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Becoming Occult: Alienation and Orthodoxy Formation in American Spiritualism

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Becoming Occult: Alienation and Orthodoxy Formation in American Spiritualism Becoming Occult: Alienation and Orthodoxy Formation in American Spiritualism by Richard Kent Evans, B.A. A Thesis In History Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved Mark Stoll, PhD. Chair of Committee Gretchen Adams, PhD. Aliza Wong, PhD. Dominick Casadonte Interim Dean of the Graduate School August, 2013 Copyright 2013, Richard Kent Evans Texas Tech University, Richard Kent Evans, August 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................. iii I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 II. "YOU HAVE TAKEN AWAY MY SAVIOR:" THE ALIENATION OF CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALISTS ..................................................................................................................................... 18 III. "MAY YOU BE IN HEAVEN JUST THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU ARE DEAD: RADICALISM, NON-RESISTANCE, AND THE CHRISTIAN AMENDMENT ........ 46 IV. THE AESTHETICS OF EMERGENT SPIRITUALISM ............................................................... 67 V. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 88 i i Texas Tech University, Richard Kent Evans, August 2013 ABSTRACT “Becoming Occult” explores the evolving relationship between Spiritualism and the normative, dominant Protestant culture of the nineteenth century. The thesis uses the Fourth National Convention of Spiritualists, held in 1867, as a case study for broader events in Modern Spiritualism. I argue that a faction of Spiritualists, which I call the Spiritualist orthodoxy, finalized their takeover of the movement at this convention. Once firmly in control, this group began the process of alienating groups of people that formed antebellum Spiritualism. These groups include Christian Spiritualists, politically moderate Spiritualists, and anti- ecclesiastical Spiritualists. The thesis consists of three chapters, each devoted to the alienation of the aforementioned groups. More importantly, “Becoming Occult” is one of the first applications of a new theoretical approach to emergent religious traditions. Introduced by religious scholars J. Gordon Melton and David Bromley, this interpretive framework rethinks the church-sect-denomination-cult framework that has dominated scholarship on the historical study of religion. I believe this new methodological approach will fundamentally shape the ways in which historians approach religions. I also extend the Melton-Bromley thesis further by arguing that the evolving relationship between an emergent religious tradition (Spiritualism, in my case) and dominant social institutions is key to understanding how a movement becomes considered “occult” by normative culture. i i i Texas Tech University, Richard Kent Evans, August 2013 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION For me – unread in the occult, I’m fain To damn all mysteries alike as vain, Spurn the obscure and base my faith upon The Revelations of the good St. John — Ambrose Bierce, Laus Lucis Reverend Samuel Williams must have been anxious as he knocked on the door of one of his parishioners on a warm April night in 1851. He had been overhearing the hushed murmurs from his congregation for two years now. He knew they, like virtually all Americans, were fascinated by the astounding developments that had taken place in the last two years. It seemed that a new dispensation had begun. People could now communicate with ghosts. For whatever reason, the spirit world had decided to make itself known. Williams thought of himself as a learned man of science, and he owed it to himself, and to his Baptist congregation, to investigate the science behind spirit communication.1 The new dispensation had begun two years earlier when sisters Kate and Maggie Fox caused quite a buzz in their hometown of Hydesville, New York, when they brought attention to the disembodied knocking sounds that had been keeping them awake at night. Their parents could find no explanation. Alarmingly, after several nights of continuous rapping, the girls began interacting with the sounds. It seems these were not the rappings of an animal – they were intelligent. The 1 J.B. Campbell, Pittsburgh and Allegheny Spirit Rappings, Together with a General History of Spiritual Communications throughout the United States (Allegheny: Purviance & Co., 1851), 65-66. 1 Texas Tech University, Richard Kent Evans, August 2013 rappings responded to questions. The girls confided to a neighbor and soon, much of the population of Hydesville gathered in the Fox family home to witness the rappings for themselves. Investigators and debunkers can and went, unable to find a source of the mysterious noises. Over the next several weeks, Kate and Maggie Fox developed an alphabet system so that they could communicate with the spirit making the noises. They learned that the noises were being made by the spirit of a peddler who had been murdered years before. His body was buried underneath the cellar.2 With a murder mystery on their hands, the residents of Hydesville became even more intrigued with the developments taking place at the Fox home. Soon, reporters descended on the small farming village and dubbed the event the Rochester Rappings. Reports of the Rochester Rappings filled the nation’s newspapers. Eliab Capron, who would go on to make a career out of investigating Spiritualism, traveled to Hydesville in November of 1848 to investigate the rappings.3 Over the next year, Kate and Maggie Fox underwent often-humiliating scrutiny into the veracity of their claims. Capron was there every step of the way as men of “intelligence, candor and science” poked, prodded and groped the girls in an attempt to prove that the girls were making the noises. After a year, Capron published his report in the New YorK Times, concluding that the girls were not the source of the sounds. Capron was unsure whether the remarkable phenomenon that 2 For the most thorough study of the Rochester Rappings and the careers of Kate and Maggie Fox, see Barbara Weisberg, Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 1-29. 3 Weisberg, Talking to the Dead, 67. 2 Texas Tech University, Richard Kent Evans, August 2013 began in the Fox family home would “pass away with the present generation, or with the persons who seem now to be the medium of this extraordinary communication; or whether it be the commencement of a new era of spiritual influx into the world.” He was sure, though that something important had begun in April of 1848 in a modest farmhouse in western New York.4 Reverend Samuel Williams was unsure if he agreed with Capron’s assessment. He was sure, however, that spirit communication had taken the country by storm. Kate and Maggie Fox were becoming celebrities and may found it fashionable to gather around séance tables, hoping to experience their own interaction with the spectral realm. Williams’s curiosity finally got the best of him and when he was invited to attend a séance for himself, he eagerly obliged. As he entered the parlor, Williams joined six other participants, all “professing Christians,” and a young woman who would act as medium for the séance. The medium fell into a trance and the séance began. The medium reported that there were ten spirits in the room, most of whom were children. Over the next several minutes, the medium reunited the parents in the room with their dead children. Williams was undoubtedly moved by the relief he saw in the faces on the other side of the table. He had just witnessed something miraculous.5 Next, the medium described the other spirit in the room. He was an elderly man who was standing right behind Williams. The spirit was very interested in communicating with the pastor. Williams began racking his brain. Whose spirit was 4 E.W. Capron and George Willets, “Communications with Spirits in Western New York” New YorK Tribune, November 22. 1849, 2. 5 Campbell, Pittsburgh and Allegheny Spirit Rappings, 65-66. 3 Texas Tech University, Richard Kent Evans, August 2013 trying to contact him? Four months earlier, Reverend Williams’s dear friend and colleague, Rev. Charles Wheeler, had died of a pulmonary hemorrhage at the age of sixty-six. Could Reverend Wheeler be trying to contact him from beyond the grave? If Williams was intent on investigating this scientific phenomenon, now was his chance.6 “Was this spirit a friend of mine?” Williams asked the medium. A quiet, yet distinct rap was heard emanating from the dining table around which the séance was held. The medium assured the party this was an answer in the affirmative from the spirit of Williams’ deceased friend. “Was this spirit a relative of mine?” No sound was heard. “Was this friend of mine a Christian?” Another affirmative rap, this time louder than the first. “Was this spirit a Christian minister?” The rap was again louder than the previous one. Williams was getting closer to identifying the spirit that was trying to contact him. “Is this spirit Dr. Charles Wheeler?” This question was answered by several loud raps, seemingly from within the table. Astounded, Williams
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