Designing Interactive Zones for Preservation & Engagement -Zone 7: Psychology & Reflection

1. Purpose & Concept

Hầu đồng offers participants, especially mediums (thanh đồng), a way to explain suffering, seek healing, and re-create identity. This zone invites visitors to engage with these dimensions through guided reflection, interviews, and inner dialogue, making the ritual’s psychological meaning accessible to all.

2. Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Understand how hầu đồng functions as a path of healing and identity formation.
• Reflect on their own inner lives using ritual as a symbolic framework.
• Empathize with the experiences of mediums by exploring narratives of suffering → healing → rebirth.
• Recognize the dialogue between anthropology (culture) and psychology (mind) within spiritual practice

3. Core Components

a. Mediums’ Inner Voice Archive

• Listening booths with recorded interviews from real mediums (with subtitles).
• Topics: life misfortunes, turning to ritual, experiences of trance, sense of renewal.
• Visitors can hear intimate stories that humanize the ritual.

b. Self-Reflection Journals

1. Participants receive reflection cards with prompts like:

“What personal struggle would you want to offer to the spirits?”

“How do you define healing for yourself?”

“If you could re-create your identity, what would you keep or change?”

• Responses can be kept private (take-home journals) or shared anonymously on a Reflection Wall.

4. Educational & Preservation Value

• Demonstrates how intangible heritage is also a psychological resource.
• Preserves not just ritual performance, but the inner voices and experiences of mediums.
• Connects visitors’ personal growth with cultural wisdom, bridging tradition and modern well-being.

5. Evaluation & Impact

• Metrics: Number of reflection cards/journals written, use of listening booths.
• Qualitative: Depth of visitor feedback (“This reminded me of my own journey through grief”).
• Long-term: Archive of anonymous reflections → can become research material for understanding cultural healing.

6. Outcomes: Psychology & Reflection Zone

• Cognitive: Awareness of hầu đồng as both cultural ritual and psychological process.
• Emotional: Empathy toward mediums’ struggles and relief in personal self-expression.
• Cultural: Deeper appreciation for the ritual’s role in Vietnamese identity-making.
• Psychological: A sense of catharsis, insight, or healing from guided reflection.
• Tangible: Personal reflection cards/journals to continue their inner journey.

Zone 7: REFLECTION WALL

Reflection Card #1 – Lan, 22, Design Student –Healing through Expression – facing inner pain as part of self-recreation.

Prompt: What personal struggle would you want to offer to the spirits?

“I think I’d offer my fear.
Fear of failing, of being compared, of never being ‘enough.’
When I listened to Madam Thanh’s story – how she turned to hầu đồng after depression and job loss – I started crying. She said: ‘When I’m in trance, I’m not performing; I’m reliving.’  I realized healing isn’t about escaping pain, but giving it a body, a sound – letting it move. The ritual allows what we hide to finally breathe. If the spirits were listening, I’d only ask them to know this: I’m still learning to forgive myself.”

Reflection Card #2 – Minh, 34, Office Worker- Reframing grief – memory as a living form of healing.

Prompt: How do you define healing for yourself?

“I used to think healing meant forgetting. But when I heard a medium speak about losing his best friend – how he brings that   friend into every prayer – I understood:
Healing can also mean keeping. Letting memory live beside you, without cutting you open anymore. As I write this, I think of my father, who passed away five years ago. I never really said goodbye. Tonight, I write this as a small offering: ‘I still hear you, Dad, in every drumbeat.’”

Reflection Card #3  – Vy, 28, Preschool Teacher- Identity Formation – self-acceptance through spiritual archetypes.

Prompt: If you could re-create your identity, what would you keep or change?

“I used to think my sensitivity made me weak. But when a medium said, ‘Each tear is a small prayer,’ I realized that softness can be sacred too. If I could recreate myself, I’d keep this heart – only this time, I wouldn’t apologize for it. I’d add a little of the Mother Goddess to me: gentle power, quiet protection. Maybe that’s what hầu đồng teaches: identity isn’t a mask, it’s a ritual unfolding inside you.”

Reflection Card #4 – Tuấn, 41, Psychologist – Bridging Mind and Ritual -recognizing trance as therapeutic transformation.

Prompt: What insight did you gain from the Mediums’ Inner Voice Archive?

“I came to Zone 7 as a professional, but left as a student. Hearing mediums talk about their pain, I realized the ritual functions like an ‘embodied therapy.’ One medium said, ‘When I enter trance, I am not myself but I’ve never been closer to myself.’ That struck me deeply.

Hầu đồng seems to rebuild the self, not by erasing it but by transforming it through symbol and rhythm. I left the listening booth silent, humbled. Psychology and spirituality – perhaps they’ve always been seeking the same thing: the release of the soul.”

Reflection Card #5  – Ngoc, 56, Visitor Recovering from Divorce- Catharsis & Empowerment – renewal through rhythm and self-compassion.

Prompt: How has this experience changed your view of healing?

“I used to pray just to stop hurting. But today, when I heard a medium say, ‘No one heals you but yourself – the spirits only give you rhythm,’ I finally understood.
Healing isn’t about waiting for mercy; it’s about moving again. I wrote this after the tears dried: I don’t need to forget my ex-husband. I just need to remember that I, too, deserve love.”