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A Better Life in a Better World. The Search for Community and Well-being among Spiritualists in Contemporary London. 2 A Better Life in a Better World. The Search for Community and Well-being among Spiritualists in Contemporary London. By: Kenneth Hansen. This thesis was delivered in partial fulfilment of the Cand. Polit. degree at the University of Oslo, Institute for Social Anthropology. 3 4 Content. Summary…………………………………………………………………………………...…: p. 9 Keys to the Text………………………………………………………………………..……: p. 13 Prologue: Introductory Scenes from the Field.....…..……………………………: p. 15 Chapter 1: Introduction.................................................................................................: p. 21 Part 1: Delineating the Problematic and Setting the Context……………………………: p. 21 1.1 The Main Argument…………………………………………..……………………: p. 21 1.2 An Outline of the Chapters………………………………..……………………….: p. 23 1.3 Spiritualism in Context: Contemporary Enchantments……………………..…..: p. 24 1.4 Demographics and Numbers……………………………………………………….: p. 27 1.5 Spiritualism in Context: The New Age Movement………….................................: p. 31 1.6 Spiritualism in Context: Life and Living in London………..................................: p. 34 1.7 The Churches and the Spiritualists: a Portrait……………...................................: p. 38 (i) The Nordfelt Church...................................................................................: p. 38 (ii) The William’s Church................................................................................: p. 41 (iii) Marianne’s Network and Others...............................................................: p. 43 1.8 Some Notes on Earlier Research……………………………………………….…..: p. 46 Part 2: Methodological Considerations and Reflections upon Field Work Experience..: p. 48 1.9 Entering the Field…………………………………………………………..……….: p. 48 1.10 Initial Contacts..………………………………………………………………….....: p. 49 1.11 Arriving in London..……..........................................................................................: p. 50 5 1.12 Some Remarks on the Issue of Representation…………………………..……….: p. 55 1.13 The Importance of Participation………………………………………..…………: p. 57 Chapter 2: Historical Developments..........................................................................: p. 63 2.1 The Growth of Modernity………………………………...………………………..: p. 63 2.2 Developments in Religion: The Growth of Modern Forms of Religiosity………: p. 64 2.3 The New Religions of the Nineteenth-Century……………………………............: p. 67 (i) Religious Creativity in the Context of Social and Cultural Upheaval.............: p. 68 (ii) Inspirations, Affinities and Predecessors: the Cultural Context.....................: p. 70 (iii) A Challenge to Bourgeois Cultural Politics and Materialism.........................: p. 75 2.4 The Counter-Culture of the 1960s and '70s……………………………………….…..: p. 76 Chapter 3: Theoretical Orientation...........................................................................: p. 80 3.1 The Paradigm of Embodiment………………………………………………….….: p. 80 3.2 Sickness from the Perspective of Embodiment…………………………………...: p. 84 3.3 Problems of the Self: Institutional Repression and Issues of Identity…………..: p. 85 3.4 Problems of the Self: Issues of Community and Social Belonging………………: p. 90 3.5 Understanding Spiritualist Ritual: The Ritualisation of Practice…………….…: p. 92 3.6 Understanding Spiritualist Ritual: Speech-acts, Interpellation and Interpretive Practice………………………………………………………………………….…...: p. 93 Chapter 4: Ritual and Healing in Modernity: Performing Community and Developing Spiritually.....................................................................................................: p. 96 4.1 The Healing Efficiency of Spiritualist Ritual Practice………………………...…: p. 96 4.2 Healing Problems of the Self: Bereavement, Mortality and Existential Crisis…: p. 98 6 4.3 Healing Internalised Social Ills…………………………………………...………: p. 100 4.4 A Case Example: Nathalie……………………………………………………...…: p. 105 4.5 Ritualising Spirituality in a Material World: Mediumship as the Embodiment of Spirituality………………………………………………………………………....: p. 109 4.6 Spirituality Incorporated: Healing……………………………………….............: p. 113 4.7 Self-Exploration and the Performance of Community in Spiritualist Ritualised Practice……………………………………………………………………..........…: p. 115 (i) Interpretive Practices: Construction of Ritual...........................................: p. 115 (ii) Interpretive Practices: Vignettes..............................................................: p. 116 (iii) Performing Intimacy: Self-Exploration in a ”Loving” Community.......: p. 118 4.8 Spirituality Incorporated: Spiritual Development………………………............: p. 125 Chapter 5: Conceptions and Cosmology: Approaching Spiritualism as a Text. …………………………………………………………………………………...