Week 4- Erin Yen

This week’s theme is “Spirits Spirits Everywhere: Animism and Modern Interpretations.” Animism are those People who believe spirits are everywhere in our world even we can’t see them or feel them physically.

In the article “Possessed Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities- We have Len Don too” by Karen Fjelstad. It is about the Vietnamese mediumship and the spiritual materialism that they were brought to Silicon Valley. However, the temple in U.S. is still different that the one in Vietnam, how the U.S. focus more on the material.

In the other reading, “’We are not alone, The Shamans of the World Tell Us” by John Broomfield. Tells us how important the existence of Shamans to the world of spiritual knowledge.

I think this week’s readings are related to my group’s spirit in the box project that it is about the rituals to see our ancestors. In my home country there are people who believes and try to see ancestors by possessing the ancestors spirit onto the body and talk. “Blindfold Taoist Ritual” However some people criticize it is a kind of hypnosis.

Questions: Is there any scientific prove that we can see our ancestors?