Felicitas Goodman

Felicitas D. Goodman (1914–2005) was an American linguist and anthropologist. She was a highly regarded expert in linguistics and anthropology and researched and explored ritual body postures for many years. She studied the phenomenon of "speaking in tongues" in Pentecostal congregations in Mexico. She is the author of such well-received books as Speaking in Tongues and Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences. Her work has been published mostly in the United States and Germany.

Goodman was born Felicitas Daniels in Budapest, Hungary in 1914, the first of two children. Her parents immigrated to Hungary from Germany and spoke German at home. She attended college at Heidelberg University in Germany. After World War II she immigrated to Columbus, Ohio with her three children; her fourth child was born a few years later. When her children were grown, Felicitas Goodman returned to school and earned a Master's degree in linguistics and a doctorate in cultural anthropology at Ohio State University. She taught at Denison University until her retirement in 1979.

In 1978, Goodman founded The Cuyamungue Institute in an area known as Cuyamungue, New Mexico to continue her research into altered states of consciousness and to hold workshops. After the publishing of Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences Goodman's following grew, primarily in the US and Germany, among "New Age" and "Neo-Shaman" practitioners as well as scholars in her field. Before her death in 2005, Goodman had published over 40 articles and more than seven books. Her book, The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, was the inspiration for the film The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

...
Wikipedia