Contemporary Mediumship: pertain to the issue of bereavement and Anthropological Perspectives on the Long burden; after experiencing loss, how do we Island Medium heal within a biomedical paradigm intent on curing, rather than coping? I intend to argue Rasha Darghawth that mediumship has become an increasingly exercised form of symbolic healing, Traditionally, the role of contingent on sustained skepticism mediumship in North America incites the surrounding the finality of death and the typically skeptical perspective of mediums notion that spirits gain agency through the as charlatans or “quacks” (Moore 2000). physical nature of perceived events, such as Historically, mediumship emerged as a after-death communication. wildly successful industry, cited as one of the emerging American professions in the I stress that I am not examining 1850s (Moore 2000). In spite of its status as whether mediumship is scientifically a fad of the time, its root –that of rational or “real”. Instead, I adopt an scientifically proving the existence of an interpretive approach and focus on the afterlife and the souls that inhabit it – narratives and experiences of those who endures to this day. Long Island Medium have experienced after-death (2012), a television series broadcast by The communication or sought counsel from a Learning Channel, follows Theresa Caputo medium; they believe they have felt or seen through daily life in Hicksville, New York the spirits of their loved ones. For these with her husband and two children in mourners, spirituality and mediumship are suburbia. “I like to think of myself as a as arguably “real” as the objects surrounding typical Long Island mom”, she says in the you, and must be respected. For this reason, show’s intro. “But, I have a very special I do not engage with the traditional gift… I talk to the dead” (Caputo 2012f). perspective of mediumship as charlatanry. Theresa is a medium, able to connect with people who have “departed the physical In the first section, I begin with world” (Caputo 2012d). With a waiting list questioning death’s finality as potentially of two years, Theresa’s services consist of healing in two ways. First, it implies the channelling messages of assurance from reassuring existence of an afterlife and departed loved ones and imparting them consequent enduring relationships and upon their grieving relatives. second, assumes this platform lessens anxieties regarding death. Both constitute Aside from being a wildly successful “small turns” (Waldram 1997) of a show (garnering impressive ratings for new culturally constructed symbolic world, episodes), the show raises existential which at first glance appears to be a questions concerning the finality of death, resulting “drastic change” (Waldram our tendency to foreground our physical 1997:76) catalyzed by mediumship (note bodies and the process of mourning. this concept of “small turns” will be further Furthermore, it highlights how these three addressed). elements merge to catalyze a healing process otherwise unavailable in a biomedical context1. Specifically, these questions body as a machine (existing wholly separately from the mind), locating the cause of disease within it. In 1 A biomedical context is one considered to be the process, the illness experience (the subjective contingent on Cartesian dualism or the separation of experience of suffering or any identifiable social mind and body. The biomedical paradigm views the locus of the disease) is overlooked (Kleinman 1988).

