Afterlife beliefs and dream encounters with the dead among adherents of alternative spiritualities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ivnik, Tina (author)

This article examines the connection between the ideas adherents of alternative spiritualities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have about the afterlife and their understanding of dreams involving the dead. It explores how these ideas and interpretations are connected to the perceived agency of the dead, as experienced by my interlocutors in their dreams. Focusing on ideas about the afterlife within alternative spirituality, the article discusses why these beliefs have regained significance and how they have been reinterpreted in relation to modern/secular and religious explanations. By analysing the beliefs of individuals engaged in alternative spiritualities regarding the afterlife, it explores how these ideas shape their understanding of dreams featuring personally known deceased individuals. As beliefs about the afterlife influence how individuals perceive the state of the dead, it examines how these beliefs enable the dead to have agency upon the interlocutors in their dreams. The findings are based on ethnographic research conducted with spiritual individuals in Sarajevo and Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Language: English
• Keywords: folklore, alternative spiritualitiy, spiritualism, dead, afterlife, near-death experience, agency, dreams, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Hezegovina
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 119-141
• Numbering: [Št.] 28
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-171170
• UDC: 133.7:398.3(497.6Sarajevo)
• ISSN on article: 1408-6271
• DOI: 10.3986/SMS20252806
• COBISS.SI-ID: 245690883
• Publication date in RUL: 14.08.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Studia mythologica Slavica
• Shortened title: Stud. mythol. Slav.
• Publisher: Znanstvenoraziskovalni center Slovenske akademije znanosti in umetnosti, Inštitut za slovensko narodopisje, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Dipartimento di Linguistica, già Istituto di Lingua e Letteratura
• ISSN: 1408-6271
• COBISS.SI-ID: 75272960

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Predstave o posmrtnem življenju in stiki z mrtvimi v sanjah med pripadniki alternativnih duhovnosti v Bosni in Hercegovini

Abstract

Članek preučuje povezavo med predstavami o posmrtnem življenju in razumevanjem sanj o bližnjih mrtvih med pripadniki alternativnih duhovnosti v Bosni in Hercegovini. Raziskuje, kako so te predstave in interpretacije povezane z vplivom, ki ga imajo nanje mrtvi. S poudarkom na predstavah o posmrtnem življenju v alternativni duhovnosti članek obravnava, zakaj so ta verovanja znova pridobila na pomenu in kako so bila reinterpretirana v razmerju do modernih/sekularnih ter religioznih razlag. Z analizo predstav o posmrtnem življenju pokaže, kako ta prepričanja oblikujejo njihovo razumevanje sanj, v katerih se pojavljajo mrtvi. Ker prepričanja o posmrtnem življenju vplivajo na to, kako posamezniki dojemajo stanje mrtvih v onstranstvu, članek preučuje, kako ta verovanja omogočajo, da imajo mrtvi v sanjah določen vpliv na sogovornike. Ugotovitve temeljijo na etnografski raziskavi, opravljeni med pripadniki alternativnih duhovnosti v Sarajevu in Banjaluki v Bosni in Hercegovini.

• Keywords: folkloristika, verovanje, alternativna duhovnost, sodobna duhovna gibanja, spiritualizem, mrtvi, posmrtno življenje, izkušnja bližine smrti, sanje, Banjaluka, Sarajevo, Bosna in Hercegovina