Felicitas Goodman facts for kids
Felicitas D. Goodman (born January 30, 1914, in Budapest, Hungary – died March 30, 2005, in Columbus, Ohio, USA) was an American expert in languages and cultures. She was a very smart linguist (someone who studies languages) and anthropologist (someone who studies human societies and cultures).
Dr. Goodman spent many years researching "Ecstatic Trance Postures." These are special body positions that people use to enter a deep, focused state of mind. She also studied "speaking in tongues" in Pentecostal churches in Mexico. She wrote popular books like Speaking in Tongues and Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences. Her work was published mostly in the United States and Germany.
Her Life Story
Felicitas Daniels was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1914. She was the first of two children. Her parents had moved to Hungary from Germany and spoke German at home. She went to college at Heidelberg University in Germany.
After World War II, she moved to Columbus, Ohio, with her three children. Her fourth child was born a few years later. When her children grew up, Felicitas Goodman went back to school. She earned a master's degree in linguistics and a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Ohio State University. She then taught at Denison University until she retired in 1979.
The Cuyamungue Institute
In 1978, Dr. Goodman started The Cuyamungue Institute. It is located in an area called Cuyamungue, New Mexico. She created this institute to keep studying "altered states of consciousness" and to hold workshops. These workshops helped people learn about the special body postures she researched.
After her book Where the Spirits Ride the Wind was published, more people became interested in Dr. Goodman's work. Her followers grew, especially in the U.S. and Germany. Many were interested in "New Age" ideas and "Neo-Shaman" practices, as well as other scholars.
Before she passed away in 2005, Dr. Goodman had published over 40 articles and more than seven books. One of her books, The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, was the idea behind the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose. In the movie, an actress named Shohreh Aghdashloo played a character based on Dr. Goodman.
In 2014, her daughter, Susan G. Josephson, published a comic book about Dr. Goodman's life. It was called Pueblo Spirits: in the life of Felicitas D. Goodman.
Her Books
Here are some of the books Dr. Goodman wrote:
- Ecstatic Body Postures: An Alternate Reality Workbook (published in 1995)
- Ecstasy, Ritual and Alternate Reality: Religion in a Pluralistic World (published in 1988)
- The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel (published in 2005)
- How About Demons?: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World (published in 1988)
