Communication with the Dead

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2024) | Viewed by 13962

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: belief narratives; witchcraft; the dead; vernacular religion

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Pécs, 7622 Pecs, Hungary
Interests: folk belief; vernacular religion; witchcraft; shamanism; cult of the dead

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Communication with the dead is a rather universal phenomenon of human culture, with many common features but also local, geographical, temporal, and ethnic variations as well as religious differences. In this volume, we aim to expand our current knowledge on communication between the living and the dead by examining the current social embeddedness of the phenomena and new goals and new forms of communication with the dead emerging within new social, public, ideological, and political conditions (wars, migration, political, ideological and religious globalization, new alternative spiritualities, etc.) as well as by presenting case studies from previously unexplored geographical areas (especially, but not exclusively, East-Central Europe).

Authors are encouraged to touch upon a variety of topics, among others on the forms of communication with the dead (dreams, visions, ecstasy, near-death experience, necromancy, private practices and public rituals, ghost walks, legend trips, etc.); the social context of communication with the dead (community of the living and the dead, ancestors and ghosts, time, place, occasions of the communication); specialists (fortune tellers, seers, visionaries, mediums, etc.); aims of communication (providing for the needs of the dead in the afterlife; asking for advice or help to the benefit of individual, family or wider community; divination; gaining knowledge and initiation of healers, soothsayers, and prophets through the dead, etc.), and others. The purpose of this volume is to illuminate the topic of communication with the dead from a multidisciplinary perspective, that is, from the perspectives of a variety of academic disciplines—folkloristics, ethnology and anthropology, history, religious studies, psychology, and others.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send these to the guest editors Éva Pócs ([email protected]) and Mirjam Mencej ([email protected]) and to the /Religions/ Editorial Office ([email protected]) by 10 September 2023. Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. You will be notified about the selection by 30 September 2023. If accepted, papers of min. 4000 to max. 20000 words are to be submitted by 30 March 2024. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review. The Special Issue will be published by December 2024.

Prof. Dr. Mirjam Mencej
Prof. Dr. Éva Pócs
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • the dead
  • dreams
  • ecstasy
  • near-death experience
  • necromancy
  • visions
  • rituals
  • mediums
  • seers
  • visionaries
  • fortune tellers
  • ancestors
  • ghosts

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 268 KiB  
Article
Folk Spiritism: Between Communication with the Dead and Heavenly Forces
by Nemanja Radulović
Religions 2024, 15(8), 988; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080988 - 14 Aug 2024
Viewed by 741
Abstract
Examples of how Spiritism merged with local beliefs have been the subject of research in religious studies, ethnology, and folkloristics. Serbian Spiritism can also be viewed as such, but its history is an under-researched topic. We examine the syncretic product we will call [...] Read more.
Examples of how Spiritism merged with local beliefs have been the subject of research in religious studies, ethnology, and folkloristics. Serbian Spiritism can also be viewed as such, but its history is an under-researched topic. We examine the syncretic product we will call ‘folk Spiritism’, being different from the ‘high Spiritism’ of elite and middle-class intellectuals. Folk Spiritism was part of a grassroots movement for Church reform in the first half of the 20th century. The difference between folk and high Spiritism is also confirmed in the emic perspective. Based on a closer reading of its texts, we can discern a better image of the dead and communication with them in the practice of folk Spiritism. We conclude that the difference between the traditional and Spiritist image of the dead is that the former causes fear, while the later brings comfort; folk Spiritism gave preference to communication with heavenly forces (God, Christ, Holy Mother, angels, saints) while retaining the traditional view of the dead. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
10 pages, 223 KiB  
Article
Enacting Ghosts, or: How to Make the Invisible Visible
by Yseult de Blécourt
Religions 2024, 15(8), 934; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080934 - 1 Aug 2024
Viewed by 475
Abstract
In the Netherlands, there was always a clear distinction between Protestant and Catholic folklore. That is visible in witchcraft accusations, but it is also visible in ghost lore. This lore is here reconstructed applying a not always used source, to wit newspaper articles. [...] Read more.
