Published by Josh Bullock:

An image outside of a pub where one of the psychic nights studied was hosted.

Everyday Spirits: What Pub Psychic Nights Reveal About Grief, Gender, and Grassroots Spirituality in Britain

Across Britain on any given weekday night, a psychic or medium is likely communicating with the dead in your local pub. These “pub psychic nights” have become an increasingly visible feature of Britain’s spiritual landscape, but until now, they’ve remained largely under-researched and socially misunderstood. To some, they are easily dismissed, seen as exploitative or merely light entertainment. But for others, they offer exciting and meaningful opportunities to explore ideas they are open to believing in. Our project Weekday Worldviews: The Patrons, Promise and Payoff of Psychic Nights in England is the first sociological study of pub psychic audiences in Britain. Our findings reveal their significance as accessible, emotionally resonant, and spiritually meaningful events, particularly for working-class women navigating grief and uncertainty.

Read More

Weekday Worldviews: The Patrons, Promise and Payoff of Psychic Nights in England

Summary: Weekday Worldviews is the first sociological investigation of the relationships between worldviews and psychological wellbeing amongst those attending public psychic events in England. Often hosted in pubs and working men’s clubs on weekday evenings, psychic nights frequently attract women in working-class areas and are quite common, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Revitalising a tradition made popular in the late 19th century, these mediumistic events see attendees receiving comforting messages from the dead, cometimes accompanied by physical manifestations (e.g., levitating objects). Theatrical mediumship shows have also gained popularity recently, e.g. Séance by theatre company Darkfield. Both types of ‘psychic’ events are billed as entertainment, but they ask audiences to suspend disbelief for the possibility of connection to the spirit world. Although mediums have been studied by psychologists, anthropologists and historians, sociologists have mostly overlooked this socio-cultural phenomenon, while scholars more generally have failed to investigate the motives, markers, and derived

Read More