New Directions in the Humanities Conference Sorbonne Université, June 2023

1. FIREFLY GEISHA AND VIRTUAL WORLD
BUDDHISTS: FANDOM-INSPIRED NEW
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
Dr. Jean-Paul DuQuette
University of Macau
New Directions in the Humanities Conference
Sorbonne Université, June 2023

2. LINDEN LAB’S SECOND LIFE:
AVATAR CHAT AND CONTENT CREATION

3. FANDOM-INSPIRED NEW RELIGIOUS
MOVEMENTS
• “Fandom has emerged as an
ever more integral part of
lifeworlds, and an important
interface between the
dominant micro and macro
forces of our time” (Sandvoss,
Gray & Harrington, 2017, pp.
6,9).

4. WHAT DO FANDOM-INSPIRED NRMS
DO IN VIRTUAL WORLDS?

5. IS THERE SOMETHING FANDOM-INSPIRED
NRMS GET IN VIRTUAL WORLDS THAT THEY
CANNOT GET ELSEWHERE?

6. OUTLINE
• 1. Typology of online religion
• 2. Traditional Buddhist groups in SL
(as a point of comparison)
• 3. Role-playing fandom
• 4. Pop culture religious hybrids
• 5. The Firefly Companion’s Guild
• 6. Research questions and methods
• 7. Results and Implications

7. 1. ONLINE RELIGIOUS ENCOUNTERS
•A. Technophobia
•B. Technomediation
•C. Technomonism
• (Wagner, 2012, 112-118)

8. A. TECHNOPHOBIA
Notre Dame Borobudur Yogyakarta

9. B. TECHNOMEDIATION

10. …OR SOMETHING MORE
•Father Wyatt
performing mass at
Notre Dame in SL –
May 16, 2019
(Slade, 2019)

11. C. TECHNOMONISM
• “Virtual reality (is) a legitimate and
authentic new space into which
human beings can actually enter in
some meaningful kind of way, and
which they can enter in plural and
hybrid ways.
(Wagner, 2012, pp. 116)
• Not a separate virtual reality but a
“theater of the imagination”
(Helland, 2013, pp. 30)

12. 2. RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN
SECOND LIFE

13. EXAMPLE:
BUDDHIST ACTIVITIES
IN SECOND LIFE (1)
Silent Meditation
I feel that my boat
has bumped, there at the bottom,
into something big.
And nothing happens!
Nothing... quiet... waves...
Nothing happens?
Or has everything happened, and we are already at rest,
in something new?
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Satori Pavilion, Shambhala

14. BUDDHIST ACTIVITIES IN SECOND LIFE
(2)
Silent sermons
• Silent meditation plus extensive
notecard ‘sermons’
• In text only
Gaia Rising and Healing Muse

15. BUDDHIST ACTIVITIES IN SECOND LIFE
(3)
Daily Mindfulness Meditation
• Guided meditation
• In voice
• Nondenominational
• Overlap with guided hypnosis
Peaceful Minds,
Center for Mindfulness

16. HIGH PASSIVITY, LOW INTERACTIVITY
• Minimal emphasis on
participation
• Only a skeletal framework of
traditional ritual
• Little communication between
members at events
• Small group size

17. 3. PARTICIPATORY FANDOM
• Fan fiction / art
• LARPing
• Textbased MUDs and MOOs
• MMORPGs
• Role-playing communities in
virtual world sandboxes (e.g.
Second Life)

18. 4. FANDOM BASED NEW RELIGIOUS
MOVEMENTS
The Jedi Church
(jedichurch.org, n.d.)
The Church of the Latter-Day
Dude (Dudeism, 2018)

19. WHY ARE FANDOM-BASED NRLS ‘A
THING’?
• Accelerated dissemination of pop
culture and fan groups via the Internet
• An identification with the values of
heroes from popular fantasy and
science-fiction and alienation from
mainstream religion / mythology
• A pre-existing knowledge base that has
been voluntarily consumed from which
to draw reference

20. 5. THE BÓ'ÀI HÓNGLIÁN FIREFLY
COMPANION’S GUILD
IN SECOND LIFE

21. FIREFLY
• Broadcast by Fox in 2002-2003
• Joss Whedon’s “space-western”
• Serenity released in 2005
• Browncoats fan base stll strong (Firefly,
n.d.)

