Mediumship

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).

The Seven Seals of medieval Islamic magic, which are believed to constitute the Greatest Name of God, also feature in Jewish Kabbalah from the same period. While many Seal symbols make sporadic appearances in early Islamic amulets bearing Kufic script, the source of the symbols and their eventual ordering remains a matter of legend. As this topic was first – and last – examined systematically by Dr. Hans Winkler in 1930, a wider-ranging and more modern review is long overdue. The present survey focuses on potential sources for the symbols rather than on their exegesis. It first examines the possibility that a precedent for the Seal series exists in an undecipherable “seven signs repeated seven times” inscribed on a Late Babylonian amulet. It then considers the possibility that the Seals’ origins lie in other cuneiform symbols from ancient Mesopotamia; in Egyptian hieroglyphs or scripts; in paleo-Hebrew characters or the letters of ancient South Arabian scripts; in Libyco-Berber or Tifinagh letters from North Africa; or in the symbol repertoire of Late Antique magic, including the highly potent seven Greek vowels. The review also explores the possibility that at least some of the symbols originated in numerological ciphers or religious emblems, canvassing sources as diverse as Indian Hinduism and Byzantine Christendom. The article concludes by considering the recent suggestion that the Seal series may have acquired its privileged status because its symbols reflect “shape archetypes” that are hard-wired into the human nervous system.

This article performs a strange comparison to question the very applicability of the “burden of proof” to both subaltern mediums and scientists. I look at the problem of proof not only in the field of subaltern spiritual work, but also in the practice of petroleum geology and the history and philosophy of science. By tacking back and forth between “science” and “obeah” in the Caribbean, I hope to problematize the burden of proof that the trials of mediality have often sought to produce – from the experiments with witchcraft in early modern courtrooms to the Victorian trials of psychical research. Might there be other ways of understanding what is at stake in mediumship than the burden of proof?

Kasenian réak is a regional variant of the Javanese horse dances from Bandung, Indonesia. Commonly known in the archipelago as jaranan, kuda lumping or jathilan, the Javanese horse dances are a group of ceremonial musical performances during which a group of performers, led by a trance master, undergo voluntary possessions on behalf of spirits of the ancestors and other supernatural beings, under the influence of a musical ensemble. In different possession and trance phenomena around the world recognizing the acting spirit is often the key to communication with the supernatural being and treatment of the possessed. Thus, more or less different and precise taxonomies may be developed in order to do so. In réak, the possessed behaviour is interpreted by the trance master and members of the group in order to meet the spirit’s various demands and act accordingly to manage the possession. The purpose of this article is to examine the spirits’ taxonomies at play in réak as a case study. I do this in order to show in which sense analyses of the phenomenon of possession based on classification often fail to grasp the complexity and thus the significance of the experience. The outcome will underline which benefits can be obtained by a an approach that gives more value to a context-based ethnography of the possessed and its peculiarities than to the development of a general theory of possession with comparative purposes.

The importance of fire in human evolutionary history is widely acknowledged but not fully explored.  Fires involve flickering light, crackling sounds, warmth, and a distinctive smell.  For early humans, fire may have extended the day, provided heat, helped with hunting, warded off predators and insects, illuminated dark places, and facilitated cooking.  Recently scholars have proposed that campfires also provided a social nexus and relaxation effect that could have enhanced prosocial behavior (e.g., McClenon 2006; Wilson 2012; Wrangham 2009).  According to this hypothesis, calmer, more socially tolerant people would have been advantaged via the necessity of fireside interactions relative to individuals less susceptible to fireside relaxation.  In this study, I test the presupposition that the properties of a campfire are universally relaxing.  Using a randomized crossover design, blood pressure, skin conductance, and EEG data were collected from 134 adults from Tuscaloosa, AL with respect to viewing a muted digital fire, a digital fire with sound, and a blank computer screen for 5 minutes each.  Student’s t statistic was used for within-subject comparisons of the degree of change in blood pressure from pre- to post-test among conditions.  ANOVA was used to test between-subject influences on skin conductance and alpha/theta brain wave ratios.  Preliminary results indicate that simultaneously watching and listening to a fire influences the greatest relaxation response while the control condition influences the least.  These findings have significant contemporary applications, as understanding the psychophysiological influences of fire may “shed light” on our species’ captivation with television and other similarly multi-sensory phenomena.

