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Spiritualist Mediums and Other Traditional Shamans: Towards an Apprenticeship Model of Shamanic Practice

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Spiritualist Mediums and Other Traditional Shamans: Towards an Apprenticeship Model of Shamanic Practice Spiritualist Mediums and other Traditional Shamans: Towards an Apprenticeship Model of Shamanic Practice David G M Wilson LL.B.(Hons), Dip.LP., B.D. Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. in Religious Studies School of Divinity, College of Humanities and Social Science University of Edinburgh Table of Contents Page Abstract 5 Acknowledgments 6 Author’s Declaration 8 Chapter One Introduction 9 1.1 A Spiritualist church service: questions arising 9 1.2 Mediums and shamans: traditions compared 19 1.3 Methodology and the insider contribution 29 1.4 Research questions and chapter arrangement 39 Chapter Two Spiritualism: a modern movement 42 2.1 Introduction 42 2.2 Outlining Spiritualism 45 2.3 Believing in modernity 53 2.3.1 Disparate connections 53 2.3.2 The enchanted world-view 59 2.3.3 The religious world-view 62 2.3.4 The scientific-rational world-view 65 2.3.5 The modern world-view of Spiritualism 67 2.3.6 The New Age cousin 69 2.4 Conclusions 70 Chapter Three Understanding Mediumship 72 3.1 The acknowledged medium: his role and craft 72 3.1.1 The centrality of mediumship within Spiritualism 72 3.1.2 The varieties of mediumistic experiences and practices 79 3.2 Trance and the issue of mediumistic consciousness 85 3.2.1 Entranced or awake? 86 3.2.2 Possession: control of or by spirits? 92 3.2.3 Mediumistic ability: chronic illness or illness overcome? 95 1 3.3 The mediumistic apprenticeship 99 3.3.1 Phase 1: Initiatory experiences 99 3.3.2 Phase 2: Developing 108 3.3.3 Phase 3: Recognition as a medium 111 3.4 Conclusions: apprenticeship and the maintenance of tradition 115 Chapter Four Case Study I: Portobello Spiritualist Church 120 4.1 Introduction 120 4.2 The Church 125 4.2.1 Description and history 125 4.2.2 The members and structure of the Church 126 4.2.3 Church activities 131 4.3 The Church within the British Spiritualist movement 133 4.3.1 Association with the Spiritualists’ National Union 133 4.3.2 Informal relationships and the ‘circuit’ 135 4.4 The Portobello apprenticeship 137 4.4.1 Initiatory experiences 138 4.4.2 Developing 141 4.4.2.1 Training by spirit: the tradition of spirit guides 142 4.4.2.2 Training in tradition: church services and the 152 demonstration of personal survival 4.4.3 Recognition as a medium: going on the platform 158 4.4.3.1 Achieving initial recognition 159 4.4.3.2 Maintaining recognition 160 4.5 Conclusions 162 Chapter Five Shamanism and Eliade 167 5.1 Introduction 167 5.2 Eliade 175 5.2.1 Eliade’s model of shamanism 175 5.2.2 Indications of apprenticeship 180 5.2.2.1 Call or initiatory experience 182 5.2.2.2 Training and development 186 5.2.2.3 Recognition as a shaman 189 5.2.3 The shaman as (self-)healer: ecstasy, possession and the 190 issue of shamanic consciousness 5.3 Responses to Eliade 193 5.3.1 Responses to the ‘journeying’ model 193 5.3.2 Suggestion of apprenticeship 198 5.4 Conclusions 201 2 Chapter Six Case Study II: The Evenki 205 6.1 Introduction 205 6.2 Evenki lands and society 208 6.3 Shamanism among the Evenki 217 6.3.1 Shirokogoroff’s preliminary model of shamanism 217 6.3.2 Social identity and role of the shaman 221 6.3.3 Soul and spirit 227 6.3.4 Clothing (including worn ‘placings’) 229 6.3.5 Other shamanic equipment 232 6.3.6 Cosmology 234 6.3.7 Stimulants/entheogens 237 6.3.8 Consciousness 238 6.4 Evenki shamanic apprenticeship 244 6.4.1 The apprenticeship model 244 6.4.2 Apprenticeship in Eliade 245 6.4.3 Apprenticeship in Shirokogoroff 247 6.4.3.1 Selection 247 6.4.3.2 Apprenticeship proper 253 6.4.3.3 Recognition of a shaman 257 6.4.4 Apprenticeship: a developing theme 262 6.5 Conclusions 264 Chapter Seven Spiritualist Mediums as Traditional Shamans 267 7.1 Introduction 267 7.2 Spiritualism and shamanism: a comparison 270 7.2.1 Equipment 271 7.2.2 Social roles 275 7.2.3 Cosmologies 276 7.2.4 Consciousness 279 7.3 Spiritualism and shamanism: a common apprenticeship model 282 7.3.1 Selection of the candidate: the call to the tradition 283 7.3.2 Training the apprentice: renewing the tradition 284 7.3.3 Recognition of a shaman: reaffirming the tradition 285 7.4 Testing the model: clarifying boundaries 288 Chapter Eight Conclusion: Towards an Apprenticeship Model of Shamanic Practice 291 8.1 A definition of shamanism 291 8.2 Proposals for further research 295 8.3 Defining shamanism: why it matters 301 Bibliography 307 3 Appendices 321 Appendix 1 Description of Portobello Spiritualist Church and services 321 Appendix 2 Examples of Spiritualist Principles: 333 2.1 Spiritualists’ National Union 2.2 Portobello Spiritualist Church 2.3 Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association 