Spiritualism (religious movement)

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The term Spiritualism is used for a religious movement that began in the United States and flourished from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially, though by no means exclusively, in English-language countries. By 1897, it is said to have had more than 8 million followers in the USA and Europe. ^[1] The movement's distinguishing feature is the belief that the spirits of the dead can be contacted by "mediums." These spirits are believed to lie on a higher plane of existence than humans, and as such could provide living people with guidance in worldly and spiritual matters.^[2]

Contents 1 The Declaration of Principles 2 Origins 2.1 Swedenborg and Mesmer 2.2 Reform-movement links 2.3 Believers and skeptics 2.4 Unorganized movement 2.5 Other mediums 3 Characteristic beliefs 4 Post 1920s 5 Later Developments 6 WWII and the Post-War years 7 Spiritualism into the New Age 8 Spiritualism today 9 Spiritualism and women's rights 10 The anti-slavery movement 11 See also 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 External links

[edit] The Declaration of Principles

The Modern Spiritualism movement was formalised to a degree by the acceptance of the Declaration of Principles^[3] published "not as a creed binding individuals but as the consensus of a large majority of Spiritualists" as the fundamental teachings of Spiritualism.^[4]

• the belief in Infinite Intelligence.

• the belief that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual, are the expression of Infinite Intelligence.

• the belief that a correct understanding of such expression and living in accordance therewith, constitute true religion.

• the belief that the existence and personal identity of the individual continue after the change called death.

• the belief that communication with the so-called dead is a fact, scientifically proven by the phenomena of Spiritualism.

• the belief that the highest morality is contained in the Golden Rule: "Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you, do ye also unto them."

• the belief that the moral responsibility of individuals, and that we make our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey Nature’s physical and spiritual laws.

• the belief that the doorway to reformation is never closed against any human soul here or hereafter.

• the belief that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine attributes proven through Mediumship.

The first 6 of these central beliefs of Modern Spiritualists were adopted in Chicago, Illinois, 1899. Principles 7-8 was adopted in Rochester, New York, 1909 (principle 8 being revised in Rochester, New York, 2001). Principle 9 was adopted in St. Louis, Missouri, 1944 (revised in Oklahoma City, 1983 and Westfield, New Jersey, 1998).

[edit] Origins

"Modern Spiritualism", ^[5][6] or Modern American Spiritualism as it is referred to, ^[7] first appeared in the 1840s in the "Burned-over District" of upstate New York, where earlier religious movements such as Millerism (Seventh-Day Adventism) and Mormonism had emerged during the Second Great Awakening. This region of New York State was an environment in which many thought that direct communication with God or angels was possible. ^[2] It was thought to be part of a tradition present throughout history ^[8] and in a variety of cultures. ^{[9] [10]}

[edit] Swedenborg and Mesmer

In this environment, the writings of scientist, statesman and visionary Christian reformer Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and the teachings of Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) provided an example for those seeking direct personal knowledge of the afterlife. Seen as the greatest medium in modern times ^[11] and the Father of Modern Spiritualism ^[12], clairvoyant ^[13] Swedenborg claimed to communicate with angels ^[14] and the spirits of the deceased while in trance states, describing in his voluminous writings the structure of the spirit world. Two features of his view particularly resonated with the early spiritualists. Firstly, that there is not a single hell and a single heaven but rather various levels of heaven and hell. ^[15] Secondly, that spirits can communicate with humans on behalf of God.^[2] Swedenborg differed from the Modern Spiritualists, however, in that his teachings were intended to deepen Christian Biblical knowledge.

