Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the development of folk models of mind and matter as informed by the practice and experience of trance and physical mediumship, with a particular emphasis on folk models of consciousness.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will explore the role of experience in trance and physical mediumship, both for the medium and the sitter, in the development of folk models of mind and matter, with a particular emphasis on models of consciousness. Mediums and sitters often claim that mediumship has led them to understand the world differently, and to appreciate that the standard materialistic view of science is inadequate as an all encompassing model of reality. Certain key themes and concepts emerge from experiences with mediumship, including the idea that bodies are permeable, that matter is immaterial, that consciousness is far more expansive than our normal waking consciousness would lead us to believe and that persons are multiple and may be augmented by external spiritual entities. These themes will be explored through ethnographic interviews with mediums and sitters at a Bristol based Spiritualist home-circle, and will be analysed cross-culturally.