4. President’s Letter
New SPR President, Prof. John Poynton, asks whether the tide has turned for psychical research.
  6. The Medium
Dr Leo Ruickbie talks to Kai Mügge about his life and work as a physical medium, including the question of investigation.
12. The Séance
After the table levitated, what happened next? Dr Leo Ruickbie details his recent experience of a séance with Kai Mügge and the Felix Circle.
16. Listening to Tea Leaves
Ann R. Winsper asks whether electronic voice phenomena are genuine spirit communications or ‘audible tea leaves’.
19. Voices from Pennsylvania
Dr Peter McCue details his analysis of audio files purporting to be communications from the spirits of the deceased.
|22. Auditory Hallucinations
Dr James Paul Pandarakalam poses the question whether the source of auditory hallucinations lies beyond the material brain.
26. The Enfield Saga
Guy Lyon Playfair chronicles the history of the Enfield poltergeist from This House is Haunted to the TV drama The Enfield Haunting.
28. Macfadyen on Enfield
Actor Matthew Macfadyen reveals what it was like to play Guy Lyon Playfair in the recent Sky Living mini-series The Enfield Haunting.
30. The Enfield Effect
SPR Council Member John Fraser considers the increased interest in the SPR and asks what should be done about it.
31. No Coincidence
What happened when the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes went to Crete? Callum Cooper tells all.
33. Ex Libris
SPR Librarian Karen Patel reveals what is new on the library shelves.
34. Ghosts in the Machines
Brandon Hodge searches for the remains of the famous spirit room of Jonathan Koons.
36. Letters
Prof. Peter Mulacz responds to criticisms of his article in PR74.
39. Contributors
40. Events

Communication with the dead is not characteristically associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. However, lodged in the Rare Books Collection of the University of British Columbia is a remarkable diary kept by William Michael Rossetti. It consists of a small series of 27 handwritten folios entitled simply "Memoranda by himself." This diary is a meticulous record of twenty spirit-ualist séances that took place between 1865 and 1868, séances that attracted a number of Pre-Raphaelite artists, their friends, and family members. By 1865 spiritualism was practised widely throughout Britain. Though summoning the dead was by no means a recent preoccupation, it appeared in its modern form in America in the late 1840s, was brought simultaneously to England and the Continent in the early 1850s, and was widely disseminated by the 1860s. It was a highly controversial practice and drew in many famous names, for and against. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an early convert, Charles Dickens a vigorous opponent, but its adherents ranged from Queen Victoria at one end of the social spectrum to Mary Marshall-poor, vulgar, but hugely eminent as the "washerwoman medium"-at the other. Séances, both public and private, took place throughout the country. Some were spectacular displays of showmanship involving large audiences; some were intimate, devout gatherings, while others took the form of after-dinner entertainment. The social, anthropological, and religious status of spiritualism has been much debated, but one important factor drove people to the darkened room of the medium: the desire to contact a dead loved-one. It was this motive that lay behind the séances in William Michael Rossetti's diary, since many of them were driven by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's desire to reach out to the dead Elizabeth Siddal. Though William was of course present at all the séances, not all were attended by his brother, and the "spirit" of Elizabeth Sid-The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, ns 29 (Fall 2020)

We read with great interest the editorial by Krüger (2020) in which she provides a review of some of the cultural aspects of dissociation and trauma. We especially appreciate her call for the study of the “entire spectrum of dissociation” (p. 1) from normal to pathological. We have been working along similar lines (e.g., Maraldi et al., 2017; Maraldi et al., 2019) and would like to take the opportunity offered by Krüger to explore further the literature on possession experiences, which she mentions only briefly in her paper. Cardeña et al. (2009, p. 173) define possession trance as “a temporary alteration of consciousness, identity, and/or behavior, attributed to possession by a spiritual force or another person”. When involuntary, unwanted and incompatible with cultural or religious norms and practices, such experiences might be classified as pathological. The diagnosis of “possession trance disorder” was first proposed in the DSM-IV (APA, 1994) as a condition for further study, but in the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) pathological experiences of possession were subsumed under the dissociative identity disorder (DID) category. Pathological possession is now thought in terms of a “possession-form presentation” of DID. But the link between DID and possession trance has been contested by researchers from different countries (e.g., Delmonte et al., 2015; Maraldi et al., 2017; Van Duijl et al., 2013). Also, it is still unclear to what extent pathological possession differs from other pathological phenomena, such as possession delusions in psychosis and some of the so-called cultural syndromes (e.g., ataque de nervios, LewisFernández, 1994), which are considered by some authors as instances of dissociative phenomena (Hegeman, 2013; Ross et al., 2018). On the other hand, there are many nonpathological dissociative experiences about which we know very little, including spiritual experiences reported during religious or ritualistic practices (Alvarado, 2005; Queiroz, 2017). The DSM

