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Contemporary Spiritualism and the Discourse of Science

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Contemporary Spiritualism and the Discourse of Science "SCIENCE" AND SPIRITUAL VIBRATIONS '­ "SCIENCE" AND SPIRITUAL VIBRATIONS: CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALISM AND THE DISCOURSE OF SCIENCE By JENNIFER E. PORTER, M.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University (c) Copyright by Jennifer E. Porter, May 1995 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (1995) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (Religious Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: "Science" and Spiritual Vibrations: Contemporary Spiritualism and the Discourse of Science AUTHOR: Jennifer E. Porter, B.A. (Queen's University) M.A. (McMaster University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Ellen Badone NUMBER OF PAGES: v, 403 ii Abstract Spiritualism is a religious movement based on communication with the spirits of the dead that originated in New York State in 1848. From its inception, members of the movement claimed that communication with the spirits of the dead was not only a possibility, but was in fact "scientifically" verifiable. Attempts were made throughout the nineteenth century to establish the "truth" of Spiritualist claims to scientific legitimacy. Although there are no longer any overt connections between Spiritualism and the scientific establishment, contemporary Spiritualists continue to insist that their beliefs are in accord with "science." Drawing upon fieldwork with contemporary Spiritualists in Hamilton, Ontario and Lily Dale, New York, this dissertation argues that scientific language and symbols have been incorporated into contemporary Spiritualist discourse to articulate and legitimate the claim that Spiritualist experiences are "true" in a "scientific," empirical sense. An examination of Spiritualist healing, mediumship and narrative practice reveals the extent to which the discourse of "science" has become the means by which the "reality" and "truth" of Spiritualist beliefs are affirmed. In articulating the "truth" of Spiritualist experience and the "reality" of the spirit hypothesis, the language and symbols of science are transformed into a sacred discourse that at once legitimates and affirms Spiritualist beliefs while simultaneously criticizing the "narrow" limits of orthodox science. For many contemporary Spiritualists, "science" has become the language in which religious truth claims are expressed. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Ellen Badone for her tremendous assistence and valuable advice in the completion of this dissertation, and for her support and friendship over the past eight years. I would also like to thank Dr. David Kinsley and Dr. William Rodman for their recommendations and guidance, and the faculty and graduate students of the Department of Religious Studies for their support through dark times. Special thanks also to Darcee McLaren and Brad Eastman, good friends with great ideas, helpful advice, and moral support. And finally, thanks to James Gavin Wilce: this dissertation is for both of us. lV Table of Contents Introduction: "Science" and Spiritual Vibrations 6 Chapter One: "Science," Popular Science, and Spiritualism: A Literature Review 28 Chapter Two: The Medicalization of Spiritualist Healing 99 Chapter Three: Mediums, Message-work, and "Science" 165 Chapter Four: Personal Experience Narratives as "Proofs" 290 Conclusion: Contemporary Spiritualism and the Discourse of Science 342 Appendix One: Comparison Narratives 356 Appendix Two: Christian "Proof-tales" 364 Appendix Three: Reincarnation and "Proof" 369 Bibliography: 374 v Introduction: "Science" and Spiritual Vibrations We tend to understand things in a "science" kind of way. So Spirit explains things that way, so we'll understand. - Sherry. Messerschmidt (1981) has argued that doing anthropology "at home" often challenges a researcher to look at seemingly familiar settings in a new light. Words, actions, and assumptions about the world reveal subtle and often disorienting shifts in meaning within contexts that are almost, but not exactly, like those to which the researcher is accustomed. In choosing contemporary Spiritualism as the subject of my dissertation research, I was in one respect very much choosing to do anthropology "at home." Raised as a child on a steady diet of stories about my great-grandmother, a Spiritualist medium, I had known all of my life that there were people in the world who talked to the spirits of the dead as a matter of course. As teenagers are sometimes inclined to do, I even dabbled for a few years with ouija boards and tarot cards, tried for a week to learn "automatic" writing, and once saw a "ghost" at the foot of my bed. Despite these perhaps remarkable experiences, my fascination with Spiritualism has always been and