The Science of the Séance: the Scientific Theory of the Spiritualist Movement in Victorian America
1 Hannah Gramson Larry Lipin HIST 491 March 6, 2013 The Science of the Seance: The Scientific Theory of the Spiritualist Movement in Victorian America In 1869, twenty one years after the first “spirit rappings” were heard in the bedroom of two young girls in upstate New York, a well-known Spiritualist medium by the name of Emma Hardinge Britten wrote a book that chronicled the first two decades of a religion she characterized as uniquely American, and what made this religion exceptional was its basis in scientific theory. “[We] are not aware of any other country than America,” Britten claimed, “where a popular religion thus appeals to the reason and requires its votaries to do their own thinking, or of any other denomination than 'American Spiritualists' who base their belief on scientific facts, proven by living witnesses.”1 Britten went on to claim that, as a “unique, concrete, and...isolated movement,” Spiritualism demanded “from historic justice a record as full, complete, and independent, as itself.”2 Yet, despite the best efforts of Spiritualism's followers to carve out a place for it alongside the greatest scientific discoveries in human history, Spiritualism remains a little understood and often mocked religion that, to those who are ignorant 1 Emma Hardinge Britten, Modern American Spiritualism: A Twenty Years' Record of the Communion Between Earth and the World of Spirits,(New York, 1869) 2 Britten, Modern American Spiritualism 2 of it, remains a seemingly paradoxical movement. Although it might be difficult for some to comprehend today, prior to the Civil War, religion and science were not considered adversaries by any means, but rather, were understood to be traveling down a shared path, with ultimately the same destination.
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