83 Historically, questioning death and a cultivating its acceptance. Bruce Greyson consequent post-mortem life has been the (2010:159) suggests the notion that “our subject of extensive anthropological unconsciousness might persist in some research with pioneers like Bronislaw discarnate form…[is] widely held in almost Malinowski (1929) and Arnold Van Gennep every culture” and that “a wide variety of (1960). Christian pedagogies emphasize the human experiences suggest to us that our existence of a blissful heaven, while consciousness may not cease when our Trobriander myths envision Tuma, an island bodies die”. Lastly, Kwilecki (2009) notes where spirits of the dead fancifully indulge that “death ends a life… not a relationship” in life and are able to shed old, wrinkled (119). For example, on Long Island skin for a young, smooth alternative until Medium, participants frequently make their decision to be reborn into the physical statements like ‘I feel them with/around world (Malinowski 1929). While mythical me’, referring to an inexplicable, ubiquitous worlds range greatly, various constants presence. Essentially, mediumship serves to persist: the afterlife is one analogous to ours simply state that, “I’m okay. I’m nearby. I (Van Gennep 1960), but is constructed of a love you” (Kwilecki 2009:101). Thus, the “me but better” fabric (Kwilecki 2009:114). departed are the same people who continue Spirits are viewed as healthy, happy, young, to fulfill the same roles, yet are occupying a mobile and continue to occupy their former different realm and matter. Perhaps your familial roles (Kwilecki 2009). mother, father, brother or sister has lost their Consequently, in the show, Theresa overt physicality in death, but they continue constantly refers to loved ones as “on the a happy existence in the hereafter and other side”, subtly implying distance while remain as such, despite lacking physicality. insinuating adjacency (Caputo 2012b). This persistent existence is reflected in the Additionally, she provides validation that, notion of symbolic healing as a mechanism “Your loved ones are alive and well” on said for teaching people how to manage trauma “other side”, where physical ailments which and dysfunction (Waldram 1997). may have hindered mobility and quality of Specifically, mediumship affirms to the life no longer exist (Caputo 2012e). Quite living that: ‘You will be able to cope obviously, the practice of mediumship itself because I am with you’; essentially, the is predicated on the notion that the deceased deceased act as a coping resource. Or do, in fact, ‘exist’ substantially enough to perhaps, ‘You do not need to cope, because I relay messages. Once this key existential am still with you’ there is no need to grieve question is addressed and validated in the because they are still present, though in a process of mediumship, we see contingent different form. concepts predicated on this crucial notion of a verified afterlife and its souls, such as the Additionally, the validation of an enduring nature of relationships and the afterlife and enduring relations through buffering of death’s harmful effects. Both mediumship are crucial in the construction constitute building blocks of a greater of a symbolic healing system. James B. symbolic world; one which will be unpacked Waldram (1997:73) states that the symbol is further throughout this essay. “any thing which may function as a vehicle for a conception”. The author gives the Linda Connor (1990) suggests that example of being “reborn” through a “social relations are transformed, not traditional North American Indigenous severed, through death” (399), stating that a ceremony known as the sweat lodge shift towards acceptance of grief seems to be (symbolic of Mother Earth’s or a woman’s

84 womb), whereby men enter a receptacle and layered (Connor 1990) and more are shrouded with symbolic elements made importantly, validated. to imitate the coming-again of life. Waldram provides a summary of the sweat lodge Therefore, not only does the practice through the words of Aboriginal elder of mediumship serve as the potential to heal, Campbell Papequash. Inside the sweat lodge but it also validates the assumptions on (which is often constructed of willow frame which post-mortem existence is predicated. and canvas tarps) participants endure slowly By doing so, mediumship exercises what intensifying heat whereby the lodge is Kleinman (cited in Waldram 1997:76) calls plunged into darkness and filled with “small turns of change”. To illustrate these, pungent steam and heat (from sprinkling Kleinman (cited in Waldram 1997:76) water on heated rocks). This procedure is provides the example of psychotherapy, accompanied by singing, drumming and questioning whether “specific techniques of praying until, sometimes, a few minutes’ psychotherapy invoke specific effects or are relief of air is allowed before re- such effects the product of… shared commencing. At its core, the sweat lodge components of these techniques?”. embodies a plurality of symbolic Additionally, Kirmayer (cited in Waldram associations with Indigenous worldviews. 1997:76) suggests that “even dramatic For example, the rocks which generate changes may… be found to be composed of steam represent “many of our natures as these small turns”. Specifically, while human beings” (Waldram 1997:86), some of modern psychotherapy is largely reliant on which are endurance, strength and sacrifice. talk therapy or cognitive behavioural The water is symbolic of “medicine and therapy, the potentially beneficial results totality” (Waldram 1997:86), while the may not be fully exclusive to the therapy darkness within the lodge is akin to “the itself. For example, the individual may have void and emptiness in our mind, body and reaped such rewards partially due to the spirit”. Opening the doors between rounds to accompanying self-mastery that often allow light and air serves as both a precludes seeking therapy (especially at a functional and symbolic measure against time when mental illness is still stigmatized) such darkness by allowing physical relief in or from the psychologist being boldly addition to the “Great Spirit’s light” confident in their improvement. Thus, the (Wadram 1997:92), which is said to psychologist indirectly becomes symbolic of illuminate human ignorance. Essentially, the self-mastery and success. This symbolic link sweat lodge acts as a site of interaction may exist unaware to the patient, who may within which a multitude of symbols subscribe to the belief that the representing the life cycle, rebirth, the psychologist’s skills alone ‘cured’ them universe and wisdom intersect, after which (Waldram 1997). These “small turns” of the individual is symbolically reborn as change (self-mastery and belief of success)– wiser or purer. Thus, as a vehicle for which may initially appear as drastic conception of rebirth, the sweat lodge is changes –reflect that although people who grounded in a symbolic nexus of wisdom, have consulted mediums report rapid relief the life cycle and rebirth. In the case of (feeling like a ‘weight has been lifted’), this mediumship, I argue that the medium acts as may not be fully commensurable to reality. the vehicle for conception within which Rather, mourners experience what seems to cultural constructions of an afterlife, the be a “grand sweep of healing” (Waldram nature of existence within it, and death are 1997:76) through “small turns” of change that the mourner may not be aware are

