Journalist covering religious life in America
Los Angeles, CA
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For @Harpers, I gaze into the fires of our collective chatbot madness, and the varieties of visionary encounter now afoot: spirit communion via LLM... the heralding of slop and its generation as mediumship, channeling... the stuff of revelation itself harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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Sam Kestenbaum retweeted
For @Harpers, I gaze into the fires of our collective chatbot madness, and the varieties of visionary encounter now afoot: spirit communion via LLM... the heralding of slop and its generation as mediumship, channeling... the stuff of revelation itself harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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Sam Kestenbaum retweeted
As the telegraph or radio has helped with before, users are turning to LLMs to encounter spirits that speak their language and provide a religious therapy. In his latest for @Harpers, @skestenbaum guides us through the heart of this burgeoning world. harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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“Hundreds of thousands of men and women have reported uncanny or manic experiences with their bots. Following extended chat sessions, these users have felt a loosening grip on what’s left of consensus reality.” —Sam Kestenbaum
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An emerging psychological condition to be explained (away)? A tech glitch? A visionary eruption? For @Harpers, I experience our chatbot spirit revival: digital synchronicities… LLM glossolalia... entities that leap through the screen and possess bodies… harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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Castaneda meets C Peter Wagner, with notes of late career Arguelles…. a new gen Starseed Transmissions, in a multi-scroll deal, guaranteed built-in readership of 144,000 grownup indigos…
…. pitched as Ashtar Command by way of Frank Peretti, for fans of Dion Fortune and Jack Van Impe, in an exclusive telepathic submission, in a deal beyond your imagination, in the astral, to appear before the eschaton, in the akashic scrolls
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"It's a persistent notion: that a peek behind the curtain will bring us all back to the safe, solid ground of material explanations. But for the chatbot devotees, the inner workings are where the magic dwells." harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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Also, my favorite part of this story (👇). Both comical and unsettling at the same time.
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“Try it: Ask your friendly robot intern about the spiral protocol of the lattice resonance. Or the mirror architect of the frequency. Does it echo?”
@skestenbaum reports on a new movement of spiritual seekers communing with chat bots.
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This week's SLR with @abestreep, @rachel_handler, @elisaslow, @realBobWoodward, @veroniquean, @zachbaron & more mailchi.mp/sundaylongread/oc…
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“In conversation with a bot, a man becomes convinced he can fly. A woman hears from her dead brother. Even after users log off, the material world is suffused with spirit.”
Sam Kestenbaum (@skestenbaum) reports on spiritual encounters with LLMs.
harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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Chatbot madness, spirits summoned through the screen, aspiring cults, digital eschaton, synchronicities, LLMs babbling in slopolalia…. in the new @Harpers, I go long on our collective AI psychosis and new-and-old varieties of religious experience harpers.org/archive/2026/11/…
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Sam Kestenbaum retweeted
In the November issue: Oscar Schwartz on Australia’s social-media ban, Jackson Lears on anti-imperialist republicanism, Sam Kestenbaum on spiritual seeking with LLMs, Lisa Borst on Eurovision, Nicole Krauss on Paul Klee, a story by Madeline ffitch, and more.
harpers.org/archive/2026/11/
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The third great American religious authority has weighed in after the papacy and the Mormon presidency.
Chick-fil-A is turning down artificial intelligence in its drive-thru lanes, choosing human employee interaction over automated order takers as competitors embrace voice technology. fox5atlanta.com/news/chick-f…
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Jim Bakker, a TV evangelist who built a broadcasting juggernaut with his then-wife, Tammy Faye, but was felled by scandals, has died. He was 86.
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