remains today an academic one. When my graduate work reached the point at which a dissertation topic had to be selected, a study of contemporary Spiritualism seemed like an ideal choice. In the course of my research I have benefitted tremendously from my early familiarity with Spiritualist beliefs and practices, and yet as Messerschmidt warns, I also found much that was unexpected, surprising, and occasionally disconcerting. The most unexpected, but in retrospect not surprising 6 7 element of contemporary Spiritualism, was the strong presence I found of "scientific" language and symbols within Spiritualists' expressions of belief. It is consequently upon this link between contemporary Spiritualism and the discourse of "science" that the present dissertation is based. The Spiritualist Religious Movement Spiritualism is a religious movement based on communication with the spirits of the dead which originated in New York State in 1848. It spread very rapidly throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. For a few short years, its adherents numbered well over one million people in the United States alone. Membership peaked during the eighteen-fifties, and despite periodic revivals has not achieved these levels in North America since that time (Nelson 1969a). Today there are considerably fewer Spiritualists than at the height of the movement, but there are still approximately 180,000 registered members of Spiritualist churches throughout the United States, with an estimated additional fifteen interested individuals for each registered member (Mead 1985:234-235). In Canada the figures are proportionately less, although exact statistics are unavailable. As Mead himself cautions (1985:235), however, these figures can provide only a general indication of the breadth and continuing vitality of the movement, for they are neither "comprehensive [n]or inclusive of all using the services of the church." Ithas been suggested by numerous scholars ofSpiritualism that the movement was not unique in the American religious experience either in its "supernatural" emphasis or in its emphasis on the compatibility of science with religion (Macklin 1974a, 1977; Moore 1972, 1974, 1977; Ellwood 1973; Melton 1990, 1992; Nelson 1969a, 1969b, 8 1988). The experiential emphasis of the movement has roots in the Christian reform traditions ofPuritanism, Methodism, and Quakerism, and many ofits teachings regarding mediumship and spiritual healing can be traced back to the visionary experiences and philosophical contributions of such figures as Ann Lee, Emmanual Swedenbourg, Anton Mesmer, and Andrew Jackson Davis (Moore 1977; Macklin 1974a, 1977; Nelson 1969a; Melton 1992; Ellwood 1973; Brandon 1983; Braude 1989; Barrow 1986). Sociologist Robert Melton (1992: 118) observes that when the movement initially emerged in the mid­ nineteenth century, the majority of the American public was nominally Christian yet unaffiliated with any denominational Church. The American people of the time showed a fascination for spiritual, metaphysical and supernatural experiences of all kinds, yet did not express this fascination through denominational affiliation (Melton 1992; Macklin 1974a; Moore 1977). As a result, Victorian-era Americans caught up in the burgeoning Spiritualist religious movement adopted much of the ritual and organizational form of mainstream Protestant Christianity, as the tradition with which they were most familiar, yet kept Spiritualist teachings largely independent of specific Christian doctrine. As Spiritualism developed as a religious movement throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Protestant-informed church services have continued as the vehicle for expressing the primarily liberal, inclusive Spiritualist principles of religious faith (Ellwood 1973; Macklin 1977; Zaretsky 1969, 1970, 1977). The central core of contemporary Spiritualist doctrine can be found within the "Statement of Principles" recited in unison by church attenders at every Spiritualist service. Although several variations of these basic doctrinal principles are in circulation, 9 each is drawn from an initial description of Spiritualist faith articulated in the nineteenth century by Spiritualist historian and medium Emma Hardinge Britten (Britten 1957). The currently most widely circulated list of "Principles" is that adopted by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (N.S.A.C), which defines Spiritualism as "the science, philosophy,· and religion of continuous life. " The "Declaration of Principles" reads: 1. We believe in Infinite Intelligence. 2. We believe that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual, ·are the expression of Infinite Intelligence. 3. We affirm that a correct understanding of such expression and living in accordance therewith, constitute true religion. 4. We affirm that the existence and personal identity of the individual
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