Bridges between Worlds explores Icelandic spirit work, known as andleg mal, which features trance and healing practices that span earth and spirit realms, historical eras, scientific and supernatural worldviews, and cross-Atlantic cultures. Based on years of fieldwork conducted in the northern Icelandic town of Akureyri, Corinne G. Dempsey excavates andleg mal's roots within Icelandic history, and examines how this practice steeped in ancient folklore functions in the modern world. Weaving personal stories and anecdotes with engaging accounts of Icelandic religious and cultural traditions, Dempsey humanizes spirit practices that are so often demonized or romanticized. While recent years have seen an unprecedented boom in tourist travel to Iceland, Dempsey sheds light on a profoundly important, but thus far poorly understood element of the country's culture. Her aim is not to explain away andleg mal but to build bridges of comprehensibility through empathy for the participants who are, after all, not so different from the reader.

About the Author
Corinne G. Dempsey is Professor of Religious Studies, Director of International and Global Studies, and Rose Marie Beston Chair for International Studies at Nazareth College. She is author of Bringing the Sacred Down to Earth: Adventures in Comparative Religion (OUP 2011), The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple (OUP 2005), and Kerala Christian Sainthood: Collisions of Culture and Worldview in South India (OUP 2001).

Reviews
As a reflection on participant experience, Bridges Between Worlds covers a segment of contemporary Icelandic Spiritualist practice, and a chapter on spiritual healing has some wider relevance. * Rosemary Power, National University of Ireland, Galway, Folklore *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190883393
Author Corinne G. Dempsey
Format Paperback
Page Count 252
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 363g
Dimensions(mm) 231mm * 155mm * 18mm