Goulet.pdf

Deirdre Meintel
6. Hell is not mentioned; instead, emphasis is placed on the continued evolution of the soul
after death. This appears to be a widespread belief in Spiritualism (See Barbanell 1940 ).
7. As explained in Meintel ( 2003 ), becoming a member is not considered conversion; it
is rather a financial contribution ($ 20 annually) to the church and entitles the individual to
participate in certain activities, borrow books from the church library, and so on.
8. All the ministers are mediums and healers, but there are many mediums and healers
in the sch and other local Spiritualist groups who are not ministers.
9. Like McGuire ( 1988 ), who studied middle-class spiritual healers in New Jersey, I was
surprised at the residential stability of those I have interviewed at the sch, many of whom
still live in the neighborhood where they grew up.
10. The Protestant version of this prayer concludes with a sentence absent from the Cath-
olic version: “For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever.”
11. Terms and phrases that are part of Spiritualist jargon are put in quotes only the first
time they appear in the text.
12. Accepter d’être inclus dans les situations où elle se manifeste et dans le discours qu’elle
exprime (Favret-Saada 1977 , 43 ).
13. See Clifford’s ( 1997 ) description of Karen McCarthy Brown’s mobile study of a voo-
doo priestess and her entourage in New York City.
14. L’ethnologue qui se distancie voit son objet lui glisser des mains; celui qui accepte
une participation de près doit toutefois faire face aux risques de la subjectivation (Favret-
Saada 1977 , 48 ).
15. My thanks to Judith Asher, Claudia Fonseca, Sylvie Fortin, Louis-Robert Frigault, Is-
abel Heck, Ilda Januario, and John Leavitt for their insightful comments at different points
in the research; thanks also to J. Asher, I. Heck, Géraldine Mossière, and the editors of this
book for their editorial suggestions.
16. When I asked Michel if he could see auras while walking down the street, he an-
swered, “Yes, I could see them, but I choose not to, because I want to have a life.”
17. Margaret Mead, an Anglican, believed that she had two spirit guides (Howard
1984 ).
18. The frequency with which native guides manifest in Spiritualism is a subject worth
longer discussion than is possible here. Not only are they extremely common among the
spirits perceived and channeled by members of the closed group in which I participate, but
mention of them can be found in English Spiritualist writings of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century.
19. I have heard reports, which, so far, I have been unable to confirm, to the effect that
Quebec law has been modified recently and now allows limited touching (i.e., of the head,
hands and shoulders of the person receiving healing) by spiritual healers.
20. In fact, Peters presents himself as a “Tibetan Shaman” on his Web site: http://www.
tibetanshamam.com.
21. Thanks to Jean-Guy Goulet for this reference.
22. I am reminded of an essay by Jorgé Louis Borges that speaks of “Borges” as being
no longer separate from Borges-the-writer.