Possession, Power and the New Age (Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective)

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POSSESSION, POWER AND THE NEW AGE This book provides a new sociological account of contemporary religious phenomena such as channelling, holistic healing, meditation and divination, which are usually classed as part of a New Age Movement. Drawing on his extensive ethnography carried out in the UK, alongside comparative studies in America and Europe, Matthew Wood criticises the view that such phenomena represent spirituality in which self-authority is paramount. Instead, he emphasises the role of social authority and the centrality of spirit possession, linking these to participants’ class positions and experiences of secularisation. Informed by sociological and anthropological approaches to social power and practice, especially the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, Wood’s study explores what he calls the nonformative regions of the religious field, and charts similarities and differences with pagan, spiritualist and Theosophical traditions.

THEOLOGY AND RELIGION IN INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE SERIES Series Editors Professor Douglas Davies, University of Durham, UK Professor Richard Fenn, Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA

Creativity through shared perspectives lies at the heart of Ashgate’s series Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective. Central religious and theological topics can be raised to a higher order of expression and clarity when approached through interdisciplinary perspectives; this series aims to provide a pool of potential theories and worked out examples as a resource for ongoing debate, fostering intellectual curiosity rather than guarding traditional academic boundaries and extending, rather than acting as a simple guide to, an already well-defined field. Major theological issues of contemporary society and thought, as well as some long established ideas, are explored in terms of current research across appropriate disciplines and with an international compass. The books in the series will prove of particular value to students, academics, and others who see the benefit to be derived from bringing together ideas and information that often exist in relative isolation. Also in the series Christ and Human Rights The Transformative Engagement George Newlands 978-0-7546-5201-4 (HBK) 978-0-7546-5210-6 (PBK) Christian Language and its Mutations Essays in Sociological Understanding David Martin 978-0-7546-0739-7 (HBK) 978-0-7546-0740-3 (PBK) The Return of the Primitive A New Sociological Theory of Religion Richard K. Fenn 978-0-7546-0419-8 (HBK) 978-0-7546-0420-4 (PBK)

Possession, Power and the New Age Ambiguities of Authority in Neoliberal Societies

MATTHEW WOOD Queen’s University Belfast, UK

© Matthew Wood 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Matthew Wood has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England

Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA

Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Wood, Matthew Possession, power and the New Age : ambiguities of authority in neoliberal societies. – (Theology and religion in interdisciplinary perspective) 1. Authority – Religious aspects – New Age movement 2. New Age movement I. Title 299.9'3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wood, Matthew, 1970– Possession, power, and the New Age : ambiguities of authority in neoliberal societies / Matthew Wood. p. cm. – (Theology and religion in interdisciplinary perspective series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7546-3339-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. New Age movement. 2. Spirit possession. I. Title. BP605.N48W66 2007 306.6'9993–dc22 2006022503 ISBN 978-0-7546-3339-6

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.

