In her new memoir, Stella Prize winner Heather Rose reflects on overcoming childhood trauma and adult pain with spiritual work. But our reviewer wishes it allowed moments of ‘pause or ambiguity’.
Beth Saunders, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Alternative beliefs like spiritualism seem to experience resurgences in times of crisis. Taggart has spent the past 20 years exploring the oft-misunderstood religion.
David Vincent of death metal band Morbid Angel in Washington, D.C., in September 2012.
(Metal Chris/flickr)
Today viewers may be preoccupied by the methods used by spirit photographers, but spirit photographs had a notable impact on the bereaved who commissioned the portraits.
Spirit photograph from 1901.
(Library of Congress/John K. Hallowell; S.W. Fallis, photographer)
Researchers unearthed the 105,000-year-old artefacts from a spiritual site in southern Africa. Although far from the coast, the area is associated with stories of a great water snake.
A number of U.S. mediums have claimed contact with the spirit of the late George Floyd. Their ‘channelling’ continues a tradition of white spiritualists whitewashing black lives.
Valley of the Dawn members celebrate ‘Day of the Indoctrinator’ at their temple complex in Brazil on May 1. This year’s event is postponed due to coronavirus.
Márcia Alves
Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn faith is often dismissed as a cult. But many of the group’s fantastical rituals are a recognizable reaction to this harsh world of inequality, loneliness and pandemics.
Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the apparition of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley.
John Leech/Wikipedia
Tok Thompson, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Ghost stories are often about the departed seeking justice for an earthly wrong. Their sightings are a reminder that ethics and morality transcend our lives.
The Oujia board’s origins were anything but evil. It emerged, in part, out of a longing to communicate with loved ones who had died during the Civil War.