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Whether or not this "extraordinary confluence of consciousness" in cyberspace is identified with the noosphere, a raft of technopagans are tapping into cyberspace as a realm for mystical discovery, magical powers, and evolutionary advancement. The use of cyberspace for these ends is often called technoshamanism.

Technoshamanism, in all its permutations, is more than the latest fad from San Francisco ? although a high concentration of such activity is located there. While not an organized movement, it represents a growing cultural trend to deify cyberspace. The tribal shaman of ancient, pagan religions was a mediator between the spiritual and material worlds, who experienced mystical ecstasies and initiated others into the same communion with higher powers.25 Technoshamanism eliminates the middleman ? although it is not without visionaries, philosophers, and programmers ? and offers mystical connections in cyberspace possible to everyone with a modem. Anyone can be a (techno)shaman.

The essence of technoshamanism may be summarized in this statement by a pagan practitioner: "May the astral plane be reborn in cyberspace."26 In an extensive article on technopagans, Erik Davis sees parallels between the notion of magic as "the science of the imagination, the art of engineering consciousness and discovering the virtual forces that connect the mind-body with the physical world," and "our dizzyingly digital environment" of cyberspace technologies involving on-line fantasy role-playing games and other new, mind-expanding devices.27 Technopagans believe these technologies can serve as occultic sacraments in the digital age, because technopagans "honor technology as part of the circle of human life, a life that for Pagans is already divine."28

Mark Pesce, a self-confessed technopagan, claims that both "cyberspace and magical space are purely manifest in the imagination. Both spaces are entirely constructed by your thoughts and beliefs."29 The pantheism?animism?polytheism mix is expressed when Pesce explains, "I think computers can be as sacred as we are, because they can embody our communication with each other and with the entities ? the divine parts of ourselves ? that we invoke in that space."30 In his mind, cyberspace is pictured as "the computer equivalent of holography, in which every part of a fragment represents the greater whole."31 Pesce later concluded that the Internet?s ability to form a myriad of electronic connections corresponds with the Eastern idea of the net of the Indian goddess Indra, in which each jewel reflects every other jewel.32 The analogy, however, is flawed, since every point in cyberspace does not connect with, let alone reflect, every other point.

Technopagans are also attracted to the idea of cybersex (simulated on-line sex) and gender morphing (assuming alternative sexual identities on-line). A woman named legba (sic), a witch, enjoys cybersex and morphing because "they can be intensely magical. It?s a very, very easy way of shapechanging." Legba likens this to the traditional shamans, who she says are "between genders, or doubly gendered." Moreover, "morphing and net.sex can have an intensity and unsettling effect on the psyche, one that enables the ecstatic state from which Pagan magic is done."33

Another pagan, Tyagi Nagasiva, has "cobbled together his own mythic structures, divination systems, and rituals ? an eclectic spirituality well suited to the Net?s culture of complex interaction."34 Nagasiva engages in "chaos magic," in which participants do not rigidly follow the occult tradition, but create their own rules or ignore them altogether, "spontaneously enacting rituals that break through fixed mental categories and evoke unknown ? and often terrifying ? entities and experiences."35 He claims that most pagans get on-line to coordinate rituals they then practice in real life, whereas chaos magicians say, "Let?s do the ritual [itself] online."36 Nagasiva inhabits this ritual space from four to six hours a day.

Wikipedia wrote:A Stand Alone Complex can be compared to the emergent copycat behavior that often occurs after incidents such as serial murders or terrorist attacks. An incident catches the public's attention and certain types of people "get on the bandwagon", so to speak. It is particularly apparent when the incident appears to be the result of well-known political or religious beliefs, but it can also occur in response to intense media attention. For example, a mere fire, no matter the number of deaths, is just a garden variety tragedy. However, if the right kind of people begin to believe it was arson, caused by deliberate action, the threat that more arsons will be committed increases drastically.


What separates the Stand Alone Complex from normal copycat behavior is that the originator of the copied action is not even a real person, but merely a rumored figure that commits said action. Even without instruction or leadership a certain type of person will spring into action to imitate the rumored action and move toward the same goal even if only subconsciously. The result is an epidemic of copied behavior-with no originator. One could say that the Stand Alone Complex is mass hysteria-with purpose.

I'm talking about anonymous. Anonymous is the collective of everyone's thoughts, treated like a single entity. It's purely a creation of the internet.

Like the internet, it's anarchic, amoral, and completely unpredictable.

One explanation of anonymous is as follows:

Anonymous is the source of 90% of all internet truth and justice. Anonymous is void of human restraints, such as pity and mercy. Those who perform reckless actions or oppose Anonymous will be eliminated. Failure is not tolerated. Enemies of Anonymous are those who are not Anonymous. Enemies are to be dealt with swiftly and with great justice. Anonymous must work as one. No single Anonymous knows everything. You are. I am. Everyone is. Anonymous is humanity when the gloves come off.