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Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a religious and cultural movement that emerged in the United States in 1848, predicated on the assertion that the spirits of the deceased retain consciousness after death and can interact with the living through human intermediaries known as mediums, typically via auditory raps, physical manifestations, or trance-induced messages during organized gatherings called séances.^[1] The movement, which rapidly spread to Europe and attracted an estimated several million adherents by the late 19th century, positioned itself as a form of empirical "scientific religion" compatible with Christianity, emphasizing personal verification of spirit communications over dogmatic faith and often linking to progressive causes such as abolitionism, women's suffrage, and temperance, with many early mediums being women who gained unusual public influence in a patriarchal era.^[2]^[3] However, Spiritualism's core claims have faced persistent scrutiny from scientific investigators, who, through controlled observations and exposures of deceptive techniques like concealed props, ventriloquism, and sleight-of-hand, consistently found the purported phenomena attributable to fraud or psychological suggestion rather than genuine supernatural agency, leading to widespread disillusionment and the movement's decline by the early 20th century.^[4]^[5]^[6] Defining episodes include the originating "Hydesville rappings" produced by sisters Margaret and Kate Fox, who in 1888 publicly confessed to fabricating the sounds via toe-cracking and other tricks before recanting amid financial incentives, underscoring the causal role of human invention over otherworldly intervention in the movement's foundational events.^[7] Despite occasional endorsements from figures like naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, no reproducible empirical evidence has validated Spiritualism's assertions under rigorous, non-collusive conditions, aligning its practices more closely with performance deception than verifiable metaphysics.^[7]^[6]

History

Origins in 1848

The origins of modern Spiritualism are traced to events reported by the Fox family in Hydesville, New York, beginning on March 31, 1848.^[8] In a rented farmhouse, sisters Margaret (Maggie) Fox, aged 14, and Catherine (Kate) Fox, aged 11, claimed to hear mysterious rapping sounds emanating from walls, floors, and furniture, which intensified at night and seemed intelligent in response to queries. The family, including parents David S. Fox and Margaret Fox, initially attributed the noises to natural causes or pranks but soon tested them systematically; the raps reportedly answered yes-or-no questions by matching the number of knocks to agreed signals, such as one rap for "yes" and two for "no."^[9] Through this method, the sisters allegedly communicated with an entity identifying itself as the spirit of Charles B. Rosna, a traveling peddler murdered five years earlier and buried in the cellar beneath the house.^[2] Neighbors and locals, drawn by reports of the disturbances, participated in sessions where the raps demonstrated further responsiveness, including spelling out messages via an improvised alphabet code wherein letters were recited and affirmed by corresponding knocks.^[9] Excavations in the cellar yielded no body but uncovered hair and quicklime suggestive of a possible crime, fueling local intrigue despite inconclusive evidence. Word of the Hydesville rappings spread rapidly through newspapers and personal accounts, prompting the Fox sisters to conduct public demonstrations in nearby Rochester by late 1848, where audiences witnessed similar phenomena under scrutiny.^[8] These events, interpreted by participants as direct spirit communication, catalyzed the Spiritualist movement by popularizing the idea that the dead could interact with the living through physical signs, diverging from prevailing religious doctrines of the era that emphasized scriptural revelation over empirical mediumship.^[2] Skeptics from the outset questioned the sounds' supernatural origin, citing potential ventriloquism or joint-cracking techniques, though proponents viewed the consistency and testability as validating evidence of an afterlife realm.^[9]

Expansion and Peak in the Mid-to-Late 19th Century

Following the publicity generated by the Fox sisters' alleged communications in Hydesville, New York, in 1848, Spiritualism proliferated across the United States during the 1850s, fueled by public lectures, newspaper accounts, and itinerant mediums demonstrating spirit contact through raps, table-tipping, and trance speaking.^[10] By 1854, adherents numbered between 1 and 2 million, representing a significant portion of the population drawn to the movement's promise of direct evidence for immortality amid widespread religious skepticism and social upheaval.^[11] The American Civil War (1861–1865) accelerated adoption, as grieving families sought reassurance of survival after death through mediums claiming contact with fallen soldiers; this period saw an explosion in séance attendance and spirit photography.^[12] By war's end, estimates placed U.S. subscribers to Spiritualism at 11 million, supported by around 35,000 mediums offering paid services in cities and rural areas alike.^[2] Growth persisted into the 1870s, with one 1874 assessment citing 4 million active believers whose engagement remained consistent.^[13] Parallel expansion occurred in Europe, where Spiritualism reached Britain by 1852 via American emigrants and publications, evolving into a Victorian subculture by the 1860s with dedicated periodicals, pamphlets, and public demonstrations in London and provincial towns.^[14] It gained traction in France and Germany during the same decade, often blending with mesmerism and occult interests, though lacking the organizational structure of later years.^[15] The movement's peak appeal lay in its empirical claims—verifiable spirit responses over doctrinal authority—appealing to intellectuals, reformers, and the bereaved, yet drawing skepticism from scientists demanding controlled tests.^[10]

Formation of Organizations and International Spread

In the United States, the rapid and decentralized expansion of Spiritualism in the decades following 1848 prompted efforts to organize disparate mediums, lyceums, and congregations into structured bodies. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) was founded on September 22, 1893, during a convention in Chicago, Illinois, with the explicit goal of imposing order on the movement by standardizing doctrines, licensing mediums, and chartering affiliated churches.^[16]^[17] By the early 20th century, the NSAC had incorporated over 100 churches and lyceums, emphasizing ethical mediumship and progressive principles while rejecting fraud and sensationalism.^[18] Parallel organizational developments occurred in the United Kingdom, where Spiritualism gained traction after American medium Maria B. Hayden introduced public demonstrations in London in 1852, attracting converts among scientists, writers, and reformers despite clerical opposition.^[19] The movement's first dedicated church opened in Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1853, marking the establishment of formal worship spaces, followed by the inaugural national Spiritualist conference in Manchester later that decade to coordinate activities and debate phenomena.^[20] The Spiritualists' National Union (SNU) was formally constituted in 1901 as a unifying federation of churches, focusing on ministerial training, public education, and adherence to core tenets like personal responsibility and eternal progression, eventually overseeing hundreds of affiliated centers by the mid-20th century.^[21] The international dissemination of Spiritualism accelerated in the 1850s and 1860s, primarily through migration, traveling mediums, and printed literature, reaching Canada by at least 1870 via American influences and establishing independent societies in cities like Toronto.^[14] It extended to Australia and New Zealand in the 1860s, where local associations formed amid gold rush-era communities, and to continental Europe, including Germany and the Netherlands, though uptake there often blended with indigenous occult traditions rather than forming large denominational structures.^[22] In France, the movement diverged into Allan Kardec's Spiritism by the 1850s, which prioritized codified spirit teachings and reincarnation over Anglo-American mediumship, leading to distinct federations like the Union Spirite Française. Overall, by 1900, Spiritualist organizations spanned the English-speaking world and select European locales, with an estimated global following in the millions, sustained by periodicals and international congresses such as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair gathering.^[15]

Decline and Key Confessions (Late 19th to Early 20th Century)

The exposure of fraudulent practices among mediums accelerated Spiritualism's decline in the late 19th century, as scientific and journalistic investigations dismantled claims of genuine spirit communication. The Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882, systematically tested mediums and documented deceptions, including the use of hidden accomplices, concealed wires, and chemical tricks to simulate phenomena like apportations and levitations.^[4] These findings, disseminated through reports and books such as Hereward Carrington's The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism (1910), eroded credibility among intellectuals and the public, shifting perceptions from supernatural validation to deliberate hoaxery.^[4] A defining moment occurred on October 21, 1888, when Margaret Fox Kane—one of the Fox sisters whose 1848 rappings ignited the movement—confessed in the New York World that the sounds were produced by cracking her toe and knee joints, a technique she and her sister Kate had initially used as a prank on their mother. Kane detailed escalating the ruse with ventriloquism, string manipulations, and even tying apples to strings for movement effects, admitting it evolved into a profitable deception that fooled thousands, including scientists like Robert Hare.^[23] Her public demonstration of the method at New York's Academy of Music that evening drew widespread media attention, amplifying doubts about the movement's origins.^[24] Kane partially recanted in 1891, attributing her confession to alcoholism and resentment toward rivals like the rival medium who supplanted her, but the initial admission irreparably tarnished Spiritualism's foundational narrative.^[25] Into the early 20th century, similar revelations persisted; escapologist Harry Houdini, motivated by personal loss and skepticism, exposed dozens of mediums from 1922 onward, revealing techniques like cheesecloth "ectoplasm" and paid confederates in high-profile cases, including his debunking of Mina Crandon (Margery) in 1924.^[26] Houdini's 1926 congressional testimony highlighted systemic fraud, contributing to legal crackdowns and public disillusionment.^[27] Though World War I grief briefly revived interest with millions seeking contact with the dead, psychological explanations—such as mass suggestion and bereavement-induced hallucinations—gained traction, marginalizing Spiritualism by the 1930s.^[26]

