Validation, Comfort, and Syncretic Belief in the Afterlife: U.S. Viewers' Perceptions of Long Island Medium
On the reality TV program Long Island Medium and in public performances, professional spirit medium Theresa Caputo interprets messages she says she receives from the spirits of the deceased. Based on interviews with people who have seen her on television or in a live stage performance, I sought to l...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Anthropological Association
[2019]
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| In: |
Anthropology of consciousness
Year: 2019, Volume: 30, Issue: 1, Pages: 90-112 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Caputo, Theresa 1967-
/ Long Island medium
/ USA
/ Reality television programs
/ Medium
/ Reception
/ Audience
/ Belief in the hereafter
/ Syncretism
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| RelBib Classification: | AE Psychology of religion AZ New religious movements KBQ North America |
| Further subjects: | B
nonempirical experience
B United States B Media B Religion B spirit mediumship |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | On the reality TV program Long Island Medium and in public performances, professional spirit medium Theresa Caputo interprets messages she says she receives from the spirits of the deceased. Based on interviews with people who have seen her on television or in a live stage performance, I sought to learn more about how viewers experience, interpret, and are affected by these readings and by her presentation of life after death. For viewers who believed in this television medium's abilities, I was interested in how her interpretation of the spirit world corresponded with theirs. While some viewers were quite skeptical, for others the program provided a level of comfort about lost relatives and/or offered a means of validating or further understanding their own personal experiences with nonempirical phenomena. In this article, I explore how Long Island Medium may offer a cultural framework for interpreting perceptions of spirit entities that is in mainstream U.S. culture or religion. |
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| ISSN: | 1556-3537 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Anthropology of consciousness
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12108 |