Why people go to mediums : motivations and embodied experience among clients of the three-legged stool practice in Hungary

Ilyefalvi, Emese (author)

This article examines contemporary mediumship in Hungary through ethnographic research among practitioners of a three-legged stool technique and their clients. Drawing on interviews, participant observation and analysis of séance practices, the study explores why people seek contact with the dead and how these encounters generate experiential certainty, address crises and produce new forms of meaning. By situating the Hungarian material within broader European and global contexts, the article shows how individualised, experience-centred mediumship operates within today’s spiritual and consumer landscapes.

• Language: English
• Keywords: mediumship, contemporary spirituality, afterlife, embodied experience, commodification of spirituality, object-mediated writing, Madžarska
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 31.08.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 187-208
• Numbering: Letn. 29
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-188130
• UDC: 2-187.5:39(439)
• ISSN on article: 1408-6271
• DOI: 10.3986/SMS20262910
• COBISS.SI-ID: 291660803
• Publication date in RUL: 18.09.2026

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

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Zakaj ljudje poiščejo medije

Abstract

Prispevek obravnava sodobno medijstvo na Madžarskem na podlagi etnografske raziskave med izvajalci tehnike trinožnega stolčka in njihovimi klienti. Na osnovi intervjujev, opazovanja z udeležbo in analize seans preučuje razloge za iskanje stika z mrtvimi ter načine, kako tovrstne izkušnje vzpostavljajo občutek gotovosti, pomagajo pri soočanju z življenjskimi krizami in prispevajo k oblikovanju novih pomenov. Z umestitvijo madžarskega gradiva v širši evropski in globalni kontekst članek pokaže, kako individualizirane oblike medijstva, osredinjene na osebno izkušnjo, delujejo v sodobnem duhovnem in potrošniškem okolju.

• Keywords: medijstvo, sodobna duhovnost, posmrtno življenje, utelešena izkušnja, komodifikacija duhovnosti, pisanje s pomočjo predmetov, Madžarska

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101095729
• Name: The roles of the agency of the dead in the lives of individuals in contemporary society
• Acronym: DEAGENCY