About the author
Loftur Reimar Gissurarson is an Icelandic psychologist and researcher whose work has focused on the history of spiritualism and psychical research in Iceland, often in connection with the work of fellow Icelandic parapsychologist Erlendur Haraldsson. His book Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity in Iceland, published by Routledge, is a social-anthropological study of how spiritualism took hold within Icelandic church life and society during the first half of the twentieth century. Rather than treating mediumship as a marginal curiosity, the book situates it within debates about religion, science and modernity, drawing on archival and church records to trace how a small Nordic society absorbed a movement that elsewhere sat at the edges of respectable belief. The book has appeared in more than one edition, reflecting sustained academic interest in the subject. Readers drawn to the intersection of religious history, Icelandic culture and the sociology of belief will find Gissurarson's study a detailed, source-grounded account rather than a devotional or practical guide.
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💬 What our editors say about Loftur Reimar Gissurarson's books
“This anthropological exploration offers a compelling, albeit academically dense, look at Iceland's unique relationship with spiritualism. It successfully argues that these practices were central to modernity rather than…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity in Iceland
“Gissurarson delivers a meticulous social anthropological study that recontextualizes spiritualism within Iceland's early twentieth-century modernity. While the historical data is rich and the descriptions vivid, this text demands…”
Esoterica Books editorial team, Occult literature desk · on Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity in Iceland (Revised)
