Conclusion

The title of the introduction to this book, "Stepping into This Supernatural World," was borrowed from a quotation by one of the mediums with whom I spent a good deal of time, as she talked about the factors that lead to mediumship. As the title of the opening chapter, the phrase was meant to refer not only to how people come to participate in spirit possession, but also to serve as a metaphor for my own entry, and that of the reader, into the very different world of meaning within Candomblé. The partial inversion of the phrase here is meant to signal that in conclusion my goal is to step back from the specificity of Candomblé mediumship, in order to demonstrate how the ideas generated through this analysis also have utility outside that "supernatural world."

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