In 1933 the German anthropologist Hans Alexander Winkler came across a spirit medium named Abd alRadi in a village near Luxor in Upper Egypt. Abd alRadi was periodically possessed by the ghost of his uncle and in that state passed messages to those who came to seek help. In an intense study Winkler lays out the construction of the world shared by the rural people with its saints and pilgrims snake charmers and wandering holy men all under the overarching power of God. Winklers book was ahead o