Spiritualism

Historical Description

In 1848 Spiritualism burst upon the American scene when a series of occurrences in the upstate New York village of Hydesville caused a national sensation (Kearney p. 34). Two young sisters, Katie Fox and Maggie Fox, claimed to be able to elicit strange rapping sounds produced by the “spirits” of the dead, who were communicating through the two women. Soon some prominent New Yorkers, including John Edmunds, a judge on the New York Court of Appeals, and Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, expressed the opinion that the Fox sisters possessed special gifts. Later the women confessed that they had participated in a great fraud, prompted by family tensions. They had made the rapping noises by cracking the joints of their toes (Podmore p. 43).

The Fox sisters' confession did not spell the death of Spiritualism. The belief persisted that through mediums humans could commune with those who “had passed over.” In fact, Spiritualist belief spread and intensified. Before the revelations at Hydesville, Spiritualism had only scattered adherents, most prominently Shakers and Swedenborgians. After Hydesville, Spiritualism attracted a large, increasingly diverse following, especially among women (Moore p 77). The movement did not denigrate or oppress women, and it also lacked an orientation toward male authority. Spiritualism therefore offered women new roles, such as that of medium. Additionally, the trauma caused by the bloodbath of the Civil War created a milieu conducive to further growth (Hess p. 67). Moreover, the supposedly scientific dimensions of Spiritualism helped to attract followers. Spiritualist interest in atomic theory and the wonders of mesmerism and psychic powers gave the movement a pseudorationalistic flavor (Moore p 92). Just as Edmunds and Greeley had become fascinated, so did Hamlin Garland, Lester Ward, and other well-known personalities of the late nineteenth century. These supporters gave the faith credibility, and indeed, it became fashionable (Moore p 92). In 1893 thousands of Spiritualists from throughout the nation joined the newly launched National Spiritualist Association (NSA), which remained the main body of Spiritualism in the United States for over a century. NSA churches conducted Protestant-like services, usually with some aspect of spiritual healing involved in their weekly worship and always with the message that Spiritualism is the key to all religion and the life of all reform (Hess p. 67).

In the post-Civil War years Spiritualists created dozens of encampments or assemblies for séances, healings, and related activities, including “spiritual writings” from the beyond. Two of the principal Spiritualist Meccas were Liberal in Barton County, Missouri, and Lily Dale in Chautauqua County, New York, both of which had been centers of the earlier free thought or “infidel” phenomenon (Podmore p. 51). A link between freethinkers and Spiritualists is understandable because followers of both embraced the spirit of scientific inquiry and challenged religious orthodoxy. Some advocates of Spiritualism preached social reconstruction as a handmaiden to spiritual regeneration, and they created several utopian communal colonies during the Gilded Age and after. Fountain Grove, California, the creation of Thomas Lake Harris; Spirit Fruit Society, which ...