In the Netherlands, there was always a clear distinction between Protestant and Catholic folklore. That is visible in witchcraft accusations, but it is also visible in ghost lore. This lore is here reconstructed applying a not always used source, to wit newspaper articles. Here, I will discuss how accounts of hoaxing on the one hand and misinterpreted experiences on the other, help to understand how, in this case people in the Netherlands of roughly a century to a century and a half ago, realized their imagination of the dead. Not in a paradisical kind of afterlife, or as rotten corpses in the ground, but as specific entities which permeated the boundaries between the living and the dead. These newspaper reports are confronted with the stories (or jokes) collected by folklorists. I will also discuss content, with a special focus on the phenomenon of the hoax. Hoaxsters, however, allow the researcher to engage with an extra dimension in the encounter, between the ghost and the observer there is now a third party interacting with both. (How this involves the researcher, is always a problem in historical research.) Was there an overall ghost picture? What was the reaction of bystanders? Moreover, this essay will move between story and history, between the past as it was experienced and as it was related to contemporaries, between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ to give it another name. As it will appear, the boundary between the two seems blurred but in the end turns out rather precise. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
21 pages, 297 KiB  
Article
Communication with the Deceased in Dreams: Overcoming the Boundary between This World and the Otherworld or Its Conceptualization Strategy?
by Smiljana Đorđević Belić
Religions 2024, 15(7), 828; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070828 - 9 Jul 2024
Viewed by 946
Abstract
Starting from the concept of death in contemporary Serbian culture (in the context of thanatological and anthropological studies), the author focuses on the analysis of communication with the deceased in dreams, which is still perceived as an important form of contact with the [...] Read more.
Starting from the concept of death in contemporary Serbian culture (in the context of thanatological and anthropological studies), the author focuses on the analysis of communication with the deceased in dreams, which is still perceived as an important form of contact with the otherworldly. The analysis of material collected during field research at various locations in Serbia and in Serbian communities in Romania (from 2017 to 2024), supplemented by dream narratives from the internet, has shown that based on the main messages conveyed by the deceased to the living, dreams can be divided into: (1) dreams about “the unappeased deceased” (who lack something in the otherworld, usually due to an omission by the living related to funerary rituals); (2) dreams in which the deceased show the otherworld and provide verbal assessments of it; (3) dreams in which the deceased inform of their departure or final passing into the world of the dead; (4) dreams in which the deceased demonstrate their presence in the world of the living, i.e., providing information pertaining to the sphere of the dreamer’s social reality; (5) dreams in which the deceased convey their messages, advice or warnings to the living; and (6) dreams interpreted as the deceased person’s call to the dreamer to join them in the otherworld. Basic element analysis of the spatial world image, projected via the dream, highlights the importance of the locus perceived as a border space. Dreams about the deceased seem to be ambivalent in this respect, given that, on the one hand, they are perceived as an important means of communication between this world and the otherworld, and on the other hand, through the ideas on which they are founded and that they further transmit, they are also part of the narrative strategies of the boundary between this concept of two worlds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
12 pages, 2428 KiB  
Article
Ngytarma and Ngamteru: Concepts of the Dead and (Non)Interactions with Them in Northern Siberia
by Olga B. Khristoforova
Religions 2024, 15(6), 740; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060740 - 18 Jun 2024
Viewed by 671
Abstract
This article examines some features of the mythological beliefs and funeral rites of Siberia’s two related Uralic peoples—the Nenets and the Nganasans. The afterlife fate in the mythology of Nenets and Nganasans is similar—the souls of the dead go to the Lower World, [...] Read more.