Core Beliefs and Doctrines

Fundamental Principles of Spirit Communication

In Spiritualism, spirit communication is grounded in the assertion that human consciousness persists after bodily death as discarnate spirits capable of influencing the material world and conveying intelligible messages to the living. This interaction is said to demonstrate the immortality of the soul and provide evidential proof through specific, verifiable details unknown to the medium, such as personal facts about the deceased.^[28]^[29] Proponents maintain that spirits possess greater knowledge and moral insight than living humans, enabling them to offer guidance on ethics, personal growth, and the afterlife structure.^[12] The primary conduit for such communication is the medium, an individual purportedly sensitive to spirit influences who enters a trance state to relinquish control, allowing spirits to manifest through mental impressions, direct voice, automatic writing, or physical effects like raps and object movements. Early exemplars include the 1848 Hydesville rappings received by the Fox sisters, interpreted as coded responses from a murdered peddler's spirit, which established a model of testable, intelligent signaling.^[10]^[30] Mediumship is classified into mental forms, involving clairvoyance or telepathic relay, and physical forms, requiring darkened conditions and instruments to amplify purported ectoplasmic or apports.^[31] A core doctrinal tenet, reflected in the third of the Seven Principles of Spiritualism—"the Communion of Spirits and the Ministry of Angels"—holds that benevolent higher spirits, including guardian angels and evolved deceased humans, actively minister to humanity via these channels for healing, consolation, and revelation, while lower or misguided entities may also intervene, necessitating critical discernment.^[28]^[32] This principle underscores Spiritualism's claim to empirical validation through repeatable phenomena, distinguishing it from faith-based religions by prioritizing direct, personal verification over scripture. However, these assertions derive primarily from anecdotal reports by mediums and adherents, with organizational codifications like the Seven Principles emerging in the late 19th century from bodies such as the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, founded in 1893, rather than uniform dogma.^[33]

Cosmology and Afterlife Concepts

In Spiritualist cosmology, the universe operates under immutable natural laws encompassing both material and immaterial dimensions, with spirit as the primary animating force underlying physical phenomena. The spirit world exists as a parallel realm to the earthly plane, populated by discarnate entities who continue to exercise free will, learn, and evolve morally and intellectually after death. This view, articulated by early proponents like Andrew Jackson Davis in his 1847 publication The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, posits that death marks a transition rather than cessation, with the soul shedding its physical body while retaining personal identity, memory, and volition. Central to afterlife concepts is the notion of progressive spheres or planes of existence, through which spirits ascend based on their ethical development and affinity for higher vibrations. Davis delineated a system of seven spheres, ranging from lower, shadowy realms suited to unevolved or malevolent souls—characterized by isolation and self-imposed torment—to elevated planes of harmony and enlightenment, often termed the "Summerland" as an idyllic, earth-like paradise of perpetual spring where benevolent spirits dwell in communal bliss. In his 1865 lectures compiled as Death and the After-Life, Davis elaborated that the Second Sphere, or Summerland, serves as the initial destination for the majority of souls, featuring landscapes mirroring earthly beauty but refined by spiritual essence, with opportunities for reunion, labor, and study unhindered by material decay. This graduated progression rejects notions of eternal punishment, instead emphasizing causal realism wherein posthumous conditions reflect pre-death choices, fostering ongoing self-improvement without dogmatic intermediaries.^[34] Variations existed among Spiritualists, influenced by trance communications and individual mediums, yet the core tenet of an active, evolving afterlife persisted, as chronicled in Emma Hardinge Britten's 1870 historical account Modern American Spiritualism, which draws on spirit utterances affirming the spirit realm's responsiveness to human moral agency and its extension of terrestrial laws like causation and affinity. Higher spheres were described as realms of pure intellect and divine rapport, where advanced spirits guide humanity, underscoring Spiritualism's harmonial philosophy of universal interconnectedness between physical and spiritual domains. Empirical claims of spirit descriptions via mediumship, such as those from the Fox sisters' circles starting in 1848, reinforced this model, though lacking independent verification beyond anecdotal reports.^[35]

Distinctions from Spiritism and Theosophy

Spiritualism emphasizes direct communication with the spirits of deceased humans via mediums as empirical evidence for personal immortality after death, originating with the 1848 Fox sisters' rappings in Hydesville, New York, without a codified doctrine mandating reincarnation or moral progression through multiple lives.^[36] In contrast, Spiritism, formalized by Allan Kardec (pseudonym of Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail) in The Spirits' Book published in 1857, integrates spirit communications into a rational philosophical system that explicitly teaches reincarnation as essential for spiritual advancement, plurality of inhabited worlds, and ethical responsibility across successive incarnations to achieve moral purification.^[37] While both movements value mediumship, Spiritualism treats it primarily as evidentiary for afterlife survival, often rejecting reincarnation in favor of a one-life progression to spirit realms, whereas Spiritism views communications as instructional for doctrinal confirmation, subordinating phenomena to a progressive evolutionary cosmology derived from spirits' rational teachings.^[38] Theosophy, established by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott in 1875 with the founding of the Theosophical Society in New York, diverges from Spiritualism by prioritizing ancient esoteric wisdom synthesized from Eastern and Western traditions—such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Neoplatonism—over mediumistic contacts with ordinary deceased spirits, which Blavatsky critiqued as potentially deceptive influences from lower astral entities rather than reliable guides.^[39] Spiritualism's focus remains experimental and democratic, seeking verifiable phenomena like table-tipping or spirit writings to affirm individual survival, whereas Theosophy seeks higher gnosis through chelaship under ascended masters (Mahatmas), emphasizing karma, root races, and cyclic evolution across vast cosmic planes without reliance on trance mediums or evidential séances.^[40] Blavatsky explicitly distinguished "Western Spiritism"—equated with mediumship—as inferior to "Eastern Spirituality," advocating disciplined occult development to access divine wisdom directly, avoiding the passivity of Spiritualist trance states that she argued could invite psychic imbalance.^[41]

Practices and Manifestations

Mediumship and Séance Rituals

Mediumship in Spiritualism involved practitioners, termed mediums, who asserted the ability to intermediate between the living and discarnate spirits, primarily to convey messages or guidance from the deceased. This practice bifurcated into mental mediumship, where the medium purportedly received subjective impressions—such as visions (clairvoyance), auditory messages (clairaudience), or compelled writings (automatic writing)—and physical mediumship, which allegedly generated objective, perceptible effects like auditory raps, object movements, or luminous apparitions accessible to observers beyond the medium.^[42]^[43] Séances constituted the structured ritual for eliciting these communications, generally convening 4 to 12 participants in a private residence or dedicated parlor under subdued red lighting or darkness to purportedly optimize spirit visibility and energy flow. The assembly formed a circle around a small table, often linking hands to create a "magnetic chain" believed to amplify collective vitality, followed by invocations, prayers, or hymns to summon controlling spirits. The medium, seated centrally, would induce a trance—sometimes via self-hypnosis or external aids like harmonicas—yielding phenomena such as alphabetic raps (one for "yes," two for "no," or sequences spelling words, as originated in the 1848 Fox sisters' manifestations) or table tilting, where the furniture allegedly danced or spelled answers via leg movements.^[44]^[45] Physical mediumship rituals escalated with "cabinets," enclosed structures of curtains or wood introduced around the 1850s, confining the entranced medium to channel "ectoplasm" for levitating trumpets (amplifying "direct voice" from spirits), apports (materialized objects), or full-form materializations emerging as spectral figures. Mental variants eschewed such apparatus, prioritizing the medium's relayed narratives or trance speeches, often verified by sitters against personal details of the deceased. By the 1870s, formalized protocols emerged, including searches of the medium and room to preclude trickery, though reproducibility under scrutiny remained elusive.^[44]^[43]

