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Modern Spiritualism Marc Demarest The E. H. Britten Archive Cartoons and Scribbles From The Field marc @ ehbritten.org Clockwise: Eusapia Palladino séance, Rutter Magnetoscope, Davenport siblings at Davenport’s Spirit Hall Contents 2 ¡ A Strange Visitor ¡ Spiritualism: A Working Definition ¡ Modern Spiritualism In Context William Eglinton, materialization and slate-writing medium. His phenomena lead to a rupture in the Society for Psychical Research, and changed the ¡ The Trajectory of the Movement trajectory of Spiritualism. ¡ Issues In the Study of Spiritualism ¡ Things (Possibly) Left Untouched ¡ Studying Spiritualism – Why Bother? ¡ Coda A photograph that apparently shows Eglinton and one of his spirit controls, Abdullah, outside the cabinet during a séance in the late 1870s. The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org 3 A Strange Visitor ¡ MA in Victorian Studies, under Patrick Scott, at the University of South Carolina ¡ CEO and Principal @ Noumenal, Inc. The spirit Katie King, as materialized in the presence of medium Florence Cook, for experiments conducted by William Crookes. ¡ Curator, E. H. Britten Archive (www.ehbritten.org) ¡ Director, International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals (www.iapsop.com) ¡ Director, Friends of Theosophical Archives (FOTA) (www.hypatia.gr/fota) ¡ Blogs at ehbritten.blogspot.com ¡ Social historian: the material lives, of real people ¡ Archeology: material artifacts form the basis for theoretical constructs ¡ Enthusiast of the worst kind The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org Modern Spiritualism 4 ¡ A parascientific belief system with strong social and political orientation, dating from the early 1840s, and emphasizing ¡ Survival of personality Emma Hardinge Britten – medium, editor, author, and ¡ Finite progression toward spiritual perfection in a Spiritualist propagandist. (mostly) beneficent many-sphered universe “Don’t you follow the advice of the spirits?” ¡ Personal responsibility for one’s works, here and “Yes, when I can do so in hereafter harmony with my own Intuitions. Spirits have aided me many times; but they do ¡ Communion with the (not) dead not control either my person or my reason.” ¡ Séance, mediumship and phenomena as ritual, AJ Davis, The Magic Staff method and proof (1871) Davis’ spirit guides included ¡ A science, religion, philosophy, cosmology Swedenborg, and Galen. ¡ Significant, secular decline as an organized movement after WW II, but elements persist (strongly) in other belief systems The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org 5 Victorian Parascience ¡ Parasciences are a market phenomenon ¡ Unserved, underserved or dissatisfied consumers, exiting other markets, exercising choice Henry Slade, independent slate-writing medium, and the single most important ¡ Suppliers, with offerings, and some medium of the nineteenth century. ability to access potential consumers and engineer their needs ¡ Meeting in the marketplace of ideas ¡ We underestimate the extent to which phenomena we do understand (literacy, relative affluence and disposable income, the communications revolution) create at least one phenomenon we don’t understand: the Victorian marketplace of ideas The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org Modern Spiritualism: Context 6 The Right of Private Judgment Leonora Piper – direct voice medium and automatist. Phenomena produced in her presence shook William James, converted Richard Hodgson to the Spiritualist hypothesis, and contributed to the ultimate Spiritualist test: the Cross-Correspondences. …the most sensible enthusiast for what he calls civil liberty, is not ashamed to assert, that self-direction and self- government are, in fact, ALL IN ALL! John Martin, Familiar Dialogues between Americus Doubling and Brittanicus (1776) The question amounts to this: Has a man any opinion of his own at all? Even if he say: “No, he has not one; he holds exactly and only that which is prescribed for him by someone else,” yet first he must have so far exercised his own judgment as to come to this conclusion, that he ought Source: Google Ngram Project (books.google.com/ngrams) not to exercise it any more. - Rev. Charles Girdlestone, The Right of Private Judgment The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org (1847) Modern Spiritualism: Context 7 1840 70% Emma Hardinge Britten – 60% medium, editor, author, and Spiritualist propagandist. 