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Adam Possamai Introduction in 2004, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, a Key Leader Of CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF Hyper-real RELIGIONS? Adam Possamai Introduction In 2004, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, a key leader of the Church of All Worlds, founded the Grey School of Wizardry, in which the education system draws from the Harry Potter fictions (Cusack 2010). This school is virtual and welcomes students from eleven to eighteen years old, and adults who want to go back to ‘high school’ for a different type of education. It is a site created to help adult Neo-Pagans, and children of Neo-Pagans, to access a more Pagan-focused teaching. The school’s website claims: [b]esides its academic focus, the Grey School students and faculty provide a thriving interactive magickal community. Youth students (ages 11–17) are sorted into Elemental ‘Houses’ (Salamanders, Gnomes, Undines, and Sylphs) based on their astrological Sun sign, while adult students (age 18 and older) are likewise directed into Elemental ‘Lodges’ (Flames, Stones, Waters, and Winds). These compete via academic credits and merit points for the ‘House Hat’ and the ‘Lodge Cup’, which are awarded semi-annually at the Equinoxes. Each House and Lodge has a faculty Head to moderate discussions, intro- duce activities, etc. Each House and Lodge also has a student Prefect, a posi- tion awarded to students who exemplify academics, attitude, and enthusiasm. The student body is further led by House and Lodge Captains; selected from the pool of experienced Prefects, the Captains are an esteemed combination of student body president and ‘Head Boy/Girl’. The Administrative Dean of Students oversees all student activities. The Grey School works via a series of interactive school pages and forums. Clubs are available to students who wish to delve deeper into specific focus areas. A library-in-progress includes reading lists, archived materials, and links to on-line articles and encyclopedias. Special forums provide everything from an online Bardic Circle, to All-School Challenges, to the latest edition of the student-produced school newspaper, Whispering Grey Matters.1 Another inscription of the Harry Potter fiction in reality is found in the non-profit Harry Potter Alliance. Started in 2005 by Slack, a self-declared 1 Internet site, “Grey School of Wizardry.” At http://registered.greyschool.com/index.php? module=About&func=view&name=school. Accessed 25/01/2011. 424 adam possamai ‘Harry Potter rabbi’, this is an organisation devoted to social activism. By drawing parallels with the Harry Potter books, and especially with the dialogue of Harry’s mentor, Albus Dumbledore, as a source of moral inspiration, the alliance attempts to educate and mobilise fans of the Harry Potter character around issues such as workers’ rights and combat- ing genocide. For example, it managed to raise funds for the Genocide Intervention Network’s civilian protection program for displaced Darfuris and Burmese (Netburn 2009). In connection with the Star Wars narrative, we find further interest- ing anecdotes illustrating how this hyper-real phenomenon is moving into everyday life. In 2008 a drunken man, wearing a plastic garbage bag for a cape and attempting to parody Darth Vader, attacked a Jedi church founder (Master Jonba Hehol) and his cousin (Master Mromi Hehol) with a metal crutch (Associated Press 2008). In 2009, the founder of the International Church of Jediism was asked to remove his hood in a super- market in northern Wales. The Jedi, Morda Hehol, made a claim against the company for religious discrimination (Carter 2009; Cusack 2010). McCormick (this volume) also makes reference to some of these groups seeking legal recognition as religions or, at least, as non-profit groups. On 25 December 2005, The Temple of the Jedi Order became incorporated by the Secretary of State of Texas as a non-profit church, religious, educa- tional and charitable corporation, and in 2009, the Canadian The Order of the Jedi also became thus incorporated. Although many cases explored in this volume are centered on activi- ties on the Internet, the above anecdotes show some intrusions from the online into the offline world. These cases are sparsely distributed and at the moment very limited. However, as any social scientist who has dabbled with the theories of moral panic would attest, if a specific social-cultural context is in place, incidents, if sparking the interest of a large number of people, can have impacts disproportional to their actual size or weight and lead to various calls for social awareness, or even to sanctions. While promoting the research results from my book (Possamai 2005), a few of the journalists who interviewed me for their newspaper or radio programme asked me about accurate data on the extent of this phenom- enon, and whether this new style of mixing popular culture with religion was a dangerous practice. I was asked to comment on whether adherents of hyper-real religions were unable to separate fantasy from reality. As a Weberian studying late modernity, and thus focusing on the meanings that social actors give to their actions, I had never really considered any possible danger. I was aware of the mass suicide of the Heaven’s Gate .
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