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Spiritualist Ritual and the Performance of Belief: Spirit Communication in Twenty-First Century America

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Spiritualist Ritual and the Performance of Belief: Spirit Communication in Twenty-First Century America ABSTRACT Title of Document: SPIRITUALIST RITUAL AND THE PERFORMANCE OF BELIEF: SPIRIT COMMUNICATION IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA Robert C. Thompson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Assistant Professor, Dr. Laurie Frederik Meer, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Spiritualism is an alternative religion focused on establishing contact between living participants and the spirits of the dead, dating to the mid nineteenth century. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic research at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment in Falls Church, Virginia, I analyze the three primary rituals of Spiritualist practice—spirit messages, spirit healing, and unfoldment—and argue that performance is central to Spiritualists' ability to connect with the spirit world in a way that can be intersubjectively confirmed by more than one participant. Spirit messages are performed by mediums to a congregation or audience in order to prove to individual spectators that their deceased loved ones have continued to exist as disembodied spirits after their deaths. Spirit healing is performed by healers who channel the energy of the spirits into participants in order to improve the participant's mental, physical, and spiritual condition. And unfoldment is the process whereby Spiritualists study and practice to be able to make their own direct personal contact with the spirit world. Spiritualism purports to be a science, religion, and philosophy. I consider the intersection between criticism of empirical evidence and entertainment in order to establish how Spiritualists attract newcomers and the intersection between religious belief and ritual participation in order to establish why newcomers choose to become converts. I consider Spiritualism's early history in order to discover the nature of the delicate balance that criticism and belief have established in Spiritualist practice. And, in my analysis of contemporary Spiritualist ritual, I trace the path of the convert from a newcomer with a primarily critical attitude toward Spiritualism to a believer pursuing an increasingly direct connection with the spirit world. I conclude that the live, personal interaction of Spiritualist performance is central to Spiritualists' ability to negotiate a cooperative integration of scientific criticism and religious belief. SPIRITUALIST RITUAL AND THE PERFORMANCE OF BELIEF: SPIRIT COMMUNICATION IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA By Robert C. Thompson Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Advisory Committee: Dr. Laurie Frederik Meer, Chair Dr. Heather Nathans Dr. Faedra Carpenter Dr. Erin Eaker Dr. William Taft Stuart © Copyright by Robert C. Thompson 2013 Acknowledgements My research would not have been possible without the trust, support,and generous assistance of the mediums, healers, and congregation at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment (CSE) as well as the teachers and lecturers at the Lily Dale Assembly. I am especially grateful to the Reverend B. Anne Gehman and Dr. Wayne Knoll for welcoming me into the CSE and allowing me to become a member of the community. I would also like to acknowledge the Reverend Marilyn Awtry for her valuable insights in Lily Dale and give special thanks to Kathy Riley, Joanna Simon, and the Reverend Gloria Saide for including me in their home circle and sharing their thoughts on all aspects of Spiritualist practice with me. My research has relied heavily on the collaboration of my life partner, Katie Lesser, who has served as a second pair of eyes and opinions at Spiritualist services and book clubs and on the pilgrimage to Lily Dale, not to mention offering herself as a test subject for my own experimentation with Spiritualist healing techniques. I would also like to thank my co-participants at conference panels at the Northeast Modern Language Association's meeting in New Brunswick in 2011 and the American Anthropological Association's meeting in Montreal in 2011 for their feedback on my research and analysis. Finally, I would to acknowledge the encouragement and guidance of my advisor, Dr. Laurie Frederik Meer and the feedback of my committee. In order to protect the identity of some of my informants, pseudonyms have been used in place of their names. Informants who gave their consent to have their actual names used have been cited accordingly. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ii Table of Contents..........................................................................................................iii List of Figures...............................................................................................................iv Chapter 1: Introduction: The Performance of Spiritualist Identity................................1 Chapter 2: History: Discovering Spirits that Could be Believed.................................65 Chapter 3: Messages: Persuading Newcomers and Calling for Believers.................124 Chapter 4: Healing:Joining the Performance to Feel the Touch of Spirit..................198 Chapter 5: Unfoldment: Achieving Conversion through the Communal Performance of Spirit Communication............................................................................................250 ..........................................................................................................................310 Conclusion: Performing Between Empiricism and Belief.........................................311 Appendix A................................................................................................................327 Appendix B................................................................................................................328 Appendix C................................................................................................................329 Glossary.....................................................................................................................330 Bibliography..............................................................................................................336 iii List of Figures Figure 1, the hearth and lectern at the CSE.................................................................19 Figure 2, Wayne Knoll and Anne Gehman..................................................................20 Figure 3, the Lily Dale Museum..................................................................................71 Figure 4, the Fox Family Memorial.............................................................................72 Figure 5, a book club meeting....................................................................................175 Figure 6, a photograph displayed at the Lily Dale Library........................................183 Figure 7, the Healing Temple....................................................................................199 Figure 8, a message service at Inspiration Stump......................................................272 Figure 9, Anne Gehman's house at Lily Dale............................................................277 iv Chapter 1: Introduction: The Performance of Spiritualist Identity Performing with Spirits Behind me, a woman was quietly sobbing. She had just received a message from the spirits, translated through the medium standing at the lectern at the front of the room. The medium had given the woman three names—all of whom the woman could identify as belonging to friends or relatives who had “passed to the spirit side of life.” These individuals—now spirits—had communicated their advice and love to her. They wanted her to know that they were with her and that she need never feel that she had been left alone to handle her problems all by herself. Judging by her tears, this woman was completely convinced of the message's accuracy. And her husband, wrapping an arm around her, had been similarly impressed. The medium faced out onto a congregation of just over forty eager listeners, each hoping to be the lucky recipient of the next message from the other side. “The gentlemen a few rows from the back. You're wearing a white shirt.” I glanced up from my notebook. “Good morning,” I said. “Yes. Good morning,” the medium replied. This wasn't my first time receiving a spirit message. I had been attending Spiritualist services, workshops, and classes at the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment (CSE) in Falls Church, Virginia for over fifteen months and had received messages many times before. At first, I had been self-conscious about being singled out in this public forum, but over time I had grown accustomed to the ritual. “There is a woman with you standing behind you with a hand between your shoulder blades as if to encourage you. In life she was very 1 spiritual but she was very private about it. By that I mean she knew God in her heart. She didn't wear her religion on her sleeve. She'll be assisting you, helping you to break down obstacles. You're already on your way, but she'll be with you.” I thanked the medium for the message and, as she moved onto the next recipient, I began to reflect (service, 22 April 2012, CSE). Ordinarily a message like this, lacking so much in detail, would not have been especially persuasive to me. But this was not the first time a spirit had been described at my back—nor would it be the last. It seemed to me that
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