become a "sorcerer's apprentice" one had to make an effort - to find a master, to buy books. It's complicated. Now we have a digital environment, a specialized Internet resource. To popularize your ideas, you only need a telegram channel, an Instagram blog, a YouTube channel, a TikTok account. For example, the Tarot craze comes from TikTok. At first it was a marketing platform where adult influencers did very quick short spreads live for a large number of people, answering specific questions: Petya asked if he would pass the exam and immediately received an answer, or Masha was interested in dating Vasya , etc. And those who were interested in getting a more detailed alignment were invited to come to their personal account and find out everything they were interested in for money. This is a commercial story, but it spread the knowledge about the existence of the Tarot. Sales of Tarot decks have grown tenfold. A lot of young people, teenagers, began to practice themselves. And they had interesting thoughts: “I myself began to do this in a difficult life situation, I tried this method, which I learned on TikTok. They answered my questions correctly, I learned it myself, and now I want to help people solve life's problems.”

- Why did these practices find such a lively response among the youth?

- Teenagers have discovered a source that, firstly, answers their existential questions, and secondly, gives them the opportunity to gain respect and prestige among their peers and the opportunity to somehow help others. For some, this is a family path - my mother did it in the 90s, and I continue the tradition. That is, many young people grew up in a completely esoteric environment, and this is familiar to them, not the way it was for those who grew up in Soviet times. For them, there is nothing wrong with this; for them, these practices are not stigmatized either in a religious or in a scientific sense.

Added to this is the sociological context. It turns out that this is one of the manifestations of how modern young people build horizontal connections. They do not trust official institutions - government, school, medicine. For them, power and official religion are something annoying, something that does not give the right answers to existential questions. And if they read esoteric literature, they see in it the questions posed by the esotericists of the 1990s-2000s: what does science give us? Only problems for the environment, no answers to pressing problems. And, accordingly, you need to develop other abilities. For young people, all this activity is akin to an environmental movement, a feminist movement, a liberation movement. If you compare - in the 1970s-1980s, religion, the church for the youth of that time was something opposite to the official ideology, they went to Orthodoxy as dissidence, in resistance to the authorities. Then it unfolded widely - there was a mass arrival in religion both in the 1990s and in the 2000s. And then it went downhill. The church also played its role - autarchy, closeness to power, lack of answers to the essential needs of young people. The church began to be perceived as an official institution similar to a school, an official authority. And it's not even that the church does not respond to personal requests in the same way that magic does, religion is a more complicated story. This, apparently, is the reason why religious literature is now sold less than esoteric literature.

- Has the pandemic affected the growth of fascination with the supernatural ?

- In the 1990s, economic and political instability literally forced people to go to magicians and psychics - in order for the business to work better, I will go to the magician to make a conspiracy for money. Then it was exactly like that. In a situation of helplessness of people, magic gave hope. But surprisingly, the greatest popularity of esoteric “reality-altering” literature was before the pandemic, in 2019. We can assume that the growth in the popularity of esotericism was influenced not so much by uncertainty about the future, but by the availability of free time due to lockdowns. Someone began to learn languages, someone became interested in esoteric practices.

Indeed, during the pandemic, magical rituals were also undertaken to protect against the coronavirus, but, as far as my sources allow, this was done more by older people. Those examples that I know, she is on the verge of psychiatry, painful stories.

- Some experts say that mysticism is part of the Russian cultural code. Do you agree with this point of view?

- I do not think, it seems to me that mysticism is widespread everywhere. The most neo-pagan country in Europe is Estonia, not Russia at all. In Russia, on the contrary, there are extremely pragmatic, little religious people. Residents of continental Europe and Great Britain, where religion was not so persecuted as in the USSR, demonstrate a much greater faith in the supernatural than we do. And then, the whole ideology of the New Age, the movements of neo-pagans, occultists of various stripes were very widespread in the USA, in Europe. And in our post-Soviet times, this has been common since the 1990s. The twentieth century gave the Soviet people a very strong inoculation of skepticism and rationalism. Only the new youth, those who are now at most thirty years old, demonstrate a completely different worldview. If we talk about mysticism as a cultural code, then this applies to the post-Soviet generation, which grew up watching their parents charge water cans and tubes of cream in front of the TV, and then to the show "Battle of Psychics".

- Is there a correlation between mysticism and the level of education?

- I would not speak about the level of education, but about the decline in the authority of science, school, knowledge in general. The youth of today think they know everything better. They know the earth is flat because there are tons of videos on youtube proving this is true, and they can easily become a member of the "flat earth" sect. And the school in this sense is one of the alternative options. Unfortunately, the post-Soviet “revolt against science” also played a role here - Fomenko with his alternative history, alternative linguistics, and so on - they actively offered an alternative to official science and, in this sense, greatly undermined its authority in the eyes of people.

- There is information that the Russian power elite is passionate about magical practices. Does this apply to the public?

- Only what is known can go down to the people. And here even we are not talking about some secret rites, but about the general atmosphere. A coach appears, to whom rich people went, and then people who know about these practices appear and online classes are arranged. And it grows like a snowball.

How dangerous is this story? How fast will it go?

- For me, as a person, this seems like a terrible obscurantism. On the other hand, as a researcher, I think that these are absolutely natural things for the era of postmodernism. The entire planet is living in a post-secular era. Everywhere there is an upsurge of religious fundamentalism, a departure from science to a new religiosity. This is a wave, this is a natural process. But there are also positive aspects in this - the usual human curiosity, the desire for creativity, spiritual development. This is embodied in such practices. Whether I approve it or not as a person, I do not approve, but as a scientist I understand that these are natural human needs - to seek and find answers to their existential questions. People have always had an interest in mysticism, and a craving for creativity, a need to create magical, symbolic worlds. After all, this, after all, is based on the human ability for linguistic, semiotic activity. Plus - the desire for altruism, the desire to establish ties and help each other. For example, during the pandemic, there were online prayer meetings. I'm not talking about Christian gatherings now, but I mean shamanic groups, groups of people who call themselves witches or magicians. They gathered and held joint meditations. This is the desire of people to avoid loneliness, not to be alone, to look for a company, a community. This is not everywhere money, there are, of course, those who make money on it and go to them to solve their problems, but I'm talking about horizontal social ties. For example, teens on TikTok who haven't monetized their practices yet, they just do spreads for their friends to help them solve their problems. Here the meaning is not money, but mutual support, friendly ties.

- If you look at the previous bursts of interest in the supernatural, is it possible to predict how long this hobby will last?

- Mass popularity does not last very long, just a few years. But latently it remains, some people practice it, save it, broadcast it further. Like, for example, Daniil Andreev’s “Rose of the World”, which became a link between the Silver Age and the new Russian occultism of the late 20th century, it went through the Soviet period and survived until perestroika, became popular because someone preserved it and took care of it.

However, let's hope that common sense and natural scientific knowledge will defeat mysticism, if this makes everyone feel better.