Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Alberto Groisman
Abstract Reflections on mediunship in the social sciences have often been constructed inconsistently. It seems that this inconsistency is linked to an epistemo-methodological conviction, namely, that mediumship is a “phenomenon” of the “other”, of the one who “believes in spirits”. In fieldwork on spiritualists collectivites it is not rare to came across a statement that argues that an...
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Emily Pierini
Abstract Religious travel and mobility contributed to the current spread of temples of the Brazilian Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) in Europe. Members of this Spiritualist Christian Order practise spirit mediumship for the spiritual healing of patients visiting the temple, consisting in the release of spirits that have remained trapped between the planes after death, troubling humans in...
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Marcello Múscari
Abstract For many years, Umbanda has been described as the most characteristic Afro-Brazilian religion and explained by the way it relates to and reflects the broader Brazilian socio-cultural context. In the last few decades though, Umbanda lives an increasing transnational growth, gaining independence from the national context that was once mobilized to explain its appeal. This is the case at...
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Fiona Bowie
Abstract The notion that spirits can attach themselves to people, causing them physical and mental distress, and that specialists are needed to heal both the spirits and their victims, is not generally part of Western cosmology. This study of spirit release therapists and their clients in the UK reveals practices for dealing with unwanted spirits and energy attachments in Western contexts....
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Marcello Múscari, Ehler Voss, Martin Zillinger
Abstract Mediumship refers to practices that can be found in different cultures around the world and throughout history. Invoking, coming under the influence of, or engaging with disembodied powers can take various forms, which vary according to the local politics of religion, social context, and the personal circumstances of the people involved. In Europe, since the long 19th century...
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Joana Bahia
Abstract Subjective processes of change, dreams, dance, theater representations, translations, and memories of local and global heritage—all of these things are a kind of grammar that constitutes parts of the experiences of mediumship practiced in candomblé in Germany. I have observed these practices in my fieldwork since 2009. New forms of sacred agency in bodily practices, the different...
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Inger Sjørslev
Abstract Enskilment requires bodily involvement; and rarely, if ever, can bodily and spiritual practices be separated. In this chapter, two performative ritual settings are compared, one is the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé, in which possession by the gods (Orixas) is the core, the other is the Neo-Pentecostal (Evangelical) Church in Brazil, The Universal Church of The Kingdom of God (IURD), in...
Beiträge zur Praxeologie / Contributions to Praxeology
2026
Bettina E. Schmidt
Abstract The paper sets out the study of mediumship and other forms of non-ordinary experiences within a “glocal” conceptual frame that highlights the need to build universalising concepts from local contexts. Based on anthropological research about mediumship in religious and Spiritist communities in São Paulo, the paper argues that while mediumship is regarded as a set of global skills, local...