This research explores performer as medium, and more broadly, performance as a practice connecting past already lived experience, and the present. It is centred in the experience of my solo performance practice that is philosophically concerned with the ontology of the everyday and the ordinary. An experiential approach allows the creative and performance practice to be sustained, while strategically adopting phenomenological, autobiographic, and ethnographic stances to interrupt, problematize and inform the creative work. By cycling practice and reflection, I foster an emergent approach, allowing for unfolding a degree of plasticity and adaption. I examine cultural and geographic aspects of human being, and their embodied manifestation asking how particularities of place(s) and communities are implicated in creative practice. This research is further informed by an ongoing survey of practitioners, artists and writers. The research explores the body, its senses, perception and capacity for embodied recollection. It investigates the intelligence and innate forms of knowing of the body and how this is drawn upon in performance. Embodied knowing, capacity for associating, connecting and relating, along with kinaesthetic memory are important elements of this research. Key questions include how and what memories within body are kindled and collide with those cultivated by the performance space? Can we ever separate past and present in our embodied selves, and what does that mean in terms of future selves? How do body and place mutually imprint? My experience correlates with the notion of body as a multi-layered entity-a repository of memories of lived experiences and ancestral history that reside dormant within a cellular and biological perspective, and can inform at a behavioural level. This remembered history has considerable potential and capacity to shape and influence one's self. Drawing these to consciousness and embodiment in performance has been one of the practical outcomes. I consider the idea of shadowed or hidden selves, and reconnecting to parts of the self that are hidden, lost or denied. I examine my own performative state and notions of mediumship, forms of trance and transformative dance. The notion of mediumship within my performance practice parallels the concept of body as conduit between past and present. Imprints, impressions of past experience, and their As a short preface to the paper's main chapters I offer a brief personal history. I hope these insights into my formative years and cultural environments give useful contextual information, and equip the reader with a framework to engage with my practice and the perspectives that are being offered in this paper. The paper then takes the following form. Firstly (Performance Practice and Methodology), I consider aspects of the field of shamanistic practices and contemporary practices deriving from butoh. I outline my practice and the processes underpinning this inquiry. In chapter 2 (Body and Memory), I explore several perspectives on body, its somatic sensibility, forms of knowing and capacity for bodily remembering upon which my practice is centred. I consider the notions of mediumship and reflect on the processes of moths are calling (moths…). This is followed by Space and Place and the Located Performer where the notions of place and located-ness are introduced. Insights arising from the research are presented in the final chapter, Concluding Thoughts, and I briefly reflect on questions arising. Key concepts of the investigation e.g. medium and attunement are italicized/bold in order to outline their importance in the paper. They are also listed and given explanation in a glossary of terms in Appendix 1. Personal history The core threads of my research can be traced to my formative years growing up in Malaysia. My cultural lineage has exposed me to energy systems, beliefs and practices such as traditional Chinese medicine, tai chi and animism. As a physically active child, my explorations relied heavily on the tangible and kinaesthetic experiences of my physicality. Broadly speaking these interests stimulated and extended my inquiry to my relationship with my immediate environment/surroundings, and to notions of spirit and trance, which have in adulthood dovetailed into my artistic life. An aspect of spatial and design awareness became important from my work as graphic designer. Interest in the dynamics of objects within a two dimensional perspective translates into three dimensionality of spaces in performance making. Design as an aesthetic discipline has always interested me, and this extends to costume/textile design (with a fascination of textures) and architecture/interior design. These interests inform my choice of collaborators.

Talk given at the Exploring the Extraordinary conference, York, UK, September 2010. In this presentation I introduce the work of the non-professional English medium, Lady Cynthia Sandys, who published several books and pamphlets in collaboration with the novelist Rosamond Lehmann. I also discuss the framework in which channelled mediumistic material can be studied ethnographically, using the afterlife correspondents as informants.