Claimed Physical Phenomena

Claimed physical phenomena in Spiritualism encompassed a range of purported manifestations attributed to spirit intervention, including the movement of objects without apparent human contact, the levitation of furniture or individuals, the materialization of spirit forms or body parts, the sudden appearance or disappearance of objects known as apports, and the extrusion of luminous or vaporous substances resembling ectoplasm. These were said to occur primarily during darkened séances, often requiring the medium to enter a trance state to facilitate spirit control over physical matter. Proponents asserted that such events provided empirical evidence of spirit agency, with early examples tied to the Fox sisters' rappings in Hydesville, New York, on March 31, 1848, where unexplained knocks were interpreted as communications from the deceased.^[46] Table turning and tilting represented one of the earliest and most widespread claims, involving tables rotating, rising, or tilting under participants' hands without deliberate force, purportedly guided by spirits to spell answers via knocks or movements. This phenomenon surged in popularity after 1852, spreading from the United States to Europe; for instance, on April 12, 1853, American spiritualist N.P. Tallmadge reported a table rising six inches off the floor during a séance in New York. Similarly, in England, journalist Robert Chambers observed tables moving independently in 1853, and on May 8, 1855, a table at J.S. Rymer's gathering reportedly displaced itself without handling. Baron de Gasparin's experiments in Paris during autumn 1853 documented tables resisting pulls equivalent to 4.27 kilograms, claimed as spirit resistance.^[46] Levitation claims involved objects or persons elevated by invisible forces, with Scottish medium Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–1886) among the most cited figures; witnesses including Dr. Hallock in the 1850s described Home levitating four to five feet, corroborated by Robert Bell in 1860 and Lord Adare at Ashley House in 1868. Tables were also reportedly levitated, as in Eusapia Palladino's (1854–1918) 1893 Milan séances where heavy furniture rose under controlled conditions observed by investigators. Self-levitation of mediums or sitters, such as Mrs. Guppy-Volckman being transported to a distant table in the 1860s, added to these assertions.^[46]^[47] Materializations purported the formation of spirit entities or appendages from luminous vapors or ectoplasm-like substances emerging from the medium's body, often in dim light. Medium Florence Cook (1856–1904) claimed to produce the full form of "Katie King" in 1872–1874 London séances, where the entity was touched and photographed. Palladino's sessions yielded shadowy hands and partial forms, as noted in 1894 at Île Roubaud. Earlier precedents included Frau Frederica Hauffe's (1801–1829) cloudy figures in 1829 Germany and luminous hands distributing objects via Home in 1860.^[46] Apports involved objects materializing inexplicably, such as flowers, coins, or live animals appearing in sealed rooms. Mrs. Samuel Guppy-Volckman (1830s–1917) was associated with apports of flowers, eels, and lobsters in 1870s London séances, while Miss Nichol (later Mrs. Guppy) reported grapes and ferns arriving in 1867. William Eglinton (1858–1933) claimed slate-writing and object transports, including coins in sealed boxes during Johann Zöllner's 1878 experiments. These were presented as spirit-transported items from distant locations.^[46] Ectoplasm, a later development described as a protoplasmic or vaporous extrusion from the medium's orifices, was claimed to enable materializations by providing a physical medium for spirit embodiment. Instances included luminous vapors from Herne and Williams in 1872 and gossamer filaments from Dr. Monck in 1877, with Palladino's forms linked to similar emanations in 1895 Cambridge tests. Adherents viewed these as tangible proof of spirit matter interaction, though conditions like darkness and minimal controls were standard.^[46]

Mental and Healing Modalities

Mental mediumship in Spiritualism encompasses non-physical forms of spirit communication, where mediums purportedly receive impressions, visions, or messages directly through altered states of consciousness rather than external manifestations.^[48] Common subtypes include clairvoyance, involving the perception of visual images or apparitions attributed to spirits; clairaudience, the hearing of internal voices or sounds from the spirit realm; and clairsentience, the sensing of emotions or physical sensations conveyed by discarnate entities.^[49] Trance mediumship, a deeper variant, occurs when the medium enters a hypnotic-like state allowing spirits to influence speech or automatic writing, as practiced widely among 19th-century American and British Spiritualists from the 1850s onward.^[50] These methods were distinguished from physical mediumship, which involved tangible phenomena like table levitation, emphasizing instead subjective mental receptivity developed through sittings or development circles.^[51] Healing modalities within Spiritualism typically involve mediums channeling purported spirit energies to alleviate physical or emotional ailments, often through direct touch, prayer, or distant intention.^[52] Historical practices, emerging in the mid-19th century alongside core mediumistic activities, included "magnetic healing" influenced by mesmerism, where healers claimed to direct vital forces from spirit guides, and group healing circles at camps like Lily Dale, founded in 1879 as a hub for such therapies.^[53] Absent healing, directing energy toward absent individuals via focused thought or spirit invocation, was promoted as effective for conditions ranging from chronic pain to mental distress, with anecdotal reports of cures circulating in Spiritualist literature.^[52] Empirical evaluations of these healing claims have yielded inconsistent results, with randomized controlled trials often showing outcomes no better than placebo after accounting for methodological flaws such as small sample sizes and lack of blinding.^[54] A systematic review of 23 such trials on spiritual healing found most failed to demonstrate efficacy beyond chance or expectation effects, attributing positive findings to psychological factors like suggestion rather than verifiable spirit intervention.^[54] Despite persistent practitioner assertions, rigorous replication under controlled conditions has not substantiated supernatural mechanisms, aligning with broader psychical research outcomes questioning mediumistic validity.^[55]

Key Figures and Movements

Pioneering Mediums and Founders

The Fox sisters—Kate (1837–1892), Margaret (1833–1893), and their older sister Leah (1814–1890)—catalyzed the Spiritualist movement through their claimed spirit communications beginning on March 31, 1848, in the family home in Hydesville, New York.^[56] ^[57] That evening, 11-year-old Kate and 15-year-old Margaret reported hearing unexplained rapping sounds, which they challenged to mimic their finger snaps and received responsive knocks in return.^[56] ^[58] Over subsequent nights, the sisters devised an alphabetic code with the raps, attributing the source to the spirit of Charles B. Rosna, a traveling peddler allegedly murdered in the house five years earlier and buried in the basement.^[56] ^[59] Public demonstrations followed, with the sisters interpreting raps as direct spirit messages, drawing crowds and spreading reports via newspapers, which propelled the phenomenon into a national and international movement by 1850.^[56] ^[60] Preceding the Fox manifestations by a year, Andrew Jackson Davis (1826–1910), dubbed the Poughkeepsie Seer, laid an intellectual foundation for Spiritualism through clairvoyant dictations under mesmeric trance.^[61] In 1847, Davis published The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, a 700-page work transcribed from his visions that described a harmonious universe governed by spiritual laws, progressive soul evolution, and the potential for direct intercourse between the living and the dead.^[62] ^[63] Davis explicitly predicted in the book that "the veil would soon be lifted" allowing widespread spirit communications, a prophecy early adherents linked to the Fox events occurring months later.^[63] His emphasis on rational, science-compatible spirituality distinguished his contributions from purely phenomenal claims, influencing subsequent Spiritualist doctrines on cosmology and ethics.^[61] Among the earliest prominent physical mediums, Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–1886) rose to fame in the 1850s, demonstrating levitations, spirit hands, and object movements in séances attended by scientists and dignitaries without recorded fraud.^[64] Born near Edinburgh and emigrating to the United States as a child, Home's abilities first manifested publicly around 1850, including accredited levitations up to seven feet in daylight conditions during visits to Europe from 1855 onward.^[65] ^[64] He rejected payment for sittings, emphasizing spiritual purity, and his phenomena, such as the accidental departure of a hand accordion from a sealed cabinet while playing tunes, helped legitimize physical mediumship among intellectuals before stricter scrutiny emerged.^[66] ^[64] Home's career bridged American origins and European adoption of Spiritualism, though his avoidance of paid performances set him apart from many contemporaries.^[64]

Intellectual Advocates and Defenders

Alfred Russel Wallace, co-developer of the theory of natural selection with Charles Darwin, became a prominent defender of Spiritualism after attending séances in the 1860s and 1870s, attributing phenomena such as spirit rapping and materializations to genuine spirit agency rather than fraud or illusion.^[67] In his 1875 pamphlet A Defence of Modern Spiritualism, Wallace argued that the consistency of reported manifestations across diverse witnesses warranted scientific acceptance, dismissing skeptics' demands for laboratory reproducibility as inapplicable to irregular natural events like comets or earthquakes.^[67] His advocacy persisted despite professional repercussions, including strained relations with Darwin, as he maintained that Spiritualism provided evidence for a spiritual dimension to human evolution beyond material causes.^[68] William Crookes, a British chemist and inventor of the Crookes tube, conducted systematic investigations into mediumistic phenomena from 1871 onward, particularly with Florence Cook, reporting levitations, partial materializations, and luminous forms under controlled conditions that he deemed inexplicable by known physical laws.^[69] In his 1874 publication Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism, Crookes detailed experiments with mediums like Daniel Dunglas Home, asserting that the evidence pointed to "a real agency" from an unseen world, while acknowledging potential for deception but insisting his protocols minimized it.^[69] Despite accusations of credulity from contemporaries like John Tyndall, Crookes upheld his findings in subsequent addresses to the Royal Institution, viewing Spiritualism as an extension of empirical science rather than superstition.^[70] Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer known for popularizing astrophysics, immersed himself in psychical research for over four decades starting in the 1860s, compiling thousands of cases of apparitions, telepathy, and spirit communications which he documented in works like Mysterious Psychic Forces (1907).^[71] Flammarion posited Spiritualism as a "scientific religion" bridging astronomy's vast cosmos with human soul immortality, arguing in 1908 that forty-five years of observation convinced him of survival after death through empirical spirit interactions, independent of religious dogma.^[71] He differentiated his approach from mere credulity by emphasizing verifiable eyewitness accounts and physical traces, such as automatic writing synchronized with distant events, though critics noted his selective emphasis on positive outcomes.^[72] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, emerged as Spiritualism's most vocal late proponent after World War I losses prompted his 1916 conversion, authoring The History of Spiritualism (1926) to chronicle its evidence from the Fox sisters' 1848 rappings to modern mediums.^[73] Doyle defended the movement through global lecture tours, amassing personal testimonies of spirit photographs and ectoplasm that he deemed rationally compelling, countering fraud allegations by invoking Holmesian deduction to affirm their authenticity over skeptical alternatives.^[74] His 1922 rift with Harry Houdini highlighted tensions, as Doyle rejected exposés of trickery, insisting genuine phenomena outnumbered fakes and aligned with evolutionary progress toward spirit communication.^[73]