2.4 White Eagle Lodge Appendix 3 Portobello Spiritualist Church Leaflet on Christian 337 Spiritualism Appendix 4 Sample Prayers used at Portobello Spiritualist Church 340 Appendix 5 Portobello Spiritualist Church Development Circle: 344 Introductory Notes and Guidelines for Developers Appendix 6 A Medium’s Circuit: Author’s Diary Bookings from 2004 348 Appendix 7 Spiritualist Churches and Organizations in Scotland 361 4 Abstract Spiritualism has its origins in 1840s America, and continues to occupy a niche in the Anglo-American cultural world in which the craft of mediumship is taught and practised. Spiritualist mediums seek to demonstrate personal survival beyond death and thus belong to a movement that posits the existence of a spirit world, peopled with those who were once incarnate upon the earth and with whom communication is possible. Spiritualists often maintain that mediumship is a universal activity found across cultures and time, and some scholars have speculated in passing that Spiritualist mediumship might be a form of shamanism. This thesis uses both existing literary sources and ethnographic study to support the hypothesis that mediumship is indeed an example of traditional shamanism, and demonstrates that a comparison of Spiritualist mediumship and shamanism gives valuable insights into both. In particular, an apprenticeship model is proposed as offering a clearer understanding of the nature of mediumship and its central role in maintaining Spiritualism as a distinct religious tradition, helping to clarify problematic boundaries such as that between Spiritualism and New Age. Existing models of shamanism have tended to focus upon particular skills or states of consciousness exhibited by shamans and are therefore framed with reference to outcomes, rather than by attending to the processes of development leading to them. The apprenticeship model of mediumship is proposed as the basis first, of understanding the structure of Spiritualism, and second and comparatively, of a new definition of shamanism, by offering a distinctive, clearly-structured approach to understanding the acquisition and nature of shamanic skills, without being unduly prescriptive as to which particular shamanic skills should be anticipated in any given cultural setting. 5 Acknowledgments This thesis is the outcome of an extended process of learning, to which many more people than I can name have contributed, but to each of whom I am grateful and offer my sincere thanks. Dr. Steven J. Sutcliffe has been my primary supervisor and, I suspect, took on a harder task than he anticipated. I approached the task of writing this thesis from a background in law and divinity, with little familiarity with many of the thinkers and texts commonly regarded as central to the discipline of religious studies. The body of learning Dr. Sutcliffe introduced me to has been considerable, reflecting the extent of his own learning and intellectual curiosity (and ability), and assisted in no small part by his willingness to lend from his personal library; his attention to my sometimes rudimentary drafts has been meticulous, and this thesis is much improved by his contribution. Professor James L. Cox has been my secondary supervisor, and his suggestion of using the Evenki as the basis of a comparison with contemporary Spiritualism has been highly productive. The origins of this thesis lie partly in my fascination with shamanism, prompted by Professor Cox’s undergraduate course in the subject, which I much enjoyed as part of my degree in Divinity. Dr. Suzanne Owen, now of Leeds Trinity but formerly of Edinburgh, must also be mentioned; our lunchtime conversations in Rainy Hall, New College, musing over the possibility that Spiritualist mediums might be characterized as (ethnically) white shamans were also among the prompts for this thesis. Professor Cox’s shamanism course introduced me to Dr. MaryCatherine Burgess, herself a shamanic practitioner and now Assistant Chaplain to Edinburgh University; she, in turn, introduced me to new friends at the Chaplaincy Centre, led by the recently-retired Chaplain, Reverend Di Williams OBE, who have valued and supported me in my work. The community to which I owe most is easily Portobello Spiritualist Church, here in Edinburgh. Thanks beyond words are due to all those who have contributed to our Church, ably led by Reverend Bernice A. Winstanley and, more recently, by Reverend June Herraghty. All who contribute to the Church do so as unpaid 6 volunteers, and I can only admire those who take on the task of running a church that offers four weekly public services, a weekly development class for mediums and healers of the future, regular talks, workshops, naming services, marriages, funeral services, and the various other meetings and tasks required in keeping the doors of a busy church open.
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