Geist- oder Wunderheiler, schamanische, spirituelle oder mediale Heiler: Viele von ihnen verstehen sich als vermittelndes Medium, um mit zumeist unsichtbaren Kräften, Strömen oder Wesen auf Hilfe suchende Klienten einzuwirken. Ehler Voss hat sich auf die Suche nach Medialen Heilerinnen und Heilern in Deutschland gemacht und ist dabei auf verschiedene Szenen des Medialen Heilens gestoßen. Channeling, Schamanismus, Reiki, Bruno Gröning und das Familienstellen nach Bert Hellinger – verschiedene Methoden verdichten sich in dieser Arbeit zu einer Kultur des Medialen Heilens.
Nach modernem Selbstverständnis handelt es sich bei dem Glauben an Geister um Relikte aus vergangenen Zeiten. Diese würden zwangsläufig mit einer fortschreitenden Zivilisierung verschwinden. Aus dieser Perspektive wirkt es zunächst überraschend, wenn auch Menschen in einem hochtechnisierten Land wie Deutschland Hilfe und Heilung in einer »Geistigen Welt« suchen. Dies wird meist als rückständig, lächerlich oder als Hinnahme eines bewussten Betruges gedeutet. Ehler Voss zeichnet in seiner Ethnographie ein differenzierteres Bild und lässt Heilerinnen und Heiler ausführlich zu Wort kommen. Die Interaktionen einzelner Akteure und Kontexte Medialen Heilens werden ausführlich beschrieben. Er folgt dabei nicht einem einheitlichen Schema, sondern arbeitet die unterschiedlichen Besonderheiten der Heilerinnen und Heiler sowie ihrer jeweiligen Situation heraus und unterzieht sie einer eingehenden ethnologischen Analyse. So bietet diese Ethnographie tiefe und vielschichtige Einblicke in die Eigenarten, Themen, Motivationen, (Un-)Sicherheiten, (Un-)Fertigkeiten und Widersprüche im Umgang mit Eigenem und Fremdem und eröffnet damit die Frage nach der menschlichen Identität.

As I sat in a darkened séance room, holding the hands of my neighbours and singing along to popular songs on a cassette recorder, I felt a mixture of foolishness and nervous expectation. Neither 'believer' nor 'sceptic' I was open to experience whatever the evening had in store. The physical/trance demonstration was part of my research into mediumship and afterlife phenomena. Spirit possession and mediumship are not unusual topics for an anthropologist of religion, but by studying paranormal phenomena in the UK I had crossed a disciplinary boundary of academic probity, and risked being seen as gullible and academically unsound. A second boundary crossing involved the body of the medium. The discrete boundary we like to think unites our physical body with whatever other elements make us human (soul, spirit, consciousness, mind) was suddenly called into question. Assuming the séance was not simply an elaborate hoax, was it perhaps evidence that we live simultaneously on more than one plane of existence, and that direct communication between planes and their inhabitants is possible? This discussion is about boundary crossing, methodologically, in terms of subject matter, and ontologically, in seeking to understand how the world is constructed.

The Brazilian Spiritualist Christian Order Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) is the place where the worlds of the living and the spirits merge and the boundaries between lives are regularly crossed. Drawing upon over a decade of extensive fieldwork in temples of the Amanhecer in Brazil and Europe, the author explores how mediums understand their experiences and how they learn to establish relationships with their spirit guides. She sheds light on the ways in which mediumistic development in the Vale do Amanhecer is used for therapeutic purposes and informs notions of body and self, of illness and wellbeing.

Pierini, E., 2020, Jaguars of the Dawn: Spirit Mediumship in the Brazilian Vale do Amanhecer, New York; Oxford: Berghahn.

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PieriniJaguars

Il presente articolo vuole essere un contributo alla comprensione del discorso dottrinale di Jane Roberts (1929Roberts ( -1984, e ad una valutazione della sua originalità da un punto di vista storico. Sebbene l'influenza della Roberts sia ampiamente riconosciuta, in particolare su quella pleiade di personalità, gruppi, movimenti e networks che vanno sotto il nome di "New Age" (ma tale influenza si estende sino alle manifestazioni dette "Next Age" 1 ) 2 , gli studi storico-critici dedicati a questo autore sono relativamente pochi 3 . La ragione di ciò è probabilmente triplice: da un lato il carattere relativamente recente del fenomeno; da un altro la carenza di studiosi metodologicamente attrezzati per studiarlo (per analizzare un simile corpus, infatti, occorrono conoscenze della storia dei nuovi movimenti religiosi, delle correnti esoteriche moderne e contemporanee, della parapsicologia); e infine, la natura stessa del discorso dottrinale della Roberts che, prodotto in stato di trance, sembra opporre alla metodologia ordinaria dell'indagine storica -basata, come si sa, sullo studio delle fonti e sulla contestualizzazione storico-culturale -difficoltà interne non trascurabili.

