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2017
Report of a day conference, Spirit Influence on Mental Health: Is spirit influence an important contributory factor in hallucinatory disorders? Organised by the Spirit Release Forum. Regent's College, London, 4 February 2017. The online Word version has not preserved all the formatting, but downloaded should preserve the internal links, which the pdf version may not.
Self, Personhood and Possession
The notion of the self as a bounded entity is threatened by the idea that the spirit of someone who has died can enter the energy field of the living. This paper examines contemporary Western ideas of possession, often in a clinical setting, in relation to non-Western beliefs and practices.
The Futures of Magic: Ethnographic theories of unbelief, doubt, and opacity in contemporary worlds. A Workshop convened by Richard Irvine and Theodoros Kyriakides, 2018
I take as my starting point the premise that Western ‘moderns’ are not so different from people in so-called pre-industrial, small-scale societies and never have been (Latour, 1993; Josephson-Storm, 2017), and that in today’s world, to a greater or lesser extent, Western forms of education and globalisation mean that everyone is faced with the question of choosing between different sorts of cosmology (Taylor, 2004), or is at least aware that others might have a different view of the world. I also assume that, as Lévy-Bruhl (1975) accepted in his later writings, logical and mystical thinking co-exist in all societies and in every human-mind. Having said that, there is a disjunction between the popular appetite for the paranormal, personal experience of Psi phenomena, and religious and spiritual practices on the one hand, and a fairly extreme physicalist straight-jacket that manifests itself in the media, within academia and in academic publishing on the other. In the United Kingdom and other parts of the Western world new spaces and practices are being created that seek to legitimise forms of magical thinking. I am going to leave religion on one side and focus in particular on the spaces between science and magic in which personal experiences that cannot be accommodated by the current dominant medical and scientific models are expressed, necessitating new or expanded understandings of the way the world works. Anthropologists have made some cautious moves towards validating personal and interpersonal experience as a respectable research tool (Briggs, 1974; Jackson, 1996; Jakobsen, 1999; Turner and Bruner, 1986), and have described their own uncanny experiences in the field, whether from a perspective of doubt in the interpretations offered by their hosts (Favret-Saada, 1980; Louw, 2015), by internalising emic explanations (Stoller, 1987; Turner, 1992), or while struggling to make sense of the challenge these experiences can pose to one’s settled view of the world (Clifton, 1992; Jenkins, 2015). The potentially transformative effects of fieldwork in general and extraordinary experiences in particular have also found their way into academic texts (Goulet & Miller, 2007; Young & Goulet, 1994). Having gained at least a glimmer of a very different psychic world and range of relationships with human and non-human others in Cameroon, I was taken aback by some of the continuities I later discovered among alternative healers in the United Kingdom, particularly when discussing forms of psychic energy, possession and the fluidity of the Self. This raised questions concerning the role of personal experience and its cultural manifestations and codifications on the one hand, and the challenges of interpreting uncanny or unusual experiences in a largely secular, rationalist society on the other. Along with David Hufford (1982), Michael Winkelman, (2016), Gregory Shushan (2018) and others, I suspect that first hand and recounted experiences of ‘magical’ phenomena, particularly near death experiences, encounters with the deceased, mediumistic and shamanic experiences, out of body travel, Psi (clairvoyance, telepathy, pre-cognition, psychokinesis), sleep paralysis and spirit possession, have profoundly shaped the ways in which human beings in all times and places have formed their religious ideas and cosmological outlook. Taking the example of spirit possession, I explore some of the ways in which experiences that appear to be universal and ancient appear or reappear in Western society to be interpreted in ways that seek a sometimes uneasy accommodation with normative medical, scientific (and religious) models of reality. Ethnographic enquiry is based on a conference organised by the Spirit Release Forum (SRF) in London (Bowie, 2017), and some of the wider work of those involved in this event. Motivations for involvement in the work of the SRF and similar bodies vary, but simple curiosity and a research agenda (Haraldsson, 2012) seems to play less of a role than direct experience of the intrusion of spirits into an existing clinical practice, which then leads clinicians new and unorthodox directions (Fiore, 1995; Zinser, 2010). In some cases a first-hand haunting or possession experience leads those affected to search for an explanation and relief or release from an unwanted and disturbing intrusion. Engagement in a world of spirits is not seen as an alternative to or escape from religion, science, or the ‘ordinary’ world, but as a result of ghostly or spirit-related experiences the world as it was has often slipped from view. Rationalist explanations for extraordinary and often frightening and life-changing encounters with spirits cannot be wished away and, as Jeanne Favret-Saada’s Normandy peasant farmers informed her, the Church can generally only provide a small, and not very powerful means of combatting the power of witchcraft and other psychic phenomena (1980). The medical profession may well pronounce the sufferer insane and resort to chemical treatments and perhaps incarceration. A de-witcher, shaman, spirit release therapist or suitably trained and experienced medium is therefore sought out, often as a last resort, although they may come disguised as a regular psychologist, psychiatrist or alternative healer (almost certainly in private practice). The focus of this particular SRF conference was mental health and ways in which a phenomenology of spirits and spirit possession can help provide clinical help for various types of mental illness. Much of the focus was on schizophrenia and hearing voices, conditions poorly understood and inadequately treated by conventional pharmaceutical and psychiatric methods, but which appear amenable to spirit release therapy. A range of other conditions, including obsessions and compulsions and Tourettes, which are similarly unresponsive to psychoanalytic treatment, are fertile ground for ‘magical’ healing methods (cf. Rapoport, 1989). Most of those taking part in the conference were both open to studying the effects of spirit release techniques in clinical situations and realistic about the barriers that such ideas openly expressed encounter within the NHS.