…………: p. 129 5.1 The “Spirit World” and the “Material Realm”……………………………..…..: p. 130 5.2 An Energetic Cosmos: On the Universe Conceived as a Continuum of “Energy”. ……………………………………………………………………………………………....: p. 132 5.3 An Energetic Theory of Human Nature: Some Comments on the Properties of Man as “Spirit Here and Now”……………………………………………………........: p. 134 5.3 The Purpose of Our Material Existence – Theodicy and Teleology…………....: p. 139 5.4 Exit the Material Realm: Death………………………………………………..…: p. 143 5.5 Who are the Spirits?................................................................................................: p. 146 5.6 Another Note on the Spiritual Nature of Mediumship………………………….: p. 148 Chapter 6: Spiritualism as ”A Way of Life”.........................................................: p. 151 6.1 Marion: The Dispositions and Life-History of a Natural Medium…………….: p. 152 (i) An Introduction.........................................................................................: p. 152 (ii) Imagining the Authentic Other................................................................: p. 153 7 (iii) The Ritualised Body: The Diffusion of Mediumship Outside the Context of Ritual..............................................................................................................: p. 154 (iv) Modalities of Embodied Perception: Sensitivity to the Inner Realm and Retrospective Interpretation – Features of the Behavioural Environment.....: p. 156 6.2 Victoria: Dealing with Trauma and Bereavement……………………………....: p. 160 (i) An Introduction.........................................................................................: p. 160 (ii) Meeting Peter, “I was Meant to Meet this Man”: a Healing Relationship to get over the Trauma of Abuse..............................................................................: p. 163 (iii) Life After Death: Dealing with Bereavement.........................................: p. 167 6.3 Marianne: Seeing the Spirit Within…………………………...………………....: p. 170 (i) An Introduction.........................................................................................: p. 170 (ii) Seeing the Spirit Within...........................................................................: p. 171 Chapter 7: Conclusions.................................................................................................: p. 175 7.1 A Wider Conception of Health and Healing……………………………………..: p. 176 7.2 Resistance and the Politics of Health and Healing: Contemporary Enchantments and the Return of the Repressed…………………………………………...………….: p. 178 7.3 Embodied Knowledge and Participant Observation…………………...………: p. 180 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...……: p. 183 References Cited………………………………………………………………………..….: p. 185 8 Summary. This thesis draws on practice theory, the paradigm of embodiment and the notion of ritualisation to explore the situatedness of spiritualist ritual practice within the context of a modern/late- modern urban society; that of London, the capital city of England, the United Kingdom. Based on 6 months of field work conducted between August 2003 and April 2004 and including both extensive participation in and observation of ritual practice, as well as several recorded interviews with mediums and others involved with these performances, the thesis explores the relationship between these performances, the selves of the participants and the larger socioeconomic context in which they are set. More specifically, the focus is on two central features of these ritual practices, namely what the participants and spiritualist discourse more generally refer to as their “healing” efficiency and their ability to provide for the attendants’ “spiritual development”. It is argued that underlying these emic notions are concrete embodied experiences of phenomenological real affliction and their (experientially beneficial) transformation, as well as the experience of a change in one’s embodied being-in-the-world more widely conceived (also this said to be beneficial). This thesis, then, is concerned with understanding and explaining these processes of embodied transformation effected in and through spiritualist ritual practice. It asks first what it is that these rituals heal and how they do it, then explores what kind of alterations in the attendants’ subjectivity is effected and what are the features of the emerging mode of being-in-the-world that constitutes this subjectivity. As concerns the healing efficiency of spiritualist ritual practice, I argue that it can be understood through relating it to the larger structural features of contemporary urban modernity/late- modernity. This is so since spiritualist ritual practice – at least to a large