Seance
A séance ( French: "session") is generally a spiritualistic session of a group of several people, whereby, under the guidance or use of a medium, contact is made with an alleged world of the dead and the supernatural (e.g. spirits or demons ) supposed to be able to receive "messages" from the afterlife or to communicate with the deceased.
In the ethnological context, the term is also used for the “soul journeys” of the shamans of traditional societies.
Spiritist séances
The so-called “automatic writing” or the verbal communication of the medium with the hereafter are interpreted as visible signs of contact with the hereafter. Further physical manifestations are supposed to be the materialization of objects, the so-called ectoplasm gushing out of the body orifices of the medium, telekinesis , retrieval phenomena and levitation , i.e. H. floating objects like tables, pianos and books.
The "medium" is usually kept anonymous, it is claimed that this person has shown his particular ability to fall into a trance and then to be able to hear into the afterlife. Often the participants of a séance are sworn not to inform anyone outside of what has happened.
A séance often takes place by candlelight or in almost complete darkness, which only allows a shadowy vision. The room for the séance can be equipped with technical devices that allow the medium or his companions to suddenly switch on the light or to darken it completely or to let a candle go out, or to play back noises from a tape or record, controlled via hidden attached switches. Often there is someone hidden in an adjoining room who translates the words of the medium into the appropriate background noise and lets the participants believe that a ghost speaks from the hereafter. Threads in so-called levitation are another popular trick to show the floating tables or objects moved by "ghosts". A séance thus appears as an economically motivated illusionary event: the participants pay to have their wish for contact with the afterlife fulfilled through the “medium”.
Historical background
The heyday of the seances and spiritistic circles was between 1850 and 1890. However, there were still many spiritualistic sessions afterwards, immortalized in the American horror film series Poltergeist .
The places of the séances were viewed with suspicion in public. In the Victorian, purist society of those days, the places of the seances were also suspected as secret meeting places for sexual debauchery. Not always wrongly, as the séance media were accustomed to exceeding social boundaries and conventions due to the particular public attention they received from their work. In this way, sexuality was simply disguised esoterically and, at least in these circles, only made it possible to speak freely (and possibly act) about what was inexpressible at this time.
Famous media
Famous "media" were:
- William Henry (* 1841; † 1877) and Ira Erastas Davenport (* 1839; † 1911) (called "The Davenport Brothers ") (USA)
- Jonathan Koons (USA)
- Florence Cook (England)
- Daniel Dunglas Home (England / USA)
- Mrs. Samuel Guppy (born as Agnes Nichols) (England)
- Eileen Garrett (England) (became known, among other things, through an "interview" with the previously killed pilot HC Irwin of the airship R101 )
- Kate Goligher (Ireland)
- Margery (USA)
- Stella Cranshaw (England)
- Stanislawa Tomcyk (Poland)
- Anna Rasmussen (Denmark)
- Queenie Nixon (England) 1918–1989 ( transfiguration medium )
- Edgar Cayce (USA) (received diagnoses and the treatment to be carried out for certain people through the media and spoke in a trance)
- Neale Donald Walsch (born September 10, 1943 in Milwaukee )
Kamlanie, the séance of the Siberian shamans
The necromancy by spiritual specialists has a tradition in many cultures that goes back thousands of years . The seánce of the Tungus shamans from Siberia - camlany - is particularly well investigated in the context of the shamanism concepts of various scientists . You had or still have the impression of a “soul journey” into the transcendent hereafter, populated by spirits .
The focus of a shaman session was always an object that represented certain “values” - such as “souls”, “forces”, “fertility”, “happiness” etc. - that he should seek in the world of spirits to get information about them or to influence them. In doing so, a balance should always be achieved between people and spirits, which was considered to be disturbed in some way. All techniques and rituals therefore aimed to
- to reach the world of spirits
- to fulfill the intended tasks there,
- to return safely and communicate the most positive result possible to the community or the client or to complete a healing.