Mesmer did not contribute religious beliefs, but he brought a technique, later known as hypnotism, that it was claimed could induce trances and cause subjects to report contact with supernatural beings. There was a great deal of professional showmanship inherent to demonstrations of Mesmerism, and the practitioners who lectured in mid-19th-century North America sought to entertain their audiences as well as to demonstrate methods for personal contact with the divine.^[2]

Perhaps the best known of those who combined Swedenborg and Mesmer in a peculiarly North American synthesis was Andrew Jackson Davis, who called his system the Harmonial Philosophy ^[16]. Davis was a practicing hypnotist, faith healer and clairvoyant from Poughkeepsie, New York. His 1847 book, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind,^[17] dictated to a friend while in a trance state, eventually became the nearest thing to a canonical work in a Spiritualist movement whose extreme individualism precluded the development of a single coherent worldview.^[2][18]

[edit] Reform-movement links

Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848, as the beginning of their movement. On that date, Kate and Margaret Fox, of Hydesville, New York, reported that they had made contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler. What made this an extraordinary event was that the spirit communicated through audible rapping noises, rather than simply appearing to a person. The evidence of the senses appealed to practically minded people in the U.S., and the Fox sisters became a sensation.^{[2] [18]} Amy and Isaac Post, Hicksite Quakers from Rochester, New York, had long been acquainted with the Fox family, and took the two girls into their home in the late spring of 1848. Immediately convinced of the genuineness of the sisters' communications, they became early converts and introduced them to their circle of radical Quaker friends.

It therefore came about that many of the early participants in Spiritualism were radical Quakers and others involved in the reforming movement of the mid-nineteenth century. These reformers were uncomfortable with established churches, because they did little to fight slavery and even less to advance the cause of women's rights.^[18] Women were particularly attracted to the movement, because it gave them important roles as mediums and trance lecturers. In fact, Spiritualism provided one of the first forums in which U.S. women could address mixed public audiences.^[18] The most popular trance lecturer prior to the U.S. Civil War was Cora L. V. Scott (1840–1923). Young and beautiful, her appearance on stage fascinated men. Her audiences were struck by the contrast between her physical girlishness and the eloquence with which she spoke of spiritual matters, and found in that contrast support for the notion that spirits were speaking through her. Cora married four times, and on each occasion adopted her husband's last name. During her period of greatest activity, she was known as Cora Hatch.^[18]

Another famous woman spiritualist was Achsa W. Sprague, who was born November 17, 1827, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. At the age of 20, she became ill with rheumatic fever and credited her eventual recovery to intercession by spirits. An extremely popular trance lecturer, she traveled about the United States until her death in 1861. Sprague was an abolitionist and an advocate of women's rights.^[18]

Yet another prominent spiritualist and trance medium prior to the Civil War was Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825–1875), an African-American "Free Man of Color," who also played a part in the Abolition movement.^[19] Nevertheless, many abolitionists and reformers held themselves aloof from the movement; among the skeptics was the eloquent ex-slave, Frederick Douglass.^[20]

[edit] Believers and skeptics

In the years following the sensation that greeted the Fox sisters, demonstrations of mediumship (séances and automatic writing, for example) proved to be a profitable venture, and soon became popular forms of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. The Foxes were to earn a living this way and others would follow their lead.^{[2] [18]} Showmanship became an increasingly important part of Spiritualism, and the visible, audible, and tangible evidence of spirits escalated as mediums competed for paying audiences. Fraud was certainly widespread, as independent investigating commissions repeatedly established, most notably the 1887 report of the Seybert Commission.^[21] Prominent investigators who exposed cases of fraud came from a variety of backgrounds, including professional researchers such as Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research or Harry Price of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, and professional conjurers such as John Nevil Maskelyne. Maskelyne exposed the Davenport Brothers by appearing in the audience during their shows and explaining how the trick was done. During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini undertook a well-publicised crusade against fraudulent mediums. Throughout his endeavors, Houdini remained adamant that he did not oppose Spiritualism itself, but rather the practice of deliberate fraud and trickery for monetary gain that was carried out.^[22] Despite widespread fraud, the appeal of Spiritualism was strong, and prominent in the ranks of its adherents were those grieving the death of a loved one. One well known case is that of Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving the loss of her son, organised séances in the White House which were attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln.^[23] The surge of interest in Spiritualism during and after the American Civil War and World War I was a direct response to the massive casualties.^[24] In addition, the movement appealed to reformers, who fortuitously found that the spirits favored such causes du jour as equal rights.^[18] Finally, the movement appealed to some who had a materialist orientation and rejected organized religion. The influential socialist and atheist Robert Owen embraced religion following his experiences in Spiritualist circles. Many scientific men who investigated the phenomenon also became converts; these included the chemist William Crookes, the evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913),^[25] the journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849-1912),^[26] and the physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930).^[27]

