Etiäinen

In Finnish folklore, an Etiäinen is a spirit sent forth by a shaman or by a person in great distress. It will appear either where the shaman wishes or find the person with whom the sender has the strongest emotional bond. It generally will be able to communicate something, but rarely in any great detail. One possible modern explanation of the phenomenon is that it results from migraine hallucinations.

An Etiäinen also means a precognitive vision or dream: someone can, for example, see or hear a family member or a guest coming before the person in question really arrives. Etiäinen always performs exactly similarly as the real person when he comes. One explanation for this is that when one is waiting for someone, imagination can turn the sounds of for example a cat or wind to make it feel like someone is coming, and once the person arrives, the memories of the Etiäinen are easily turned to correspond the sounds that really are made. If no one comes, the "possible etiäinen" is forgotten.

ee also

*Bilocation
*Doppelgänger
*Fetch
*Vardøger