For the nonbeliever, there is something profoundly disturbing about spirit possession. Its power is raw, immediate, and undeniably real, devastating in a way to those of us who do not know our gods. To witness sane and in every regard respectable individuals experiencing direct rapport with the divine fills one with either fear, which finds its natural outlet in disbelief, or deep envy. The psychologists who have attempted to understand possession from a scientific perspective have tended to fall into the former category, and perhaps because of this they have come up with some bewildering conclusions, derived in part from quite unwarranted assumptions.
For one, because the mystical frame of reference of the vodounist involves issues that can not be approached by their calculus—the existence or nonexistence of spirits for example—the actual beliefs of the individual experiencing possession are dismissed as externalities. To the believer, the disassociation of personality that characterizes possession is the hand of divine grace; to the psychologist it is but a symptom of an “overwhelming psychic disruption.” — Wade Davis from The Serpent and the Rainbow
Ethnobotanist Davis traveled into the Haitian countryside to research reports of men drugged, buried alive and resurrected from their graves. He learned the secrets of voodoo potions, powders and poisons, and discovered the herb which creates the zombie.
Publisher: Warner
Paperback: 371 pages
Illustrated
This is primarily a book of black-and-white photographs taken between 1968 and 1983 of the various black spiritual communities of New Orleans. The photographer sees them less as art photos than as documents, even though they are beautifully composed and technically excellent. The communities run the gamut from fundamentalist, to “personal” (with a lot of really great “outsider art”-style signs), to Catholic/voodoo, to the “Indian tribes” of Mardi Gras. The text is succinct and does a great job of explaining the various ways in which spirituality manifests itself without being overly analytical about it. Probably nowhere better than New Orleans could one see this much diversity within any community, be it ethnic or religious. SA
Publisher: Pelican
Paperback: 120 pages
Illustrated
“Hurston was a novelist, folklorist and anthropologist whose fictional and factual accounts of black heritage are unparalleled… As a first-hand account of the weird mysteries and horrors of voodoo, Tell My Horse is an invaluable resource and a fascinating guide. Based on Hurston’s personal experiences in Haiti and Jamaica, where she participated as an initiate rather than just an observer of voodoo practices during her visits in the 1930s, this travelogue into a dark world paints a vividly authentic picture of ceremonies, customs and superstitions of great cultural interest.”
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Paperback: 311 pages
A personal account of the religion by two writers who entered it from the outside. “This book deals very frankly with psychic and psychological phenomena that some readers will find disturbing or simply will not believe.” Sample chapters: “White Zombie,” “Voodoo in the Waiting Room,” “Spirits That Findeth Hidden Treasure,” and “Inside a Botanica.” “Includes descriptions of the phenomena triggered by voodoo practice, divination techniques, spells and a method of self-initiation.”GR
Publisher: New Falcon
Paperback: 192 pages
A masterwork of observation and description by one of the most distinguished anthropologists of the 20th century. “Certain exotic words are charged with evocative power. Voodoo is one. It usually conjures up visions of mysterious deaths, secret rites—or dark saturnalia celebrated by ‘blood-maddened, sex-maddened, god-maddened’ Negroes. The picture of voodoo which this book will give may seem pale beside such images. In fact what is voodoo? Nothing more than a conglomeration of beliefs and rites of African origin, which, having been closely mixed with Catholic practice, has come to be the religion of the greater part of the peasants and the urban proletariat of the black republic of Haiti. Its devotees ask of it what men have always asked of religion: remedy for ills, satisfaction for need and the hope of survival.”
Publisher: Random House
Paperback: 400 pages