22. INARA SERRA
• Played by Morena Baccarin
• A Companion (courtesan)
• Socially elite
• Skills focusing less on sex and more on
psychological nurturing and emotional
well-being, etiquette and performing
arts (Firefly, n.d)

23. TAKEN FROM THE FIREFLY CANON
• Use of Mandarin Chinese
• Courtesan as councilor/negotiator
• Geisha culture
• Sex positivity
• Matriarchal Guild structure (implied)

24. THE GUILD AS A SCHOOL
Guild Sponsor (n=2)
Companion Patron (n=188)
Companion Acolyte (n=125)
Peacock Acolyte (n=50)
Flamingo Acolyte (Females) (n=31)
Hummingbird Acolyte (Males) (n=9)
Phoenix Acolyte (n=37)
Registered Companion (n=27)
Priestess (n=6)
High Priestess (n=1)
Extended family of participants (n=400
approx., 1/2019)

25. THE COMPANION’S GUILD AS AN
NRM

26. 6. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND
METHODS
Initially
• To look at gamification and learner
motivation within a role-playing school
(DuQuette, 2017)
Eventually
• RQ#1: To examine how a virtual
fandom-based NRM functions
• RQ#2: To explore the possible unique
affordances of an online virtual world
which might facilitate the continued
existence of a fandom-based NRM

27. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
• Virtual world ethnography
(Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce & Taylor,
2012)
• Digital Habitats
(Wenger, White & Smith, 2009)
• Practice-oriented spirituality
(Grieve, 2017; Wuthnow, 1998)
• Transmedia as religious world
building
(Wagner, 2012)

28. METHODS
• Qualitative and ethnographic
• Participant observation
(1/2018 – 12/2021)
• Class and event recordings
• Interviews recordings
• Extraplatform interactions
(Facebook, Ning)

29. 7. RESULTS AND IMPLICATIONS

30. RQ1
WHAT DOES THE COMPANION’S GUILD
DO?
•A role-playing
community
•An educational group
•A religious organization.

31. ROLE-PLAYING IN THE GUILD
• Guild sponsored social
events
• Collaborative events with
other SL fandom-based
groups
• Role-played “Encounters”
with Registered
Companions (graduates)

32. GUILD CURRICULUM AND EVENTS
• Approximately a two-year course
• Core courses
• Member suggested courses
• Fire ceremonies
• Grading day
• Wo Men Dakai (graduation)
• Buddhawheel ‘games’

33. ASPECTS BASED ON KADAMPA
BUDDHISM
• A. Meditation
• B. Spiritual intermediaries
• C. Dakini Land and Charnel Grounds
• D. Buddhawheel
• E. Four enjoyments

34. A. FOCUS ON REGULAR MEDITATION

35. B. EMPHASIS ON SPIRITUAL
INTERMEDIARIES

36. C. DAKINI LAND AND
CHARNEL GROUNDS

37. MANDALAS OF VAJRAYOGINI
• A Tantric Buddhist goddess and dakini
(“a Tantric term for female practioners,
adepts, spirits and dieties” (Shaw, 2006,
p. 359)).
• An unselfish deity that strives for the
well-being of others and the
destruction of their egos
• Appropriate for those people with
passionate natures (which she can
change into more enlightened virtues)
(Gyatso, 1996; Shaw, 2006)

38. D. BUDDHAWHEEL

39. AVATAR AS GAME PIECE

40. E. THE FOUR ENJOYMENTS:
ROLE-PLAY ELEMENTS WITH
DEVOTIONAL SIGNFICANCE
• Gazing – “like visiting a shrine”
• Smiling – “showing appreciation
through the sharing of ritual…doing the
practice of the diety”
• Holding hands – “working with the
diety as friends”
• Union – “becoming one with the diety”
• (Varahi Lusch, interview, 3/12/18)

41. “PERFORMATIVE SPIRITUALITY”(GRIEVE,
2017, P. 81)
DRIVEN BY ROLE-PLAY

42. REGISTERED COMPANIONS ON
SPIRITUALITY IN THE COMPANIONS
GUILD
• “While the Guild hasn't turned me into a Buddhist by any stretch, I
do know I'm operating under a perception of concepts like
attachment that I didn't have before.” (Lysana, private
conversation, 13/4/18)
• “The Guild training, particularly the meditation element, gave me
a social self-awareness that my previous meditation training
hadn't addressed. Varahi is not only a gifted teacher but an
originator and has effectively created a new spiritual tradition.”
(Beeflin, private conversation, 13/4/18)

43. THE COMPANIONS GUILD AS A
TRANSMEDIA HYBRID NRM
• 1. Implicitly connects established
author-centric world building with fan
fiction, role-playing and the ‘lore’ of an
established tradition.
• 2. Reportedly has an impact on
psychological well-being outside of the
magic circle of role-play (Huizinga,
1955).
• 3. Practice-based / dogma-light
interactions in role-play provide an
opening for participants initially averse
or ambivalent to religion / spirituality.