Early Skeptics and Exposers Within the Movement

In 1888, Margaret Fox Kane, one of the founding Fox sisters whose reported spirit rappings in Hydesville, New York, on March 31, 1848, ignited the Spiritualist movement, publicly confessed to fabricating the phenomena that launched it. She demonstrated the technique to an audience at the New York Academy of Music on October 21, 1888, explaining that the "rappings" were produced by manipulating the joints of her toes and feet, a method honed through practice with her sister Kate. Margaret attributed the initial hoax to a prank amid family tensions but noted its rapid escalation into a profitable career as mediums, admitting, "I have seen a little good done in the two years I have spoken for them [spirits], but a great deal of harm... fraud is rife everywhere."^[23] This confession, published in the New York World and corroborated by physical demonstrations, represented a rare insider admission from the movement's originators, exposing the foundational events as deliberate deception rather than genuine spirit communication. Kate Fox Jencken, while not formally confessing, had privately acknowledged employing tricks like toe-cracking and later struggled with alcoholism exacerbated by the movement's demands, further eroding internal confidence. The revelation prompted debates within Spiritualist circles, with some adherents dismissing it as coerced or spiritually influenced, yet it substantiated long-standing accusations of mechanical trickery, including the use of hidden devices and accomplices observed in early investigations.^[23] Margaret's recantation in 1889, claiming spirits had compelled her false confession to test believers' faith, failed to restore credibility, as the initial exposure aligned with empirical demonstrations of fraud by external investigators and highlighted the movement's vulnerability to self-deception among participants. Other early insiders, such as disillusioned sitters and minor mediums, occasionally reported suspicious practices in Spiritualist periodicals to advocate for "genuine" manifestations, but these efforts were sporadic and often aimed at reforming rather than dismantling the core claims. The Fox confession, however, stood as a pivotal internal critique, contributing to the formalization of Spiritualist organizations in the 1890s that sought to distance themselves from proven charlatans, though without resolving underlying evidentiary issues.^[23]

Scientific Investigations and Empirical Testing

Initial Inquiries by Scientists (1850s–1870s)

In the early 1850s, the rapid spread of spiritualist practices, particularly table-turning and rapping, prompted initial scientific scrutiny amid widespread public fascination. Chemist Robert Hare, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and inventor of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe, approached the phenomena skeptically in 1853, devising a "spiritoscope" device to test claims of spirit communication through table movements. After conducting experiments with mediums in Philadelphia and observing what he interpreted as intelligent responses independent of muscular action, Hare concluded that spirits existed and communicated, publishing his findings in Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations in 1855, which argued for the reality of spirit agency based on over 100 sessions.^[75]^[76] Contrasting Hare's affirmative stance, physicist Michael Faraday investigated table-turning in June 1853, constructing an apparatus with a central spindle and threads attached to dials to detect participant influence on a small table. His experiments, detailed in a letter to The Times and later in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, revealed that movements ceased when subjects were unaware of their own inadvertent forces, attributing the effects to ideomotor action—unconscious muscular impulses—rather than external spirits or unknown forces.^[77]^[78] By the 1870s, inquiries intensified with chemist William Crookes, editor of the Chemical News, examining medium Daniel Dunglas Home's levitations and manipulations in controlled settings from 1871 to 1872. Crookes reported observing Home's body rise horizontally without apparent support, using a spring balance to measure strains inconsistent with fraud, and concluded in his 1874 pamphlet Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism that a "psychic force" operated, distinct from known physical laws, though he acknowledged the need for further replication.^[70] These early efforts highlighted a divide: converts like Hare and Crookes cited direct observations as evidence, while skeptics like Faraday emphasized mechanical explanations, with most investigations lacking modern controls and yielding inconclusive or fraud-susceptible results.^[79]

Establishment of Psychical Research Societies

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was established in London on February 20, 1882, as the first organized body dedicated to the scientific examination of mesmeric, psychical, and spiritualist phenomena.^[80] Its formation was proposed by physicist Sir William Fletcher Barrett during a meeting on June 6, 1882, amid growing public interest in spiritualist claims following the Fox sisters' manifestations in 1848 and subsequent mediumship trends.^[80] Founding members included philosopher Henry Sidgwick, who served as the inaugural president; classics scholar Frederic W. H. Myers, who later coined the term "telepathy"; and psychologist Edmund Gurney, reflecting an interdisciplinary approach involving academics skeptical of unchecked supernatural assertions yet open to empirical testing.^[81] The society's charter emphasized rigorous inquiry, including committees on thought-transference, hypnotism, apparitions, and mediums' claims, aiming to distinguish genuine anomalies from deception or hallucination through evidence-based methods.^[82] In the United States, the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) was founded in late 1884 in Boston, initially as a branch inspired by the SPR, with formal incorporation following in 1885 under the initiative of William Fletcher Barrett and a cadre of scholars including psychologist William James.^[83]^[84] Early vice-presidents comprised figures such as G. Stanley Hall, George Stuart Fullerton, and astronomers Edward Charles Pickering and Henry Pickering, underscoring involvement from psychology, philosophy, and natural sciences. The ASPR's establishment responded to similar spiritualist fervor in America, where séances and spirit communications had proliferated since the 1850s, prompting a need for systematic scrutiny to counter both credulity and outright dismissal without investigation.^[85] Like the SPR, it prioritized empirical protocols, launching inquiries into apparitions, telepathy, and mediumistic performances, though internal divisions later emerged over interpretive rigor.^[86] These societies marked a pivotal shift from anecdotal endorsements of spiritualism to structured psychical research, influencing subsequent European efforts such as the 1888 formation of analogous groups in France and Germany, though the SPR and ASPR remained foundational in setting precedents for controlled observation and documentation.^[87] Their advent reflected broader late-19th-century tensions between emerging scientific materialism and persistent claims of extrasensory phenomena, with initial outputs including censuses of hallucinations and exposure of fraudulent mediums, though reproducibility challenges soon highlighted evidential weaknesses.^[88]

Controlled Experiments and Reproducibility Failures

Following the formation of psychical research societies in the late 19th century, investigators shifted toward controlled laboratory settings to test Spiritualist claims, implementing measures such as illuminated rooms, physical restraints on mediums, video or photographic documentation, and exclusion of accomplices to eliminate opportunities for sleight-of-hand or mechanical aids. These protocols contrasted with earlier anecdotal or dimly lit séances, where phenomena like table levitations, apports (materializations of objects), and ectoplasmic extrusions were reported. However, under such scrutiny, many mediums failed to produce effects, with investigators detecting fraud in cases where phenomena occurred, including the use of hidden wires, chemical luminescence for "spirit lights," or confederates simulating voices and touches.^[4] A prominent example involved Italian medium Eusapia Palladino, whose levitations and table movements impressed figures like William Crookes in the 1870s but faltered in stricter tests. During Society for Psychical Research (SPR) examinations in 1889–1890 led by Richard Hodgson, Palladino was observed employing her feet to tilt tables and move objects while her hands were held, with multiple instances of fraud documented across sessions. Similar deceptions were noted in tests by Polish researcher Julian Ochorowicz in 1894, who identified unconscious cheating via limb extensions, and in later American sittings where she admitted to trickery when closely monitored. Despite occasional positive reports from sympathetic observers, Palladino's phenomena proved inconsistent, ceasing entirely under unyielding controls that prevented physical contact or darkness.^[89]^[90] Reproducibility emerged as a core failure, as Spiritualist effects—claimed to stem from spirit intervention—lacked the consistency expected of natural phenomena. SPR reports from the 1880s–1910s, including analyses of over 100 mediums, found no reliable replication across independent trials; successes in lax conditions evaporated when variables like observer vigilance or environmental controls were standardized. Hereward Carrington's 1911 survey of physical Spiritualism detailed common fraudulent techniques (e.g., toe-rapping for spirit communications) that explained sporadic "hits" but highlighted the absence of verifiable supernormal causation, attributing variability to medium skill in evasion rather than genuine psi. This pattern persisted: phenomena dependent on specific mediums or permissive setups defied generalization, undermining claims of empirical validity and prompting psychical researchers to prioritize mental over physical investigations by the early 20th century.^[4]^[91]

