A scene from Disney+ fourtune-telling survival show “Battle of Fates” \/ Courtesy of Walt Diseny Company Korea<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Kim Ji-eun, 35, starts her morning with a ritual \u2014 asking ChatGPT for her daily fortune. <\/p>\n
\u201cI used to visit a fortune teller for the New Year or when I had worries, but now I just ask ChatGPT,\u201d she told The Korea Times. \u201cI tried it once for fun and the result was surprisingly similar to what I\u2019d heard at a fortune teller\u2019s, so now I ask about things like money problems or whether my boyfriend and I are a good match. It\u2019s not like I trust it completely, but I don\u2019t think it hurts to be a bit more careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also watches Disney+’s “Battle of Fates,” a shamanism-themed competition show that has left her with goose bumps.<\/p>\n
“Watching these so-called Gen MZ (Millennials and Gen Z) shamans casually deliver \u2018messages from the gods\u2019 was actually fun and all the different ways they tried to read people\u2019s fates were fascinating. I didn\u2019t even know foot reading was a thing, and seeing them pick out a homeless person just by looking at someone\u2019s feet was really shocking,” she said. <\/p>\n
Kim is far from alone. Shamanism-themed content is surging in popularity among younger Koreans, spilling from streaming platforms into everyday consumer culture and reshaping how a generation thinks about fate, identity and the supernatural.<\/p>\n
From mystical fringes to mainstream TV<\/strong><\/p>\n Since February, \u201cBattle of Fates\u201d has featured 49 fortune-tellers competing in wild challenges to prove their powers.<\/p>\n In each round, tarot readers, saju experts, foot physiognomists and shamans tackle missions like guessing someone\u2019s cause of death from just their name and birthday, spotting the person who \u201cstruck it rich\u201d with a winning lottery ticket versus the one who survived being struck by lightning in a lineup or predicting a guest\u2019s current life from childhood photos. They also pinpoint a guest\u2019s two surgery scars or pit rival shamans against each other to see who reads fates most accurately.<\/p>\n The show drew buzz for putting shamanism front and center in a high-stakes survival competition. But it soon sparked backlash over certain missions and off-base comments from contestants \u2014 especially one where fortune tellers guessed how a firefighter died, turning real tragedy into cheap reality TV thrills.<\/p>\n A scene from SBS “Shinpal Talk Show: A Strange Story” \/ Courtesy of SBS <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Producers took heat for the missteps, prompting talks about ethics in content creation and even some re-edits. Still, experts say the bigger story is how shamanism has stormed into mainstream entertainment \u2014 and that trend deserves a closer look.<\/p>\n Hits like the global smash \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d and 2024\u2019s box-office phenomenon \u201cExhuma\u201d have cleared the way for a wave of shamanism-themed shows. Variety hits like \u201cFortune Tellers’ Love,\u201d \u201cShinpal Talk Show: A Strange Story,\u201d \u201cMBTI vs. Saju\u201d and the drama \u201cThe Haunted Palace\u201d are riding the trend. YouTube is flooded with it, too \u2014 search \u201cmudang\u201d (shaman) or saju and you\u2019ll find shamans reading viewers\u2019 fortunes or guessing their pasts, with videos pulling hundreds of thousands of views.<\/p>\n Once a secretive, mystical world, shamanism is now mainstream entertainment for all ages. Fans don\u2019t just pay for readings anymore \u2014 they binge vlogs of shamans\u2019 daily lives and counseling sessions, turning them into influencers. Viewers get hooked on the spot-on predictions but also crave the comfort and reassurance in their words.<\/p>\n The trend is not confined to the screen. “Aengmagi myeongtae” key rings \u2014 shaped like the dried pollack traditionally hung above doors to ward off bad luck \u2014 have become a popular accessory among younger consumers, while fortune-telling apps that combine traditional saju reading with ChatGPT-style AI functions are also on the rise.<\/p>\n A key ring in the shape of “aengmagi myeongtae,” or bad-luck-banishing dried pollack \/ Captured from GS Shop <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Between comfort and blind faith<\/strong><\/p>\n Culture critic Jung Duk-hyun noted the old image of shamans as shadowy, secretive figures is giving way to bright, relatable “Gen MZ shamans” known for their warmth and accessibility. <\/p>\n \u201cOne reason they\u2019re surging in popularity is that they counter the emotional coldness of our AI-driven, hyper-smart society,\u201d he explained. \u201cWho deals with raw feelings \u2014 resentment, grief and pain \u2014 more directly than a shaman? They treat those emotions like messages for the supernatural, soothe them away and help the living move forward. That\u2019s very different from Western exorcists who just cast out evil spirits and it\u2019s why [Korean-style] shamans are getting fresh attention even in the West.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone views the trend so favorably. Baek Kwang-hun, director of the Center for Cultural Communication, a Christian organization, warned that packaging shamanism as mainstream entertainment carries risks. <\/p>\n \u201cAs shamanism becomes a sure-fire box-office draw, we are seeing a wave of content that normalizes it and makes it easier to accept without resistance. In the process of shamanism being polished and glamorized under the label of \u2018culture,\u2019 the market surrounding it is expanding and evolving across generations,” Baek said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis trend can loosen people\u2019s sense of caution toward shamanism, spur real-world consumption and even shape individual decision-making. It is too risky to treat it as nothing more than light entertainment. We need a more critical awareness across society to prevent this from sliding into obsession or blind faith in shamanism.”<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.koreatimes.co.kr \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A scene from Disney+ fourtune-telling survival show “Battle of Fates” \/ Courtesy of Walt Diseny Company Korea Kim Ji-eun, 35, starts her morning with a ritual \u2014 asking ChatGPT for her daily fortune. \u201cI used to visit a fortune teller for the New Year or when I had worries, but now I just ask ChatGPT,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2311646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2311645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spirits-survival-shows-and-saju-Koreas-unlikely-shamanism-entertainment-boom.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2311645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2311647,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311645\/revisions\/2311647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2311645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2311645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2311645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/newsimg.koreatimes.co.kr\/2026\/03\/03\/f56d4928-80de-456b-a259-eba179d8e2c4.jpg?w=728\")
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