The temples of the Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) in Brazil and across the world are intended as 'spiritual emergency units' where mediums and their spirit guides provide patients with free assistance for health, relational, spiritual, and material matters concerning the person’s wellbeing. The therapeutic practice is known as 'disobsessive healing' and involves the release of causal spiritual agents considered to be affecting the person’s wellbeing. This paper discusses the Vale do Amanhecer’s etiology of illness and how mediums understand disobsessive healing as a complementary epistemology of healing, discerning spiritual and pathological experiences. Then, it examines how patients may draw their therapeutic trajectories across biomedical and spiritual contexts, sometimes developing mediumship as part of their therapeutic process. Approaching these therapeutic practices from the standpoint of affect and bodily experience may undermine the prominence of 'belief' in the study of non-biomedical approaches to healing, shedding light upon the relational, embodied, and lived-through dimensions of the notions involved in the therapeutic process.

Global Tribe explores the visionary arts dance movement of psytrance, which has mushroomed globally since its beginnings in Goa in the 1970s/1980s. Based on extensive international research, as the first detailed work on psychedelic trance, the book investigates the diverse roots and global proliferation of this music and festival culture. Consideration of comparative aesthetics, spiritual technologies and controversies with studied attention to internal dynamics will strike appeal among those holding academic and popular interests at the intersection of ritual, music and culture.

In this essay, I express my concerns about how one of our own has been treated by supposed scientists. The essay borders on a rant and is certainly a personal opinion that may not be shared by the editors. Please read with discernment.

Master copy: http://ethericstudies.org/arrogance-of-science/
(Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

In this book Professor Stafford Betty pulls together the best evidences for survival of death. The very best, he maintains, come from psychical research. The near-death experience, deathbed visions, reincarnational memories of little children, communications from the so-called dead through mediums, apparitions, poltergeists, spirits that reach out to us through electronic instruments, spirits that attach themselves to our bodies, and episodes of terminal lucidity in Alzheimer's patients form the better part of the book.

It is one of the fundamental questions that everyone will ask themselves, but in an age of global pandemics, with the increasing challenge to once universal religious certainties and the growing partisan stranglehold on information, the question ‘what happens to the human personality after death?’ takes on renewed urgency to seek answers from every discipline of knowledge, from history to computer science. This volume aims to bring together the different strands of that wide inquiry with contributions from experts in their fields to provide a uniquely valuable reference book, reflecting the state-of-the-art of research. To this end, contributions are invited from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, parapsychologists, philosophers, physicists, medical researchers, computer scientists and others.

This book project is being conducted under the auspices of the Society for Psychical Research. Established in 1882, the SPR is the world’s oldest, largest and most reputable organisation for the scientific study of what we now call the ‘paranormal’. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to contribute to a project of fundamental importance and a unique chance to join the SPR’s long tradition of open-minded inquiry.

In the last 150 years, a number of scientists, medical doctors, and other highly qualified investigators have diligently collected a wide variety of data pointing to the continuing existence of some portion of human consciousness after death of the body. This essay lays out the most pertinent elements of that accumulated data and argues that they strongly support the hypothesis of survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. Part I lays out the third-person evidence for survival, from phenomena such as apparitions of the dead, dreams, mediumship, and poltergeists. Part II looks at first-person evidence, not only from people who have had near-death experiences but also from those who remember living previous lives in other bodies and/or being conscious in a disembodied state between lives. The essay argues that the extensive cross-validation between the third-person and first-person evidence cripples the strongest skeptical arguments that have been brought against each category considered alone and makes the hypothesis of survival of permanent bodily death the best explanation for the evidence considered as a whole.

Resumo: Durante pesquisa de campo etnográfica, pude registrar que os filhos de Oxalá da Casa de Pai Joaquim concebem a Umbanda como uma religião‑ciência. Asseveram também que grande parte de seu conhecimento não está nos livros, pois é adquirido por meio da experiência cotidiana, com os pés descalços, dentro do terreiro. A partir dessa hipótese, busco esboçar algumas relações entre a epistemo‑ logia da umbanda de Pai Joaquim e a experiência vivida. Deste modo, extraio o conhecimento vivido por meio de três narrativas, as quais se inserem no escopo de uma teoria nativa da mediunidade, do desenvolvimento mediúnico e do processo mediúnico. Uma das conclusões é de que a abordagem das umbandas enquanto epistemes pode consistir em uma alternativa teórico‑metodológica à reiterada perspectiva sociológica que acompanhou o estudo do tema.

