Bakhtin observed that language is inherently dialogic as speakers respond to past
utterances and anticipate future ones. Yet Bakhtin also noted that speakers can engage in …

The well‐worn critique of “belief” as inadequate for understanding ritual motivation and
practice has become a truism in need of reevaluation. For groups who foreground the …

In the religious movement known as Spiritualism, a medium's task is to provide evidence that
there is no such thing as death. Human existence is defined by Spiritualists in terms of …

Recent sociological studies reveal that in some respects religion in Australia is similar to that
in many other Western societies, while in other respects it is significantly different. In this …

Deprivation theories about why people become cult members fail to take sufficient account
of the specific enjoyments that cult movements offer to their participants. In the case of …

The new religion of Spiritualism emerged in the mid-19th century. Through mediumship,
Spiritualists contacted the dead, believing them to have “passed over” to another plane of …

Using a different approach to questions of discourse and the State: a policy statement by the
leader of the Australian Federal Opposition and the predictions of a magazine astrologist …

Deprivation theories about why people become cult members fail to take sufficient account
of the specific enjoyments that cult movements offer to their participants. In the case of …