44. RQ2
DOES SL PROVIDE ANY UNIQUE
AFFORDANCES FOR THE GUILD?

45. INTERVIEW WITH
HIGH PRIESTESS VARAHI
• Group leader
• Spent time in a Buddhist
monastery
• Geisha “evangelist”

46. INTERVIEW WITH ZEN:
A VIRTUAL COMPANION AND A VIRTUAL
JEDI?
• Teaches “Love Without Attachment: The
Jedi view on Love and Intimacy”
• Author of Your First Step Into a Larger
World (2018)
• A Jedi role-player in SL, but a Jedi
practioner in RL

47. IMMERSIVE PROPS FOR BOTH
RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND ROLE-PLAY
• Virtual costumes
• Virtual ritual spaces
• Access to a worldwide fanbase of
likeminded practitioners
• What stimulates the imagination
stimulates the possibility for belief

48. AUGMENTED IMAGINATION
• The use of virtual artifacts,
environments and social networks
to enhance the sense of authenticity
and/or legitimize an online group.
• Applicable for religious
organizations, role-playing groups
and any online community in which
belief or suspension of disbelief is
important.

49. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
• Virtual environments like Second Life
might foster NRMs that would
otherwise flounder.
• Virtual sandboxes like SL might provide
a gateway from fandom-based role-
play to fandom-based spirituality.
• Virtual environments provide low-cost
opportunities for technomonists who
might be otherwise unable to
participate in brick and mortar religious
activities.

50. THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS
• A reminder that there is overlap
between theories of belief, of
suspension of disbelief (Laycock, 2015)
and of “make-belief” (Schechner, 2002).
• Immersive environments have both
graphical and social affordances.
(Morningstar & Farmer, 1991).
• Just as pop culture draws on religious
and mythological themes, so now can
pop culture influence (or subvert or
replace) mainstream communities of
belief.

51. REFERENCES
• Bird, L. C. (2018). Your first step into a larger world: An introduction to walking the Jedi Path. CreateSpace
Independent Publish Platform.
• Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C. & Taylor, T.L. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of
method. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Dudeism (2018). The Church of the Latter-Day Dude. Retrieved from http://dudeism.com
• DuQuette, J. (2017), June). The Companion’s Guild: Role-play, education and spirituality in a Second Life
community. Paper presented at the International Scientific Conference on Cultural Group Behavior, Kaunas,
Lithuania
• Firefly (TV series) (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly (TV series)
• Gray, J., Sandvoss, C. & Harrington, C.L. (2017). Why still study fans? In J. Gray, C. Sandvoss & C.L. Harrington
(Eds.), Fandom: Identities in a mediated world (pp. 1-26)
• Grieve, G.P. (2017). Cyber Zen: Imagining authentic Buddhist identity, community, and practices in the virtual
world of Second Life. New York: Routledge.
• Gyatso, G.K. (1997). Guide to Dakini Land: The Highest Yoga Tantra Practice of Buddha Vajrayogini. USA:
Tharpa Publications.

52. REFERENCES (CONT.)
• Helland, C. (2013). Ritual. In H. Campbell (Ed.), Digital religion: Understanding religious practice in
new media worlds. New York; Routledge.
• Huizinga, J. (1955). Homo ludens: A study of the play element in culture. Boston, MA: The Beacon
Press
• Jedi Church (n.d.). The Jedi Church. Retrieved from https://www.jedichurch.org.
• Laycock, J. (2015). Dangerous games: What the moral panic over role-playing games says about
play, religion, and imagined worlds. Oakland: California: University of California Press.
• Morningstar, C. & Farmer, R. (1991). The lessons of Lucasfilm’s Habitat. In M. Benedikt (Ed.) First
Steps. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. 274
• Mystie Slade (2019, May 16). Father Wyatt performing mass at Notre Dame in SL.
https://www.facebook.com/mystie.slade [Facebook update]
• Schechner, R. (2002). Performance Studies: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.
• Shaw, M. (2006). Buddhist Goddesses of India. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
• Wagner, R. (2012). Godwired: Religion, ritual and virtual reality. New York: Routledge.

53. SECOND LIFE PHOTO CREDITS
• Jean-Paul DuQuette (Slide 3, 12-16, 22,
23, 39,41, 45)
• Mystie Slade (10)
• Zen (46-47)
• FionaFei (all others)