85 occurring. I assert that these “small turns” constitute an end to consciousness (Greyson are essentially mediumship’s greater 2010). Essentially, rites of passage function contextual bedding: recognition of an to affirm that death need not be feared, as afterlife and of death not as an end, but a we have been symbolically killed and more passage to the hereafter, as well as the importantly, survived. If we have already possibility for strands of communication to died, why fear death? be salvaged through mediumship. For example, recall the Trobriand Lastly, questioning the finality of Islanders conception of the afterlife death, mediumship serves a functional (Malinowski 1929), where spirits of the purpose in buffering the anxiety of dead frolic in the afterlife upon their choice confronting death, a concept that engages to re-enter physical life. Here, death is the with Arnold Van Gennep’s analysis of rites catalyst for all birth. Moreover, conception of passage. Van Gennep (1960), in his begins at death. While this conception myth attempt to classify ceremonies that enable is central to the Trobriand Islanders and not individuals to pass from one defined necessarily a North American readership, it position to another, identified rites of shows that the notion of mediumship, like passage. They are composed of the pre- the Trobriander conception myth, embodies liminal, liminal and post-liminal stages, “alternate way[s] of knowing” (Emmons otherwise referred to as separation rites, 2000:71). While the legitimacy of their transitional rites and reintegration rites. Life conception myth may be perceived as events such as birth, social puberty, questionable by a North American parenthood, class ascension and death readership, in actuality it serves a functional “come at the cost of disturbing the life of purpose of buffering the inherent pain that society and the individual and it is the accompanies loss of life by noting that all function of rites of passage to reduce their birth begins at death. This concept, I argue, harmful effects” (Van Gennep 1960:12-13). is validated in a diluted form through Boys undergo periods of separation prior to mediumship, thus gentling the inherent grief initiation, then, as men, experience the loss that accompanies death. This is reflected in of their childhood or youth and enter into the Long Island Medium (2012) when social realm of adulthood. Thus, childhood participants frequently assert that “I know he is lost in exchange for adulthood through a or she (the deceased) is alive in my socially recognized ritual. Essentially, then, son/daughter/grandchildren” or, “When I rites of passages assert that the individual, in look at Darryl [a participants’ son], I see my passing through various life stages is mother”. In one unique episode, Theresa symbolically killed and reborn into a new (2012a) relays to one couple, “God has social position. granted you a wish by allowing your daughter’s soul to re-enter into one of your Mediumship serves to “cultivate grandchildren. This soul has re-entered into acceptance of death” (Kwilecki 2009:119) in this lifetime”. that it presents death as merely another cyclical rite of passage, just as social While these Long Island families puberty, parenthood or class ascension most likely do not subscribe to the would. If we accept that mediumship Trobriander conception myth, they are validates the existence of an afterlife and subconsciously bringing their loved ones enduring post-mortem relationships, we are back to life through death, by indicating that implying that death in itself does not existence surpasses death through the lives

