The Mediumistic Body: Transnational Ways of Knowing the Spirits in the Vale Do Amanhecer

The Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) is a Spiritualist Christian Order whose members practise spirit mediumship for healing by releasing trapped spirits. Mediumship is considered an intrinsic property of human bodies, potentially developed by anyone through a process of bodily enskilment. As the practice spreads transnationally, this chapter compares how new mediums in Brazil and Italy learn to manifest spirit guides in culturally recognizable ways, exploring the cognitive, bodily, and affective aspects entangled in developing a mediumistic body across borders.

Study at a glance

Abstract

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 their physical, affective, and material matters. The Vale do Amanhecer considers mediumship to be an intrinsic property of human bodies and, as such, to be potentially developed by anyone. In the mediumistic development, mediums and spirits are actively engaged in a process of learning mediumship, which involves a specific bodily enskilment, educating the body of the medium to discern, control, and manifest spirits in a culturally recognizable way. As this spiritual practice spreads transnationally, how do new mediums learn to manifest spirit guides from another culture according to specific modalities? This chapter compares the experiences of mediums learning to manifest spirits in temples in Brazil and Italy, exploring the cognitive, bodily, and affective aspects as entangled in the development of specific modes of knowing and thus of a mediumistic body on a transnational scale.