This article examines some features of the mythological beliefs and funeral rites of Siberia’s two related Uralic peoples—the Nenets and the Nganasans. The afterlife fate in the mythology of Nenets and Nganasans is similar—the souls of the dead go to the Lower World, where they continue to live as they lived on Earth. However, the two cultures’ attitudes towards the dead have intriguing differences. A comparison of Nenets and Nganasan beliefs and rituals reveals significant correspondences between the ideas about the benevolence of the dead (the Nenets) or their harmfulness (the Nganasans), on the one hand, and the presence of the practices of substitutional incarnation (images of the dead) (the Nenets) or the absence of such images (the Nganasans) on the other. The differences between the Nenets and the Nganasans, as I suggest, are due to the origin and history of the peoples: the Nenets’ customs reflect the traditions of the Uralic tribes who came to the far north from Southern Siberia in ancient times. At the same time, the Nganasans’ ideas are probably rooted in typical concepts of the Palaeo-Siberian population assimilated by the Uralic tribes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
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12 pages, 264 KiB  
Article
Contact with the Dead in Iceland Past and Present: The Findings of a New Survey of Folk Belief and Experiences of the Supernatural in Iceland
by Terry Gunnell
Religions 2024, 15(6), 661; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060661 - 28 May 2024
Viewed by 670
Abstract
This article focuses on the figures concerning experiences of and beliefs in possible contacts with the dead amongst Icelandic people that have come to light from three national surveys that were undertaken in 1974, 2006–2007, and 2023, focusing in particular on the most [...] Read more.
This article focuses on the figures concerning experiences of and beliefs in possible contacts with the dead amongst Icelandic people that have come to light from three national surveys that were undertaken in 1974, 2006–2007, and 2023, focusing in particular on the most recent figures. It starts by reviewing the earliest evidence of such beliefs in Iceland (expressed in both Old Icelandic literature and Icelandic folk legends), which evidently laid down the foundations for modern-day beliefs. After listing the main findings of the surveys and noting the changes in belief that appear to have taken place over the last 50 years, the article offers some brief conclusions relating to what seems to have caused not only some obvious gender and age differences in belief and experience, but also differences in figures between urban and rural areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
16 pages, 2928 KiB  
Article
Shamanistic Rituals to Âşıks Performances: Symbolism of Summoning Spirits
by Ünsal Yılmaz Yeşildal, Banu Güzelderen and Fatih Düzgün
Religions 2024, 15(6), 653; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060653 - 27 May 2024
Viewed by 1184
Abstract
Âşıks, renowned for their adeptness at improvisational poetry, are viewed as the inheritors of certain shamanic functions within historical contexts. Originally, shamans assumed diverse roles encompassing poetry, medicine, and priesthood before social and religious transformations prompted a gradual shift of the poetic [...] Read more.
Âşıks, renowned for their adeptness at improvisational poetry, are viewed as the inheritors of certain shamanic functions within historical contexts. Originally, shamans assumed diverse roles encompassing poetry, medicine, and priesthood before social and religious transformations prompted a gradual shift of the poetic responsibilities, first to individuals termed ozan (bards) and later to âşık, beginning from the 15th to 16th centuries. Âşıks share parallels with shamans in their upbringing, developmental stages toward âşıklık (bardhood), and esteemed societal positions. Their reverence for deceased masters becomes evident in their artistic presentations, wherein they express homage to the memories, and consequently the spirits, of their masters by reciting the works of esteemed âşık masters, notably Köroğlu, during their performances. This practice, referred to as “usta malı söylemek” (the performance of the masters’ poems and folk songs) within the Turkish âşık tradition, represents an endeavor to establish a connection with the spirits of ancestors. The resemblance between the tradition of âşıks evolving within the master–apprentice dynamic and shamans invoking the spirits of departed ancestors, embarking on celestial and subterranean journeys empowered by them, and the âşıks’ homage to their masters’ spirits through recitations of their works, thereby sensing their masters’ influence by engaging with them, is striking. This study explores the extent to which contemporary âşıks consciously embrace this resemblance. To this end, a sample group of 34 âşıks residing in diverse regions of Türkiye was interviewed, and the acquired data were analyzed using the document analysis method. Accordingly, all the âşıks who participated in the study were nurtured within the tradition of the master–apprentice relationship akin to shamans. They diligently sought to evoke the spirits of their masters during their performances by reciting masters’ poems and songs, reminiscent of shamans invoking the spirits of deceased shaman ancestors through prayers resembling divine verses. Furthermore, while variations specific to different regions and age groups existed among these âşıks, it was observed that consciously reciting the poems of their masters elevated the masters’ spirits. Simultaneously, they harbored concerns about the potential harm that neglecting this practice might inflict upon the tradition, themselves, and their surroundings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
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15 pages, 284 KiB  
Article
Commemoration of the Dead in the Context of Alternative Spirituality: Collective and Solitary Rituals
by Tatiana Bužeková
Religions 2024, 15(5), 626; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050626 - 20 May 2024
Viewed by 1003
Abstract
The ritualised commemoration of the deceased belongs to the most common forms of communication with the dead. The meaning that people ascribe to a religious commemoration ritual is determined by a concrete religious doctrine, although it can be influenced by a broader cultural [...] Read more.
