Almost anyone in the living world can receive messages from spirits, however formal communication sessions or séances are held only with Spirit Mediums. This is surmised as spiritualism, a belief system whose distinguishing feature is the faith that spirits of the dead residing in the Spirit World have the ability to communicate with the living (Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary, 1996). It is a definition that is certainly appropriate for and can be applied to the practice of Garifuna spiritualism in Belize. Communications and exchanges between the living and the dead are hallmarks of Garifuna spiritualism, as it teaches that the spirits of dead ancestors communicate with and protect living family members in a continuing cycle of parent to child and child to parent reciprocal relationship even after death. Communication can occur when you enter a trance and take on the persona of the Ancestral Spirit when alive, or via dreams of the Ancestral Spirit. Interpretations of information shared by the person in the trance and also of the dreams can be further clarified or articulated through séances by a Buyei (Valentine, 2002). Ancestral Spirits are reciprocated and voluntarily celebrated through various rituals, which are invariably incorporated into day-to-day existence, and includes singing, dancing and sharing of food. When the obligations to the Ancestral Spirit are overlooked or ignored then the Ancestral Spirit may as a last resort demand repayment through a formal process called adügürahani, to prepare for a Dügǘ ceremony. Dügǘ is an option when all else fail in adhering to customary duties, and therein lies the significance—its very survival or continuity is an indication of people’s behaviour and the resultant effect of tradition in re-instituting values to correct behaviour.
