MEDIUMS

Mediums: translation

Shamans are sometimes distinguished from “mediums,” a term most often applied to people, generally in Spiritualist or Spiritist movements, who entertrancesandpossessionstates and allow the dead or “spirits” to speak through them to clients. The most common reasons for making this distinction are that mediums appear more passive than shamans, may be controlled by the spirits rather thanmasters of the spirits, and do notjourneytoother worldsbut instead expect to be visited by the spirits. Since these features are certainly not absent among shamans, the distinction cannot be absolute. More tellingly, both trance and possession—indeed, all putativealteredstates of consciousness—are culturally mediated and interpretedperformancesand may neither be completely distinguished nor held to be entirely passive.