The ritualised commemoration of the deceased belongs to the most common forms of communication with the dead. The meaning that people ascribe to a religious commemoration ritual is determined by a concrete religious doctrine, although it can be influenced by a broader cultural tradition. However, in the context of alternative spiritual currents, there can be many possible interpretations of communication with the dead, as there is no “official” doctrine supported by established institutions. In addition, alternative spirituality is marked by the emphasis on individuality, which results in the predominance of solitary practice. Yet, in various contexts, the tension between individuality and community can be manifested in different forms of ritualised behaviour, ranging from strictly private performances to prescribed group rituals. The paper addresses different levels of individual and collective practice in the context of alternative spirituality in Slovakia, a post-socialist country with a predominantly Christian, mostly Catholic, population. It makes use of the theoretical tools of Mary Douglas’ theory relating to the connection between cosmological beliefs and particular forms of social life. Rituals and ritualised behaviour are considered in the case of the triduum of All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. The results of ethnographic research on spiritual circles operating in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, have shown that these holidays are perceived and practiced differently by people with different religious or spiritual affiliation. The individual interpretation and the degree of associated ritualised behaviour depend on personal background, as well as the social organisation of a circle to which a practitioner belongs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
14 pages, 286 KiB  
Article
The Dead in Vernacular Magic Practices among Bosniaks
by Mirjam Mencej
Religions 2024, 15(5), 605; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050605 - 14 May 2024
Viewed by 1105
Abstract
Based on fieldwork research among the Bosniak (Muslim) population in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this article starts with the technique of summoning the dead, aimed at obtaining information about missing goods. It argues that the practice of summoning the dead, like [...] Read more.
Based on fieldwork research among the Bosniak (Muslim) population in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this article starts with the technique of summoning the dead, aimed at obtaining information about missing goods. It argues that the practice of summoning the dead, like practices aimed at magically harming others, is based on the same moral rules that govern everyday relations between the living and the dead. While these rules are generally followed and observed in everyday life, they can also be deliberately inverted to one’s own advantage or to the disadvantage of others. Ultimately, I argue that the dead prove to be moral agents who act when moral norms are violated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
16 pages, 332 KiB  
Article
The Living and the Dead in Slavic Folk Culture: Modes of Interaction between Two Worlds
by Svetlana M. Tolstaya
Religions 2024, 15(5), 566; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050566 - 30 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1332
Abstract
Slavic folk culture is a fusion of Christian and of pre-Christian, pagan beliefs based on magic. This article is devoted specifically to ancient pre-Christian ideas about death and posthumous existence and the associated magical rituals and prohibitions, which persist to our time. It [...] Read more.
Slavic folk culture is a fusion of Christian and of pre-Christian, pagan beliefs based on magic. This article is devoted specifically to ancient pre-Christian ideas about death and posthumous existence and the associated magical rituals and prohibitions, which persist to our time. It considers the following interactions between the living and the dead: 1. the measures taken and prohibitions observed by the living to ensure their well-being in the other world; 2. the measures taken by the living to ensure the well-being of their dead relatives in the other world (including funeral rites; memorial rites; cemetery visits; providing the dead with food, clothes, and items necessary for postmortem life; and sending messages to the other world); 3. communication between the living and the dead on certain days (including taking opportunities to meet, see, and hear them; treat them; prepare a bed for them; and wash them); 4. fear of the dead and their return and the desire to placate them to prevent them from causing natural disasters (hail, droughts, floods, etc.), crop failures, cattle deaths, diseases, and death; 5. magical ways for protecting oneself from the “walking dead”; 6. transforming the dead into mythological characters—for example, house-, water-, or forest-spirits and mermaids. The material presented in the article is drawn from published and archival sources collected by folklorists and ethnographers of the XIX and XX centuries in different regions of the Slavic world, as well as from field recordings made by the author and his colleagues in Polesie, the borderland of Belarus and Ukraine, in the 1960–1980s, in the Russian North and in the Carpathian region in the 1990s. It shows that the relationship between the living and the dead in folk beliefs does not fit comfortably within the widespread notion of an “ancestor cult”. It argues that the dead are both venerated and feared and that the living feel a dependence on their ancestors and a desire to strictly observe the boundary between the two worlds. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
10 pages, 258 KiB  
Article
Traces of Necromantic Divinatory Practices in the Picatrix
by Endre Ádám Hamvas
Religions 2024, 15(4), 512; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040512 - 21 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1360
Abstract
In the famous medieval magical manual called the Picatrix, the unknown author describes the phenomenon of magic with the term nigromantia. As is well known, the original meaning of the Greek term necromantia has a more concise meaning. It is used for a [...] Read more.
