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Spiritualism (movement)

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For the phenomenon of communicating with spirits, outside the Spiritualist movement, see Mediumship.
By 1853, when the popular song Spirit Rappings was published, Spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity.

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. 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 are therefore capable of providing living people with guidance in worldly as well as in spiritual matters.[1]

Origins

"Modern Spiritualism", [2][3] or Modern American Spiritualism as it is referred to, [4] 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. [1] It was thought to be part of a tradition present throughout history [5] and in a variety of cultures. [6] [7]

Swedenborg and Mesmer

The onlookers' excitement is palpable as the Mesmerist induces a trance. Painting by Swedish artist Richard Bergh, 1887.
Emanuel Swedenborg.
Franz 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 [8] and the Father of Modern Spiritualism [9], clairvoyant [10] Swedenborg claimed to communicate with angels [11] 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. [11] Secondly, that spirits can communicate with humans on behalf of God.[1] 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.[1]

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 [12]. 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,[13] 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.[1][14]

The Fox sisters.

Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848, as the beginning of their movemnt. 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.[1] [14] 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.[14] 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.[14]

Cora L. V. Scott.

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.[14]

Paschal Beverly Randolph.

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.[14]

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.[15] Nevertheless, many abolitionists and reformers held themselves aloof from the movement; among the skeptics was the eloquent ex-slave, Frederick Douglass.[16]

Believers and skeptics

Frank Podmore, ca. 1895.

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.[1] [14] 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.[17]

Harry Price, 1922.

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.[18]

File:Houdini USPS Stamp.jpg

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.[19] 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.[20] In addition, the movement appealed to reformers, who fortuitously found that the spirits favored such causes du jour as equal rights.[14] 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),[21] the journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849-1912),[22] and the physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930).[23]

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.[24] 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 pedagogist 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.[25] 1987; [1] [14] 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).

Middle-class Chicago women discuss Spiritualism (1906).

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.[14]

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.[1] [14]

Other mediums

Eusapia Palladino, Warsaw, 1893.

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.

Julian Ochorowicz.

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.[26]

Ochorowicz studied as well, 15 years later, a home-grown Polish medium, Stanisława Tomczyk.[27]


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.[1] [14]

Spiritualism was equated by some Christians with witchcraft. This United States 1865 broadsheet also condemned spiritualism's links to abolitionism and blamed it for causing the Civil War.

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.[1] [14]

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.[1] [14]

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[28]. 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.[29]

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.[14]

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. [30]

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, [31] 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. [32] 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. [33]

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.[14] 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.

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.

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.[34] In the United States the Spiritualist churches are primarily affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches [1], 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.[35]

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.[36]

Spiritualism into the 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 movement.

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. By 1900 Spiritualism had lost its popularity. After the First World War the movement once again became popular as people struggled to deal with the loss of loved ones. [37]

Gender balance

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. [38]

Spiritualism aligned itself with other radical and reformist movements on a range of issues, such as temperance, anti-capital punishment, anti-vaccination, women's rights, vegetarianism and communalism. [39] 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.

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 authorative voice and permitted an active ministerial role denied elsewhere.

But it went further than that. Within the seance, 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.

