An absorbing account of an anthropologist’s fieldwork and explorations into alternative religions in Brazil, Samba in the Night invites the reader into the mysterious world of spirit mediums, poltergeists, psychic surgery, exorcism and spiritual healing. The author focuses on spiritism, a vital religious movement with millions of followers. He provides descriptions of rituals and at the same time weaves in a detective story about the complex relations between Spiritist rituals and the rest of their world. Through a patchwork of anecdotes about spirit mediums, doctors, engineers, lawmakers, Jesuits, and past-life therapists, the book offers an introduction to Brazilian religion and society as well as to the art of anthropological fieldwork.