On Saturday 22 nd June 2013 I attended a one--day conference in London organised by the Spirit Release Forum, www.spiritrelease.org. DVDs of the talks are available from the Spirit Release Forum website, but the following comments are taken from notes made at the time. Spirit release, a gentle version of what is usually termed exorcism, is likely to produce a quizzical smile or perhaps provoke anxiety, based on the world of film or television. There are those, however, who hold that many of the physical and psychological ills facing people are the result of spirit attachments and possession, which occur when the spirits of people who die fail to make a successful transition to the next stage of existence. This may be because they don't realise that they are dead, or because they are confused and lost or afraid to move on to the realm of Light, as it is often called (or the higher astral planes in the language of Spiritualism or Theosophy). The spirit world and afterlife are part of the cultural framework of most peoples in the world. In a generally more narrowly materialist Western context it is less common to be among people for whom spirits are real, not metaphors or the product of an over--active imagination.

This article describes constructions of dybbuk, the Jewish variant of spirit possession, and its roots in sixteenth-century Kabbalist thought. Based on the analysis of documented early cases, this paper examines the possession idioms from psychological and socio-cultural perspectives by describing two case reports herein conceptualized as trance possession disorders. A comparison with the phenomenology of Dissociative Identity Disorder shows a striking resemblance between the syndromes. This culture-bound condition is discussed both in terms of its intra-psychic dynamics and its societal functions.

In the movement known as Spiritualism, successful performances of "mental mediumship" are rarely smooth. At services held by the Canberra Spiritualist Association, mediums attempt to provide evidence of life after death by describing a deceased person's character in ways recognizable to audience members. A medium's verbal performance de-emphasizes heteroglossia while developing vivid spirit characters. Audience members sometimes do not understand or accept what the medium says, but small "failures" in performance help build a larger sense that mediums and audiences are working to gather evidence. As they work, mediums foreground and background their agency at the same time, displaying their fluency in spirit

[California Dreamin'. The Invention of Neoshamanism as a Mediumistic Trial of the 20th Century]

Mediumism ― i.e. the testing of the capabilities and potentials of technical media and human mediums — was throughout the extended 19th century, the subject of a controversy which was staged as a great public debate between religious and secular interests. This debate was lessened when a psychological and immanent reading of negotiated mediumistic effects became dominant in the public sphere. Thus human trancemediums have been increasingly assigned to an obsolete archaic period, while technical media have been assigned to progressive modern times. In this perspective, human mediums and technical media are not coequal instruments in gaining knowledge of the world anymore. Instead altered states of consciousness only lead to knowledge of the particular persons themselves. In spite of this process of immanentization and the near dissolution of the great debate, the testing of mediumistic capabilities and potentials of humans and technology has not disappeared even in the 21st century. While in the 20th and 21st century, mediumistic trials have been conducted in smaller and less public settings than in the 19th century, this has resulted in new controversies. From ist beginning, mediumism has been a transatlantic approach and, following the contemporary actors and controversies, has especially led to California as a region in which new institutions of the mediumistic trial of the 20th century were invented, popularized, and globalized. As the invention of neoshamanism shows, the debate, at least partly, has nearly reached the level it had in the 19th century.

This essay explores some of the theoretical repercussions of the debate concerning the growth-oriented dimension of the personality that took place in the late nineteenth-century psychologies of transcendence.  The French-Swiss-English-American psychotherapeutic axis,  a ‘loose-knit alliance’ of cutting-edge scientists, investigated occult and paranormal phenomena ranging from somnambulism, hypnotic trance states, double consciousness, and multiple personalities to mediumship and pathological schizophrenic fantasies. Their insights into the complex phenomena of psychic dissociation posited a subliminal region that was not only a reservoir of trauma, but also source of a potentiality beyond normal consciousness, a notion which was continued and developed in Jung’s psychology.

The Psychical Research Foundation was formally established in 1961 as an organization devoted to the scientific study of phenomena related to the issue of survival of bodily death. From the time of its inception up until his passing in January of 2012, William G. Roll had faithfully served as the PRF's first and only director of research. The year 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the PRF, and as a way to observe this milestone occasion, as well as honor Roll's memory, this paper highlights the various lines of psi research conducted by the PRF throughout the duration of Roll's tenure as research director, with particular emphasis on its survival-related research. Concise reviews of the PRF's controlled tests with mediums and psychics, its laboratory studies of out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and its field investigations of apparitions, hauntings, and recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK, or "poltergeist") are presented, and the findings are discussed in the light of other related findings reported in the parapsychological literature. Some of the theoretical approaches to psi and survival that Roll had developed on the basis of the PRF's findings are also briefly summarized, and some hopes for the future of the PRF as it seeks to carry onward in the "spirit" of Roll's efforts are offered.

