Goulet.pdf

Deirdre Meintel

of departure for understandings that are not literal readings of cor-
poreal happenings but rather leaps of clairvoyant insight for which
the body serves as a springboard. An example of how this may work
can be found in D. Tedlock’s ( 1997 ) wonderfully vivid, moment-by-
moment narrative of divination, where spurts of lightning-like energy
in different parts of the ethnographer–diviner’s body lead to clairvoy-
ant revelations.

A Different Intersubjectivity

In social science, intersubjectivity is typically associated with the no-
tion of scientific reliability: would another similarly situated observer
observe the same thing? Spiritualism offers contexts for a different
kind of intersubjectivity, one in which fields of knowledge and percep-
tion that are not available to everyone are nonetheless shared among
several, sometimes many, participants. From the Spiritualist point of
view, social sharing happens not only between mediums but between
spirit guides and mediums. Of course, clairvoyance involves “pick-
ing up” things about and for other people, so in that sense it neces-
sarily involves at least two people. Beyond this, several individuals
may have the same or similar clairvoyant visions at the same time.
Edith Turner offers several examples of shared clairvoyance among
individuals participating in the same rituals and healing events in her
Alaska research ( 1996 ) and, with her coauthors, from work with the
Ndembu (E. Turner et al. 1992 ).
I have found such sharing is the case not only among gifted, experi-
enced Spiritualist mediums but also among apprentices. Open groups
held during the summer offer ample opportunity to observe newcom-
ers attempting clairvoyance, since anyone who wants to come is ad-
mitted. These groups follow roughly the same format as the closed
group, but clairvoyance exercises are a bit simpler. Time and again, I
have witnessed groups of neophytes give very similar readings for the
same person. It is extremely rare that messages for the same individ-
ual on the same occasion contradict each other. Occasionally, in the
summer groups, those present are asked to see something for them-
selves and something for a person seated beside them. Quite often