New item in the Archive for Religion and Cognition:


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Author(s): Taves, Ann
Title: Where (fragmented) selves meet cultures: Theorising spirit possession
Category: published article
Length:
Keywords: hypnosis; dissociation; mediums; spirit possession; spiritualism;
suggestion; involuntary experience

Abstract: Cognitive theories of religious experience, while helpful in
explaining some aspects of spirit possession, do not provide a means of
accounting for the experience of mediums whose ordinary selves are `absent\'
during possession rituals. Using the late nineteenth century medium, Mrs Piper,
as a case study, I argue that hypnosis provides a means of inducing involuntary
experiences similar to those experienced by possessed persons, and that models
of how hypnosis works in both hypnotic `virtuosos\' and ordinary subjects can be
utilised in thinking theoretically about involuntary experiences in religious
contexts. In conclusion, I suggest that phenomena of interest to scholars of
religion might be subsumed under the heading `auto-suggestive phenomena\' and
contrasted with the `hetero-suggestive phenomena\' associated with hypnosis
proper and the `autosuggestive disorders\' associated with hysteria in the
nineteenth century, and conversion and dissociative disorders in the twentieth
century.

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