“We Want to See Our King”: Apparitions in Messianic Habad

Abstract

Reports of apparitions of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last leader of the Habad Hasidic movement, have been spreading among the radically messianic Hasidim (meshichistim) in Israel, who maintain that the Rabbi, the designated Messiah, has not died. Expanding on the cognitive model of source misattribution, I seek to account for the apparitions by unpacking the messianic ecology cultivated by the meshichistim to make the absent Rabbi present. Habad's dialectical mysticism and anguish over the Rabbi's disappearance are likely to provide the mindset and motivation for sightings, but it is the rich array of icons and traces of the Rabbi, and mimetic practices in which they are embedded, that constitute the perceptual field where he can be seen. This cultural décor is particularly evident for apparitions in ritual arenas, while apparitions in mundane settings are often triggered by acute distress. Comparing the apparitions to visions in Christianity, I account for the lingering ambivalence toward apparitions in messianic Habad by highlighting the epistemological constraints imposed on them by the denial of the Rabbi's death. [apparitions, Habad Hasidism, signal detection theory, messianic ecology, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneeerson]

Culture and Hallucinations: Overview and Future Directions

“…For example, after the death of Menachem Schneerson—a Hasidic Rebbe believed by many of his followers to be the messiah and thus a man who would not die in an ordinary way—many followers reported seeing him. 34 The pattern of their reports resembles the reports of seeing Jesus after his death described in the Bible: they are rare; brief; and, often, surprising mundane. Jesus appears as a gardener: the Rebbe shows up in the kitchen.…”

Thinking about thinking: the mind's porosity and the presence of the gods

“…The more someone recalls a quality of gruffness in the words, the more they are likely to judge – in that micro‐moment – that the words were not their own internally generated thought, but an external spoken voice. Those micro‐moment judgements – in the mind or in the world, of the self or of another – alter the way the words are remembered and thus how they are experienced phenomenologically: as an auditory voice or as an inner thought (Bentall 2003; Johnson & Raye 1981; see Bilu 2013 for an anthropological example).…”

Importance of the “thinking through other minds” process explored through motor correlates of motivated social interactions

“…At times, specific cultural events may lead groups of people to report hallucination-like events. In the days following the death of Menachem Schneersona Hasidic Rabbi given messianic statusmany of his followers reported seeing brief glimpses of him partaking in the activities of daily life (Bilu 2013). Clearly, a strong cultural expectation was at play: that the messiah does not die as normal people do and so may linger visibly on the earthly plane.…”