Publication

This article presents the ethnographic method I used for my anthropological study of the learning mechanisms of contemporary English spiritualist mediumship. More specifically, I show how this method enabled me to gain better access to certain processes in the construction of the “belief” of my informants, in particular the belief in a “spiritual interiority”, i.e., “a soul”. I show that my own subjective involvement in the field as a social scientist, by taking part in the same learning exercises as my informants, not only did not hinder the “scientific” collection of my data but was decisive in shedding light on what it is about the experiences of the apprentice-mediums I followed for more than six consecutive years that can transform belief into knowledge.