This report is about events at Shona Traditional Gatherings as revealed in a study carried out between 2005 and 2009 in Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, and Mashonaland East Provinces of Zimbabwe. People take part in such gatherings mostly in response to problems emanating from mishandling the cow/heifer given to a mother-in-law by her son-in-law (mombe yehumayi) or avenging spirits, and chenura (soul cleansing). The problems of avenging spirits emanate from murder or ill-treatment of people. Upon death the immediate ancestors present the soul to clan spirits who in turn alert the spirits of Gombwe, who contacts the Deity, and judgment commences. A person who has committed serious crimes is sent back to effect restitution through the involvement of living relatives. Chenura, a culmination of events to establish cause of death and prevent similar deaths, to rectify whatever may be out of place, to settle debts and credits, and to destroy the unwanted (for example goblins), must be held at least a year after the death of an adult. The end of these events is marked by dedicating beer to spirits and consuming it amid merrymaking into the following morning. The soul is symbolically taken home from the grave, then the property and responsibilities of the deceased are distributed. The celebrations are punctuated by spirits possessing their mediums and advising as needed. Spirits use gatherings to rectify whatever might have gone wrong, and remind people of their obligations. People attend gatherings to enjoy themselves amid fellowshipping with ancestors as opposed to worshipping ancestors. Events at Shona gatherings cannot be generalized because they depend on the problems at hand. Les rassemblements traditionnels Shona Takawira Kazembe, MPhil Résumé Cet exposé traite des événements qui surviennent lors des rassemblements traditionnels Shona, tels que révélés par une étude entreprise entre 2005 et 2009 au Manicaland, dans les provinces centrale et de l'est du Mashonaland au Zimbabwe. La plupart du temps, les gens prennent part à ces assemblés le font en réponse aux problèmes résultants de la mauvaise gestion d'une vache ou une génisse donnée à une belle-mère par son beau-fils (mombe yehumayi) ou pour venger les esprits, et pour le chenura (purification de l'âme). Le problème de venger les esprits proviennent de meurtres ou de mauvais traitements des gens. A la mort, les ancêtres immédiats présentent l'âme aux esprits du clan qui alors alertent les esprits de Gombwe, qui à leur tour contactent Dieu, et le jugement commence alors. Une personne ayant commis des crimes sérieux est renvoyée pour qu'elle puisse restituer par l'intermédiaire des parents qui sont toujours en vie. Chenura, une culmination d'événements pour établir la cause de la mort et prévenir des décès

Abstracts (English and Russian) :
Strong ritual ties are characteristic of early stages of epics in general (Zhirmunsky 1985; Putilov 1997) and of Philippine epics in particular (Manuel 1963). The hudhud has been repeatedly claimed to be a non-ritual epic as opposed to the alim ritual songs (Lambrecht 1965; Peralta 2001, 2007). However, evidences of ritual connections of the hudhud genre are to be found not only in Barton's (Barton 1946, 1955), but even in Lambrechts's works. This paper continues a study of ritual functions of the hudhud performance, (Stanyukovich 1981, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007) on the basis of analysis of early sources and fieldwork in Ifugao since 1995.
Hudhud personages are not just folklore figures, they belong to the halupe, a class of deities in the Ifugao pantheon. The specialization of halupe deities is to control emotions and memories; they are believed to be ma'ule, 'kind', i.e. benevolently disposed towards humans and to act on behalf of humans in their interactions with other deities. The halupe deities form the core of halag, so-called "women's religion" (Barton 1946). They are also addressed in rituals performed by males.
The hudhud-singing area is within the geographic boundaries where female agricultural rites were defined in the early 20th century (Barton 1946). It will be demonstrated that female hudhud singing during agricultural activities (weeding and harvesting) traditionally aimed to remind the benevolent deities of the needs of humans in order to secure an abundant harvest. Even today informants define the contents of hudhud di 'ani/page -'hudhud of the harvest/rice') as "it is all about rice". Women's singing in the fields pursues the same goal as the agricultural rites performed by males, i.e., to ensure the magical increase of rice.
Regional variations in hudhud epic singing result in the distribution of ritual functions between different genres within the frame of one ritual situation. This paper will discuss the role of the hudhud epic and hudhud-shaped ritual songs in funeral rites in order to make the soul of the deceased admit its new status, to achieve reconciliation between its living relatives and the soul of the dead, and to restore the territorial boundary between the dead and the living that has been jeopardized by a recent death. For that, the soul of the deceased, led by a spirit conductor Domia by means of hudhud singing, must be convinced to 'forget' the way back and to 'cool' its emotions towards its living kin, in that intense positive emotions towards those left on earth are just as dangerous for the living as are the negative ones.