86 of their descendants. This, I argue, unconscious, how does this immaterial constitutes an “alternate way of knowing” nature gain agency through physicality in (Emmons 2000:71) – one which largely order to manipulate phones to ring, lights to negates scientific rationality within which flicker and to be seen? In order to we are so deeply embedded – and instead, rationalize this, we must acknowledge that suggests that death can be viewed as another spirits exercise physicality through cyclical trip through the ritual passage of perceived signs of assurance or ‘visits’, thus life. gaining agency in the healing process. Mediums act as the site of interaction For the purposes of this paper, I for these concepts, instigating various “small define agency in its predominantly corporeal turns” of healing in what appears to be a form; the ability to act upon the physical “drastic change” (Waldram 1997). But how world through the manipulation of lights and can we rationally analyze the most objects in addition to making perceived intriguing and consequently, disputed aspect appearances (as orbs or balls of light or in of mediumship or “spirits” in general? That seeming physicality). I acknowledge that a is, are spirits “real” and can they appear to spirit’s agentive role is evident in the ability us? I now turn to a historically questionable to instigate the perceived rapid improvement aspect of mediumship; one that has been in mourners (recall Waldram’s “drastic largely glorified in popular media changes”). This role is evident in incidences (Ghostbusters, Paranormal Activity and The of after-death communication. Sixth Sense): after-death communication. Take this example of after-death As eerie as it is captivating, post- communication: mortem communication constitutes the Several months after his mother’s essence of mediumship. However, Kwilecki death, [Julian] was shocked to see her (2009:109) offers the notion that “a sense of [his mother] standing in his kitchen, the presence of the dead… is not an looking beautiful in an unusual blue experience that society should encourage dress he had never seen before. Burton people to conceal”. Experiences are said he felt as though a weight had characterized by sightings, the flickering of been lifted from him, especially after lights or constant ringing of the phone his sister recalled that their mother had (Chappele et al. 2011), “meaningfully timed tried on a dress of that description appearances of birds and butterflies” during a shopping trip shortly before (Kwilecki 2009:101), an overwhelming her death, information he thought sense of a spiritual presence or in one case confirmed the reality of the ghost. an “explosive, fast-moving force radiating Profoundly affected by the experience, love and bliss” (Kwilecki 2009:104). he began training for a counseling Through mediumship, participants discover career. (Kwilecki 2009:108). that deceased relatives have attended weddings and acknowledged events that Or this strange tale: occurred after their passing (Caputo 2012c). It was about half eleven at night, my I quickly began to wonder, though: how? If sister had gone up to try and get a after-death communication is something couple of hours sleep, ‘cos we knew experienced and felt, heard and seen, how is none of us were going to sleep well, I it done? If what ascends to the afterlife is was just staring at the wall and this, I truly an immaterial quality of the saw a shape here, against the door (. . .)

87 it was like a very faint ball of light, and full success of which is credited to him, as it just drifted out the back door. I opposed to the medium. In an screamed, I was hysterical, and my ‘autobiography’ dictated through sister who’s a quite hardened police mediumship, Dr. Fritz claims he was a woman came to the top of the stairs, medical doctor in World War II who ‘What’s up, what’s up, what’s up?’ I specialised in general surgery (Lynch 2005). said, ‘I’ve just seen Sandy, I’ve just With firm believers and rumoured seen Sandy’, and even my sister was treatments of the American actor, crying, saying, ‘You’re scaring me, Christopher Reeves, Dr. Fritz gains you’re scaring me’. And I said, ‘It’s physicality (in the operating room) and okay, she’s just come to say goodbye’ agency (through successful healing rates or (Chappele et al. 2011:8). his autobiography) through the bodies of mediums. Therefore, I assert that the notion In both cases, the spirits appeared of spirits proving their physicality –be it physically (if we assume seeing something through “psychic surgeries” (Lynch constitutes its physicality) and served a 2005:11), compelling a phone to ring or purpose. The notion that these spiritual lights to flicker –is evident of the notion that visitations provided closure (comfort in they seem to gain forms of materiality and seeing his mother’s beauty or saying thus, agency in the physical world. goodbye) implies that spirits are agents in Mediumship serves to verify these therapeutic interventions of closure experiences by the witnessing of spirits, (Kwilecki 2009) by imparting perceived thereby allowing the participant to embrace messages of reassurance to survivors. These the possibility that the spirits of the deceased spirits are impervious to temporal will remain nearby, unaffected by temporal disintegration (as they have shed the disintegration. degradable human body) and thus, provide healing resources to mourners in assuring In conclusion, I have argued that the their unremitting presence. medium as a site of intersection of various cultural constructions of death, serves to act Aside from utilizing spiritual vessels, as a symbol validating existential assertions. spirits can provide healing benefits through Not only is there a perceived afterlife, but its our own physicality (Lynch 2005), by existence infers that relationships can gaining agency in cultivating the healing pervade death and that death need not be process. An example is the practice of feared, if we accept that life may constitute a mediumship itself, whereby the “medium… ritual passage into the perceived afterlife. acts as a liaison between earth and the Spirits are more than mere entities, but are spiritual planes” (Fishman 1980:218), perceived to act among and upon us, allowing survivors to heal through compelling us to heal through their communication. Another example originates residences in physical and spiritual bodies. in Fortaleza, Brazil, where “psychic All of these concepts constitute “small surgeries” (Lynch 2005:11) are performed turns” of a greater symbolic world or by spiritual entities, particularly by Dr. context, which at first glance, appear as a Adolf Fritz. Said to be the spirit of a German “drastic change” to the mourner. Combined, doctor who passed in 1917, he “allegedly they constitute a powerful healing system, incorporates himself into, or takes over the which relays specific messages to mourners physical body of, various mediums in order and addresses broader existential and to perform surgeries” (Lynch 2005:12), the unconscious fears.

