“At a time when technologies are blurring space-time and when religions are losing their significance, ghosts are regaining control.” One might think this sentence straight out of a B series. Yet it appears in the cover file of Figaro Magazine of July 28, devoted to haunted houses. The journal, which suggests that spirits do exist, even claims that the phenomenon “stands up to science.” And for good reason, no researcher or serious scientific work is cited, only pseudo-specialists in the occult and surveys with no scientific value. “Why not, after all? defends himself THE Figaro, anticipating criticism. Is it not accepted by the polls that 50% of human beings have perceived, on the occasion of the death of a spouse, very clear signs of the latter’s presence in the days and weeks, sometimes the following years?
In the media, esotericism is rarely addressed critically. Rational and scientific analyzes often give way to light and humorous or mystical-metaphysical testimonies. “Even though there is a plurality among newspapers, most present esotericism in a rather favorable light. And if you look at the number of ‘page views’, benevolent articles are more successful than critical ones. But the media need to have a readership”, analyzes Damien Karbovnik, doctor in sociology, teacher-researcher in the history of religions and specialist in contemporary esotericism at the University of Strasbourg. The article of Figaro Magazine has thus made a splash on digital, meeting a strong audience and generating a hundred new subscriptions, according to an internal source.
Women’s magazines, radios, televisions: all bewitched
If the summer holidays and its lack of topicality give way to these “light subjects” in the general editorial staff, the women’s press broadcasts them all year round. Marked by the “heuristic of naturalness” – the fact of believing, wrongly, that all that is natural is better than what is artificial -, it adopts a reasoning similar to esotericism by implying that, since all cannot be explained, the magical and the supernatural can exist. Articles presenting the many benefits – never proven – of pseudo-medicine (naturopathy, acupuncture, auriculotherapy, etc.) frequently rub shoulders with posts highlighting occult or new age practices, without further scientific foundation.
Among the unbeatable horoscopes are more fashionable subjects, such as witchcraft, driven by “feminism and empowerment energy”: the empowerment and empowerment of women through mystical energies. The Hubert Burda Media group (publisher of the German versions ofShe, from HuffPost and Playboy) thus published, between 2020 and 2022, around ten issues of New Witch (“New Witch”), subtitled “Awaken the witch within you” (thanks to “the power of rituals” or “shamanic magic”). Even the teenage press is tempted. In October 2021, the magazine Julie thus offered its 10-14 year old readers a file on esoteric beliefs suggesting practicing “100% chills” spiritualism sessions, drawing cards or even buying “grigris without fuss”, or even making them. thanks to a “little witch” manual. Bingo!
Television is illustrated just as well. A report broadcast last May on France 3 (France Télévisions) was, for example, the promotion of a company that installs loudspeakers in vines in order to broadcast “regenerative lullabies”. According to its promoters, this device protects plants against esca, a wood disease, and against water stress. “An eco-responsible alternative”, subtitles the channel, in capital yellow letters. On the Radio France side, the same subject had was discussed in 2020 on France Bleu and in 2017 on France Culture, through a fifty-five minute report. The two media then claimed that “music has powers over plants”, which would be “proved by the discoveries of physicists”.
Prime time shows are just as fond of these subjects, especially when they are embodied by wacky and eloquent characters. On January 7, 2022, It’s up to you, France 5 (France Televisions) invited Natacha Calestrémé, ex-journalist turned personal development and well-being star, to present her concept of “psychic entanglement”. “The things that happen are messages that can be translated, it’s disturbing to see that when someone has a problem with leaks, it’s often related to something that’s hidden, that it’s need to update […]. When people face a heating problem, it’s all about heart and love. It looks silly, but it’s studied”, learnedly assured the one who still presents herself as a “scientific journalist” and who learns, in her successful works, to call on “beings of light” in order to help the reader to find the name of his “guide”.
Less surprisingly, we find a multitude of clairvoyants, mediums and other occult specialists in scandal shows such as Do not touch My TV, by Cyril Hanouna, multiple convictions by the Audiovisual Communication Regulatory Authority. The occasion of lunar sequences, like the one in January 2021, during which one of them claimed that the vaccine against Covid-19 was “not very effective”.
Responsibility and credibility of the media involved
For each of these examples, no warning, no critical analysis or question to verify the claims of followers promising mountains and wonders. The “miracle” technology of Genodics, the for-profit company that broadcasts music in vineyards, is thus the fruit of the work of Joël Sternheimer, a “doctor in theoretical physics”, professor at the European Research University, say France Télévisions and Radio France. However, this alleged university ceased its activity in 2007 and is not hosted by a university site, but on Free.fr. Joël Sternheimer, who failed the CNRS entrance exam, has published only one study – in the Reports of the Academy of Sciences – which has never been cited or considered by physicists, reveals a Numerama survey. Its technology has never proven its effectiveness. As for Natacha Calestrémé, her words have been repeatedly denied by doctors and researchers, as L’Express has shown in a long investigation. “When the media speaks about the ecovillage of Findhorn, in Scotland: I am appalled to see that many reports never mention that the community was founded on principles received in ‘channeling’ by ‘devas’, sorts of spirits of nature, and that this community willingly supports holistic approaches to health”, adds Damien Karbovnik.
The magazine Julia, who advises his teenage readers to “run and think about unicorns” if the glass moves on its own during a sequence of spiritualism, does not indicate either that this phenomenon is explained by the ideomotor effect, a psycho mechanism -physiological by which a subject executes unconscious muscular movements, described for decades in the scientific literature. The women’s press almost never reminds us that astrology is not a science and that its predictions do not work, like many studies, detailed in particular in the book Is astrology a fraud? by Daniel Kunth and Philippe Zarka (ed. CNRS), demonstrated this a long time ago. She probably prefers to surf on a rogue form of feminism that tries to assimilate science to patriarchy, in order to better highlight esotericism, necessarily more feminine because it requires gentleness and sensitivity.
And during this time, esotericism is gaining more and more momentum in society. “Since the end of the 2000s, we have observed an explosion of its forms and its social visibility: esotericism is no longer taboo, on the contrary, it has become mainstream. And the press has participated in this trivialization by regularly devoting articles”, considers Damien Karbovnik, who also denounces a poor understanding of these subjects by journalists. Failures that are all the more damaging in that these practices, which have won the battle for popularity, are now trying to win the battle for respectability, while cases of sectarian aberrations or, more simply, of false promises aimed at selling various products and tips, multiply.