Criticisms, Frauds, and Controversies

Documented Cases of Fraudulent Practices

The Fox sisters, Margaret and Kate, who ignited the Spiritualist movement in 1848 with claims of spirit rappings in Hydesville, New York, publicly confessed to fraud in 1888. Margaret detailed in a New York World interview how they produced the sounds by cracking their toe joints or using devices like apples tied to strings, admitting the deception had perpetuated a "fraud of the worst description" that misled millions.^[56] ^[92] Kate corroborated the confession during a demonstration, though both later partially recanted amid financial distress and alcoholism, underscoring the initial hoax's role in spawning widespread mediumistic claims.^[93] William Mumler, a Boston engraver turned spirit photographer in the 1860s, produced images purporting to show deceased relatives alongside sitters, including a controversial 1872 photo of Mary Todd Lincoln with Abraham Lincoln's apparition.^[94] Charged with fraud in 1869 after photographer William H. Cooper identified living Bostonians in Mumler's "spirit" portraits via double exposures on pre-sensitized plates, Mumler faced trial where P.T. Barnum testified on photographic trickery techniques.^[95] Acquitted due to insufficient proof of method despite expert demonstrations of forgery, the case highlighted vulnerabilities in early wet-plate collodion processes exploited for deception.^[94] Eusapia Palladino, an Italian medium active from the 1870s to 1910s, levitated tables and materialized hands in séances attended by scientists like Cesare Lombroso, who initially endorsed her after witnessing phenomena in 1892 Naples sittings.^[96] However, controlled tests repeatedly exposed her using physical aids: in 1894 Warsaw experiments by Julian Ochorowicz, she employed her feet to manipulate objects while hands were restrained; Cambridge researchers in 1895 caught her freeing limbs to ring bells and move furniture; and Hereward Carrington documented her "levitations" as self-propel via loosened controls in 1908 New York sittings.^[90] ^[89] Despite occasional genuine trance states, her career averaged one fraud detection per major investigation, eroding credibility among psychical researchers.^[97] The Davenport brothers, Ira and William, toured from 1855 presenting spirit cabinet acts where, bound inside a dark enclosure, unseen forces played instruments and untied ropes.^[98] Magicians including Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin exposed the method in 1857 Paris as concealed assistants or pre-rigged ropes, with a 1865 Sydney audience rioting upon the brothers' refusal to perform under brighter lights revealing hidden figures.^[99] John Henry Anderson replicated the feats mechanically in Glasgow, proving no supernatural agency via spring-loaded instruments and duplicate cabinets, though the brothers maintained spiritual authenticity without confessing.^[98] William Hope, a British spirit photographer in the 1920s, claimed cross-correspondences with deceased via light traces on plates, but Harry Price's 1922 controlled tests at the British College of Psychic Science revealed deliberate double exposures using prepared negatives of sitters' relatives.^[100] Price's substitution of untouched plates yielded no "spirits," confirming fraud, which sparked debates but ultimately discredited Hope's output as staged illusions reliant on poor darkroom controls.^[100] These exposures, often via magician-led replications or scientific controls, demonstrated common techniques like confederates, mechanical props, and sensory misdirection, undermining Spiritualism's core claims despite persistent denials from adherents.^[101]

Psychological and Cognitive Explanations for Experiences

Experiences reported in spiritualism, such as communications from the deceased or apparitions, are frequently explained by psychologists through mechanisms of cognitive bias and perceptual distortion rather than supernatural agency. Cold reading, a technique where mediums make broad, high-probability statements and observe client reactions to refine them, exploits the Barnum effect—wherein individuals perceive vague descriptions as personally accurate—and confirmation bias, leading sitters to overlook misses and amplify hits.^[102] This process relies on subtle cues like body language and selective memory, allowing mediums to construct seemingly specific insights without prior knowledge.^[103] Bereavement hallucinations, sensory perceptions of deceased loved ones without external stimuli, account for many spontaneous spiritualist encounters, particularly auditory or visual apparitions during grief. These occur in 30-60% of bereaved individuals, often as adaptive coping responses that reduce distress by providing illusory continuity with the lost person, rather than evidence of afterlife contact.^[104] Longitudinal studies indicate such experiences correlate with emotional vulnerability and sleep disruption, diminishing over time without therapeutic intervention, and are culturally interpreted as spiritual when aligned with preexisting beliefs like those in spiritualism.^[105] Cognitive predispositions further contribute, with proneness to paranormal belief—including spiritualist phenomena—linked to heightened perceptual biases, such as illusory pattern detection and hyperactive agency attribution, where ambiguous stimuli are misinterpreted as intentional agents.^[106] Research on schizotypal traits shows individuals scoring high on magical ideation exhibit reduced cognitive inhibition, fostering vivid dissociative states or hypnagogic imagery mistaken for mediumistic trance or spirit manifestations.^[107] Environmental factors, including low-frequency infrasound or electromagnetic anomalies in séance settings, can induce unease and suggestible hallucinations, amplifying expectation-driven perceptions in group contexts.^[108] Individual differences in absorption—the capacity for deep imaginative involvement—predict susceptibility to these experiences, as highly absorbable persons report more frequent "anomalous" sensations interpreted through spiritualist lenses.^[109] Empirical testing reveals no reproducible paranormal effects under controlled conditions, suggesting these explanations suffice without invoking unverified entities, though believers often attribute persistence to selective anecdotal validation over systematic disconfirmation.^[110]

Religious and Philosophical Rebuttals

Christian denominations, particularly Protestant and Catholic, rebutted Spiritualism as a violation of scriptural prohibitions against consulting the dead or mediums, viewing such practices as necromancy that invites deception or demonic influence rather than genuine postmortem communication. Leviticus 19:31 explicitly states, "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them," while Deuteronomy 18:10-12 condemns divination, sorcery, and consulting spirits as abominations.^[111]^[112] These passages were invoked by 19th-century clergy to argue that Spiritualist manifestations contradicted divine revelation, which limits access to the afterlife through authorized channels like prayer or scripture alone, not unauthorized séance rituals.^[113] The Catholic Church issued formal condemnations of Spiritualist practices starting in the mid-19th century, attributing phenomena like table-turning and spirit rappings to superstition, fraud, or diabolical agency rather than departed souls. In 1856, the Holy Office under Pope Pius IX declared such manifestations either illusory or satanic, prohibiting Catholic participation.^[114] By April 25, 1864, the Congregation of the Index condemned key texts by French Spiritualist leaders, reinforcing that Spiritism undermined orthodox doctrines of purgatory, resurrection, and judgment by promoting unauthorized spirit intercourse.^[115] The Church's 1898 decree further branded these practices as witchcraft, emphasizing their incompatibility with sacramental theology and the sole mediation of Christ.^[116] Protestant reformers, including Adventists, echoed this by asserting Spiritualism inverted biblical eschatology, falsely claiming conscious immortality of souls at death instead of soul sleep until resurrection.^[117] Philosophically, materialists critiqued Spiritualism for positing an immaterial realm of persistent personalities without empirical warrant or causal mechanism, arguing that observed mental phenomena arise solely from physical brain processes, rendering spirit survival superfluous and unverifiable. 19th-century thinkers like John Tyndall highlighted the absence of any non-material force capable of producing physical effects like spirit rappings, applying principles of energy conservation to dismiss ectoplasmic or telekinetic claims as violations of natural law unless proven otherwise.^[118] This aligned with broader ontological objections: if consciousness depends on neural activity—as evidenced by brain lesions altering personality—postmortem persistence lacks a substrate, reducing Spiritualist anecdotes to subjective illusions or fraud rather than evidence of dualistic immortality.^[119] Epistemologically, critics invoked Humean skepticism toward testimony of extraordinary events, noting Spiritualist evidence relied on uncontrolled, non-reproducible seances prone to confirmation bias and lacking independent corroboration, thus failing philosophical standards for knowledge claims.^[120] Such arguments prioritized parsimony, favoring naturalistic explanations over Spiritualism's multiplication of unobservable entities.^[121]

Societal Impact and Legacy

Spiritualism provided women with unprecedented opportunities for public influence in the mid-19th century, as the role of medium allowed them to assume authority in spiritual and communal settings traditionally denied by Victorian gender norms. The movement's emphasis on direct communication with spirits positioned female mediums as interpreters of divine or otherworldly truths, enabling them to lecture, lead séances, and advocate publicly without the constraints of formal clerical training or male oversight. This shift empowered women to challenge domestic confinement, with estimates indicating that the majority of mediums were female by the 1850s, fostering a culture of gender parity within Spiritualist circles that contrasted sharply with orthodox religious structures.^[122]^[123] The Fox sisters' 1848 manifestations in Hydesville, New York, catalyzed this trend, as their reported rappings drew thousands and inspired a proliferation of female mediums who parlayed spiritual authority into social activism. By breaking conventions of female silence and passivity, these women modeled assertive public engagement, which aligned with emerging demands for expanded rights; Spiritualist beliefs in soul equality often extended to earthly equality, overlapping with abolitionist and temperance efforts where women organized independently. For instance, Victoria Woodhull, a prominent Spiritualist medium and clairvoyant, leveraged her spiritual platform to run for U.S. president in 1872, advocating women's suffrage, freer divorce laws, and "free love" doctrines that critiqued marital subjugation.^[124]^[125]^[126] This influence extended to suffrage campaigns, where Spiritualists' progressive views on gender—rooted in the movement's rejection of hierarchical dogma—intersected with reformers' networks, providing ideological and organizational support. In Britain and the U.S., female Spiritualist preachers addressed mixed audiences on moral and political issues from the 1850s onward, contributing to a broader erosion of barriers to women's political participation; however, the movement's fringe status limited mainstream adoption, with skeptics attributing its appeal to psychological rather than evidential bases. While not the primary driver of reforms, Spiritualism's facilitation of female leadership demonstrably advanced gender role fluidity, as evidenced by the era's surge in women entering public advocacy roles post-1850.^[127]^[128]^[129]