In the famous medieval magical manual called the Picatrix, the unknown author describes the phenomenon of magic with the term nigromantia. As is well known, the original meaning of the Greek term necromantia has a more concise meaning. It is used for a special kind of divination, i.e., divination through the parts of a cadaver and the conjured spirit of the dead. Seemingly, in the Picatrix, no necromantic ritual can be found; moreover, the author stresses that his main goal is pious, i.e., to find the path leading to the ultimate source of the universe, the one and only God. In my article, I show that on some pages of the Picatrix, there are traces of divinatory practices that may be connected to the original meaning of the term nigromantia. In the third book of the manual, descriptions of some interesting rituals attributed to the pagan Sabeans of Harran and their teacher, the god Hermes can be found. During the practices, the magician involved conjured spirits of the heavenly bodies and powers as well. Because of this, by looking closely at and analyzing the given text, it is possible to piece together a complex web of necromantic and demonic divinatory rituals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
16 pages, 602 KiB  
Article
Dead Men Talking: Ibn ‘Arabī’s Interactions with Messengers and Saints
by Ismail Lala
Religions 2024, 15(4), 504; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040504 - 19 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1174
Abstract
The mystical thinker Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) had many audiences with the dead. This article explores who Ibn ‘Arabī interacted with, and how. Usually as dreams and visions, the meetings Ibn ‘Arabī had with messengers were generally at key milestones in [...] Read more.
The mystical thinker Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabī (d. 638/1240) had many audiences with the dead. This article explores who Ibn ‘Arabī interacted with, and how. Usually as dreams and visions, the meetings Ibn ‘Arabī had with messengers were generally at key milestones in his life, or to confer particular distinctions upon him. A special subset of these visions was of Prophet Muḥammad specifically, and these were to derive a legal ruling from him, or because he was under the special care of the Prophet. Conversely, the audiences he had with departed saints were largely to do with more quotidian issues, either regarding his relationship with spiritual masters, or to correct a misapprehension about someone. Finally, but more seldom, he had physical interactions with corporealised spirits from beyond. As these betrayed a higher rank than mere visions, they were reminiscent of his audiences with messengers in that they confirmed his exalted spiritual rank. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
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10 pages, 248 KiB  
Article
Whose Soul Is It?—Destinative Magic in East-Central Europe (14th–18th Centuries)
by Benedek Láng
Religions 2024, 15(3), 377; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030377 - 21 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1195
Abstract
This study explores destinative elements in late medieval and early modern learned magic in East-Central Europe, focusing on names, images, characters, invocations, and addresses facilitating communication with transcendental entities. It contends that a thematic shift occurred in the early modern era, witnessing a [...] Read more.
This study explores destinative elements in late medieval and early modern learned magic in East-Central Europe, focusing on names, images, characters, invocations, and addresses facilitating communication with transcendental entities. It contends that a thematic shift occurred in the early modern era, witnessing a decline in destinative talisman texts, replaced by a surge in treasure-hunting manuals. Drawing from legal cases and treasure-hunting manuals, the research aims to categorize the “souls” frequently invoked in these practices. The term “souls” is interpreted as either spirits or the souls of the deceased, reflecting the significant role of the dead in treasure hunting, often conducted in cemeteries. This shift is linked to changes in the sociocultural background of practitioners, marking a transformation in magical practices from destinative talismans to treasure hunting, revealing a nuanced evolution in East-Central European magical traditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
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