[edit] Unorganized movement

The movement quickly spread throughout the world; though only in the United Kingdom did it become as widespread as in the United States.^[28] In Britain, by 1853, invitations to tea among the prosperous and fashionable often included table-turning, a type of séance in which spirits would communicate with people seated around a table by tilting and rotating the table. A particularly important convert was the French pedagogue Allan Kardec (1804-1869), who made the first attempt to systematise the movement's practices and ideas into a consistent philosophical system. Kardec's books, written in the last 15 years of his life, became the textual basis of Kardecist spiritism, a doctrine and movement often called simply spiritism or French spiritualism which became widespread in Latin countries. In Brazil, Kardec's ideas are embraced by many followers today.^{[29] [2] [18]} In Puerto Rico, Kardec's books were widely read by the upper classes, and eventually gave birth to a movement known as Mesa Blanca (White Table).

Spiritualism was mainly a middle- and upper-class movement, and especially popular with women. U.S. spiritualists would meet in private homes for séances, at lecture halls for trance lectures, at state or national conventions, and at summer camps attended by thousands. Among the most significant of the camp meetings were Camp Etna, in Etna, Maine; Onset Bay Grove, in Onset, Massachusetts; Lily Dale, in western New York State; Camp Chesterfield, in Indiana; the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp, in Wonewoc, Wisconsin; and Lake Pleasant, in Montague, Massachusetts. In founding camp meetings, the spiritualists appropriated a form developed in the early nineteenth century by Protestant denominations in the U.S. Spiritualist camp meetings were located most densely in New England and California, but were also established across the upper Midwest. Cassadaga, Florida, is the most notable spiritualist camp meeting in the southern states.^[18]

The movement was extremely individualistic, with each person relying on her own experiences and reading to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organisation was therefore slow to appear, and when it did it was resisted by mediums and trance lecturers. Most members were content to attend Christian churches, and particularly Universalist churches harbored many Spiritualists.

As the movement began to fade, partly through the bad publicity of fraud accusations and partly through the appeal of religious movements such as Christian Science, the Spiritualist Church was organised. This church can claim to be the main vestige of the movement left today in the United States.^{[2] [18]}

[edit] Other mediums

William Stainton Moses (1839-1892) was an Anglican clergyman who, in the period from 1872 to 1883, filled 24 notebooks with automatic writing, much of which was said to describe conditions in the spirit world.

London-born Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) moved to the United States in 1855 and was active in spiritualist circles as a trance lecturer and organiser. She is best known as a chronicler of the movement's spread, especially in her 1884 Nineteenth Century Miracles: Spirits and their Work in Every Country of the Earth.

Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918) was an Italian Spiritualist medium from the slums of Naples who made a career touring Italy, France, Germany, Britain, the United States, Russia and Poland. Her stratagems were unmasked on several occasions, though some investigators credited her mediumistic abilities.

One believer was the Polish psychologist Julian Ochorowicz, who in 1893 brought her from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Warsaw, Poland. He introduced her to the novelist Bolesław Prus, who participated in her séances and incorporated Spiritualist elements into his historical novel Pharaoh.^[30]

Ochorowicz studied as well, 15 years later, a home-grown Polish medium, Stanisława Tomczyk.^[31]

[edit] Characteristic beliefs

Spiritualists believe in the possibility of communicating with spirits. A secondary belief is that spirits are in some way closer to God than living humans, and that spirits themselves are capable of growth and perfection, progressing through successively higher spheres or planes. The afterlife is therefore not a static place, but one in which spirits continue to evolve. The two beliefs: that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are metaphysically closer to God, lead to a third belief, that spirits are capable of providing useful knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of God and the afterlife. Thus many members will speak of their spirit guides — specific spirits, often contacted, who are relied upon for worldly and spiritual guidance.^{[2] [18]}

