Qian Zhang - Week 3

Week 3 Topic: Spirit Healers

Article: Gifts from the Spirits: Spirit Possession and Personal Transformation among Silicon Valley Spirit Mediums

Scientific interventions have lost control over the world’s pandemics; spiritual intervention is the only hope for humanity. The ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic are palpable, as countries lock down; stock markets are collapsing, economies are in free fall, and most of the world is at a virtual standstill. Science has not provided the answers to this ravaging illness. In many cultures, disease, pain, and suffering are a path to initiating a belief in higher powers because of the weakness and mortality of the human soul. Although spiritual intervention may be rejected as irrational and impractical, it has the potential to save the world from the current calamity.

We share the world with forces and energies, with which we cannot identify, but which may have the answers to our problems. The issues that humans have limited control over can be symptomatic of the need for the human race to make changes and look for spiritual intervention. In their article Fjelstad and Maiffret explore why people in the Silicon Valley Temple become mediums; how their new interventionist roles change their view of the self and others; the mechanism of disease healing when using mediumship. Spirit realm practices seek to help us break away from conventional healing practices. Spirits have an understanding that human intellect lacks, and which can improve our understanding of the world. Spirit mediums with the gift of divination can see into the future, predict the fate of the entire human race and be a source of hope in times of adversity.

Human-spirit connectedness plays a significant role when seeking solutions and in the pain that we observe in the world today. The fate of all humans is death and destruction. When people suffer serious misfortune or poor health, they tend to look to spiritual power for hope and healing. In the process of seeking healing, some people receive a special divine calling to become spirits mediums. The human race needs to listen to these intermediaries to understand the messages the spirits are relaying to the world. Devotees to spirits can interpret the messages through deducing meaning from the constant calamities affecting the world. However, some are intentionally escaping from the preordained fate of becoming mediums to intercede for others, foresee the future, and reveal the cause of the calamities we are facing (Fjelstad and Maiffret). However, the call to mediumship is not a choice, but a duty to help others live a fulfilling life by heeding the call of the divine spirit.

Works Cited

Fjelstad, Karen, and Lisa Maiffret. "Gifts from the Spirits: Spirit Possession and Personal Transformation among Silicon Valley Spirit Mediums." Possessed by the Spirits, 2018, pp. 111-126, doi:10.7591/9781501719141-007.