The Belief System and the Pop-esoteric Wave: a Theory on the Operational Belief System Author: Juan Carlos Henriquez-Mendoza Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3321 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2011 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Science Department of Sociology THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP-ESOTERIC WAVE: A THEORY ON THE OPERATIONAL BELIEF SYSTEM A Dissertation by JUAN CARLOS HENRÍQUEZ-MENDOZA Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April, 2011 © copyright by JUAN CARLOS HENRÍQUEZ-MENDOZA 2011 THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP-ESOTERIC WAVE: A THEORY ON THE OPERATIONAL BELIEF SYSTEM A Dissertation by Juan Carlos Henríquez-Mendoza Dissertation Advisor and Committee Chair: Professor Stephen Pfohl, Ph.D. Abstract This work inquires about the subjectivity construction individuals perform in our contemporary media culture. It examines the structure of believing that can be inferred from the narrative elaboration of beliefs exerted in social conversations when pop-media related to spirituality or transcendency are used as inputs for conversation. For this purpose, I investigate the consumption of three films that triggered for their audiences intense controversies that included topics belonging to the blurry crossroad where spirituality, science, and religion intersect: What The Bleep do We (k)now!? (USA 2004), The Da Vinci Code (USA 2006), and The Passion of the Christ (USA 2004). My approach departs from the sociology of spirituality perspective, and draws on some insights developed by ritual studies, sociology of religion, social psychoanalysis, consumer studies, and visual studies. Based on a multi-method strategy of inquiry, formal film analysis, focus and discussion groups, and interview data collected from the audience, this dissertation finds that the burgeoning of a media driven popular culture spirituality in Mexico is creating a wave of Pop-Esotericism. As a rational narrative with consumption and conversational drives, Pop-Esotericism is not only a resonant media- reference, but also constitutes a pre-text in the construction of ephemeral and collective conversational spaces wherein the belief system is engaged and refurnished. To give a full account on the pop-esoteric phenomenon and on overall contemporary belief systems, I propose a theoretical model aimed to uncover the dynamics and strategies we engage to articulate spirituality, identity, and reality in our current global media context. THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP‐ESOTERIC WAVE i A Theory of the Operational Belief System Acknowledgments Lots of names crowd together. I am obliged, in the first place, to my many respondents not only for taking the time to help me collect data so that I could obtain tenable results, but for sharing their thoughts and personal concerns with no reward other than becoming anonymous partakers of an effort to enhance the understanding of a problem. I owe earnest thankfulness to Dr. Stephen Pfohl, my academic advisor and committee chairman for his careful reading, acute observations and guidance he showed me throughout my dissertation process. Thank you Dr. Zine Magubane and Dr. Eve Spangler for agreeing to serve on my committee. I received insightful comments by Dr. David Morgan, Dr. Roberto Goizueta, and Dr. Isabela Corduneadu for whose intuitions and invaluable consultantship I am most grateful. Many thanks shall also be given to Mr. Vincent Murphy who generously and dedicatedly edited my English style, and to Sammy Chong, S.J. for working out the graphic-design of the Three Lobe Model. I give heartfelt thanks to The Jesuit Conference of the United States, The Porticus Fellowships for Research in Media, Religion and Culture, and The International Commission on Media, Religion and Culture for their generosity and willingness to provide support for this experience. Lastly, I express my special feelings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the project, my mother, my Jesuit fellows, my friends. Your words of encouragement and push for tenacity still ring in my ears. My fondest gratitude. Juan Carlos Henríquez-Mendoza THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP‐ESOTERIC WAVE ii A Theory of the Operational Belief System CONTENTS Introduction 1 0.1 Topic of study and statement of the problem 4 0.1.1 A brief sketch of the role of Mexican Catholicism 5 0.1.2 Research antecedents: exploratory and descriptive previous studies 11 0.1.3 Statement of purpose / The current stage: Explanatory Study 15 0.2 Significance of the study 17 0.3 Structure 18 Chapter 1 Overview of Methodology 22 1.1 Research Questions 22 1.2 Design Rationale 23 1.2.1 Methodology 24 1.2.2 Population and setting 25 1.3 Data Collection Methods 26 1.3.1 Overall procedures 27 