Abstract
From a discourse-analytical perspective, magical thinking can be conceptualised as a sociopragmatic meaning-making process that sustains ideologies which blur or deny established facts.Whether conscious or not, this process provides individuals with a comforting sense of security and control, especially in the face of danger or health threats (Peterson & Cotter, 2024). This paper examines the discursive patterns of magical thinking in online health misinformation, with the aim of understanding how irrational beliefs are multimodally constructed and circulated. It focuses on three controversial health influencers: Gary Brecka, a “biohacker” who claims to predict a person’s day of death using blood and genetic tests; Anthony William, a self-proclaimed medium who channels health information from a spirit; and Barbara O’Neill, who presents herself as a “faithful sentinel” of God and promotes the body’s self-healing power. Drawing on a combined methodology that triangulates corpus-assisted discourse analysis with qualitative multimodal analysis of aural and visual communication (Bednarek, 2015), the study analyses a selection of multimodal texts (YouTube videos, Instagram posts, and podcast episodes) from a wider corpus of health-influencer discourse. The findings show that online health misinformation becomes particularly disruptive when verbal, visual, and aural resources intersect to construct persuasive rhetoric grounded in supernatural or non-empirical claims. By emphasising spiritually or divinely inspired sources of authority, these influencers craft charismatic online identities—mystical, spiritual, or superhuman—that can mislead vulnerable audiences. Building on existing research into the factors influencing the uptake of deceptive health communication (Garrett et al., 2019), this analysis sheds light on the multimodal strategies employed by alternative medicine practitioners to create persuasive online personas. It also emphasises the impact of digital platforms on contemporary health discourse, highlighting the associated implications for digital literacy and public health.