Though near-death studies have yielded few practical applications , some psychotherapists have used insights from near-death experiences (NDEs) to treat a variety of problems. Using hypnosis, relaxation methods, or electric shock to initiate a conversation with a purported spirit "possessing" the patient, the therapist persuades the spirit to join others in a land of ethereal beauty and light similar to the transcendental realm of an NDE, or simply to go directly into the light. Such techniques are treated as a culmination of the spirit's NDE; that is, the purported possessing spirits had their original death experiences terminated prior to entering the transcendental stage, but instead of returning to their own bodies, they appear to have invaded the bodies of others. Some persons may leave themselves open to invasion through substance abuse or occult practices. Most near-death experience (NDE) research concentrates on determining exactly what has happened during NDEs, the frequency of their various aspects, verification of information obtained during NDEs, long-term effects on the experiencers, and attempted explanations. Practical application usually aims at helping medical personnel and the general public to accept the existence of such transcendent experiences, thus preventing people who report them from being discredited. I review in this article the work of four therapists who have used aspects of near-death phenomena to treat individuals purportedly ~'possessed" by spirits, as manifested by hearing voices or inner conversations , severe depression, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, impulsive or compulsive behavior, phobias, or anorexia nervosa.
This qualitative study was designed to establish a comprehensive understanding of the initial experience associated with the spiritual transformation process of inexperienced claimant mediums, commonly described as individuals who allegedly have regular communications with the deceased. Spiritually Transformative Experiences are commonly thought to be a type of transformation and expansion of consciousness. Often referred to as psychic openings, these experiences have occasionally been described as being startling or traumatic, sometimes creating a loss of contact with consensual reality that may possibly lead to psychiatric misdiagnosis in the individual's search for an understanding of the experience. Consequently, the desired outcome of this study was to establish a better understanding of the initial psychic opening and propose a more reasoned approach to its acknowledgement and development by the scientific community. A five-part review of the background literature in the field of study focused on a history of the practice of mediumship, the proposed psycho-spiritual emergence process, the child's perspective of his or her spiritual development process via an archival biographical analysis of the psychic opening, the subsequent development of the medium's purported abilities, and a review of recent processs-oriented mediumship studies. Six participants for this study were selected from a group of certified research mediums pre-screened for their abilities by the Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential in Tucson, Arizona. A semi-structured questionnaire in compliance with Saybrook Institutional Review Board oral history specifications was utilized as the primary research instrument to provide biographical accountability. However, additional written documentation of the experience was included when appropriate to further clarify the psychological impact of the psychic opening. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that the participants' transformative experiences consist of a sequence of developmental experiences that include an encounter with a single or multiple spiritual entities that one may or may not consider as spirit guides. Depending upon the age of the participant and the existing social support system at the time of the initial experience, the spiritual encounter can be either fearfully traumatic or merely an anomalistic variation of the individual's concept of reality. 2
Building Bridges, Dissolving Boundaries: Toward a Methodology for the Ethnographic Study of the Afterlife, Mediumship, and Spiritual Beings Fiona Bowie Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2013; doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lft023, 2013
"The study of death, the afterlife, and related phenomena has long been of interest to anthropologists and religious studies scholars. Although such matters are of central human and cultural concern, Western academic approaches often rely on the juxtaposition between “our” rational and “their” irrational belief systems, and attempt to “explain away” or ignore emic interpretations with a subsequent loss of semantic density. A methodology for studying the afterlife and related phenomena based on cognitive, empathetic engagement involves adopting an emic interpretive lens in order to arrive at a “thick description” that does not shy away from aspects of experience outside the ethnographer's Weltanschauung. A discussion of the implications of adopting a dialogical, participative, open-minded approach to these aspects of human belief and practice are discussed in the context of case studies of spirit possession and reincarnation. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com"
Abstract THE SPIRITUALLY TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES OF CLAIMANT MEDIUMS William G. Everist Saybrook University This qualitative study was designed to establish a comprehensive understanding of the initial experience associated with the spiritual transformation process of inexperienced claimant mediums, commonly described as individuals who allegedly have regular communications with the deceased. Spiritually Transformative Experiences are commonly thought to be a type of transformation and expansion of consciousness. Often referred to as psychic openings, these experiences have occasionally been described as being startling or traumatic, sometimes creating a loss of contact with consensual reality that may possibly lead to psychiatric misdiagnosis in the individual’s search for an understanding of the experience. Consequently, the desired outcome of this study was to establish a better understanding of the initial psychic opening and propose a more reasoned approach to its acknowledgement and development by the scientific community. A five-part review of the background literature in the field of study focused on a history of the research and practice of mediumship, an archival biographical analysis of the psychic opening, the proposed psycho-spiritual emergence process, the child’s perspective of his or her spiritual development process, and the subsequent development of the medium’s purported abilities. Six participants for this study were selected from a group of certified research mediums pre-screened for their abilities by the Windbridge Institute for Applied Research in Human Potential in Tucson, Arizona. A semi-structured questionnaire in compliance with Saybrook Institutional Review Board oral history specifications was utilized as the primary research instrument to provide biographical accountability. However, additional written documentation of the experience was included when appropriate to further clarify the psychological impact of the psychic opening. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that the participants’ transformative experiences consist of a sequence of developmental experiences that include an encounter with a single or multiple spiritual entities that one may or may not consider as spirit guides. Depending upon the age of the participant and the existing social support system at the time of the initial experience, the spiritual encounter can be either fearfully traumatic or merely an anomalistic variation of the individual’s concept of reality.
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