To my parents, Eileen and David Wood

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Contents Acknowledgements

ix

1

Approaching New Age

1

2

The field of New Age studies

15

3

Power, self and practice

41

4

The meditation group

79

5

Channelling workshops

101

6

The Nottinghamshire fair

121

7

Spiritualism and paganism

137

8

Nonformativeness, possession and class in neoliberal societies

155

Bibliography Index

179 197

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Acknowledgements This book is the outcome of a long process of sociological research and reflection, during which many teachers, colleagues and students have helped me in my understanding of religion and society, sometimes in a formative manner. To begin, however, I must express my deep gratitude to those people who welcomed me into their groups to conduct fieldwork, and who gave their time in conversations and interviews, whether over a cup of tea, a pint or a notebook. Their openness and companionship is greatly appreciated. I am most grateful to the University of Nottingham for funding my doctoral research through a Postgraduate Studentship. My foremost academic debt is to Douglas Davies, whose undergraduate teaching and postgraduate supervision in the Department of Theology at the University of Nottingham enthused in me a sense of the power of sociological and anthropological thinking. His care and understanding during my illness, when it often seemed as if my research was standing still, is hugely appreciated. I was very fortunate to be taught the philosophy of religion by John Heywood Thomas, whose lively academic interest was infectious, and to have pursued my study when Amy Simes was conducting her own doctoral research into paganism in the same department, and whose continuing friendship I greatly value. I also benefitted during this time by being able to spend two fruitful months amongst many interesting colleagues in the Sociology of Religion department at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, through funding by a European Union Erasmus grant. Since completing my doctoral studies, I have had the good luck to work with many intellectually stimulating and companionable colleagues. John Eade and Cecilia Cappel at Roehampton University proved invaluable in helping me broaden my focus towards issues of ethnicity and globalization. Alex Seago at Richmond the American International University in London offered generous support and encouragement in my first teaching post. I am very grateful to have worked with colleagues in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge, especially Patrick Baert and Shireen Kanji, and David Lehmann who it has been a pleasure to teach alongside and whose warmth is much appreciated. The last stages of writing this book were aided by challenging conversations with students at Cambridge taking the undergraduate Religion and Politics paper and the M.Phil. in Modern Society and Global Transformations. I am especially thankful to Chris Bunn and Hettie Malcomson, SPS graduate students who read through draft chapters and provided many useful comments. Elsewhere, I have benefited from discussions with Véronique Altglas, Khezer Ameripour, Dave Beris, Julian Gibbs, Ian Hibberson, Seth Kunin, Andrew Mathers, Freda Mold, Steven Sutcliffe, Howard Taylor and John Walliss. I am very thankful to Daiga Kamerāde for her support and for allowing me to use her splendidly ambiguous photograph for the cover of this book. I am further indebted to Douglas Davies and equally to Richard Fenn, as series editors, for their

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incisive and invaluable comments on draft chapters, which have greatly improved this book’s argumentation and structure, and for their continued encouragement. I am very thankful to Sarah Lloyd at Ashgate for her steadfast support and patience, especially in the face of repeated delays. None of these is responsible for any failings in this book. Lastly, I must extend my thanks to my family for all the love and support they have shown me. To my grandmother Norah Hanger for our lively discussions. To my siblings, Jim, Sarah and Duncan, and their families, for providing welcome solace when I needed to get away from it all. When they finally get around to reading this book, they may at last realise that I have worked on something other than Kierkegaard. Most of all, I must express my love and gratitude to my parents who have always been there for me, and to whom this book is dedicated.

Chapter One

Approaching New Age A cameo ‘Fire!’ shouted the woman opposite me. ‘Red!’ I shouted back. I was not ignoring an announcement of impending incendiary catastrophe, however, but playing a game with her. We were sat facing each other in a bare hall in a small town in Nottinghamshire, a county in the English East Midlands, in 1993. Like the other fifty people in the room, we had been instructed to find a person we did not know, sit opposite them, and say, in turn, whatever word came into our heads, trying each time to speak louder than our partner. I had felt self-conscious, especially as my partner, a woman who looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, insisted I go first. There was not much noise in the room – it seemed as if most people were having as much trouble as I in thinking of a word. Afterwards, in the evening as I wrote up my fieldnotes at home, I remember cringing when I recalled my first word, which was simply what I saw when I looked over my partner’s shoulder. It hardly seemed fitting as a word that ‘higher realms’ would have placed into my mind, as Sheila Patterson, the leader of the event, had said would happen. ‘Window’, I spoke, not daring to say it louder. My partner looked quizzically at me and then smirked. I knew she was having as much trouble in speaking as me. After a few seconds, during which time – I admit – I stared at her, as if challenging her word to be more attuned to the theme of the day than mine, she said, in a voice not much louder than mine, ‘Landscape’. I reflected a moment. Her word seemed to be more spiritual, connecting with nature, and was also something that might be seen out of a window. ‘Groove’, I said, raising my voice a little. I was surprised at this and so, seemingly, was my partner, because she immediately laughed. Perhaps she was thinking of ‘groovy’, a word inextricably associated with hippies and the 1960s, the decade in which she, and many others in the room, would have spent her childhood. Born in 1970 I had missed that, spending much of my childhood instead in the Thatcherite world of yuppies. When writing up my fieldnotes, I could not remember many of the words that came next, but I know they came thick and fast, our voices becoming noisier until we were shouting them, challenging each other to say them faster and louder. The whole room now seemed to be a hubbub of noise and we had to shout to make ourselves heard. I noticed Sheila moving around the room, her eyes level and a knowing smile on her lips. Sometimes, she would bend down to interrupt a couple and talk to them. Although she did not do this to me and my partner, others I spoke to later said she was asking them what their last word had been, and commenting upon what they might mean. She also encouraged people not to be inhibited and seemed to delight in the most vociferous couples. Although this game continued for less than five minutes, it seemed much longer and by the end Sheila was clapping her hands,

