Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Anna-Leena Siikala
21 citations
Shamanic ecstasy is characterized by changes in body image, attenuated grasp of reality, and reduced self-control, which can lead to identification with supranormal authority. Basic elements of shamanic tradition can be explained by typical features of altered states of consciousness, such as depersonalization and transcendence, which may drive cosmic journey fantasies. The shamanic technique of ecstasy differs from other ecstatic practices through its emphasis on ritual role-taking aimed at spirit-helpers. The shaman's generalized reality orientation is cut off by extinguishing lights and intensified drumming, replaced by a special orientation shaped by shamanic tradition and fantasies of supranormal beings. The shaman actualizes one spirit role after another according to a set pattern.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Nils Holm
21 citations
Scholars have long studied distinctive religious and cultural phenomena such as yogis, mystics, shamans, sorcerers, and group-hysterical events, but no major collection of research contributions on all these topics exists. Before discussing existing research, the text introduces key technical terms and concepts: ecstasy, trance, mysticism, possession, and altered states of consciousness.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Owe Wikström
4 citations
Possession by evil spirits should not be reduced to a medical diagnosis like psychosis or epilepsy. A broader understanding requires integrating the phenomenology of religion with clinical psychology. The structure of possession involves an interaction between cognitive-linguistic and emotional-affective levels. An individual's biochemically conditioned intense feelings must be related to how their subculture defines those feelings. Religious language offers a way to verbally handle the unstructured, terrifying aspects of developing psychosis, describing personal transformation as a dynamic between mythological representations of evil and intrapsychic anxiety.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 1, 1993
Jonathan Horwitz
3 citations
Previous research on shamanic rites has captured only part of the phenomenon. To understand it fully, scholars must examine the rite's content from the shaman's own perspective, treating the shaman's descriptions as valid accounts of experience. Outside observers have historically dismissed these experiences as religious faith, imagination, superstition, or performance because their own conception of reality was too narrow. The shaman's work is fundamentally experiential, and accepting that experience as real is essential for a complete understanding.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Åke Hultkrantz
2 citations
Since the late 1800s, a nativistic Indian movement called the peyote cult (or peyote religion) has spread across native North America, centered on the Prairies and Plains. Its central ritual involves consuming the peyote cactus, which contains hallucinogenic mescaline. Pre-Columbian Mexicans used peyote in public ceremonies, but the modern form is a distinct religious complex promoting health, happiness, and welfare. The text examines conditions for the cult's diffusion, asking why it spread to some areas and was obstructed in others, noting that changes in the North American Indian situation at the end of the nineteenth century enabled religious innovations and the introduction of this foreign movement.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Marja-Liisa Swantz
2 citations
Spirit possession is examined as an institutional form of religious experience that both shapes and is shaped by social and economic development. The study focuses on four ethnic groups in Eastern Tanzania undergoing forced villagisation, a government program moving people from scattered homesteads into larger villages. Spirit possession cults—loosely organized ritual groups without strict membership—are seen as creative responses to crises and conflicts imposed by changing social and economic relations. The analysis asks how specific religious practices relate to societal change, what social and religious contexts produce spirit possession, and whether possession serves to exert values and overcome upheaval. Institutionalization and deinstitutionalization of possession occur both within and outside established cults.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Per-Arne Berglie
Spirit mediums from a Tibetan refugee community in Nepal undergo possession by gods during séances, marked by donning a headdress; once worn, the god speaks and acts through the medium, who later reports no memory of the event. The study describes three mediums—dBang phyug, Sri gcod, and Nyi ma don grub—and notes that possession occurs by the god best suited for the evening's task. A medium's genuineness is established through training and testing, and further proof is not required if problems are solved satisfactorily; doubters may consult a lama.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Tina Hamrin
Kitamura Sayo (1900-1967), founder of Tenho-kötai-jingii-kyö, proclaimed in July 1945 that the world was ending and that she was chosen by the deity Tensho Kotai Jingu as the world's savior. Followers gathered, and the group became a legally incorporated religious organization in January 1947. She taught that regret, desire, hatred, and love cause misfortune, urging liberation through prayer until the self is forgotten. Members perform a ritual dance and enter ecstatic states at meetings, giving the movement its name, the Dancing Religion.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Ing-Britt Trankell
Rituals are formalized, repetitive, and conservative events that assert transcendental power over everyday life. This paper argues that ritual studies should examine how rituals negotiate power and influence. Research on a spirit possession cult among the Muslim Cham in Cambodia shows that the cult functions both as a kind of state ritual and as exorcism, with open-ended and unbounded features in contemporary society. Through the cult, the Cham take refuge in memories of the distant past rather than in immediate memories of terror and political violence from the civil war and Khmer Rouge regime. Songs of the spirits intermingle present and past, narrating difficulties, conflicts, and struggles in a spirit world that mingles with ordinary human life.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Vadim Zhdanov
The terms gnosticism and esotericism are frequently linked, with esoteric teachings often involving secret knowledge of nature or the divine. Although the historical thesis that gnosticism is the source of all esotericism is not tenable—western esotericism began in the Renaissance—the two are interwoven. The author describes the dogmatics and history of the 'Great White Brotherhood Usmalos', a new religious movement that caused a stir in Ukraine and Russia in the early 1990s. Using this example, he applies the concepts of gnosticism and esotericism to illuminate both its mode of thought and form of life.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Tore Ahlbäck
This editorial note introduces a volume of symposium papers on Western esotericism, a field that examines marginalized or rejected currents in Western religious and philosophical history. The symposium, held in Finland in 2007, brought together scholars to explore topics such as occultism, mysticism, and hermetic traditions. The volume presents research that challenges conventional boundaries between religion, science, and philosophy, highlighting the historical and cultural significance of esoteric movements.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Jole Shackelford
Esoteric belief systems, which prioritize inner knowledge gained through direct apprehension or internal illumination rather than public pedagogy, have historically been excluded from the academic study of science and medicine since the Enlightenment. These systems operate within worldviews that include their own physics and metaphysics, making them comparable to other cosmologies. Historians of science find particular value in examining points of confrontation and zones of commonality between occult and manifest sciences, as these are where the disciplinary boundaries of modern science are negotiated.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Henrik Bogdan, Olav Hammer
The field of esotericism research by Scandinavian scholars is thriving, with many academics studying Western esotericism. However, research specifically focused on Scandinavian esotericism, particularly in Sweden, is more limited. This article surveys the state of the art, providing a map of Scandinavian-language literature for non-Scandinavian readers.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Kennet Granholm
The academic study of Western esotericism has become established as a discipline, yet most research focuses on historical forms, neglecting contemporary expressions. The dominant definition of Western esotericism, developed by Antoine Faivre, may not fit modern manifestations. Late modern societal transformations—described by sociologists as late modernity, liquid modernity, or post-modernity—also affect esoteric spiritualities. The article discusses these late modern changes and their relation to Western esotericism, arguing for updated conceptual and methodological tools to study current esoteric phenomena.
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Kocku von Stuckrad
The term 'esotericism' is often used interchangeably with 'New Age' or as a reference to secret initiatory knowledge accessible only to an inner circle. In academic research over the past fifteen years, however, scholars have critically examined these assumptions and instead apply 'esotericism' to currents in Western culture that have significantly influenced religious history. New Age and secret initiatory knowledge are only two aspects of these traditions, and not the most important ones. The author proposes analyzing Western esotericism as part of a broader study of European religious history, accounting for the pluralisms, polemics, diachronic developments, and diverse discourses that have shaped Western culture.