SPIRIT POSSESSION and SHAMANISM in Brazil. Interview with Prof Bettina Schmidt

In this interview, Prof Bettina Schmidt talks about:
- How to understand Spirit Possession using a context-sensitive approach (deictic)
- The difference between how scholars and practitioners define religious experiences
- How to define Shamanism and the evolution of its semantics
- Her Fieldwork in Brazil with ecstatic religions.

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Bettina's Contact details:
Prof Bettina Schmidt
Director of the Religious Experience Research Centre
Institute of Education and Humanities
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Lampeter, UK

STUDIES MENTIONED IN THE INTERVIEW
Lambek, M. (2009) ‘Provincializing God? Provocations from an anthropology of religion’, in de Vries, H. (ed), Religion: Beyond a Concept, Fordham Univ Press, pp. 120–138.
Wilson, D. G. (2013) Redefining Shamanisms: Spiritualist Mediums And Other Traditional Shamans As Apprenticeship Outcomes, Bloomsbury Academic.

BETTINA'S PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
Schmidt, Bettina E.
2016, co-ed. with Stephen Engler Handbook of Contemporary Brazilian Religions (Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion, vol. 13) DenHague: Brill.
2016, edited The Study of Religious Experience: Approaches and Methodologies. Durham: Equinox.
2016 Spirits and Trance in Brazil: Anthropology of Religious Experiences. London: Bloomsbury.
2010, co- edited with Lucy Huskinson Spirit Possession and Trance: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Continuum Advances in Religious Studies series). London: Continuum.
2008 Caribbean Diaspora in the USA: Diversity of Caribbean Religions in New York City. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate.

ARTICLES (each with DOI):
2017 Varieties of Non-Ordinary Experiences in Brazil – A Critical Review of the Contribution of Studies of ‘Religious Experience’ to the Study of Religion. International Journal for Latin American Religion, Vol. 1, pp.
DOI 10.1007/s41603-017-0006-5
2016 Contemporary Religions in Brazil. Oxford Handbooks Online, Editor-in-Chief Mark Juergensmeyer. New York: Oxford University Press. Online Publication Date: Jul 2016.
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.013.50.
2015 Spirit Mediumship in Brazil: The Controversy about Semi-Conscious Mediums. In: DISKUS: The Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions, Vol. 17 (2), pp. 38-53.

00:00 Introduction: Prof Bettina Schmidt
01:42 Deictic methodology
09:35 What is Glocalise?
10:50 Mediumship is not possession
12:04 Discrepancy between belief and action
14:51 Defining Shamanism
18:56 Influence of Saints
22:00 Shamanism generally
26:52 Support Angela’s Symposium

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[SeroSerereSeviSatus]

In Portuguese, when you use possession it means that you were forced to be a spirit medium, it is usually associated with possession by demons.

When it is used ”incorporation” it means that the spirit medium offers his body to be possessed by a spirit.

So possession in Portuguese has an extremely bad connotation, giving the ideas that the person who is processed is suffering or is forced to be in that situation

[danilo_martelli]

Angela, thanks for this video and this interview!

It was so interesting to hear about the dectic approach and about a study that was carried out in Brazil looking into the practices of the diverse groups.

Being Brazilian, I couldn't agree more with professor Bettina Schmidt about the complexity of the social implications to how religious/spiritual beliefs are viewed here. There is indeed a heavy dose of stereotypification from one group to another.

Furthermore, a great deal of syncretism can be seen all over the country. It is so widespread that even the groups that do not admit to involved with or being practictioners of spiritual experiences may share some of the beliefs and behaviors of those who more openly introduce themselves as such. That's why the discussion regarding the different terms used by practitioners and by scholars was so interesting!

[lucepagana]

this was very informative, thank you!

[alouzada]

Defining spirit possession in some Brazilian religions can be a complex task. In the Brazilian branch of Spiritism, for instance, you have "incorporation" (a process through which a spirit uses the medium's knowledge and mental atributes to communicate with the living), "channelling (when a spirit uses directly the medium's body without their mental faculties), the 3 different stages of obsession, "simple obsession", "fascination" and "subjugation", among others. To call everything "spirit possession" might sound a little simplifying, since every one of those relationships with spirits has its particularities. I understand the importance to create an umbrella term for scholars to communicate with each other though.

About healing, that's very tricky. If you ask someone with little knowledge in a Spiritist Temple, they might tell you they are performing some kind of invocation that gives them special powers, but if you ask someone with a lot of study they will tell you that the only thing a medium does is provide a subtle material substance called ectoplasm and that the real work is actually done by the spirits using that substance to act on the dense plane. It's all very fascinating. Knowledge is available to all practitioners, but not all look for it. Most don´t study the lore and only practice without knowing what they are doing.

[QvodInferivs]

Thank you for such great content on the topic of Arcane Knowledge. I personally came across your work just today after following the great work of Justin sledge.

I personally practice a form of witchcraft and have had involvement and interest in Condomble and Umbanda. So the first few videos I searched for was in witchcraft and Shamanism.

This was a informative video in the topic of shamanism practice in brazil. I would like to add a few things in relation to possession or invoking orishas which ive personally experienced in ceremony.

The orishas are the God and goddess of Yoruba spirituality from Nigeria which through slave trade found its way to Brazil to this day. The words, music, dance and culture come from this cultural fusion of Africans.

On the topic of possession there is a word in brazil that people use when they go into a trance called Barravento. Barravento translates to the wind that blows. Barravento is also a afro brazilian rhythm which is played in ceremonies to invoke a orisha during ceremonies and used in the Brazilian Martial art of Capoeira.

Capoeira was born from oppression in brazil, the slaves and the poor used it as a way to defend and empower each other from that oppression. Through the practice many cultural and religious spiritual aspects leaked into Capoeira.

Like the use of a Ladainha or litany before the roda or circle starts. The ladianha is used to invoke the spirit and Axé (energy) present inside the roda of capoeira followed by the lovacao (praise) which is to praise the God or master and place in brazil. This is of course a ritual and way to invoke as mentioned of the spirit of masters in general that have passed and sometimes even the God or orishas which continue to sing through the roda.

My apologies im not a academic but have great interest in the above topic. Please keep up the great work and I look forward to further content.

Axé baba

[meianoiteastrologia]

Hey let’s do an episode about Quimbanda

[plasmaboy]

do the practice folks <3 luv out ya

[ngonfinda]

The espiritismo I'm around is not atheist by any means it's syncretic with Christianity of white table spiritualism from France and heavy atr's and Abit of Taino elements buts I'm around Caribbean spiritualism (more Puerto Rican than Cuban) and I can safely say God is always mentioned before anything else in there Misa and also my god father does use the term possession at least when talking to me.

[Lonking]

My Patron deity implies that some languages have adjectives that really encapsulate the concept the spirit would like to communicate. That's why localized practitioners prefer their own diction even though it may give the impression that they simply don't want a label.

I get it though, the significant amount of bad karma around the world is so thick and dark that any connection with the global community sounds terrifying.

[ZeroD]

Shaman word is like a chair.

The same all over the world but with different names.

[luigidelprete]

ce la facciamo con i pezzi grossi ormai :-D