Between Voice and Presence: Neuroanthropology, Possession States, and the Ontology of Mediumistic Experience
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) June 30, 2026 Dr. Juan Carlos Rey
Mediumistic experiences—reports of communicating with spirits, ancestors, or other nonordinary beings—are vivid, culturally powerful, and ontologically disputed. This review proposes the Principle of Explanatory Sequence: investigate such contested experiences by moving from careful description through phenomenological, cultural, psychological, biological, and historical analyses before making ontological claims. A companion principle, Explanatory Conservation, holds that later explanations should not erase earlier phenomenological evidence. Drawing on predictive processing, embodied cognition, neuroanthropology, and other fields, the review argues mediumistic experience emerges from interactions among neurobiology, culture, ritual, personal history, and interpretation. It does not prove or disprove spirits but clarifies what different forms of evidence can and cannot support, concluding that these experiences expose the limits of explanation itself.