Paper short abstract:

This paper addresses the practice of spirit mediumship in the Brazilian Vale do Amanhecer (Valley of the Dawn) through the approach of the anthropology of embodiment and of the senses. The discussion focuses on the process of mediumistic development and on the production of notions of Selfhood.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the experience of spirit mediumship in the Spiritualist Christian Order 'Vale do Amanhecer' (Valley of the Dawn) in Brazil. The practice of spirit mediumship in the Vale is primarily concerned with the healing of patients through the release of discarnate spirits from the physical plane. Mediumship is understood in the Vale as a universal feature of all human beings and its practice as being culturally shaped in the mediumistic development according to the purposes for which it is used. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered during extensive fieldwork in Brazil, I explore the process of learning in mediumistic development through the approach of the anthropology of embodiment and of the senses. Focusing on conscious and semiconscious trance, and on the construction of mediums' relationship with their spirit mentors, I illustrate how notions of Selfhood are not merely transmitted as concepts of a spiritual doctrine but they are continuously produced in mediumistic experience.