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calling for us to stop. We all seemed to be having fun, though, and wanted to carry on – some couples were talking animatedly about their words and others were laughing hard. It took Sheila several minutes to restore order, but eventually we were all quiet, facing the front where she stood. She then proceeded to ask people to tell us what they had discovered in this game. Some expressed surprise at the words they had spoken and tried to explain these in terms of deeper meanings to their lives. One man, for instance, explained how, quite unexpectedly, the word ‘roof’ had come into his mind, which he interpreted as referring to the limit that for years he had placed on his ‘spiritual’ abilities by not developing them. Sheila responded that it also referred to the limit that people impose upon their ‘ascension’, out of fear for accepting their higher powers and responsibilities. The man nodded and murmured agreement. I did not speak, but my partner told the room that she had uttered the word ‘fire’ and felt a ‘deep glowing’ within her. She believed, she said, this was because she had had a lot of energy in recent weeks, feeling ‘on fire’ and ‘focused’. Sheila explained that the ‘Ascended Masters’ could set fire to our old ways of living, releasing us to do what we really wanted. This game took place in a day’s event in which Sheila, an Australian in her forties, told us about her experiences with the Ascended Masters, highly evolved beings who manage the evolution of humanity by controlling the universe’s energies. Describing herself as a ‘channeller’, Sheila was able to communicate the Masters’ discourses, as they spoke or wrote through her. More than that, however, she was able to interact with them personally and to travel throughout space and time to perform tasks they set her. Our evolution, she explained in several talks during the course of the day, involves our eventual ‘ascension’, whereby we will move to a ‘higher vibration’ or ‘dimension’ and leave the ‘physical plane’. The word game and the others we played during the day were exercises, she said, to help ‘open’ ourselves to the Masters and make it easier for us to ascend. Despite the jocular tone of the day, there was much seriousness too, with opportunities for Sheila’s audience to question her about changes in their own lives and the relevance of the Masters to those. Sheila was touring Europe and America, and although it was possible to sign up for a monthly newsletter she produced about her communications from the Masters, there was no group or society, with which she was associated, to join, even informally. Julie and Andrew Spencer, who hosted a fortnightly meditation group that I had recently begun to attend, had organized this event. The Spencers organized day events for other channellers too, but had no formal attachments to any, although they frequently articulated their views. I start with this cameo because scholars see channelling as typically, sometimes archetypically, New Age. Many scholars would also view the sort of meditation group I researched, its attenders and their activities as part of the New Age, which they see as a diverse collection of practices, beliefs and ideologies that has arisen in recent decades principally in Euro-America.1 This diversity is seen, however, as bearing a strong common theme that leads most scholars to speak of the New Age as a movement: the primacy of self-authority. The New Age is seen as a religion – or, more usually, a spirituality – in which people choose what to do, and how to do it, on the basis of their own authority, rather than being directed by authorities external to them. External authorities and traditions are utilized, through marketplace

