Edmund Searlessecular self began to loosen its grip on me. I began to feel re-enchanted
and reanimated by a world of mystic presence and spiritual agency.
I began to experience the world as saturated with unseen forces, a
world suffused with God and other invisible beings. I felt as if I were
undergoing a slow and gradual conversion process, one actively trans-
forming and shaping my understanding of the world and how people
make meaning in it. My experiences in Africa drew me to a deeper
interest in the power of prayer and pilgrimage in the Christian world
(particularly Roman Catholic), and I became more attentive to sto-
ries of miraculous healing and other miracles associated with Catho-
lic shrines in Europe and North America. I was also inspired to revisit
stories told to me in the Arctic about the mystical presences of name-
souls, spirit helpers, and shamans. My experiences in Guinea-Bissau
enabled me to step outside my taken-for-granted view of the world
and to learn why I refused to explore episodes of sorcery, prophecy,
and reincarnation in the Arctic, and why I avoided discussing these
topics with my host family or others.
Many a priest or spiritual counselor would argue that the com-
mencement of a journey into the inner life is not the result of one’s
own will but rather an example of a mystical presence moving from
the outside in (for a fascinating set of case studies, see James 1997 ). I
feel that when I conducted research in the Arctic in the early 1990 s,
I was neither willing nor ready emotionally, psychologically, or spiri-
tually to confront a world of infused with sacred signs and saturated
with mystic presence. I was too committed to an independent, auton-
omous figure of my self and too preoccupied with the success of my
research project. I do not regret what I accomplished in those sixteen
months of fieldwork spanning four years, and I am proud of the re-
sults of this research, encapsulated in my dissertation and subsequent
publications (Searles 1998 , 2001 a, 2001 b, 2002 ).
It is difficult to admit that I avoided many opportunities in which I
could have confronted my own preconceptions and stereotypes about
the world. I jotted down notes about shaman-like activities, and also
evidence of reincarnation and soul migration, but they informed nei-
ther my analysis of Inuit social experience nor my understanding of
the Inuit world. I kept these episodes and narratives safely removed