Ziqi Yin - Week 4

Week 4 Topic: Spirits Everywhere: Animism and Modern Interpretations

After reading the article “We have Len Dong Too: Transnational Aspects of Spirit Possession” this week, I got a better understanding of Spirit Possession. Practitioners and mediums now focus on buying elaborate clothing, ritual equipment, offerings, gifts, and hiring traditional musicians to show off. This competition between temples, on the display of elegance in the ceremonies, has distracted the mediums from the primary goal of interceding for humans. Moreover, the high costs place an unnecessary financial strain on the spirit mediums because they are required to buy all the ritual objects and sponsoring possession ceremonies. Sometimes the ritual supplies and the available ones are of low quality; this can displease the spirits instead of appeasing them. Currently, the level of devotion to the spirits is at its lowest. Only a minority of mediums, particularly in the west, are devoted and willing to spend their life, money, and resources to serve the spirits. Mediums who are living in Silicon Valley lament the lack of ritual specialists and temples dedicated to specific spirits (Fjelstad and Hien 109). Certain spirit beings are more jealous and vengeful than others. Therefore, the varying levels of devotion to spiritual deities can be the cause of the present calamities.

Work Cited

Fjelstad, Karen, and Nguyen T. Hien. "We have Len Dong Too: Transnational Aspects of Spirit Possession." Possessed by the Spirits, 2018, pp. 95-110.