The importance of ectoplasm and etheric energy for these communications means that we need to look at this factor more closely. When the spirit communicator works with the medium and takes control on this etheric energy, the physical phenomena often appears via ectoplasm. This is a physical, visible form of this energy that looks like a pale, translucent matter. Some may refer to it as a mist or a veil. When it takes the form of the spirit it becomes a manifestation or transfiguration. We will discuss both of those further along in this guide. More recently, Paul Stoller has suggested that anthropological commentaries on spirit possession have tended towards five dominant explanatory frameworks (excluding the dismissive framework of the earliest anthropologists), which include: ‘functionalist, psychoanalytic, physiological, symbolic (interpretive/textual), and theatrical’ frameworks. 6 These perspectives will be used to structure what follows. Functionalist Interpretations It is also clear that the term ‘mediumship’ refers to different phenomena even within the Western context. Indeed, Spiritualist mediumship, as the above definition suggests, can be broadly split into two categories. There is ‘mental mediumship,’ which itself can be split into two distinct forms of clairvoyant/telepathic/clairaudient/clairsentient mediumship, often also known as ‘platform mediumship,’ and trance mediumship, during which the body of the medium is temporarily occupied by an ostensible spirit entity. Physical mediumship can be defined as the ‘purported ability of the medium to channel unknown energies’ to create physical changes in the immediate environment’. 2 More recent research has focused on the therapeutic potential of mediumship practices for the bereaved, especially in the Western context. 24 Psychoanalytic Interpretations

Traditionally, and with no confirmed exceptions in the Western world, this rare form of mediumship has undergone much of its development in the dark. The reason for this is that ectoplasm – a substance exuded from the physical medium’s body, is extremely sensitive to light. Many are the physical mediums who have sustained injuries because the sudden and unexpected introduction of light has caused the ectoplasm to return violently to the medium’s body, resulting in burns and bleeding. Recently Scott Milligan himself suffered a burn after an illuminated rope was thrown close to his body when ectoplasm was present in the room. However, as John Bowker 14 and Janice Boddy 15 have noted, although the functionalist approach does possess considerable explanatory power, it ignores both the significance of subjective experience for believers and also the possibility that genuine psi phenomena/spirits might actually exist, assuming as it does that the objects of supernatural beliefs are cultural constructions with foundations in misperception, delusion and fraud. 16 17 Crabtree, A. (1988). Multiple Man: Explorations in Possession and Multiple Personality.London: Grafton Books. Erika Bourguignon, in a cross-cultural study of 488 widely distributed societies, 74 determined that 90 percent of her sample societies employed some form of institutionalised altered state of consciousness (trance), and that 70 percent of the sample societies associated such states with the notion of spirit possession. 75 Rogo, D.S. (1988). The Infinite Boundary: Spirit Possession, Madness, and Multiple Personality. Wellingborough: The Aquarian Press.Transfiguration is different as there isn’t that more complex body on show, or that sense of freedom of movement. Instead, the ectoplasm that is expelled from the nose and mouth of the medium forms a sort of mask or veil around their face. This then takes on the form of the face of the spirit communicator. Again, the facial features can be pretty distinctive for a true representation of the spirit, and details vary between mediums and their abilities. The purpose of this policy is to protect the reputation of both the Arthur Findlay College and Arthur Findlay Centre, and tutors working at these establishments. Most importantly it is also to safeguard the wellbeing of any mediums working with physical mediumship within both College and Centre. In compiling this important protocol, we received guidance from the Spirit World as we recognise that no two mediums abilities function in the same way. The performative aspect of spirit possession has been a key area of study within anthropology and the social sciences more generally. Spirit possession rituals exist at the threshold between subjective trance experience and public performance. The performative aspect can take the form of elaborate enactments of cosmic dramas, as in the case of South Indian Theyyam performances, 59 or elaborate rituals of self-mortification, as found in traditional forms of Taiwanese spirit mediumship, 60 or simply as subtle bodily alterations to distinguish between personalities in Spiritualist trance mediumship. 61 Levy, R.I., Mageo, J.M., Howard, A. (1996). ‘Gods, Spirits, and History.’ In J.M. Mageo, & A. Howard (eds) (1996). Spirits in Culture, History, and Mind. London: Routledge.

Emmons, C.F. (2008). ‘On Becoming a Spirit Medium in a “Rational” Society.’ Anthropology of Consciousness, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 71-82. Almost everyone would agree that it would be “preferable” to conduct séances in some degree of light, Scott and other physical mediums included. Who would not want to see a spirit person ‘in the flesh’, so to speak? But would they really wish to do this if it meant the physical medium in question could well suffer injury? Goff, D.C., Brotman, A.W., Kindlon, D., Waites, M., & Amico, E. (1991). ‘The Delusion of Possession in Chronically Psychotic Patients.’ Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease,Vol. 179, No. 9. Osborne, G. & Bacon, A.M. (2015). ‘The Working Life of a Medium: A Qualitative Examination of Mediumship as a Support Service for the Bereaved.’ Mental Health, Religion & Culture.The Freudian psychoanalytic perspective treats spirit possession as a form of culturally shaped hysteria, which itself refers to an ‘irrational emotional state caused by repressed oedipal desires in the unconscious’. 25 Other psychoanalytic interpretations of spirit possession emphasize ‘past traumatic and distressful experiences’ 26 in the lives of the possessed, and suggest that the behaviours and psychological sensations associated with the possession state are symbolic symptoms of the unconscious repression of such experiences, converted from the psychological to physical symptoms through a process known as ‘conversion’ or ‘somatization’. 27 Sound is always important in a physical seance. Silence does not provide the right energy for physical mediumship. It is important to have vocal responses from the sitters about what they are experiencing or what they are not experiencing, so that these can be compared. We must remember that physical mediumship is witnessed by all present through the physical senses, therefore all should be perceiving the same thing at the same time.Music can be a great help in building the energy, but should not be so loud that it is distressing to the sitters and is not required to be played throughout the seance.