CHAPTER
1
Mediumism
throughout History
and around the Globe
Jordan Paper
INTRODUCTION
“Mediumism” refers to spirit possession where it is integral to the norma-
tive religion of a culture. It is of major importance in Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Oceanic, and central West African religions, and is an aspect of
religion throughout South and Southeast Asia. In the past, mediumism
was a characteristic of Greek, Roman, and Israelite religions, among
others. All of these religious traditions shared many other factors as well.
In contrast, “Spiritualism” in modern Christian cultures began as and
remains a fringe aspect of the religious matrix.
Thus the difference between “mediumism,” as used in this article, and
“Spiritualism,” the subject of these volumes, is that the former is integral
to the cultures in which it is found and is in accord with the culture’s dom-
inant ideology and religious rituals. In contrast, the ideology of Spiritual-
ism is generally contrary to the dominant ideology of the cultures in
which it is found and does not relate to the cultures’ most common rituals.
For example, Catholicism recognizes maleficent possession and to this
day has exorcism rituals, but it does not recognize the benevolent posses-
1
Mediumism
throughout History
and around the Globe
Jordan Paper
INTRODUCTION
“Mediumism” refers to spirit possession where it is integral to the norma-
tive religion of a culture. It is of major importance in Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Oceanic, and central West African religions, and is an aspect of
religion throughout South and Southeast Asia. In the past, mediumism
was a characteristic of Greek, Roman, and Israelite religions, among
others. All of these religious traditions shared many other factors as well.
In contrast, “Spiritualism” in modern Christian cultures began as and
remains a fringe aspect of the religious matrix.
Thus the difference between “mediumism,” as used in this article, and
“Spiritualism,” the subject of these volumes, is that the former is integral
to the cultures in which it is found and is in accord with the culture’s dom-
inant ideology and religious rituals. In contrast, the ideology of Spiritual-
ism is generally contrary to the dominant ideology of the cultures in
which it is found and does not relate to the cultures’ most common rituals.
For example, Catholicism recognizes maleficent possession and to this
day has exorcism rituals, but it does not recognize the benevolent posses-
