Angels in the architecture

the economy of the supernatural

Clive Bloom

pp. 226-243

in: Peter Buse, Andrew Stott (eds), Ghosts, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999

Abstract

Despite the importance of science and technology in the Western world and the advances of rational thought across the last two hundred years, a general belief in the paranormal is both widespread and deeply felt.¹ Horoscopes, clairvoyancy and spiritualism all command a large audience and have a special place in the popular imagination. The paranormal and the occult are fascinating areas which hold rich material for the student of cultural studies and popular sociological beliefs, and both offer fields which have yet to be explored but which have immediate appeal. This essay asks the questions "what cultural and historical factors allow irrational belief to flourish in an age of technology?" and "what apparently arcane beliefs are the products of a technological modern society — products of both progress and paranoia?"