In William Patrick Patterson’s Struggle of the Magicians, a detailed study of the relationship between the prominent figures of Western esotericism, G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky, he writes ‘Only in a time as confused as ours could one think that the teacher–student relationship – an archetypal and sacred form – exists as an option, rather than a necessary requirement, a station on the...
In an effort to explore the gap between pre-war occultism and the New Age movement, this article examines the public areas of stage magic, folklore magic, and handbook magic between 1947 and 1960. It firstly investigates possible connections between stage performance and the implicit character of religious beliefs and combines these observations with the notion of magic in the field of...
Changes in the field of observation and body image, attenuated grasp of reality and self-control, which may lead to identification with authority in the case of the shaman with supranormal powers, are all identifying features of shamanic ecstasy. It also appears that some of the basic elements of the shamanic tradition can be explained on the basis of typical marks of identification of altered...
Scholars have always been interested in distinctive phenomena in culture and religion. Thus the accounts and achievements of yogis and mystics received attention at an early stage. There is a similar tendency with shamans, different kinds of sorcerers and with the "group-hysterical" phenomena that have appeared from time to time. There is, on the other hand, no major collection of research...
The focus of this article is on the individual's specific experience of his personality being possessed, either partially or completely, momentarily or for an extended period of time, by evil spirits. It must be seen as necessary to supplement the narrow medical model for interpreting states of possession. The clinically interested psychologist of religion, in particular, needs consider aspects...
As is well known large parts of native North America with the Prairies and Plains in the middle of the continent as the centre of diffusion have constituted, since the end of the last century, the scene of a nativistic Indian movement, the so-called peyote cult. The peyote cult—or, as it should have been called, the peyote religion — is named after its central cultic action, the consumption (by...
The discussion on the spirit possession phenomenon is related in this study to the more general question of the role of religious institutions as part in the development process of a people living in a limited geographical area of a wider national society. It is assumed that religion, like culture in general, has its specific institutional forms as result of the historical development of a...
This paper describes a short study of the séances and trance-performances of three Tibetan spirit-mediums (dpa' bo) from a refugee-community in Nepal. The field-work on which this study is based was carried out in a Tibetan refugee-village in Nepal during 1970 and 1971. For each dpa' bo: dBang phyug, Sri gcod, and Nyi ma don grub, a summary of personal thoughts and beliefs concerning possession...
The function of the ritual is to assert a transcendental power over everyday experience and rituals therefore tend to be formalized, repetitive and conservative events. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance for ritual studies of ritualised strategies for the negotiation of power and influence. Here, research on a spirit possession cult among the Muslim Cham in Cambodia will serve...
The woman who founded Tenho-kötai-jingii-kyö, Kitamura Sayo (1900-1967), publicly announced in July 1945 that the world was coming to an end and that she had been chosen by the absolute deity Tensho Kotai Jingu to be the savior of the world. People began to gather to her banner, a religious organization was formed, and legal incorporation of the group as a religious juridical person took place...
The purpose of this essay is to shed some light on the phenomenon of religious ecstasy as met within Islamic mysticism and there particularly during its classical period. In this case, the expression "classical Sufism" refers to the period of Sufi history from about 850 A.D. until circa 1100 A.D. In the Sufi vocabulary there is even a rather differentiated terminology concerning these ecstatic...
Editorial note of the Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, vol. 20, based on papers read at the symposium 'Western Esotericism', held at Åbo, Finland, on 15-17 August 2007.
In the last fifteen years the study of Western esotericism has become an academic discipline in its own right. The vast majority of research conducted within the field is focused on older, historical developments, with recent expressions of esotericism receiving far less attention. This has a bearing on the conceptual and methodological tools used in the field as well. The dominant definition...
When speaking of prophets in our culture, we usually have the Old Testament classical prophets in mind. At the mention of prophetic ecstasy the immediate reaction is often, "That would be Saul and the asses or Elijah and the prophets of Baal". A sharp distinction is often made between the so-called primitive prophets and the classical prophets. Bearing in mind that the Chronicles mention...
The biological study of man is one of today's most rapidly advancing sciences. There is no reason for not utilizing these methodologies of research and the knowledge already gained when studying ecstasy and other similar religious phenomena. Drugs have been used in all parts of the world as an ecstasy technique. Since mental states and physiological correlates always accompany each other, it is...
The intention of this article is to present some psycho-physiological perspectives of recent date concerned with the phenomenon of ecstasy. As almost none of this research has yet been assimilated by comparative religion, the focus here is on illustrating some of the background for renewed speculation on the relationship between psyche and soma. Traditional Western science has usually operated...
The article focuses on the practice of mindfulness, which has migrated from being part of a religion, Buddhism, to being an integral part of Western psychology. Mindfulness is especially used in cognitive behavioural therapy, but also in, e.g., dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). In Sweden several doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists use and...
An evident experience of God's presence is the basis for all religion. Mysticism is considered to be piety in so far as primary importance is attached to inner religious experience, to religion as occurring in the soul. Mysticism is pure religious introversion. The special religious experience of mysticism, its epistemology and its ascetic ethics or technique, occur with startling likeness in...
This article has three aims: 1) to plead for an approach to the study of the liturgy based on the psychology of religion, 2) to draw up a preliminary theoretical model for how the liturgy can be interpreted, and 3) to narrow down the field for further interdisciplinary development and empirical analysis. People undergo more or less strong experiences during and in conjunction with church...
Friedrich von Schelling was a significant cultural influence when Henrik Ibsen lived in Germany in the 1850s. However, because of Schelling’s Naturphilosophie, which stood out as irreconcilable with the scientific philosophy of the positivists, Schelling came to be more and more neglected after the mid-nineteenth century. His pronounced idealism, belief in God, and metaphysical comments were...
The title of this paper can be understood in two senses. In the sense of ‘research on esotericism carried out by Scandinavian scholars’, the field is blossoming. Several dozen individuals, at various points in their academic careers, are pursuing research on some aspect of Western esotericism however the concept is defined. In the other conceivable sense, ‘research on Scandinavian esotericism’,...
In dealing with ecstasy in antiquity, scholars usually refer to Euripides' "Bacchanals"' as one of the most reliable sources with regard to this phenomenon. This drama can also be supplemented by vase paintings, which to a great extent deal with motives from the circle of Dionysos. We can observe that the ecstatic experience, as depicted by Euripides contains such psychological phenomena as...
The Spirit Lodge is a variety of shamanism characterized by its divining functions. Herein lie its limitations: the shamanistic trance is there, and so are the helping spirits, but the curing activity so typical of shamanism is absent, or principally absent. The act of divining shows a certain affinity with the shamanistic pole-climbing performances and may originally have been related to...
It is generally maintained within the Carmelite tradition that Teresa (1515-1582) showed an extraordinary facility in describing the stages of mysticism with experimential vigour and deep intensity, compared for example to John of the Cross, whose mystical presentation is of a more dogmatic and systematic nature. In this sense she would appear to be unsurpassed within the entire Roman Catholic...
Often, when people nowadays talk of ‘esotericism’, they are using this word either as more or less synonymous with ‘New Age’, or as a term for movements that are based on a secret wisdom that is only accessible to an ‘inner circle’ of initiates. In academic discussions, however, during the past fifteen years, a field of research has been established that critically engages these assumptions and...