50% Percentage of British males and females unable to sign 40% their names at time of marriage. Males Based on data from Roger S. Females 30% Schofield, “Dimensions of Illiteracy in England, 1750-1850,” in Harvey J. Graff, ed. Literacy and Historical Development: A Reader 20% (2007) 10% The right of private judgment depends on literacy and 0% numeracy, and many 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 institutions and organizations cooperated to produce a literate, numerate marketplace during the 19th century. The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org Modern Spiritualism: Context 8 William Eglinton, materialization and slate-writing medium. His phenomena lead to a rupture in the Society for Psychical Research, and changed the trajectory of Spiritualism. Railroads, newspapers and public hotels all followed, roughly, this basic pattern of development/ extension. Spiritualism developed in the US along the same pathways. Source: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ruralwest/cgi-bin/drupal/visualizations/us_newspapers The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org 9 Modern Spiritualism: Context Daniel Dunglas Home levitated, elongated, handled hot coals and made Spiritualism an international phenomena. It would probably not surprise anyone to learn that, by this time, Modern Spiritualism in the US had a decidedly regional flavor, with many mediums traveling exclusively regional circuits (for example). Source: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ruralwest/cgi-bin/drupal/visualizations/us_newspapers The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org 10 Modern Spiritualism: Context 1880 300 The spirit Katie King, as materialized in the presence of medium Florence Cook, for experiments conducted by William Crookes. 250 Relative speed with which important world events reached London, as compared with physical land- 200 speed limits. Based on data from Gregory Clark. A Farewell to Alms: A Information MPH Brief Economic History of the 150 World (2007). Physical MPH 100 Charting any significant dimension of market participation (literacy, numeracy, disposable income, mobility) or market 50 infrastructure (number of newspapers, number of book titles, railroad miles, steamship miles, number of hotels) would 0 produce essentially the same 1798 1805 1819 1842 1854 1857 1858 1865 1867 1881 1891 two curves between 1840 or so, and 1880 or so – radical declines in barriers, or radical increases in enablers. The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org 11 Modern Spiritualism: Context Dissenting Populist Political Christian Faiths Movements William Stainton Moses – Swedenborgianism medium, editor and the single most important figure in ninenteenth century Spiritualism. History Mythography Mythography The catalyst for Modern Anthropology High Occult Spiritualism (and other Tradition movements of the Folk Occult Practices Modern Geology period) was: the right of Spiritualism private judgment (and the collapse of received authority which that right Mesmerism, implied). Magnetism, Phrenology & Other Parasciences That right was exercised in a rapidly- growing marketplace Transportation & of ideas of Growth & Logistics unprecedented size, Development of the "Hard" Sciences variety and dynamism. Market-Making Early Victorian Capitalism Theories of Mind Literacy That marketplace was Transcendentalism open to an & Idealism unprecedented number of [a] literate, Joscelyn Godwin, The Theosophical Enlightenment numerate, [b] highly mobile people. Catherine Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit Lougie Barrow, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebians 1850-1910 With [c] disposable income. The E. H. Britten Archive | www . ehbritten . org | marc @ ehbritten.org Modern Spiritualism: Trajectory 12 Peak: ~500,000-750,000 adherents in Peak: 1.5-2.0M adherents in Anglo-American countries Anglo-American countries 1820 1847 1855 1870 1880 1895 1920 1950 Mesmeric Clairvoyance Phenomenal Organizational & The hand of medium Mina Psychology & Spiritualism Growth & Scientific Exodus & The Second Epistemological Crandon, bound with leather Electrobiology Internationalization Confrontations Quiescence Flowering straps and sealed wires for a Philosophical Crises Spiritualism test séance. Magnetic Medicine Christian v. The Victorian The movement was Non-Christian Occult Revival Spiritualism born, as it were, in a state of rift (A. J. Davis, The Psychic Psychology & the Fox sisters), and Force The SPR Parapsychology branched, or Hypothesis splintered, as it Mind Cure developed. & Christian Science Spiritualism’s inability to [a] organize effectively, [b] establish common New Thought doctrine, [c] control the practices of self- identifying mediums Schools of Interpretation and [d] establish an epistemology based on something other than personal testimony Emma Hardinge, Modern American Spiritualism and Nineteenth Century Miracles produced a Frank Podmore,
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