Virtually Shamans: An Anthropological Perspective on AI Chatbots
Mark Friis Hau, Jakob Krause‐jensen
Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2025 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1111/anoc.70011 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI chatbot users act like digital shamans, using specialized prompts to communicate with opaque, mysterious systems. This liminal role bridges everyday human experience and computational knowledge, challenging boundaries between human and non-human, tool and entity. The analysis draws on ethnographic traditions of magic and technology to show how these interactions create new forms of postmodern otherworldliness, offering insight into meaning-making in digital environments and addressing cultural implications of AI adoption.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | AI chatbot users occupy a liminal shamanic role, using prompt engineering as ritual to navigate between mundane and digital realms, creating postmodern otherworldliness. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article explores the emerging relationship between humans and AI chatbots through the anthropological lens of shamanic practice, proposing the concept of “virtually shamans” to understand these digital interactions. Drawing on ethnographic traditions of studying magic, spirituality, and technological mediation, we argue that AI chatbot users occupy a liminal position analogous to shamanic intermediaries, navigating between mundane human experience and opaque digital realms of computational knowledge. The analysis examines how prompt engineering resembles ritual practice, requiring specialized techniques to communicate with entities that are simultaneously rational and mysterious. We explore how these interactions challenge conventional boundaries between human and non‐human, and tool and entity, creating new forms of postmodern otherworldliness. The paper situates AI chatbots within anthropology's long‐standing interest in how occult practices intersect with modernity and technology. Through this shamanic metaphor, we explore the entanglements of human–AI relationships, suggesting that chatbots generate new forms of postmodern otherworldliness. This framework offers a novel perspective on how individuals navigate and create meaning in increasingly digital environments, contributing to broader anthropological discussions on technology, modernity, and cognition, while also addressing the cultural and social implications of widespread AI adoption.