The Spirits of the Wild: The Mbuti Pygmies and the Supernatural

Record summary

Colin Turnbull’s writings on the Mbuti include descriptions of forest rituals, music, healing and relations with spiritual forces. Later circulation and discussion in the 1970s made these accounts available in debates about trance, collective consciousness and indigenous cosmology. The material is relevant for comparison but should not be treated as a documented mediumship experiment. Turnbull’s interpretive style and the age of some field observations require careful source criticism, especially where popular summaries romanticize Mbuti spirituality or convert ritual symbolism into paranormal claims.