This text is un-altered since 1996.

My field work

Is it possible to determine if Spiritualism is “true” or “false“? That’s a very common question people have asked me. For me, this question is totally without meaning. Or nonsense, if you like. As an anthropologist, or as a human in general, you can’t judge if peoples beliefs are true or not. Specially not in questions regarding beliefs, philosophy or religion. The only answere is: Who knows. I can’t tell. You can’t tell. Life is a mystery.

 
My fieldwork concerned belief and practice in Spiritualism in contemporary England. There has not been, as far as I know, any recently anthropological investigation concerning Spiritualism in western societies. The exception is Swatos’ study of a famous Icelandic medium, but still, that study is not contemporary. My choice of ethnographic region was England because Britain was the first European country which opened itself for Spiritualism when it first came from the US to Europe in the late 19.th century.

Then, in the last part of the 19.th century and the first part of the 20.th century, Spiritualism grew rapidly and spread to all parts of the population in England and in the continental Europe.
Spiritualism divided into physical mediumship and mental mediumship. Christian Spiritualists was fighting against the church and the non-Christian Spiritualists. Some parts of the Spiritualist-movement turned to New-Age movements, while still others became influenced on numerous other ways. But still, the main thing in Spiritualism endures: the belief in the Afterlife, and the possibility to communicate with those on the other side. “The Death is the biggest Lie on earth”.

There has been a lot of investigation concerning Spiritualism, but not about Spiritualism in general. The early and later researchers were all concerned about how to prove or disprove Spiritualistic mediums, the Spiritual world, the eventually afterlife or to explain strange phenomena’s that occur during seances, or PK and telekinesis, among other related phenomena which all are claimed to rest upon spiritual or (occult) mental power. Those who have been (and indeed still is) investigating this, are called psychic researchers.

That’s absolutely not my intention. I will try to find out how and why someone become mediums, who they are, who the spiritualists are, who and what the spirits are, how the spiritual world are, what the afterlife is, which levels in the afterlife exists and which is reachable in seances, how are seances done and a lot more. These things are extremely interesting!

I was conducting my fieldwork from September 1997 to the beginning of April 1998. I participated in demonstration seances (physical mediumship) and gathered a lot of data, in addition to some tons of books I have read.
Now I am finsihed with my fieldwork. I have succeeded in gathering a lot field data. I have participated in a lot of physical seances, and met quite a lot of interesting people, specially through the Noah’s Ark Society and the Society for Psychical Research. A big thank you to two very helpful ladies in the Society for Psychical Research (49. Marloes Road, Kensington, London.
(Tube: Circle line. Turn left, through Boots, pass Penguin, turn right, turn left, pass one excellent Thai Restaurant and there you are.)
And, of course, without The Noahs Ark Society, everything would have been extremely difficult.
I owe you a lot!
Everyone that have helped me will be credited in my thesis. There is a crowd of you.
During my fieldwork, I stayed in London (south west 17). If you are a medium, or wish to get in contact with me, please drop me a mail. Despite that I have finished my fielwork, you can still send me e-mails. The results of my investigation will be presented and will be the final part of my Cand.Polit (between MPhil and Ph.D) degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo, hopefully before the summer of 2000.