Pub psychic nights as a Space for New Religiosity? Exploring experiences of marginal, unlikely and transformative spaces of contemporary spirit communication in Britain

In Britain, a revival of Victorian era-style spiritualism is arguably underway. Yet, instead of seances or mediumship demonstrations in domestic homes, theatres, or the Spiritualist Church (as during the ‘golden age of spiritualism’), public houses (‘pubs’) and social clubs have emerged as the latest collective space for contemporary spirit communication, particularly for women in working-class
areas. In this paper, we will present our innovative ethnographic research into pub psychic nights in Britain (funded by the International Society for the Study of Science and Belief in Society) and focus on the particularities of the British pub and club space and its potential as a site for a new type of
religiosity and spiritual questioning, outside of the boundaries of institutional religion. We will argue that despite pub psychic nights being often dismissed as simply entertainment, the broadly accessible and commonplace nature of the British pub helps to scaffold and promote the development of alternative beliefs and practices, beyond more traditional locations for spirituality. Furthermore,
these popular nights provide a potentially transformative space, where working class participants, typically women, can be empowered and existing social norms de-stabilized. Despite critiques and concerns about vulnerability, which we will also surface, in a context where religious institutional
affiliation has dramatically declined, pub psychic nights function with transformative potential and offer new spaces that combine spirituality with social change.