Psychics, Mediums & Shamans practice

The history, practices and study of people who claim to know hidden things — psychics, clairvoyants, mediums and diviners — alongside shamanism understood as anthropologists describe it. Learn the vocabulary (clairvoyance, clairaudience, channeling, seers), the rise of Spiritualism and the séance, the techniques of cold, warm and hot reading, divination practices from tarot and scrying to the pendulum, what controlled tests of mediums have found, the record of “psychic detectives,” and the ethics and law around paid readings, from fortune-telling statutes to consumer-protection rules. Shamanism is taught ethnographically and respectfully: the Evenki origin of the word “shaman,” Siberian practice, Mircea Eliade’s model and the critiques of it, the very different ritual specialists the word gets stretched over, trance and altered states, neoshamanism and appropriation debates, and the law, safety and context of ceremonies such as ayahuasca retreats (never instructions for use). Claimed powers are covered as claims and traditions, never as abilities, and healing claims are weighed against the evidence. Distinct from Paranormal Claims (the broad survey) and World Religions (faiths, texts and history). Educational — not spiritual guidance or medical advice.