Cultural Representations in Literature and Media

Spiritualism, as a belief system involving communication with spirits of the deceased, permeated Victorian literature, often serving as a lens for examining social anxieties, gender dynamics, and the boundaries between rationality and the supernatural. Authors frequently depicted séances and mediums to critique emerging scientific materialism or to explore psychological ambiguity, with representations ranging from earnest endorsement to satirical dismissal. For instance, Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1852 novel The Blithedale Romance portrays a utopian community influenced by spiritualist ideas, highlighting the tensions between idealism and deception in spirit communications. Similarly, Robert Browning's 1864 poem "Mr. Sludge, 'The Medium'" presents a fraudulent medium's confession, underscoring the era's widespread suspicions of trickery amid genuine public interest in the movement. In later Victorian and Edwardian works, spiritualism evolved into a Gothic trope, symbolizing repressed desires or moral decay rather than authentic otherworldly contact. This shift reflected the movement's declining credibility following exposures of fraud, as documented in analyses of neo-Victorian fiction where spiritualist practices amplify horror elements over spiritual authenticity. Arthur Conan Doyle, a prominent advocate, countered such skepticism in his 1926 two-volume The History of Spiritualism, compiling essays that defended mediums and phenomena as evidence of survival after death, influencing subsequent literary defenses of the belief.^[130]^[131] Twentieth-century media representations often amplified spiritualism's sensational aspects, portraying mediums as conduits for mystery or peril. Early films and serialized stories drew on Victorian séance culture, as seen in depictions of spirit photography and table-rapping, which mirrored historical events like the Fox sisters' 1848 rappings that popularized the movement. In modern television, series such as Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012–2015) integrate spiritualist séances into 1920s Australian settings, blending historical intrigue with fictional investigations that expose potential deceptions.^[132] These portrayals typically emphasize empirical skepticism, aligning with documented fraud cases, though some romanticize mediums as empowered figures navigating societal constraints.^[133]

Transition to Parapsychology and Modern Pseudosciences

As Spiritualism waned in popularity following widespread fraud exposures and the aftermath of World War I, which disillusioned many with mediumistic claims of spirit communication, researchers pivoted toward empirical testing of psychic abilities detached from spiritualist theology. The Society for Psychical Research, established in London in 1882, spearheaded this shift by prioritizing verifiable evidence for phenomena like telepathy and apparitions through witness testimonies, controlled observations, and statistical analysis, often concluding that while some experiences warranted further study, mediumship largely failed scrutiny.^[134] This approach influenced parallel efforts in the United States, where psychical research societies formed to investigate similar claims using nascent psychological and physiological methods, aiming to integrate anomalous experiences into emerging scientific frameworks without invoking discarnate entities.^[83] The term "parapsychology," first proposed by philosopher Max Dessoir in 1889 to denote borderline psychic studies, gained traction in the 1930s through American botanist-turned-researcher J.B. Rhine, who founded the Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University in 1930. Rhine's innovations, including Zener cards—decks featuring five simple symbols for testing extrasensory perception (ESP) via telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognition—sought to quantify psi effects through repeated trials and probability statistics, explicitly rejecting Spiritualism's reliance on uncontrolled séances in favor of laboratory protocols. Early reports claimed hit rates exceeding chance (e.g., 6.5 correct guesses per 25-card run versus the expected 5), which Rhine interpreted as evidence for non-physical perception.^[135] ^[136] Critics, however, identified flaws such as inadequate shielding against sensory cues (e.g., visible card impressions or experimenter biases) and vulnerabilities to subject cheating, with independent replications yielding null results and exposing statistical manipulations like selective data reporting. Rhine's defenders argued for subtle psi influences, but the absence of consistent, mechanism-explaining evidence undermined claims, positioning parapsychology as a field reliant on anomalous outliers rather than robust causation.^[137] ^[138] ^[139] This laboratory-oriented paradigm transitioned Spiritualism's legacy into modern pseudosciences, manifesting in pursuits like psychokinesis trials and government-funded remote viewing initiatives (e.g., the U.S. Stargate Project from 1978 to 1995), which promised intelligence applications but were terminated after reviews found no reliable effects beyond chance or methodological artifacts. Such endeavors persist in fringe institutes, perpetuating psi hypotheses amid broader scientific rejection for failing falsifiability, reproducibility, and integration with physics—hallmarks distinguishing empirical inquiry from pseudoscientific persistence.^[139]

Contemporary Status

Surviving Spiritualist Communities

The National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC), established in 1893, remains the largest Spiritualist organization in the United States, unifying over 100 affiliated churches, camps, and centers across the country and internationally.^[140] It promotes Spiritualism as a science, philosophy, and religion centered on mediumship and communication with the deceased, offering educational programs for ministers, mediums, and healers, alongside regular services featuring lectures, healing sessions, and demonstrations of spirit contact.^[141] NSAC maintains an active directory of member locations and hosts ongoing events, including ministerial training and public outreach, with its headquarters in Lily Dale, New York.^[142] In the United Kingdom, the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU), founded in 1901, supports approximately 340 Spiritualist churches and centers, providing membership, ministerial ordination, and educational courses through institutions like Arthur Findlay College.^[143]^[21] The SNU emphasizes ethical mediumship, philosophical teachings on survival after death, and community services such as open demonstrations and development circles, with membership open to individuals who affirm its seven principles, including the fatherhood of God and personal responsibility.^[144] It marked its 124th anniversary in October 2025, continuing operations as a registered charity focused on unifying practitioners amid broader societal skepticism.^[145] Prominent physical communities include the Lily Dale Assembly in Cassadaga, New York, recognized as the world's largest Spiritualist center, where around 300 residents and 40 registered mediums host seasonal programs from June to September, drawing thousands of visitors for message services, workshops, and healing.^[146]^[147] Established in 1879, Lily Dale operates as a nonprofit religious organization with daily events, including Sunday services featuring organ music, lectures, and spirit communication, while maintaining historical sites like the Healing Temple.^[148] These groups sustain core Spiritualist practices—mediumship, spirit guidance, and moral philosophy—through structured governance and public engagement, though their influence has diminished since the movement's 19th-century peak.^[149]

Interactions with New Age and Alternative Spiritualities

The practice of mediumship in 19th-century Spiritualism, which sought empirical evidence of spirit communication through physical manifestations and séances, influenced New Age channeling techniques that emerged in the mid-20th century, where individuals purportedly receive guidance from higher entities or spirit guides rather than deceased relatives.^[150] This evolution shifted emphasis from verifiable proofs, as pursued by early Spiritualists like the Fox sisters in 1848, to subjective personal insights, reflecting New Age priorities of inner enlightenment over external validation.^[151] Theosophy, established in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in New York, acted as a pivotal bridge, initially engaging with Spiritualist circles—Blavatsky herself participated in séances—before critiquing their materialism and synthesizing spirit contact with Eastern concepts like reincarnation and karma, which later permeated New Age eclecticism.^[152] Theosophical texts, such as Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled (1877), rejected Spiritualism's narrow focus on discarnate humans in favor of a broader cosmic hierarchy, influencing New Age adoption of ascended masters and evolutionary spirituality while diluting Spiritualism's commitment to testable phenomena.^[153] Key distinctions persist: Spiritualism typically posits a post-mortem spirit realm accessible via trained mediums for moral and evidential purposes, often aligned with progressive social ethics, whereas New Age spirituality embraces a monistic worldview of universal energy and self-deification, drawing from diverse sources including astrology and holistic healing without requiring empirical rigor.^[154] This divergence is evident in New Age's integration of Spiritualist-derived ideas into non-hierarchical, consumer-oriented practices, as critiqued in analyses of its roots in Western esotericism, where Spiritualism provided a democratized entry to the occult but was overshadowed by more syncretic frameworks.^[154] In contemporary alternative spiritualities, residual Spiritualist elements appear in channeled works like those of Jane Roberts' Seth Material (1970s), which echoed mediumistic trance states but framed communications as multidimensional consciousness rather than spectral visitations, illustrating a causal progression from Spiritualism's evidential claims to New Age's interpretive flexibility.^[150] Traditional Spiritualist bodies, however, often resist full assimilation, viewing New Age dilutions as unsubstantiated, a stance rooted in their historical insistence on fraud-detection protocols absent in many alternative movements.^[151]

