Dang-Ki healing: An embodied relational healing practice in Singapore.

In dang-ki healing, a form of Chinese spirit mediumship in Singapore, a deity possesses a human medium to help clients feel hopeful and supported. Many mediums suffer personal conflicts before becoming possessed; they express and transform their distress through possession. Deities embody Chinese cultural traits and moral values, allowing the medium to embody an ideal self and gain spiritual knowledge through cleansing, self-mortification, and altered consciousness. Junior deities also train under senior deities to help clients. Practitioners, clients, and possessing deities are transformed in parallel, reciprocal ways that differ from Western individualistic psychotherapy, highlighting links between healing, cultural beliefs, and concepts of personhood.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This article explores the processes of transformation of the self in dang-ki healing, a form of Chinese spirit mediumship in Singapore, drawing on more than a decade of ethnographic research. In dang-ki healing, it is believed that a deity possesses a human, who is called a dang-ki, to help clients (i.e., devotees). Through the dang-ki, clients can interact with powerful deities in ways that help them feel hopeful and supported. The dang-kis themselves may also benefit therapeutically from their participation as mediums. Many dang-kis suffer from personal conflicts and distress before becoming a medium and they express and transform their distress through the idiom of spirit possession. Since deities represent traits and moral values promoted in Chinese culture, possession by a deity allows the dang-ki to embody an ideal self and to acquire spiritual knowledge by engaging in ritual practices involving cleansing, self-mortification, stereotyped movements, and altered consciousness. At the same time, junior possessing deities must undergo training under the guidance of senior deities to achieve a higher level of spiritual existence by helping clients through the dang-ki's body. Thus, in dang-ki healing, practitioners, clients and possessing deities are transformed in parallel ways. The dynamics of this reciprocal and interdependent healing process differ from the individualistic approaches in Western psychotherapy and shed light on the links between healing processes, cultural ontologies, and concepts of personhood.