As Modern Spiritualism emerged in a Christian environment it has features in common with Christianity: an essentially Christian moral system, a perceived belief in the Judeo-Christian God, and liturgical practices such as Sunday services and the singing of hymns. The primary reason for these similarities is that spiritualists believe that some spirits are "low" or mischievous, and delight in leading humans astray. Therefore, beginning with Swedenborg, believers have been cautioned to hesitate before following the advice of spirits, and have usually developed their beliefs within a Christian framework.^{[2] [18]}

Nevertheless, on significant points Christianity and Spiritualism are quite different. Spiritualists do not believe that the acts of this life lead to the assignment of each soul into an eternity of either Heaven or Hell; rather, they view the afterlife as containing many hierarchically arrayed "spheres," through which each spirit can successfully progress. Spiritualists also differ from Christians in that the Judeo-Christian Bible is not the primary source from which they derive knowledge of God and the afterlife: for them, their own personal contacts with spirits provide that source.^{[2] [18]}

Religions other than Christianity have also influenced spiritualism. Animist faiths, with a tradition of shamanism, are obviously similar, and in the first decades of the movement many mediums claimed contact with the spirit guides of the indigenous peoples of North America, in an apparent acknowledgment of these similarities. Unlike animists, however, spiritualists tend to speak only of the spirits of dead humans, and do not espouse a belief in spirits of animals, trees, springs, or other natural features.

Within Islam, certain traditions, most notably Sufism, consider communication with spirits of the dead to be possible^[32]. Additionally, the concept of Tawassul recognises the existence of good spirits on a higher plane of existence closer to God, and thus able to intercede n behalf of humanity.

Hinduism, though an extremely heterogeneous belief system, shares a belief with spiritualism in the continued existence of the soul after death. But Hindus differ in that they typically believe in reincarnation, and normally hold that all features of a person's personality are extinguished at death. Spiritualists, however, maintain that the spirit retains the personality it possessed during its (single) human existence.

Kardecist spiritism, the branch of Spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and found in mostly Latin countries, has always emphasised reincarnation. According to Arthur Conan Doyle, most British Spiritualists of the early 20th century were indifferent to the doctrine of reincarnation, very few supported it, while a significant minority were vehemently opposed, since it had never been mentioned by spirits contacted in séances. Thus, according to Doyle, it is the empirical bent of Anglophone Spiritualism —its effort to develop religious views from actual observation of phenomena— that kept spiritualists of this period from embracing reincarnation.^[33]

Spiritualism also differs from occult movements, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn or the contemporary Wiccan covens, in that spirits are not contacted in order to obtain magical powers (with the single exception of obtaining power for healing). For example, Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) of the Theosophical Society only practiced mediumship in order to contact powerful spirits capable of conferring esoteric knowledge. Blavatsky apparently did not believe that these spirits were deceased humans, and in fact held beliefs in reincarnation that were quite different from the views of most spiritualists.^[18]

[edit] Post 1920s

Main articles: Spiritualist Church, Spiritualists' National Union, Survivalism (life after death), and Spiritualist Association of Great Britain

In many ways, Spiritualism's success was its ability to incorporate a variety of existing supernatural concepts into its developing and flexible cosmology. Traditional supernatural beliefs penetrating everyday language provided a rich resource for Spiritualist thought and a setting where conversion to Spiritualism could feel natural and even inevitable. Far from being displaced by science-based secularism in the twentieth century, Spiritualism flourished between the two World Wars. ^[34]

The First World War, with its unprecedented losses, brought bereavement as never before to vast numbers of British families. Immediately after the 750,000 British casualties came the deaths of more than 150,000 in an influenza epidemic. Spiritualism was given a massive boost by the Great War, ^[35] which left many people desperately seeking to have some sort of contact or assurance regarding their departed loved ones often turning to the welcoming arms of Spiritualism and the Movement found some support even amongst the Anglican Church.

In 1920, the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church made resolutions about Spiritualism and closed with the recommendation of a sort of ecumenism between the Church of England and the spiritualist movement: “It is in our opinion important that representatives of the Church should keep in touch with groups of intelligent persons who believe in Spiritualism" In 1937 Archbishop Cosmo Gordon Lang of Canterbury established a committee to discuss the relationship, if any, between spiritualism and the traditional teachings of the Anglican Church including Evelyn Underhill, who withdrew, stating that she was very strongly opposed to spiritualism and any tendency on the part of the Church to recognize or encourage it.

