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Veuillez prendre connaissance des accompany this thesis. formules d'autorisation qui accompagnent cette these. - k THIS DISSERTATION LA THESE A ETE / HAS BEEN MICROFILMED - MICROFILMEE TELLE QUE EXACTLY AS RECE1VE.D NOUS L'AVONS RECUE. --. National Library Biblioth&cpJe nationale CANADIAN THESES THESES CANADIENNES d* of Canada du Canada ON.MICROFICHE SUR MICROFICHE - B Paul Biscop NAME OF AUTHOfVNOM DE L'AUTEUR 'THERE IS NO DEATH1: BELIEF AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF TITLE OF THESIS/TITRE DE LA THESE a REALITY IN A CANADIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH: A STUDY IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY UN IVERSITY/UNIVERSIT~ DEGREE FOR WHICH THESIS WAS P@ESENTED/. PH,D. GRADE POUR LEQUEL CETTE THESE FUT PRESENT~E .. >. 1985 YEAR THIS DEGREE CONFERRED/ANN~EDD'BTENTION DE-CE GRADE Dr. Michael Kenny NAME OF SIJPERVISOR/NOM DU'DIRECTEURDE TH~SE Perrntssion is tkreby granted to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF L'aurorisation est, par la prgsente, accordge 9 la @IOTH~- CANADA to rnicrofi lrn this thesis and to lend or selr copies QUE NATIONALE DU CANADA de microfilmer cette these et / of the film. de prgter ou de vendre des exemplaires du film. The author reserves other publication rights, Znd neither the L'auteur se rBserve /es autres droits de publication; ni la thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or other- thesen; de longs extraits de celle-ci ne doivent &re imprimBs WI se reproduced without the author's written permission. ou autrement reproduits sans l'autorisation Bcrite de /'auteur. DATE DID AT^ April 15, 1985 SIGNEDISIGN~, PERMANENT ADDRESS/R~SIDENCE FIX^ 906, 1650 Burnaby Vancouver. B .C. I THERE IS NO DEATH I : - LIEF-AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION , at OF REALITY IN A CANADIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH: - A STUDY IN THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE , Paul D. Biscop B.A., Dalhousie University, 1966; ' M.A., McGilllIJniversi.ty, 1968; P M.A., Simon Fraser University, 1981 -- THESI S SUBMI TTED IN PARTIAL FULFI LLMEN% OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHI LOSOPHY in ,the Department of Sociology and Anthropology 1 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY - June, 1985 , - All rights reserved. his work may not be a reproduced in whole or in part, by phbtocopy or other means, without permission of the a.uthor.- I APRROVAL , . -? t i NAME : Pauq D. Biscop + DEGREE: Doctor of Phi 1osophy TITLE OF THESIS: 'THERE IS NO DEATH' Be1 ief and the Social Construction of ,Real ity in a Canadian Spiritualist Church A STUDY IN THE ANTHROPOLOGYcOF KNOWLEDGE - EXAMINING COMMITTEE: Chairperson: Marilyn Gates MICHAEL KENNY SENIOR SUPERVISOR . KEITH DIXON HAMISH DICKIE-CLARK , JUNE MACKLIN EXTERNAL EXAMINER Connecticut College New London, ConnectiEut DATE APPROVED: MARCH 21 , 1985 I hereby grant to Sirnor: Fraser University the right to lend K.;). thesis, pro.ject or exreneed essay (the title of which is shown c~lowl to use-5 of th? Simon Fraser University Cibrary, and to mak? partia I or single copies only for such users or in response to a-request from the library of any otner gniversity, or other edqcational institution, on 1 its own behalf or for one of its users.,. 1 further agree that permission for multiple copying of thi6 work for &holarfy purposes may be granted $ ' by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for finaiicial gain shatl not be allowed without my written permission. I D Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay 'THERE IS NO DEATH1: BELIEF AND3'THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY IN A CANADIAN SPIRITUALIST' CHURCH : A STUDY IN THE ANTHRDPOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE ., Author: - (signature) April 15, 1985 ABSTRACT - Individuabs 'and groups interact to coproduce their - - experience of reality . Individual cultures create culture-specific realities or universes of meaning, in relation to which subgroups may define subuniverses of meaning; _The Spiritualist ~hur'chmovement is one such subuniverse of meaning i $ to which the sociology.of knowledge may be usefully applied. The sociology of knowledge maintains that the 'reality' of everyday life is both socially created and paradigmatic, in relation to which individuals weigh and evaluate life's experiences and from which personal meaning is formed. ~ndividuals share in their common cultures which define what is real and what is not. Spiritualism claims to prove the survival of death through dthe evidence> of spirit mediumship and 'psychic phenomena'. For spiritualists, the world of the spirits is both ontologically real and accessible through mediumship; though mediumship itself is not usually a sensory experience. Mediu ship exists as a- , subjective kind of experience to whic isattributed an Id objective status. In the spiritualist context we may ask, "By what kind of process does the subjective experience of 1 k mediumshlip cbme to be interpreted as being related- $0, or involved with, an allegedly objective domain?" The spiritualist construction of reality occurs on -three main levels: the social level, the phenomenological level and the cosmological level. The process of that reality constructionb is a microcosm of the process at work on a larger scale s0) I3. h JJ .r( *arl 01 k W 0 C 0 .d JJ 2 k JJ to C 0 U r-ia .d u 'tn0 +r m .d r( c,4 -r( LC -. DEDICATION To my mother and father, Frank ,and ~aurat@i'sco~,a- on the occasion of th'eir 50th. anniversary, September 3, 1985. With love. I wish to express my gratitude the Social Scie~ces and Humanities Research Council of for their generous support - - through receipt of a Doctoral. without 'which this thesis would not be completed at this time. L- I My heartfelt thanks go-I to my good friends Karin Wilson and Chris Harris, *whose ,many-hours spent qt the computer terminal helping me type the thesis (and enduring my moods and - frustrations) were truly a labour of love. <- ~h'is page would not be complete without a word of th nks 1 4 for the moral support. received from ~~anetteand my fellow "gym' b ratsu-tern Gym and Fitness Center. Thanks gang. -'- A Last, but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to all the spiritualists and spiritualist churches who welcomed my research and fieldwork. i , TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval ......................................................ii f Abstract .............................................. :......iii Dedication ..................................................... v Acknowledgments 'i- vi ....,..............,..A ...................... List of Figures .............................................:...x, r I. CHAPTER ONE: INTRQDUCTION AND METH DOLOGY .............. 1 I . Introduction ...........................J I....... .......1 METHODOLOGY: The Role of Insider .......................4 L Introduction ........................................-14 .' Socializati-on and Identity ...........................16 6 Institutionalization .................................27 * The common Stock of ~nowledae........................ .30 . Social Knowledge and 'Cognitive Assonance' ............32 t Roles and the Transmissiorr--,ofKnowledge ..............35 fJ The Integration of Meanings and the Symbolic - Universe ............... ;..........,...............386 . , The Symbolic universe .................................-'-+ 42 Maintaining the Symbolic Universe .................... 45 RESOCIALIZATION AND SECONDARY SOCIALIZATION: .........50 . -Maintaining the Subjective Unive-rse ..................50 Transformation and Alternation .......................56 Identity and Cultural ~sychologies ...................61 NOTES ................................................65 vii =? 111. CHAPTER THREE: THE FIELD AREA .... .............,.... 69 .J/ < The Spriritualist Chureh Movement ............... ..~.;69-? - 1 Bsychical Societies ..,..........,....................80 7 Tri-Partite Division of the Study ...................