Dearest Rhia

Dearest Rhia is an autoethnographic documentary film that explores whether humans have psychic abilities. It places the researcher (myself) as the subject of this autoethnographic documentary, defined as a type of self-narrative that situates the self in a social framework (Narayan, 2006). The multidisciplinary character of this investigation focuses on the topic of spiritual awakening of psychic abilities. Researchers use the autoethnographic study approach to examine subjectiveness and personal experiences, seeing the self as “another” while highlighting concerns (Strang, 2019). The uniqueness of this project is expressed through the choice of topic (spiritual awakening of psychic abilities) and method of distribution (TikTok miniseries). The social media application TikTok has brought virality to many topics, including spirituality. With the increased awareness of spirituality and bringing like-minded individuals together, many TikTok influencers believe the theory that all humans have psychic abilities. These spiritual influencers will share this theory with their followers via TikTok videos. As the researcher, I was interested in learning if I, myself, had psychic abilities because I had been told in previous psychic readings that I have these abilities, or was I influenced by the TikTok algorithm to believe I have psychic abilities? The purpose of Dearest Rhia is to explore and self-reflect if I, Sophie Mariah Francey, have psychic abilities, or am I only being highly influenced by media (and the media’s influencers) promoting the theory that humans have psychic abilities? This autoethnographic documentary uses storytelling, graphics, research, training courses, experimentation, and expert interviews to accomplish its task.