UC San Diego History Professor Featured in Nat Geo’s “Heaven and Hell” Episode

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Pilgrims stream out of the Debre Libanos monastery, the epicenter of Caciola’s visit to Ethiopia. Photo courtesy Nancy Caciola.

The University of California San Diego’s Department of History encompasses major teaching and research fields that span the globe from the United States to Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Across these geographic boundaries, the department offers thematic strengths in gender, sexuality, nationalism, race, ethnicity and even the afterlife. Enter Professor Nancy Caciola, a medieval history specialist whose current work considers the line between life and death. For her research, Caciola gained the attention of the National Geographic Channel, which will feature her in its Jan. 23 primetime episode entitled “Heaven and Hell,” part of the “The Story of God with Morgan Freeman” series.

Prof. Nancy Caciola in front of a farmhouse in the Oromiya region of Ethiopia where filming occurred. Photo courtesy of Nancy Caciola.

Interestingly, Caciola admitted that her role in the series was not related to her latest book on ways of thinking about the afterlife, but to her earlier research on spirit possession in the Middle Ages (“Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages,” Cornell University Press, 2003).

“I was recruited to be part of a segment on Christian exorcism practices in Ethiopia, which speaks to conceptions of hell because believers think that demonic spirits come out of hell to possess human beings’ bodies,” explained Caciola. “I am interested broadly in questions of how medieval people understood individual identity. Belief in spirit possession is a good point of entry for studying identity because it suggests that a foreign spirit can take over and ‘use’ a human being, thus joining a different consciousness to a particular body.”

According to Caciola, the show’s recruiter was looking for an academic expert in exorcism and saw that the UC San Diego history professor composed the entry for this topic in the Encyclopedia of Religion.

“After a telephone interview, they brought me on board. It was wild because I left for Ethiopia about nine days after my first contact with the production company,” said Caciola, adding that the show’s producers wanted an expert on exorcism, but not on Ethiopia. “On set, they paired me with a local guide and filmed us exploring the exorcism site—a monastery and nearby holy waterfall—and interviewing people. They wanted someone who knew how to grasp what was going on, and who would ask the right questions, but who would also be learning from the local guide.”

As for participating in the cable channel’s programming, Caciola said it is important for academics to share their knowledge, but also to model a deep curiosity about the world and respect for different cultural systems.

“I particularly loved this project because it allowed me to do all those things,” Caciola said. “I was utilizing my own knowledge gained through research, but also learning new perspectives on that material by experiencing it within a different culture than the one I have studied. It was a great trip.”

Unfortunately, however, she did not meet actor Morgan Freeman, who provided the voiceover narration but was not present on set.

“I think the show is quite well done, as one might expect from a National Geographic production,” said Caciola. “Each episode includes several segments around a theme, including examination of many different religious traditions, often supplemented by a sequence on modern scientific or psychological understandings of the same theme. It’s pitched toward a sophisticated but non-academic audience.”

“Heaven and Hell” airs on the National Geographic Channel Jan. 23 at 6 and 9 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time). The UC San Diego Department of History offers one of the highly ranked programs in the Division of Arts and Humanities, itself ranked No. 23 in the 2017 U.S. News and World Report’s Best Global Universities listing.