Abstract Russian: Статья представляет собой теоретическое исследование антропологии эмоций, написанное на материалах, собранных автором в ходе многолетней полевой работы со сказителями, шаманами и другими ритуальными специалистами горных народов Филиппин (1995-2013). Основной круг проблем, рассмотренных в статье, относится к ключевым темам антропологии и эпосоведения: фольклор и действительность, эпос и обряд, антропология религий, шаманизм, антропология пространства, символика материальных предметов в фольклорном тексте и ритуале, обряды жизненного цикла, этнолингвистика, традиции и инновации в повседневной жизни коренных народов.

Современные филиппинские материалы (расшифровки записанных автором сказаний и интервью) анализируются в сопоставлении с ранними - конца девятнадцатого-начала двадцатого века. Представления ифугао и яттука о взаимодействии мира людей и мира духов, живых и мертвых даются в сопоставлении с фольклорными традициями других народов – как родственными сказаниям филиппинских горцев, так и обладающими только типологической близостью с ними (народы Сибири, Монголии и др.). Это позволяет автору придти к выводам, значение которых выходит за рамки исследования австронезийского культурного ареала.

Borneo used to conjure up images of lush tropical forest and bloodthirsty headhunters. During the last two decades, however, the island’s claims to fame have been linked to pervasive environmental concerns: Sarawak’s nomadic Penan groups set up road blockades to try and prevent logging companies from occupying and damaging their territories; and catastrophic forest fires, particularly in eastern Borneo, destroyed millions of hectares. More recently, with the lush forest already half gone and the ecological fad on the wane, the eruption of inter-ethnic violence in the west and south of the island has brought back images, broadcast worldwide this time, of bloodthirsty headhunters.
Comparable in size to Texas (or the combined United Kingdom and France), Borneo is the planet's third largest island. Lying on the Equator, it does possess stunning tropical rain forests, among many other natural resources, and a broad variety of traditional cultures, among which the Dayak have long been famous.
This volume traverses almost thirty years of acquaintance with and work on the great island of Borneo and its peoples. Curiously, this period spans the last true bouts of tribal headhunting, then still a ritual necessity, through to the recent massacres – “neo-headhunting” – that were both  statements of ethnic identity and claims for more political power and the control of the region’s economic wealth.
The essays collected here focus on a set of small tribal minorities living in one of the most remote corners of the Borneo hinterland, the Müller Mountains. Among these groups, the Aoheng, with whom the author spent a number of years, feature prominently. With a multidisciplinary approach, this volume examines various facets of these peoples’ lives and cultures, from their history, economic system, and relation to their natural environment, to their social organization, beliefs, rituals, and world views. Altogether, it offers a comprehensive picture of innermost Borneo's traditional life.
This volume includes some forty photographs documenting diverse aspects of past and present life in the Müller Mountains region. Beyond their strictly documentary value, these photographs help the reader form a better idea of the region and its people and feel more comfortable and familiar with them.
There is much more to Borneo than meets the eye in the present unassuming little book. The great island still keeps many of its secrets, as many regions have hardly been visited at all and numerous ethnic groups have never been surveyed, let alone studied. Hopefully, this book will trigger in its reader a longing to visit, travel, and perhaps more, in innermost Borneo.

THE AUTHOR

Bernard Sellato, born in 1951, graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in Nancy, France, in 1973 and was sent immediately to Borneo as a field geologist, mapping the then yet uncharted far interior of the island. There he became acquainted with the Aoheng and other isolated Dayak groups. After a spell of several years in Saharan and sub-Saharan West Africa, he decided to return to the jungles of Borneo and spent two years with the Aoheng.

In 1982 he started work as a consultant to a petroleum company, resigning in 1985 to take a doctorate from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris in 1987. He then worked as a consultant anthropologist to several major international foundations and environmental organizations. In 1992, he became a member of CNRS, the French National Science Research Center. He currently heads the Institute for Research on Southeast Asia (IRSEA) in Marseilles and edits the journal Moussons. Social Science Research on Southeast Asia.

Bernard Sellato is the author of “Nomades et sédentarisation à Bornéo” (1989), “Hornbill and Dragon: Arts and Culture of Borneo” (1989 and 1992), “Nomads of the Borneo Rainforest” (1994), “Borneo. People of the Rainforest” (a CD-rom; 1998), “Forest, Resources, and People in Bulungan” (2001), and a number of articles in journals and books, and the editor of several other books, including “Plaited Arts from the Borneo Rainforest” (2012).