Believing in Bits

Simone Natale is a Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University, UK. Diana Walsh Pasulka is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion.

• Introduction1: Amazon Can Read Your Mind: A Media Archaeology of the Algorithmic Imaginary2: Information Theory of the Soul: Spiritualism, Technology, and Science Fiction3: The Return of the Sonic Ghosts: Phonographic Revenants and Digital Reanimations, from Paleospectography to Hauntology4: I play, therefore I believe: Religio and faith in digital games5: Ritual Magic and User Generated Deities on Instagram6: Instant Karma and Internet Karma: Karmic Memes and Morality on Social Media7: Disciples of the New Digital Religions: Or, How to Make Your 'Fake' Religion Real8: Where Soul Meets Technology: Catholic Visionaries and the Stanford Research Institute as Precedents for Human-Machine Interfaces and Social Telepathy Apps 9:Plurality through Imagination: The Emergence of Online Tulpa Communities in the Making of New Identities10:UFOs, ufologists and digital media in Brazil11:Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Religion: Past, Present, and Future12:Algorithm Magic: Gilbert Simondon and Techno-animismAfterword: Religious and digital imaginaries in parallel lines

It unquestionably achieves the goal to awakening the reader to a relevant and engaging academic discussion about how belief and practice take shape in the encounter digital media.