När den osynliga världen närmar sig människan : Verklighetsgörande av andlig närvaro i svenska mediers fysiska och digitala klientmöten

Sammanfattning

This study explores how Swedish professional mediums describe and interpret their experiences of spiritual presence and communication in both in-person and digital meetings with clients, as well as how they describe their journey toward becoming professional mediums. The study is based on semi-structured interviews inspired by a comparative phenomenological approach with four Swedish professional mediums. The interviews were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The analysis was guided by Tanya Luhrmann’s (2020) theory of spiritual kindling. The findings and results of the study suggest that mediumship is experienced as a gradual process of real-making, through which spiritual presence comes to be perceived as real, present, and responsive. Spiritual communication is experienced through a variety of sensory impressions, emotions, and bodily sensations, that serve as important means of communicating with spirits. Although digitally mediated client meetings are initially experienced as uncertain, they gradually become meaningful and effective through experiences of spiritual contact and validation from clients. This study contributes to the psychology of religion by illuminating how professional mediums experience and describe the processes through which spiritual communication and presence come to be perceived as real, meaningful, and viable within their professional practice.