Current Scientific Consensus on Claims

The scientific consensus holds that the core claims of Spiritualism—such as the survival of human personality after death, verifiable communication with spirits through mediums, and physical phenomena like apportations or materializations—lack empirical support and fail to withstand rigorous testing. Investigations since the 19th century, including those by the Society for Psychical Research and later skeptical analyses, have consistently found no reproducible evidence for these phenomena under controlled conditions, attributing successes to fraud, suggestion, or methodological flaws in early studies.^[155]^[156] Peer-reviewed evaluations, such as the 1988 National Academy of Sciences report on enhancing human performance, concluded that parapsychological techniques, including those related to mediumship, show no reliable effects beyond chance or psychological artifacts like cold reading and confirmation bias. Mediumship readings often rely on vague statements (the "Forer effect") that participants interpret as accurate post hoc, with hit rates not exceeding expectation in blinded, controlled trials.^[157]^[158] Physical manifestations claimed by Spiritualists, such as table levitations or ectoplasm, have been repeatedly exposed as mechanical tricks or chemical illusions, as documented in exposés by investigators like Harry Houdini in the early 20th century and corroborated by modern analyses.^[159] Cognitive and neurological explanations account for reported experiences without invoking supernatural causes; for instance, bereavement hallucinations or auditory pareidolia can mimic spirit contact, supported by studies showing higher dissociation scores among self-reported mediums but no anomalous information transfer.^[160]^[161] Mainstream scientific bodies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, classify Spiritualist claims as pseudoscience, emphasizing that extraordinary assertions require extraordinary evidence, which remains absent despite over 150 years of scrutiny.^[158]^[162] While fringe parapsychological research persists, it has not produced consensus-shifting replicable results, often suffering from publication bias toward positive findings and failure to pre-register protocols.^[163]

