Seventeenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper, based on my ethnographic research on neo-shamanistic traditions and practices in North-East Scotland from 2014 to 2020, interprets spiritual experiences of supernatural phenomena by applying the “Experience Source Hypothesis” interpretation method, as proposed by American folklorist David Hufford in 1982. Hufford asserted that all supernatural phenomena that are seemingly difficult or impossible to comprehend and untangle scientifically, can be unravelled empirically, with the systematic analysis of the persisting motifs and patterns found in the narrations of those experiences. He also argued that, in his view, folk belief, cognitive science, and psychiatry are in fact, and contrary to common belief, complementary, and not opposing, forces. In this paper, I discuss one specific such incident that had taken place throughout my fieldwork within the context of a shamanistic ritual in October 2015, through the lens of Hufford’s experience-centred interpretation method. Moreover, I also showcase how Hufford’s empirical approach can co-exist and interact with other scientific interpretation methods in the study of folk belief. To achieve this, I consider other spiritual experiences within the same context, that can be interpreted through cognitive sciences and psychiatry, and specifically, with the use of the theory of the “uncanny”, as first introduced by Sigmund Freud and later further developed by Rudolf Otto.