Reframing voices and visions using a spiritual model. An interpretative phenomenological analysis of anomalous experiences in mediumship

Abstract

Throughout different civilisations and historical epochs, anthropological and religious texts have been replete with accounts of persons who have reported anomalous experiences in the form of visions or voices. In these contexts, such experiences are considered to be a “gift” that can be spiritually enriching or life enhancing. One such group of individuals are mediums who claim to receive information from spirits of the deceased in the form of auditory or visual perceptions. This study explores how mediums come to interpret their experiences as mediumistic and how they describe their relationship with spirit voices. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Spiritualist mediums using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three themes were identified: “Childhood anomalous experiences”, “A search for meaning: Normalisation of mediumship”, and “relationship with spirit”. These themes illuminated aspects of the mediumistic experience that have therapeutic implications for individuals who have similar experiences but become distressed by them.

Keywords:

• anomalous experiences
• hearing voices
• interpretative phenomenological analysis
• mediumship
• Spiritualism

Notes

1. This research was part of a larger mixed methods study that investigated the psychology and phenomenology of mediumship in order to explore the broad range of mediumistic experiences rather than focusing exclusively on the voice-hearing phenomenon (see Roxburgh & Roe, 2011). As such, some findings reported here overlap with those reported elsewhere (Roxburgh & Roe, 2013).

2. Transcription notes: Ellipsis [ … ] in the participants’ quotes mean there was a pause and three question marks in round brackets (???) signify missing data due to inaudible recording. Round brackets with an asterisk (*) indicate that personal information has been removed and round brackets with ellipsis ( … ) indicate that irrelevant information has been removed due to space restrictions.