There are plenty of stories of people who have had contact with a deceased loved one. This does not necessarily involve traditional ghostly apparitions. ‘For example, there are people who dream about someone and then, shortly afterwards, find out that that person has died,’ says Chardonnens. ‘Or they feel a connection with a deceased person because they suddenly smell that person's favourite flower, even though the flower isn't anywhere nearby. This often happens at times when people are going through a difficult period, as if the deceased is visiting them as a kind of guide.’
The researcher is not interested in the objectivity of these stories, but rather in their expressiveness. ‘Many people feel that death is not really the end of a relationship you have with someone, which means that the relationship continues to exist indefinitely. We continue to feel connected to the other person, even beyond death.’
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Chardonnens researches medieval magic and teaches English language and culture. He studies historical sources and objects to learn how people in the past dealt with good and evil and the supernatural, such as angels and demons. For example, writings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries sometimes describe in great detail how magicians communicated with all kinds of spirits.
‘Just like we go to a doctor or the police when we have a problem, people used to go to professional sorcerers,’ he explains. Such a sorcerer would ask Beelzebub (the devil, ed.) what was wrong, why someone was ill, for example. When the client returned, the sorcerer would have an explanation for the client's problem, such as that the silverware had been stolen by the servant.
Chardonnens emphasises that belief in magic is not a thing of the past. 'Although magic seems very distant to us, it is still present everywhere, for example in the form of superstition or magical thinking. We knock on wood when we talk about possible dangers in the future. We cherish things that are important or meaningful to us, as if they were more than just matter. Commerce is not free from magic either. Think of shampoo with bamboo extract to make your hair bouncy. It is pure magic to think that the essence of bamboo can be transferred to your hair. Summoning spirits, as described in historical sources, is still practised today, but less openly than in the past.’