In 1939, just as hostilities on the Continent began to flare up again, its findings — in the form of majority and minority reports — were kept secret, forgotten and not made public until 1979. ^[36] While the intervening years saw a decrease in the outward membership in spiritualist societies which had so alarmed the Anglican establishment, there was probably an increase in the popular adherence to such beliefs.

The committee concluded that the practice of Spiritualism was dangerous to the mental balance and condition of those who take part in it, especially of obsessional characters but that it is very difficult to judge whether the uncritical temperament which show itself in certain spiritualists is a result or a cause of their addiction to the practices. Moreover, that psychologically it was probable that individuals in a condition of mental disturbance, or lack of balance, would very naturally use the obvious opportunities afforded by Spiritualism as a means of expressing the repressed emotions. However, that was also true of Christianity itself, which frequently becomes an outlet not only for cranks but for persons who are definitely of unstable mentality. ^[37]

[edit] Later Developments

Main articles: Spiritualist Church, Spiritualists' National Union, Survivalism (life after death), and Spiritualist Association of Great Britain

Spiritualism evolved in three different directions. The first of these continued the tradition of individual practitioners, organised in circles centered on a medium and clients, without any hierarchy or dogma. Already by the late 19th century Modern Spiritualism had become increasingly syncretic, a natural development in a movement without central authority or dogma.^[18] Today, among these unorganised circles, spiritualism is not readily distinguishable from the similarly syncretic New Age movement. These spiritualists are quite heterogeneous in their beliefs regarding issues such as reincarnation or the existence of God. Some appropriate New Age and Neo-Pagan beliefs, whilst others call themselves 'Christian Spiritualists', continuing with the tradition of cautiously incorporating spiritualist experiences into their Christian faith.

The second direction taken has been to adopt formal organisation, patterned after Christian denominations, with established creeds, liturgies, and training requirements for mediums, often called Christian Spiritualists.^[38] In the United States the Spiritualist churches are primarily affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches ^[39], and in the U.K. with the Spiritualists' National Union, founded in 1901. Formal education in spiritualist practice emerged in 1920, continuing today with the Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall.

Diversity of belief among organised spiritualists has led to a few schisms, the most notable occurring in the U.K. in 1957 between those who held the movement to be a religion sui generis (of its own with unique characteristics), and a minority who held it to be a denomination within Christianity. The practice of organised Spiritualism today resembles that of any other religion, having discarded most showmanship, particularly those elements resembling the conjurer's art. There is thus a much greater emphasis on "mental" mediumship and an almost complete avoidance of the miraculous "materializing" mediumship that so fascinated early believers such as Arthur Conan Doyle.^[40]

The third direction taken has been a continuation of its empirical orientation to religious phenomena. As early as 1882, with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research, secular organisations emerged to investigate spiritualist claims. Today many individuals with an empirical approach avoid the label of "spiritualism," preferring the term "survivalism or paranormal." Survivalists eschew religion, and base their belief in the afterlife on phenomena susceptible to at least rudimentary scientific investigation of mediumship, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, electronic voice phenomena, and reincarnation research. Many Survivalists see themselves as the intellectual heirs of the spiritualist movement.^[41]

Spiritualism also influenced the development of modern psychology through the life experiences and studies of Carl Jung whose mother, Emilie Preiswerk, was born into a family that regularly practised séances and whose doctoral dissertation was not medical research but the investigation of a medium Hélène Preiswerk.^[42]The spiritualist narrative in Jung’s personal life reached a climax in 1916 when he became convinced that his house was crammed with spirits.^[43] He practised a typically mediumistic activity of ‘spirit-directed' writing.^[44]

[edit] WWII and the Post-War years

The popularity of Spiritualism declined post-WWII as mainstream churches began to cater for the demands of the general populace. In the United Kingdom, an important year was 1951 when the Government saw fit to bring in the “Fraudulent Mediums Act”. For Spiritualists, it was recognised that if there were fraudulent mediums, this also meant there were bona fide ones. The “Witchcraft Act 1735” was also abolished, and Mediums in the UK no longer had to worry about Section 4 of the “Vagrancy Act 1824”.

