The Avatar Faculty creatively examines the parallels between spiritual and digital activities to explore the roles that symbolic second selves—avatars—can play in our lives. The use of avatars can allow for what anthropologists call ecstasy, from the Greek ekstasis, meaning "standing outside oneself." The archaic techniques of promoting spiritual ecstasy, which remain central to religious healing traditions around the world, now also have contemporary analogues in virtual worlds found on the internet. In this innovative book, Jeffrey G. Snodgrass argues that avatars allow for the ecstatic projection of consciousness into alternate realities, potentially providing both the spiritually possessed and gamers access to superior secondary identities with elevated social standing. Even if only temporary, self-transformations of these kinds can help reduce psychosocial stress and positively improve health and well-being.

About the Author

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass is Professor of Anthropology at Colorado State University.

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Contents

List of Illustrations
Key Terms and Abbreviations
Preface
Central Characters and Settings

Introduction

1 • Sacred and Secular Settings
2 • The Psychology of Avatar Therapeutics: Absorptive Experiences and Stress Relief
3 • The Psychosocial Dynamics of Avatar Therapeutics: Enhanced Self-Image and Elevated Social Standing
4 • Distinguishing Therapeutic from Toxic Avatar Experiences: Norm Conflicts and Felt Dissonance

Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Appendix A. Chapter 2 Supplemental Material:
Survey Methods and Results

Appendix B. Chapter 3 Supplemental Materials:
Survey Methods and Results

Appendix C. Chapter 4 Supplemental Material:
Survey Methods and Results

Notes
Glossary
References
Index

Learn More

Interview with Jefferey G. Snodgrass on newbooksnetwork.com

Reviews

"Scholars and social scientists of religion will find much of interest in this book, because it explores the increasingly uncertain borders of 'religion,' when secularization may be obscuring the meaning of the concept without actually satisfying the human need for sacred norms and profound meanings."
— Nova Religio

"For those interested in gaming, ranging from scholars to designers to players, it provides new perspectives to think through ideas like immersion, and insights to help structure digital avatar experiences that are more health-promoting than health-eroding."
— Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry

“The Avatar Faculty is a compelling and approachable execution of a remarkably diverse set of theorical and methodological insights that students can digest. . . .an essential contribution for any student or scholar invested in the psychosocial dynamics of religious or digital experience.”
— Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"For psychiatrists and others interested in mental health, the book demonstrates the utility of the psychological anthropological approach, which foregrounds this complex interplay between human culture and cognition."
— Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry

"In this book, Jeffrey Snodgrass realizes and extends some of the best in anthropological research. One of the things that is particularly appealing about this book is that it provides instructors with an ethnography written explicitly from the standpoint of cognitive culture theory. I have taught cognitive anthropology for over twenty years, and it is difficult to find an ethnography that explicitly adopts the perspective. Not only does this work build directly on cognitive culture theory, it deals with subject matter that I anticipate will be really engaging for students."—William W. Dressler, author of Culture and the Individual: Theory and Method of Cultural Consonance

"In the best ethnographic tradition, Snodgrass’s book brings together two seemingly unlikely bedfellows—online gaming and spirit possession—to draw conclusions about their astonishing similarity and, more importantly, their relevance to us all—even those who will never have direct experience of either one. Beyond the book's direct contributions to cultural anthropological theory and method, it engages the timely public concerns of online immersion and gaming disorders in a manner that would be deeply engaging to popular, undergraduate, and graduate audiences alike."—Lesley Jo Weaver, author of Sugar and Tension: Diabetes and Gender in Modern India

Awards

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 2023, Choice

About the Book