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OverviewAn exploration of contemporary trance and physical mediumship at a private spiritualist home-circle called the Bristol Spirit Lodge. Located in a garden on the outskirts of Bristol, the Lodge is a wooden shed specially constructed for the purposes of mediumship development and spirit communication. Through a combination of ethnographic observations in séances – including his own experiences of mediumship development – and interviews with spirits and their mediums, Hunter delves into a sub-urban world of trance states, ectoplasm, spirit lights and discarnate entities. Issues relating to altered states of consciousness, personhood, performance and the efficacy of ritual are examined in order to make sense of the processes by which spirits become manifest in social reality. A large part of Manifesting Spirits is given over to a broader discussion of anthropology's evolving attitudes toward the 'paranormal' as a component of the 'life-worlds' of many people across the globe, and argues for the development of a non-reductive anthropological approach to the paranormal, and mediumship in particular. This emerging framework – referred to as 'ontological flooding' does not attempt to explain away the existence of spirits in terms of functional, cognitive or pathological theories (as most mainstream theorists tend to do), but rather embraces a processual perspective that emphasises complexity and multiple interconnected processes underlying spirit possession performances and experiences. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jack HunterPublisher: Aeon Books Ltd Imprint: Aeon Books Ltd Dimensions: Width: 22.90cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 15.20cm Weight: 0.476kg ISBN: 9781912807888ISBN 10: 1912807882 Pages: 296 Publication Date: 12 December 2020 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NOTE INTRODUCTION Anomalous experiences in a garden shed CHAPTER ONE - Problems and approaches CHAPTER TWO - Spirit mediumship in Bristol CHAPTER THREE - Mediumship and spirit possession: A literature review CHAPTER FOUR - Physical mediumship CHAPTER FIVE - Anthropology and the paranormal CHAPTER SIX - Rethinking the séance CHAPTER SEVEN - Mediumship and the experiential self CHAPTER EIGHT - Conclusions REFERENCES INDEXReviewsAuthor InformationDr Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He lives in the hills of mid-Wales with his family and teaches at the University of Chester, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and at Newtown College. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre and a Research Fellow of the Parapsychology Foundation. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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