Well, I joined that group and its affiliated forums months ago, although I’ve been and continue to be a questioning skeptic to the whole thing, but I guess I can say that it has evolved a bit ever since I first came across it while reading this (two-year old, but very “epic”) thread at Neoseeker.com.

It has gained a rather large membership of folks (300, as of July 24); among the most common topics of discussion are personal faith, astral travel and dreams, especially those which concern the Digital World and Digimon. The group has also suffered from a number of raids and infiltrations from the members of various forums and imageboards.

I’ve asked on one of the affiliated forums about if the whole Digiclipse project is meant to have a digital nature or an astral/metaphysical nature, as the latter seems to be much more utilized and displayed during forum discussions; one of the replies are the following:

I really think it has to be a combination of both metaphysical as well as technological means, but I look at it this way.

Too many people want a physical way to the Digital World, to go on adventures and save the world with their digimon partners. When you think about something “digital,” however, you think about numbers and binary and code and information and things that are not physical. At best, the only way to satisfy these people is with highly advanced virtual reality.

I don’t have any answers about the digital world and the astral plane. In fact, I think “astral” is actually the wrong word for it. I see the digital world existing as another realm, alongside the countless other realms that exist out there, and just like you can project into one, you can project into another. This is because, as far as I know, these other realms exist on a higher frequency, in which matter is disregarded. Bodies are not necessary and actually hinder things there.

I get results when I do things metaphysically or through magickal means (or just magical, since I’ve gotten come complaints about the way I spell the word), and not just with digimon-related business. But concerning the digimon, it’s enough for me. It’s my preferred method. That doesn’t mean I’m going to hinder those who prefer to work with technology, however….

….I don’t think it’s about finding answers, I think it’s about experiencing new things and growing as a person because of them. So I can’t tell you about the origins of the digital world, or how it functions in relation to the astral plane, or anything of the sort.

….I will tell you, though, that I do believe the internet to be its own “plane” just like we have physical, astral, and spiritual planes. I believe that there can be inhabitants of this plane, and those are the ones our minds perceive as “digimon” when we do metaphysical work with traveling to/communicating with this plane. Thus reality shifts.

So this approach – the combination of metaphysics/magic(k) and a fetishized Internet (based upon a premise set forth by a Japanese anime) – is, IMO, rather unique for a new religious movement.

I wrote about it at the forum a few nights ago:

If the Digiclipse and related projects have both a metaphysical and a digital side that are meant to balance (if not cancel) each other out, I wonder if this is one of the few and first examples of “Internet-centric spirituality”.

Other, previously-constituted spiritualities have used computers, software and the Internet as a means to simply communicate whatever’s been written in old or recently-published paperbooks, but the adherents do not actively embrace the same outside of the realm of “tools of the trade”. Furthermore, those who use the Internet as a means to set up a spiritual shop are derided by those of similarly-aligned but opposing faiths as being purveyors of twisted, misconstrued “Internet religion”; this occurs especially in the realm of neopagan and animistic spirituality, where words are thrown between “real practitioners” and “Internet gurus” who are accused of corrupting the faith or defrauding people of a particular ancestry whose long-dead ancestors practiced a similar belief system.

The Digiclipse project, IMO, may have come closer to crossing that chasm in that it gives a greater (canonical) credence to things of a digital, man-made-and-machine-processed nature. It’s pretty hard, from a Google search, to come across a similar belief system that actively embraces computers and the Internet as being a means of communicating with astral and spiritual things (which are involved with the Internet) and beings rather than just tools of communication between believers who subscribe to a belief in those astral and spiritual things and beings (which aren’t involved with the Internet).

Even those who are into UFOlogy and paranormal studies don’t entirely embrace the Internet outside of the “tools of communication between subscribers” pigeonhole. For them, the Internet fails to communicate the experience of abductees and encounterees of paranormal queries.

However, that doesn’t mean that the Digiclipse project fares that much better than the UFOlogists and paranormal scholarships; the Internet and its present facilities still don’t effectively communicate the professed experiences of the Digiclipse members with others of a like mind, although that may (or may not) change with the ongoing advances in network computing and user interfacing.

The only difference that I see between the two is that computers, software and networks are much more involved as facilitators of the professed encounters of the Digiclipse members, and are more embraced as themes of the spirituality and metaphysics, than they are to the UFOlogists and paranormal scholars, and even far more computer-embracing in comparison to those who have a more traditional religious/animistic bent or bias.

But when the technology expands in capability, does the Digiclipse project expect that more things of a spiritual and metaphysical nature will increase in occurrence? Or will the occurrences expand in number and breadth because of the increased number of folks drawn into the Digiclipse project and related initiatives?

I remain an adamant skeptic, although I’ll to admit that I’m acclimated more to the Digiclipse/RDB project’s goals and beliefs than I am to Wicca, Christianity, or even UFOlogy.

Just to get it out of my system, I’ll predict that, at some point in the future, this Internet-based spirituality will intersect with the furry fandom, or vice versa.

I say this because

1. The Digimon franchise already enjoys utilization as a base of inspiration for the design of personal fursonas, not to mention the copious amount of furry art (often yiffy) utilizing such characters as Leomon, WereGarurumon, and Renamon.
2. It is possible that the belief in the existence of Digimon and the Digital World can intersect with the furry fandom’s deep philosophy/spirituality section – namely, the school that puts forth fursonas, fursuits and other personal furry/otherkin (re)conceptualizations as the true embodiment of “human” natures.

What could arise out of the latter supposition is something akin to the development of the Five Percenters group:
some of us are actually, or spiritually, Digimon in a physically-human embodiment, and must thus work towards the development (if it doesn’t already exist) or maintenance/regaining (if it already does exist) of the Digital World, starting with the wearing of Digimon fursuits at conventions, Digimon avatars on virtual worlds, and Digimon-Digital World MUCKs on Telnet.

I honestly see that happening. And when that does happen, this sudden realization that we’re spiritual Digimon in a human body, you can expect a slew of Digimon Otherkin taking part in discussions on the furry, Otherkin, Digimon and general anime forums on the Web.

Of course, how this group of Digimon Otherkin will deal with those who see themselves as Digimon Tamers (some of whom are on the mailing list, the forums, and on YouTube) is a completely separate matter altogether.