Spirits in a New Age: Philippine Centers of the Global Esoteric

In the variegated landscape of Filipino paranormal practice, one phenomenon garnered worldwide attention in the last quarter of the twentieth century: psychic surgery. A form of spiritual healing in which the practitioner, or espiritista, usually male, operates on the body of the patient without anaesthesia and using only his hands, psychic surgery achieved particular renown in the United States in the 1980s. This paper provides a broad historical outline of the religious movements in the twentieth-century Philippines that culminated in the convergence of American New Age spirituality and Filipino Spiritism. Deirdre de la Cruz is an Associate Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Culture & Department of History at the University of Michigan. Food and refreshments will be provided!