As an example, 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 tht 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.[40]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Carroll, Bret E. (1997). Spiritualism in Antebellum America. (Religion in North America.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 248. ISBN 0-25333-315-6.
  2. ^ Hyslop, Prof. James (1906). The Borderland of Psychical Research. G. P. Putnam's Sons. The history of Spiritualism shows where the trouble begins and what is its cause. And I do not mean Spiritualism in the modern narrow sense, though what I mean includes this. By Spiritualism I mean the doctrine that opposes Materialism and so affirms the survival of the soul after death. Its modern narrow meaning, which identifies it with a certain mode of communication with the dead and cuts itself away from the previously acquired knowledge of science and philosophy, is not the old and respectable use of the term.
  3. ^ Podmore, Frank (1903). "Modern Spiritualism. A History and a Criticism". The American Journal of Psychology. 14 (1): 116–117.
  4. ^ Britten, Emma Hardinge. (1870). Modern American Spiritualism. New York,.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  5. ^ Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur (1926). The History of Spiritualism. There has, however, been no time in the recorded history of the world when we do not find traces of preternatural interference and a tardy recognition of them from humanity.
  6. ^ Kucich, John J. (2004). Ghostly Communion: Cross-Cultural Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Hanover: University Press of New England. ISBN 1-58465-432-5.
  7. ^ Lang, Andrew (1995). Myth Ritual & Religion. Senate, London. ISBN 1-85958-182x. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  8. ^ Ahlstrom, Sydney E. (1972). Religious History of the American People. New Haven: Yale. p. 487. ISBN 0-30001-762-6. There is some ground for seeing Swedenborg as the greatest medium in modern times and the New Church as the first spiritualist church.
  9. ^ Buescher, John B. (2004). The Other Side of Salvation: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious Experience. Boston: Skinner House. p. 139. ISBN 1-55896-448-7. quoting Emerson
  10. ^ Williams-Hogan, Jane K. (1988). Swedenborg: A Biography. Pennsylvania: The Academy of the New Church. pp. 3–27. in 1759, in which he reported a fire in Stockholm three hundred miles away, gained him a reputation in Sweden as a clairvoyant.
  11. ^ a b Swedenborg, Emanuel; Rose, Donald L.; Gladish, David F.; Rose, Jonathan (1996). Conversations With Angels: What Swedenborg Heard in Heaven. Chrysalis Books. pp. 41, cover. ISBN 0-87785-177-8. IIt has pleased the lord to .. open the interior of my mind or spirit, whereby I have been permitted to be in the spiritual world with angels ... I was standing on a hill facing toward south. When the angel was near enough, I spoke to him and asked, "What's happening now?" {{cite book}}: More than one of |first1= and |first= specified (help); More than one of |last1= and |last= specified (help) Cite error: The named reference "Swedenborg" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ Jackson Davis, Andrew (2003). Harmonial Philosophy. Kessinger Publishing. p. 248. ISBN 0-76614-152-7.
  13. ^ The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, Andrew Jackson Davis, 1847.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Braude, Ann Braude (2001). Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America, Second Edition. Indiana University Press. p. 296. ISBN 0-25321-502-1.
  15. ^ Deveney and Rosemont 1996
  16. ^ Telegrams from the Dead (a PBS television documentary).
  17. ^ Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania, The Seybert Commission, 1887. 2004-04-01.
  18. ^ Houdini Tribute: Spiritualism
  19. ^ Telegrams from the Dead (a PBS television documentary).
  20. ^ Doyle 1926
  21. ^ The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural, Alfred Russel Wallace, 1866.
  22. ^ Stead on Spiritualism at The William T. Stead Resource Site
  23. ^ Arthur Conan Doyle, The History of Spiritualism Vol I, Arthur Conan Doyle, 1926.
  24. ^ Britten 1884
  25. ^ Hess
  26. ^ Tokarzówna and Fita 1969, pp. 440, 443, 445–53, 521.
  27. ^ Fodor 1934
  28. ^ Noor Muhammad Kalachvi 1999: Irfan
  29. ^ Doyle 1926: volume 2, 171-181
  30. ^ Hazelgrove, Jennifer (1999). "Spiritualism after the Great War". Twentieth-Century British History. 10 (4): 404–430.
  31. ^ Winter, J.M.; Helmstadter, R. J. (2001). "Spiritualism and the First World War". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); More than one of |first1= and |first= specified (help); More than one of |last1= and |last= specified (help); Unknown parameter |Journal= ignored (|journal= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ Michael Perry (ed.) “ Spiritualism: the 1939 Report to the Archbishop of Canterbury” ( CFPSS 1999)
  33. ^ Kollar, Rene (2000). Searching for Raymond: Anglicanism, Spiritualism, and Bereavement Between the Two World Wars. New York and Oxford: Lexington Books. p. 248. ISBN 0-25333-315-6.
  34. ^ Creed of the Spiritualists' National Union
  35. ^ Guthrie, Lucas, and Monroe 2000
  36. ^ Archive of important Spiritualist articles maintained by contemporary Survivalists
  37. ^ Spencer, Wayne (2001). "To Absent Friends: Classical Spiritualist Mediumship and New Age Channelling Compared and Contrasted". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 16 (3): 343–360.
  38. ^ Scheitle, Christopher P. (2004–2005). "BRINGING OUT THE DEAD: GENDER AND HISTORICAL CYCLES OF SPIRITUALISM". The Journal of Death and Dying. 50 (3): 237–253.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  39. ^ Gabay, Alfred J (2001). Messages from Beyond: Spiritualism and Spiritualists in Melbourne's Golden Age 1870-1890. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-52284-910-5. Spiritualism was a scientific religion in the sense that it sought empirical validation for the existence of the afterlife. Their attitudes were often closely connected with other radical and reformist movements on a range of issues, such as temperance, anti-capital punishment, anti-vaccination, dress reform, divorce reform, women's rights, vegetarianism and communalism.
  40. ^ Owen, Alex (2004). The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. University of Chicago Press. p. 344. ISBN 0-22664-205-4.

Bibliography

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