88 Finally, I note that fundamentally, mediumship serves to catalyze a symbolic Caputo, Theresa. 2012b “Princess and her death out of the liminal state of mourning Prom”. Long Island Medium. TLC, and consequent rebirth into social life; the September 16. “drastic change” mourners initially experience is a cathartic release from Caputo, Theresa. 2012c “The Flying liminality. If we accept mediumship as such, Larry’s”. Long Island Medium. TLC, I assert that Theresa Caputo is symbolic of a September 23. reintegrative rite, whereby mourners are drawn from bereavement and subsequently Caputo, Theresa. 2012d “Beach Bonding”. absorbed into resuming social life. Long Island Medium. TLC, September Mediumship assists mourners in 30. transcending liminality; to no longer “waver between two worlds” (Van Gennep Caputo, Theresa. 2012e “Frequently Asked 1960:18), but to actively embrace life once Questions”. TLC, October 21. again. This rebirth offers mourners an incomparable healing experience through Caputo, Theresa. 2012f “Hello College”. which they slowly begin to manage life in TLC, November 4. the aftermath of traumatic loss. Consequently, questioning the validity of Chappele, Alison, Chris Swift and Sue mediumship in this context becomes Ziebland. 2011. The Role of obsolete. Rather, it is largely based on Spirituality and Religion for those perception. Bereaved due to Traumatic Death. Mortality (16)1: 1-19. We should preserve what some interpretive anthropological approaches Connor, Linda H. 1990 Seances and Spirits protect, such as the human condition. This of the Dead: Context and Idiom in narrative encourages and allows human Symbolic Healing. Oceania experience to be analyzed as truth; an (60)4:345-359. uncommon approach in most disciplines. By using such an approach, we allow various Emmons, Charles F. 2000. On Becoming a perspectives to emerge. For example, by Spirit Medium in a “Rational Society”. emphasizing the existence of the “dead”, I Anthropology of Consciousness have adopted an approach that negates the (12)1:71-82. “irrelevance of the dead to the living” (Kwilecki 2009:124). In fact, it was my Fishman, Robert G. 1980. Transmigration, intention that this paper allow such a Liminality and Spirtualist Healing. framework to emerge in a reasonable and Journal of Religion and valid manner. I hope this paper illustrates Health(19)3:217-225. the benefits of considering such a perspective; death, not as an end, but a Greyson, Bruce. 2010. Seeing Dead People continuum. By doing so, death becomes Not Known to Have Died: “Peak in redefined as a different form of life. Darien” Experiences. Anthropology References Cited and Humanism (35)2:159–171. Caputo, Theresa. 2012a “Help Me”. Long Island Medium. TLC, September 16.

89 Kleinman, Arthur. 1988. Suffering, Healing and the Human Condition. In The Illness Narratives. Pp. 1-30. United States of America: Basic Books.

Kwilecki, Susan. 2009. Twenty-First- Century American Ghosts: The After- Death Communication—Therapy and Revelation from beyond the Grave. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation(19)1:101- 133.

Lynch, Darrell. 2005. Patient Preparation and Perceived Outcomes of Spiritist Healing in Brazil. Anthropology of Consciousness (15)1:10-41.

Malinowski, Bronislaw and Havelock Ellis. 1929. Reincarnation and the Way to Life Through the Spirit World. In The Sexual Life of Savages in Northwest Melanesia. Pp. 145-153. Oxford: Liveright,

Moore, Laurence. 2000. The Spiritualist Medium: A Study of Female Professionalism in Victorian America. American Quarterly 27(2):200-221.

Van Gennep, Arnold. 1960. The Territorial Passage and Funerary Rites. In The Rites of Passage. Pp. 15-25 and 147- 165. London: Routledge.

Waldram, J.B. 1997. Aboriginal Spirituality and Symbolic Healing. In The Way of the Pipe: Aboriginality and Symbolic Healing in Canadian Prisons. Pp. 71-98. Canada: Broadview Press.

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