Behind these events were Winston Churchill and the infamous 1944 case of Helen Duncan, one that Churchill called "obsolete tomfoolery". Duncan held a séance in Portsmouth at which she indicated that HMS Barham had been sunk, a fact that had been kept from the public for fear it would affect morale. The British Admiralty chose to attempt to discredit her. She was arrested under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. The authorities regarded the case as more serious, and eventually discovered section 4 of the Witchcraft Act 1735, which was triable before a jury, for "pretending to raise the spirits of the dead". She was sentenced to nine months in Holloway Prison, during which Mrs Duncan received many visitors including Winston Churchill.

Duncan was released on September 22, 1944 but her ability to inform relatives about loved ones who had died abroad during the Second World War led to her family being demonised. Even 54 years later, then-Home Secretary Jack Straw refused to grant her a posthumous pardon. As prime minister, Churchill repealed the Witchcraft Act in 1951, recognizing spiritualism as a religion. Despite this, during the 1950s, séance still continued to be raided by police not just in the UK but in other countries such as Turkey.

In the USA, Eileen Garrett (1893 - 1970), one of the most respected medium of the twentieth century established the New York-based Parapsychology Foundation in 1951 and in April, 1953, The National Spiritualist Association changed its name to "The National Spiritualist Association of Churches" and was recorded in Washington, D.C., on April 27, 1953. In the UK, Lillian Bailey, a deep trance medium who had been awarded an O.B.E. channelled the deceased^[45] for the British Royalty in 1953 ^[46].

Tthe first 'official' Electronic voice phenomena recording was made in the late 1950s by Friedrich Jurgenson, a Swedish spiritualist in Sweden. In the 1960s, Konstantin Raudive was to make tens of thousands of similar tapes. In the 1960s, Stansted Hall in England bequeathed to the Spiritualists' National Union by Arthur Findlay to be used as a College for the advancement of Psychic Science and opened in 1966 and in 1972 the first meeting of the Guild of Spiritualist Healers was held there. Also in the 60s, Dr. Karlis Osis of the American Society for Psychical Research did a pilot study of deathbed visions that confirmed the findings of Sir WIlliam Barrett.

[edit] Spiritualism into the New Age

Main article: New Age

The claim by Spiritualists that they could tangibly manifest the supernatural precipitated conflict with secularising professions and prominent individuals, leading to numerous public exposures of mediums. So called New Age channels continue to be surrounded by opponents but there appears to be one important difference between the two: the presence of physical manifestations of the purportedly supernatural in the former and the absence of such manifestations in the Post World War II and contemporary New Age.

By forgoing physical manifestations and relying solely on verbal communications, such mediums secure themselves from the increasingly technologically-assisted and media-focused debunkers. Within the private sphere to which secularization has confined channelling, the resulting subjectivism is resonates with normative practices within consumerism, increasing the attractiveness of channelling to certain post-materialist consumers. Consumer culture further assists channelling by supporting the mass dissemination of the cultic milieu ^[47] of the New Age (or Mind, Body, Spirit) movement of the 70s to 90s. ^[48] The most prominent example being the exposure granted by actress Shirley Maclaine's 1983 book "Out on a Limb" and the subsequent media exposure given to her interest in spiritualism ^[49] and a revival in skepticism and debunking was forefronted by James Randi who received a considerable grant from the MacArthur Foundation in 1986.

[edit] Spiritualism today

The trial of Helen Duncan was not the end of scrutiny for the Spiritualist Movement in the UK. In the 2001, following a decision relating to the Church of Scientology, the Charity Commission invited the Spiritualists National Union (SNU) to justify how the Spiritualist religion met the criteria set down for being a registered as a religion. The Commissioners had set criteria which charities for the advancement of religion had to meet and were deciding how on another case. The Commissioners were satisfied that the Spiritualist religion fell within this category of organisation which met the criterion of advancing religion.^[50]

Elsewhere, in 1995, the Roman Catholic Church revealed it had been carrying out scientific experiments with their own mediums and one of the most competent theologians of the Vatican, Father Gino Concetti. Writing in the 'Osservatore Romano', the daily paper of the Holy See he said that, "According to the modern catechism the Church has decided not to forbid anymore to dialogue with the deceased".

