Presencing, Immersion, and Community: How Conspiracy Theory Belief Is Kindled Online

ABSTRACT: We bring together work in religious studies and literary and rhetorical studies to propose that absorption-like experiences of immersion and emotional presencing contribute to conspiracy theory belief, especially in digital media environments. First, we review literature in religious studies and psychology to suggest an empirical and theoretical basis for connecting the human propensity for absorption and immersion with conspiracy theory belief. Second, we turn to Tanya Luhrmann’s model of how religious and spiritual belief is created. We argue that Luhrmann’s work on faith frames, paracosms, and religious kindling offers insights into the lived experience of conspiracy theory belief. Third, we extend these insights through rhetorical and literary research on presencing and immersion to provide a more complete account of absorption. Finally, drawing on digital ethnographic data, we demonstrate how emotional presencing, imaginative absorption, and social immersion play out in the digital life of QAnon as a religiously inflected conspiracy theory.