Approaching New Age

3

consumption, merely as resources from which the self draws. Scholars see this situation as reflected in the discourse of the New Age, which extols the self, its fulfilment and expression, such that these authorities act to encourage and facilitate people’s expressions of their own authority. In fact, in recent years, scholars have viewed the New Age as designating a monumental shift away from traditional religions, in which external authorities muffle the self, and towards self-authoritative spirituality. This opening cameo indicates a quite different interpretation. The authority of the channeller, Sheila, is clear enough. Her audience spent a whole day listening to her experiences of working with the Masters, including carrying out important and dangerous duties for them, and the authoritative communications they brought to us through her. In addition, she directed us in exercises designed to enable us to communicate more openly with the Masters, and advised us in how to interpret our life experiences in terms of their ideas and actions. Thus, whilst placing much emphasis upon the requirement for us to look within ourselves for knowledge and confirmation, as in the game in which significant words arose unwittingly into our mouths, Sheila did this specifically by emphasizing the authority of the Masters, their communications and actions on our behalf, and of herself, who carries out their will and works in tandem with them. Her interruptions, interpretations, descriptions, communications and explanations intertwined with our learning of these techniques and discourses of self-exploration and self-expression. Other authorities were also present, such as the Spencers who had invited Sheila, who knew many in the audience well, and who often spoke about her (and other channellers’) ideas at the meditation group. These authorities cannot be brushed aside as mere resources, between which each individual picks and chooses without surrendering an essential self-authority, or through which they learn the ability to value and express such self-authority. They strongly affected people’s experiences during the day, remaining afterwards as ways they thought about themselves and their lives, not only in terms of the ideas or beliefs they had heard, but also in terms of ethos and emotions. In the following months and years, I had much opportunity to see how people had been affected by this event as well as by other channelling events, by group participation in activities such as the meditation, and by being taught techniques such as those for healing and divination. In sum, the people I researched were affected by numerous authorities, their lives becoming entwined with these in complex and subtle ways. The idea of separating their self-authority from these authorities, of seeing the former taking primacy over the latter, seems as false as viewing these people as moulded by such authorities as if they were inert lumps of clay. This book is a refutation of the scholarly discourse about the New Age and selfauthority, but also a consideration of how social phenomena classified under this label should be understood. It attempts to grasp more realistically the manner in which authorities are enfolded into the self, that is, into the ways in which people are socially subjectified and come to understand themselves. This is a dynamic process that requires a dynamic methodology, one that seeks to situate individuals and groups in the diversity and history of their practices. Focusing upon a number of these in Nottinghamshire over several years, I show that they are characterized by

4

Possession, Power and the New Age

multiple authorities, none of which are formative in shaping them, but all of which contribute in so doing. This proliferation of what I call nonformative authorities has been almost entirely neglected by the sociology of religion. The Nottinghamshire network Groups and interconnections Nottinghamshire is a mixture of small towns and rural villages, dominated until recently by the coal mining industry, and Nottingham, a city with a population of around a quarter of a million people which with its thriving shopping and night scenes acts as a central pull for the rest of the county, as well as for the inhabitants of bordering counties Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. From 1992 to 1994 and again in 1996, I researched ethnographically a number of groups in this county, and occasionally further afield in England, which formed part of what I somewhat arbitrarily designate the ‘Nottinghamshire network’. Figure 1, provides a schematic representation of this network: groups studied, selected participants, key informants, and connections between people and groups. This intention was to conduct an ethnographic study of the New Age in Britain, but I soon began to question my original perspective. Although the religious groups and practices I researched were of the sort described in the scholarly literature as New Age, also falling into descriptions of alternative or non-mainstream religion, the interpretations developed through these perspectives were at significant variance with what I discovered in the field. In this chapter, I sketch my object of study and my theoretical orientations for interpreting the network.2 The structure of the book is also outlined, chapter by chapter. The social phenomena I studied may be viewed in two ways. The first focus falls on the different groups and events, which may be seen as discrete entities with their own histories, social organizational and authority structures, beliefs and practices. The second focus is on the interconnections between the individuals, groups and events as a whole, since there was a large degree of crossover between them in terms of people, practices and beliefs. Regarding the first focus, the longest period of fieldwork (18 months) was conducted with a meditation group styled around a representation of the teachings of the ancient Jewish sect of the Essenes. This group met fortnightly with around fifteen participants practising a meditation led by one or two of their number, before spending the rest of the evening socializing. Only half the attenders were regularly attending members, the rest coming from a wider pool of interested people. Important informants at the group were two couples in their forties, the Lovells, who directed the meditation and had founded the group, and the Spencers, in whose house it was held, and four younger people: Christine, Sally, Beth and Noel. The Spencers occasionally organized events in which channellers, such as Sheila Patterson, conducted workshops. These attracted around fifty people, including several from the meditation group, although not the Lovells who, like many in the network, were sceptical of channellers. These names, like all others including those for groups, are pseudonyms. Exact quotes from field subjects are placed in quotation marks.

Approaching New Age

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