The United Kingdom 2001 Census revealed that there are over 32,000 British citizens who stated Spiritualism as their religion and 116,000 in the USA ^[51]. According to the 1997 Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year, there are over 10,000,000 adherents of "spiritism" in the world, the word used generally, a figure excluding a recent census from Brazil which indicated 15 million professed spiritists in the name of Umbanda, as well as a fringe following (not officially professed but possibly quite avid of up to 50 million. As a less organized grouping than some other "major religions," accurate numbers for Spiritualism are difficult to come by. An estimate of 20 million worldwide seems justifiable. Key aspects of Spiritism, or Spiritualism, are widely accepted in popular society in many countries beyond the bounds of those who are officially adherents of these movements. The boundaries being different faiths being quite uncertain. ^[52]

[edit] Spiritualism and women's rights

Women have historically had a fairly constant interest in the spirit world. Spiritualism's current popularity is a result of women having more power and visibility, giving the spirit world a prominence in society that it previous only had during spiritualism "boom" periods when men became interested. ^[53] Spiritualism and the inception of woman's rights were inextricably intertwined. ^[54]

Spiritualism aligned itself with other radical and reformist movements on a range of issues, such as temperance, anti-capital punishment, anti-slavery, women's rights, vegetarianism and communalism. ^[55][56] It validated the female spiritual power. It was clear to believers from the outset that women were favoured by the spirits. The hugely popular movement maintained that women were uniquely qualified to commune with spirits of the dead, offered female mediums a new independence, authority and potential to undermine conventional class and gender relations in the home and in society. The majority of the modern movement followers were women.^[54]

This was not without struggles of gender politics between Spiritualists and the Establishment at a time when society was in a flux. During the mid-decades of the C19th, clerics, a rapidly developing medical profession vied with politicians, scientist and educationalist for the right to pronounce upon suitable womanly behavoir and attitudes. The Movement emerged contemporaneously with the consideration of women's proper role and sphere, the struggle over sexual inequality and agitation for women's rights which become known as 'the woman question'.

Progressive spiritualists were very much concerned with the issues involved. They valued women and took them very seriously. The religion attracted many female believers during a period of gender disjunction and disparity offering a means of circumventing society's norms, professional opportunities and status.

Women were central to s practice and explicitly feminist doctrines were to be found in its teachings. Time and time again, it was noted that women picked up the techniques of mediumship more rapidly and effectively than men. Spiritualism validated the female authoritative voice and permitted an active ministerial role denied elsewhere. But it went further than that. Within the séance, and in the name of spirit possession, women openly and flagrantly transgressed gender norms. Females mediums assumed male roles and male mediums assumed female personalities. Spiritual mediumship was sabotaging the mechanics of power inherent in the Vicgtorian codification of gender balance and Spiritualism came to present an argument for women's rights founded on an acknowledgment of spiritual superiority.

Emma Hardinge Britten, perhaps the most renowned and most respected advocate and proponent in the early Modern Spiritualist Movement, had faced hardship and abuse in the case of women's rights and abolitionism. She regularly filled halls with 1,500 to 3,000 people. By 1859, she was telling her audiences that the time had come for women to claim full social, religious and political equality with mean. She objected to domesticity as women's, especially middle-class women's, only available role.^[57]

[edit] The anti-slavery movement

Spiritualism also played a part in the abolition of slavery of the African American people. "Spirit", and proclamations from beyond the grave, announced the sinfulness of slavery and called for a higher morality. An issue the established churches had overlooked in their profiteering. The crisis about the issue became personalized around the individual soul of the plantation owner, helping to create the social death of slavery. ^[58] For many would-be emancipators, mesmerism and spiritualism address the origins of inequality in contrast to abolitionism, which treated only its symptoms. At a broad level mesmerists and spiritualists had borrowed the West African religious practise of somnambulism and trance. ^[59] Healer, feminist and suffragist, Victoria Woodhull attempted to run for the United States Presidency in 1872 with ex-slave Frederick Douglass as vice-president. Woodhull was nominated for President of the United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party in 1872. Her nomination was ratified but the government declined to print her name on the ballot. ^[60]

