Three Spirit Mediums: A Case Study on Grief, Death, and Alternative Religious Traditions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Based on interviews with three American spirit mediums during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research note serves as a case study on the role of spirit mediumship during the pandemic. Because they serve clients rather than congregations, spirit mediums were able to develop more nuanced and immediate re...
| Published in: | Nova religio |
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| Subtitles: | "Creativity, Adaptation, and Innovation in Contemporary Paganism and New Age during the COVID-19 Pandemic" |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Californiarnia Press
2023
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| In: |
Nova religio
Year: 2023, Volume: 27, Issue: 2, Pages: 86-100 |
| Further subjects: | B
Grief
B Covid-19 B metaphysical religion B Spiritualism B spirit mediums |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Based on interviews with three American spirit mediums during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research note serves as a case study on the role of spirit mediumship during the pandemic. Because they serve clients rather than congregations, spirit mediums were able to develop more nuanced and immediate responses to clients' grief surrounding the loss of a loved one to COVID-19. Spirit mediums also had an important role during the pandemic as interpreters for creating theodicies explaining why a loved one died and individuals experienced grief. In this meaning-making work, spirit mediums sometimes reflected a "conspiritual" perspective, framing the pandemic's origins and subsequent vaccine development through conspiratorial thinking. This research note ultimately suggests, therefore, that spirit mediums have an important role in American grief that has been largely overlooked and needs further dedicated research. |
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| ISSN: | 1541-8480 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Nova religio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.86 |