The process of a camellia used to be - and to a limited extent still today - as follows:
- Before the actual séance began, certain preparations were necessary. The right time was after the onset of dusk. The shaman fasted the whole day and cleaned himself thoroughly (e.g. steam bath) and was also sexually abstinent. The rooms for the séance also had to be cleaned, for example by fumigation. Helpers (mostly apprentices) often assisted him. They prepared the animal sacrifice, the smell of which was supposed to attract the spirit, so that it was magically united with the people at the subsequent meal. They later acted as translators of the shaman's marbles. Then he assumed a ritual posture:
- The shaman fell into ecstatic trance : In the hunting cultures , he used to pure concentration and willpower and certain breathing techniques, otherwise Dance (were trance dance ), drums, vocals and stimulants and sometimes hallucinogenic drugs ( fly agaric ) used. The effect of the drugs increased through fasting and occurred after about 50 minutes, after which the shaman fell into a deep sleep of about an hour, then jumped up and began to hallucinate , at the same time becoming insensitive to sensory stimuli and pain. This was sometimes followed by a theatrical demonstration of physical insensitivity (walking over hot coals, piercing parts of the body, etc.), with occasional magical tricks to increase credibility.
- During the ritual he often took on an animal form with the help of a disguise made of furs or masks. He often worked with amulets and ritual musical instruments, mostly with percussion instruments (→ shaman's drum ) or rattles. Certain rituals also included the correct inhalation and exhalation of smoke or the uttering of certain incantations or blessings .
- After completing these actions, the shaman announced the result and the consequences that would arise from it. If possible, he gave the people the "value" they received.
- In shaman sessions used for divination , the objects used as “values” - animal bones, molten pewter, dreams, mirrors, axes, musical instruments, arrows, etc. - functioned directly as mediators between the worlds. The interpretation of the flight of birds and the stars ( astrology ) was used in this context. In addition, so-called shaman mirrors ( toli ) were widespread.
- In hunting magic sessions focused on the success of hunting or fishing. Later on, idols often had to be made (can be traced back to the Paleolithic ).
From a neuropsychological point of view, such journeys of the soul involve various forms of expanded states of consciousness , especially trance and / or ecstasy . At the same time, there is a very deep relaxation as in deep sleep, maximum concentration as in awake awareness and a particularly impressive pictorial experience as in a dream. The shaman always experiences this extraordinary mental state as a real event that apparently takes place outside of his mind. Sometimes he sees himself from the outside (out-of- body experience ), similar to what is reported in near-death experiences . As we know today, man has direct access to the unconscious in this state : The hallucinated spirits arise from the instinctive archetypes of the human psyche; the ability to grasp connections intuitively - i.e. without rational thinking - is fully developed and often expresses itself in visions , which are then interpreted against one's own religious background.
literature
- Karl Baier: Meditation and Modernity: On the genesis of a core area of modern spirituality in the interaction between Western Europe, North America and Asia. Volume 1, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8260-4021-4 .
- Moritz Bassler, Bettina Gruber, Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf (eds.): Ghosts: Apparitions, Media, Theories. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-8260-2608-9 .
- Monika Meister: Table backs, seances, levitations: the Munich occult scene around 1900. Script from "Bavaria - Land und Menschen HF", Bayerischer Rundfunk, 2001.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruno Illius: The idea of "detachable souls". In: The concept of the soul in religious studies. Johann Figl, Hans-Dieter Klein (eds.), Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2002, ISBN 3-8260-2377-3 . Pp. 87-89.
- ↑ Eliade 1951, 2011 edition (see literature). Pp. 213 ff., 217 ff., 220, 228 ff., 235 ff., 243 ff., 276 ff., 288 ff., 31 ff., 323 ff., 326, 329 ff., 331 ff., 345 ff., 350.
- ↑ Dorothea Kupferschmidt-Neugeborn: "Heal into time and other people." Shamanism and analytical psychology in the poetic aesthetic of effect by Ted Hughes. Edition, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1995, ISBN 3-8233-5027-7 . P. 33, footnote 78, pp. 62-67.