[edit] See also

• Spiritism
• List of Spiritualist Organizations
• New Thought
• Spiritualism in fiction
• Lily Dale Assembly
• Necromancy
• Telekinesis
• Michel Eugène Chevreul
• Harry Price
• Harry Houdini
• Thomson Jay Hudson
• James Randi

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Brandon, Ruth (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 
• Braude, Ann (2001). Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21502-1. 
• Britten, Emma Hardinge (1884). Nineteenth Century Miracles: Spirits and their Work in Every Country of the Earth. New York: William Britten. ISBN 0766162907. 
• Brown, Slater (1970). The Heyday of Spiritualism. New York: Hawthorn Books. 
• Buescher, John B. (2003). The Other Side of Salvation: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious Experience. Boston: Skinner House Books. ISBN 1-55896-448-7. 
• Carroll, Bret E. (1997). Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33315-6. 
• Davenport, Reuben Briggs (1888). The Death-Blow to Spiritualism. New York: G.W. Dillingham. 
• Deveney, John Patrick; Franklin Rosemont (1996). Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-3120-7. 
• Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926). The History of Spiritualism, volume 1. New York: G.H. Doran. ISBN 1-4101-0243-2. 
• Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926). The History of Spiritualism, volume 2. New York: G.H. Doran. ISBN 1-4101-0243-2. 
• Fodor, Nandor (1934). An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science. 
• Guthrie, John J. Jr.; Phillip Charles Lucas; Gary Monroe (2000). Cassadaga: the South’s Oldest Spiritualist Community. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1743-2. 
• Hess, David (1987). "Spiritism and Science in Brazil". Ph.D thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, Cornell University.
• Lindgren, Carl Edwin (January 1994). "Spiritualism: Innocent Beliefs to Scientific Curiosity". Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 17 (1): 8-15. ISSN 1731:2148. 
• Lindgren, Carl Edwin (March 1994). "Scientific investigation and Religious Uncertainty 1880-1900". Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 17 (2): 83-91. ISSN 1731:2148. 
• Moore, William D. (1997). "'To Hold Communion with Nature and the Spirit-World:' New England's Spiritualist Camp Meetings, 1865-1910", in Annmarie Adams and Sally MacMurray (editors): Exploring Everyday Landscapes: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, VII. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0-8704-9983-1. 
• Podmore, Frank, Mediums of the 19th Century, 2 vols., University Books, 1963.
• Salter, William H., Zoar; or the Evidence of Psychical Research Concerning Survival, Sidgwick, 1961.
• Telegrams from the Dead (a PBS television documentary in the "American Experience" series, first aired October 19, 1994).
• Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita (1969). Bolesław Prus, 1847-1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847-1912: a Calendar of [His] Life and Work). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. 
• Weisberg, Barbara (2004). Talking to the Dead. San Francisco: Harper. 
• Wicker, Christine (2004). Lily Dale: the True Story of the Town that talks to the Dead. San Francisco: Harper. 

[edit] External links

• [http://www.theisf.com/ International Spiritualist Federation
• Citations for 'History of Spiritualism' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• International Spiritist Council
• Spiritualist E-Texts
• Religious Movements: Spiritualism
• The Catholic Encyclopedia: Spiritism
• Google mirror of the Open Directory Project: Spiritualism
• Collection of Spiritualist E-Texts
• John B. Buescher's website on the history of Spiritualism
• Poet and Egyptologist Gerald Massey on 'Why I Became a Spiritualist'
• Florence Cook and Katie King. The story of a Spiritualist medium
• Spiritualism and Electromagnetism at MathPages
• Spiritualist Seance Photography and Spiritualist Museum
• Andrew Lang, Fetishism and Spiritualism, The Making of Religion, (Chapter VIII), Longmans, Green, and C°, London, New York and Bombay, 1900, pp. 147-159.

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