1.3.2 Applied methods 31 1.4 Analytic Approach 35 1.4.1 Data analysis 35 1.4.2 Formal film analysis 37 1.5 Demographic Descriptives of the Researched Subjects 39 1.6 Delimitations and Limitations 53 1.7 Definition of Key Terms 56 THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP‐ESOTERIC WAVE iii A Theory of the Operational Belief System Part One: Film Analysis Presentation 59 Preamble 62 Valuable intangibles within the film industry 62 Basic components of a film narrative and the problem of categorization 63 Socio-psychoanalysis applied to evocative media-based conversations 65 A psychoanalytic framework for film criticism 68 Chapter 2 What the Bleep do we (k)now!? 72 2.1 Industrial and Narrative Aspects 72 2.1.1 Production, distribution and exhibition 72 2.1.2 Narrative Form and Synopsis 74 2.2 Psychoanalytic Film Analysis 81 2.2.1 Descriptive moment: “The Mirror and the Body Painting” 83 2.2.2 Analytical moment 86 2.2.3 Key concepts for a socio-psychoanalytic reading of the scene 87 2.2.4 The Therapeutic/Regressive Gaze in What the Bleep do we (k)now!? 94 Chapter 3 The Da Vinci Code 105 3.1 Industrial and Narrative Aspects 105 3.1.1 Production, distribution and exhibition 105 3.1.2 Narrative Form and Synopsis 107 3.2 Psychoanalytic Film Analysis 112 3.2.1 Descriptive moment: “Exegesis of the Last Supper” 116 3.2.2 Analytical moment 119 3.2.3 Key concepts for a socio-psychoanalytic reading of the scene 121 3.2.4 The Fetishistic Scopophilic Scrutinity in The Da Vinci Code 126 THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP‐ESOTERIC WAVE iv A Theory of the Operational Belief System Chapter 4 The Passion of the Christ 134 4.1 Industrial and Narrative Aspects 134 4.1.1 Production, distribution and exhibition 134 4.1.2 Narrative Form and Synopsis 136 4.2 Psychoanalytic Film Analysis 140 4.2.1 Descriptive moment: “The Flogging” 143 4.2.2 Analytical moment 145 4.2.3 Key concepts for a socio-psychoanalytic reading of the scene 149 4.2.4 The Sadistic Scopophilia in The Passion of the Christ 154 Chapter 5 Cross-Interpretation 168 5.1 Three Industrial Formulae for Disparate Formats and Genres 168 5.2 Three Sites of Sights 177 Part Two: Pop-Esotericism Presentation 190 Chapter 6 Media and Spiritual Consumption 192 6.1 The Global Media Context and the Multi-nodal Networking 192 6.2 Pop Cultural Consumption with Spiritual Ends 197 6.2.1 The open shelves of the sacred cosmos 201 6.2.2 Sacralizing processes in spiritual consumption 207 6.2.3 Re-enchanting expenditures 219 THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP‐ESOTERIC WAVE v A Theory of the Operational Belief System Chapter 7 Defining ‘Pop-Esotericism’ 227 7.1 Pop-Esotericism as a Two-term Concept 234 7.2 Conversational Drives and Communication Codes 242 7.3 Categorical Features and Claims of Truth 252 7.3.1 Science, source of authority 253 7.3.2 Crypto-History, warranty of authenticity 260 7.3.3 Technoforensics and talismanic gadgetry 273 Summary of Part Two and Transition 282 Part Three: Belief Systems Presentation 285 Chapter 8 Belief Systems, an overview 289 8.1 The Threads of the Weberian Matrix 289 8.1.1 Axioms of a belief system, operability towards social practice 290 8.1.2 Belief systems and the function of social control 296 8.1.3 Weber’s contribution to methodology for inquiring belief systems 299 8.2 Belief Systems in the Modern and Late-modern contexts 304 8.2.1 The belief system in the modern context: Berger’s Anxiety of Anomy 307 8.2.2 The belief system in late modernity: Giddens’ Mourning Self 310 8.2.3 Summary and critical reading 315 8.3 Overview of the Belief System in Post-structural frames 318 8.3.1 The Dis/place of Believing (Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari) 321 8.3.2 On Apophatic edges 327 8.3.3 Summary and critical reading 332 THE BELIEF SYSTEM AND THE POP‐ESOTERIC WAVE vi A Theory of the Operational Belief System Chapter 9 Beliefs and Believing(s), a proposal for a theory 335 9.1 The Operative and The Operational, my disambiguation 336 9.2 Proposal for a Theory of the Operational Belief System 339 9.2.1 Flickering positioning of Belief Systems 341 9.3 Operative side (Ex-Pression) 342 9.3.1 Sources of Belief (the Inscribed, the Ascribed, and the Gatekeepers) 355 9.3.2 Lobes of the Acquirer (the Canon, the Codex, and the Archive) 361 9.3.3 From the modern Self to the Narcissus (or narcissoid Self) 374 9.4 Operational side (Im-Pression) 379 9.4.1 Classicalization and the bracketing of reality 384 9.4.2 Chanting and breaking the spell 392 Summary of Part Three 403 Chapter 10 Conclusions 407 10.1 Psychic Productions, mythical resonances of the viewing experience 408 10.2 Pop-Esotericism; crests, troughs and possible prospects 412 10.3 The ‘Seat’ of Spirituality, a discussion on spiritual agency 418 10.4 The Politics of Belief, sketching a provocation 434 Bibliography 440 Appendixes 459 A.