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May 10, 2020 · Spiritualism and Suspension Bridges: John Roebling and a ... afterlife consisted of seven spheres of existence that you slowly ...
[35]
[PDF] Modern American Spiritualism - The Emma Hardinge Britten Archive
... after-life and the philosophy of the communion, and quote the utterances of those public teachers who claim to have been spiritu- ally inspired. We shall ...
[36]
What is the Difference Between Spiritism and Spiritualism?
Aug 2, 2019 · Spiritualism existed before Spiritism. Thus, Spiritism can be considered an offshoot of Spiritualism but with a different mission. Spiritism is ...
[37]
What is Spiritism? | GotQuestions.org
Jun 28, 2023 · ... Spiritism differs from spiritualism. The main idea of Spiritism is that immortal spirits travel from one body to another over several ...
[38]
Spiritism vs Spiritualism - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Jun 23, 2015 · Spiritism is a spiritualistic doctrine codified in the 19th century by the French educator Allan Kardec, proposed as the study of "the ...Missing: distinctions | Show results with:distinctions
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The Difference between Theosophy and Spiritualism
Theosophists are not really interested in and certainly not attracted towards spiritualism; they strive to become skillful altruists and are guided by forces ...
[40]
Theosophy and Spiritualism
Theosophy is a very ancient science, while Spiritualism is a very modern manifestation of psychical phenomena. It has not yet passed the stage of experimental ...
[41]
Spiritualism and Theosophy
She also tended not to use the term “Spiritualism,” but rather made a distinction between “Western Spiritism” and “Eastern Spirituality.” During the ...
[42]
Electrocortical activity associated with subjective communication ...
Nov 20, 2013 · In mental mediumship, communication with deceased persons is experienced “through interior vision or hearing, or through the spirits taking over ...Missing: scholarly | Show results with:scholarly
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[PDF] Historical Notes on Psychic Phenomena in Specialised Journals
Seventy-five percent of the mediumship papers pub- lished in the PSPR (N = 36) focused on mental mediumship, and 25% on physical effects. In the RM (N = 68) ...
[44]
https://www.history.com/news/ghost-hunting-victorian
[45]
Seances in the Red Room - White House Historical Association
Apr 24, 2019 · ... spiritualism and séances were rather common because the Civil War changed not only how Americans understood death but also how they mourned.
[46]
[PDF] Modern spiritualism - IAPSOP.com
Page 1. MODERN. SPIRITUALISM. -. A HISTORY AND A CRITICISM. BY. FRANK PODMORE. --. AUTHOR ... physical manifestations persisting after the decay of the belief in ...
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7. Physical Mediumship | spr.ac.uk - Society for Psychical Research
Material can be found here on later séance mediums (those associated with physical phenomena such as rappings, table levitations, 'ectoplasm' and other ...
[48]
Mediumship | Scholarly Resources - Esalen Institute
They included the phenomena of mesmerism and hypnotism; of paranormal healing; of clairvoyance, thought-transference and precognition; of mental and physical ...
[49]
Types of Mediums and Their Abilities - California Psychics
Feb 10, 2022 · They fall into two general categories: Mental Mediumship, and Physical Mediumship. While individual Mediums may mix and match abilities from ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[50]
What is Trance Mediumship? | College of Psychic Studies
Apr 7, 2022 · Trance mediumship allows a spirit being to take control of the body, mind and energy of the medium, to a varying degree, for the purpose of communication, ...
[51]
What is the difference between Physical and Mental Mediumship?
The fundamental difference between physical and mental mediumship is the way the spirit world communicates through the medium.
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Meditation, Prayer and Spiritual Healing: The Evidence - PMC - NIH
People report making use of techniques such as directing healing energy toward the distant person, using some kind of focusing tool, such as a photograph, to ...Missing: empirical | Show results with:empirical
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Spiritualism, a New York Heritage
Dec 4, 2020 · In 1848, Maggie and Kate reported a “rapping” on their bedroom walls. ... “Speaking with Spirits: The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism.
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Spiritual Healing: More Than Meets the Eye
Spiritual healing continues to be promoted despite the absence of biological plausibility or convincing clinical evidence, and the presence of considerable ...Missing: modalities empirical<|separator|>
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Science and spiritual healing: A critical review of ... - ResearchGate
Aug 7, 2025 · For each modality, this paper discusses pertinent conceptual issues, summarizes empirical evidence suggestive of a role in healing, and ...
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How a Hoax by Two Sisters Helped Spark the Spiritualism Craze
Oct 12, 2022 · In March 1848, two young sisters in Hydesville, New York came up with what they may have considered a fun prank. Teenager Maggie Fox and her ...
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Hydesville Day: the creation of modern Spiritualism
Mar 31, 2021 · Hydesville Day on 31 March is the official day for the international recognition of Spiritualism, the date in 1848 when two sisters heard ...
[58]
Pioneers of Spiritualism: The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Modern ...
On the night of March 31, 1848, the Fox family, consisting of Margaret, Kate, and their parents, moved into a rented house in Hydesville, New York. The house ...
[59]
[PDF] Fox Sisters (PDF) - Wayne County, NY
On March 31st, 1848, 2 young girls by the name of. Maggie and Kate Fox communicated with a spirit of a murdered peddler. They went on to become famous mediums, ...Missing: origins | Show results with:origins
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Oct 18, 2021 · Spiritualism was a religious movement that gained momentum in America during the mid-1800s. The movement essentially held that people could communicate with ...
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Spiritualists and Spiritualism - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia
Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910) combined elements of Swedenborgianism and Mesmerism to promote his own American form of spiritualism based on individual ...
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Andrew Jackson Davis: Prophet of American Spiritualism - jstor
12 Andrew Jackson Davis, The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations and a Voice to Mankind (New York, 1847), 676. Page 4. 46 The Journal of American - ...
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Andrew Jackson Davis - Spiritual Books
Davis 's prediction of the movement of Modern Spiritualism was given in his Principles of Nature, first published in 1847. In it he wrote: “It is a truth that ...
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Daniel Dunglas Home - The Victorian Spiritualist - geriwalton.com
Aug 12, 2015 · Douglas Home, sometimes spelled Hume, and whose name was lengthened to Daniel Dunglas Home in 1855, was a famous nineteenth-century spiritualist born in 1833.
[65]
Daniel Dunglas Home: The Spiritual Medium of the 19th Century
Jan 4, 2024 · The first was his vision as a young boy of the death of his only childhood friend in Norwich. The second vision in 1850 at the age of seventeen ...
[66]
THE MAN WHO COULD FLY - American Hauntings
Daniel Home remains one of the most intriguing mediums of the Spiritualist era. If there was a single word that best fit Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced “Hume”) ...
[67]
A defence of modern spiritualism by Alfred Russel Wallace
Dec 1, 2022 · The work explores the evidence and arguments supporting modern spiritualism, a movement that emerged in the mid-19th century.
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A Defence of Modern Spiritualism, by Alfred Russel Wallace
Since Dr. Sexton has become a spiritualist he has been as energetic an advocate for its truths as he had been before for the negations of secularism. His ...
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Researches in the phenomena of spiritualism
Crookes, and the entire want of scientific precision in the evidence adduced by him, the paper was not regarded as one deserving the attentionof the Royal.
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William Crookes - Psi Encyclopedia
Apr 8, 2018 · William Crookes was the first British scientist of note to engage in psychical research, conducting experiments with Daniel Home and other mediums in the 1870s.Brief Biography · Interest in Spiritualism · DD Home · Influence and Criticism
[71]
Mysterious Psychic Forces, by Camille Flammarion—A Project ...
For, gentlemen, spiritualism is not a religion, but a science, a science of which we as yet scarcely know the a, b, c. The age of dogma is past. Nature ...
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France's Most Famous Astronomer Was Also a Ghost Hunter
Oct 31, 2024 · Flammarion's quest to understand the paranormal lay at a cross section of science and spirituality, influenced by technological advances and ...
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Beliefs and Experiences - Official Family Estate - Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the world's best-known and most outspoken advocate of Spiritualism, Discover the story!Missing: defender | Show results with:defender
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An Essay on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's “Christian Spiritualism” - MDPI
Nov 18, 2021 · In this essay, I will argue that Doyle's justification for believing in spiritualism was more robust than many would imagine.<|control11|><|separator|>
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Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations
The most precise and laborious experiments which I have made in my investigation of Spiritualism, have been assailed by the most disparaging suggestions, as ...
[76]
Robert Hare's contribution to psychical research. - APA PsycNET
Despite calls for scientific investigation, spiritualism in the US received scant attention from academics until 1853, when the chemist Dr. Robert Hare ...
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Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics/Table-turning
Jul 30, 2021 · The effect produced by table-turners has been referred to electricity, to magnetism, to attraction, to some unknown or hitherto unrecognized ...
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Table-Turning: a Victorian fad - Royal Irish Academy
Oct 24, 2017 · ... Michael Faraday was sought. In 1853 Faraday conducted his own experiments and concluded that this was a physical phenomenon not a ...
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[PDF] SPIRITUALISM, SCIENCE, AND THE SUPERNATURAL
Accordingly, from the early 1850s, Carpenter argued that the 'so-called spiritual communications come from within, not from without, the individuals who ...
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Spiritualists objected to the extreme suspicion and the frequently voiced charges of fraud by psychical researchers and said that their standard of evidence, ...
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Society for Psychical Research (1882-) - ArchiveSearch
In a series of publications at about this time the SPR revealed the fraudulent nature of many so-called mediums, and also organised fake séance's; where members ...
[82]
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The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in 1882 by a group of leading thinkers ... Early members included psychologist Edmund Gurney, poet ...
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In 1884, he became a founding member of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) and, in 1894 and 1895, a president of the British Society for ...
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Founded in 1885 in Boston, Massachusetts, on the initiative of Prof. W. F. Barrett. Its initial officers included president Prof.
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Carrington was the author the book The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism which exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums. ... fraud in the history of psychic ...
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The ASPR was founded in 1885 by a distinguished group of scholars and scientists who shared the courage and vision to explore the uncharted realms of human ...
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The Demise of the American Society for Psychical Research
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In 1882 the Society for Psychical Research was founded in London, followed six years later by the founding of a similar society in the United States.
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The SPR was founded, the first learned society of its kind, with the purpose of investigating mesmeric, psychical and 'spiritualist' phenomena in a purely ...
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[PDF] Eusapia Palladino, the Queen of the Cabinet - Skeptical Inquirer
Eusapia Palladino is considered to have been one of the most gifted mediums of all time. Whether or not she really possessed psychic powers,.<|separator|>
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Julian Ochorowicz's experiments with Eusapia Palladino 1894: The ...
Jul 28, 2021 · For many psychical researchers, Ochorowicz included (Ochorowicz, 1896), these were examples of unconscious mediumistic fraud,1 and therefore ...
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American experimental psychologists combat spiritualism, 1880–1920.
Many experimentalists were loath to study the psychic and spiritistic phenomena per se, which they assumed were fraudulent, so they took the lead of Jastrow ( ...
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A Mentalist Explains: The Fox Sisters And The Birth Of Spiritualism
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THE FOX SISTERS — American Hauntings
The Fox sisters, Maggie and Kate, were mediums who claimed to communicate with spirits, giving public performances that helped birth the Spiritualist movement. ...
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When a 19th-Century 'Spirit Photographer' Claimed to Capture ...
Oct 17, 2019 · Mumler's eight-year-long career in spirit photography was marked by highly publicized civil court trials for fraud. Mumler produced this image ...
[96]
The Mumler Mystery - American Museum of Photography
A preliminary hearing for William H. Mumler, who was charged with fraud for selling photographs that he claimed included images of ghosts or spirits.
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Becoming Eusapia: The rise of the “Diva of Scientists”
Jan 28, 2022 · Eusapia Palladino was a fraud. Moreover, she had already been accused of fraud many times in her long career. She was, therefore, a ...
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She did this so often that, as Carrington stated: "practically every scientific committee detected her in attempted fraud, but every one of these committees ...
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Investigative Files. The Davenport Brothers: Religious Practitioners, Entertainers, or Frauds? Joe Nickell. From: Volume 23, No. 4 · July / August 1999 ...Missing: spiritualism | Show results with:spiritualism<|control11|><|separator|>
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Nov 24, 2024 · A number of famous magicians including John Henry Anderson and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin worked to expose the frauds of the Davenport Brothers, ...
[101]
Photographic plates and spirit fakes: remembering Harry Price's ...
Nov 26, 2022 · Eric Dingwall, the Research Officer for the Society for Psychical Research ... fraud, but simply to witness some extraordinary phenomena. Hope ...
[102]
How Harry Houdini Exposed Psychics As Scammers - Oxygen
Dec 15, 2022 · Famed magician and stunt artist Harry Houdini spent decades trying to prove mediums and psychics were frauds amid the popular Spiritualist movement.
[103]
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Apr 15, 1988 · A process in which a reader makes calculated guesses about a client's background and problems and, depending on the reaction, elaborates a reading.
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Thereby this study suggests that paranormal beliefs are related to specific cognitive biases that in turn are shaped by socio-cultural factors. Introduction.
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Aug 16, 2021 · People who have suffered the loss of a loved one may subsequently report sensory experiences of the deceased (termed 'after-death communications', or ADCs).
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Sensory and Quasi-Sensory Experiences of the Deceased in ...
Oct 25, 2020 · Bereaved people often report having sensory and quasi-sensory experiences of the deceased (SED), and there is an ongoing debate over whether SED are associated ...<|separator|>
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Perceptual Biases in Relation to Paranormal and Conspiracy Beliefs
Jun 26, 2015 · The present study shows that individual differences in paranormal and conspiracy beliefs are associated with perceptual and attentional biases.
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Studies show that decision-making and cognitive biases in people with paranormal beliefs result from cognitive impairment ( Irwin, 2009). Accordingly, ...
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Thinking Style and Paranormal Belief: The Role of Cognitive Biases
Aug 1, 2021 · This study investigated the degree to which cognitive bias mediated the relationship between thinking style and belief in the paranormal.
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Full article: When spirits speak: absorption, attribution, and identity ...
That spiritualists report less stress and a “decreased need for coping” has been attributed to a positive social context which validated, rather than ...Missing: explanations | Show results with:explanations<|separator|>
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Haunted People Syndrome (HP-S) denotes individuals who recurrently report various “supernatural” encounters in everyday settings.
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What is the Christian view of psychics / fortune tellers? - Got Questions
Jan 4, 2022 · The Bible strongly condemns spiritism, mediums, the occult, and psychics (Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10-13).<|separator|>
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What does God say about channeling and mediums?
It's in the Bible, Leviticus 19:31 NIV. "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them." Browse: Bible Topics Browse: Bible ...
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Spiritism | Catholic Answers Encyclopedia
What the Church condemns in Spiritism is superstition with its evil consequences for religion and morality. (Cf. Perrone, “De virtute religionis”, Turin, 1867; ...
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The Vatican's mediums. The strange case of Pope Pius IX and the ...
Dec 26, 2024 · In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Vatican addressed Spiritualism through a series of decrees, with prominent Roman theologians ...
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Spiritism | Beliefs, Practices, & History - Britannica
Sep 5, 2025 · Spiritism is a belief system founded by Allan Kardec in the mid-19th century that is based on the beliefs that a spirit world exists, ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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Jun 6, 2024 · Spiritualism teaches just the opposite, that it is possible to communicate with the spirits or souls of those who have died. God wants to ...Missing: religious rebuttals historical
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[PDF] The case against spiritualism
Spiritualism in the war-period and after. The strongest arguments against. " dab- bling" are to be found, ...
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Oct 24, 2019 · Spiritualism is often used as an explanation for consciousness, but there is little reason to believe spirits or the spiritual realm exists.
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[PDF] Spiritualism and a mid-Victorian crisis of evidence
Nov 29, 2004 · Spiritualism', was primarily an attack on fraudulent mediums ... explained methods of fraud and denounced fake mediums and dark séances.
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[PDF] The Concept of Spiritualism and Philosophical Materialism - JETIR.org
V. Philosophical materialists tend to believe that any non experiential or non empirical idea is just a figment of the imagination of mistaken or deluded ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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[PDF] Women, the Church and Equality: The Religious Paradox
Spiritualist communities emphasized gender equality and offered women leadership roles not afforded to them within traditional religions, such as Catholic, ...Missing: "historical | Show results with:"historical
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Waking the Witch: The Feminist History of Spiritualism - Ms. Magazine
Oct 29, 2019 · The majority of mediums were female, and largely due to this fact, Spiritualism was a profoundly unique and socially progressive movement. As ...Missing: equality | Show results with:equality
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The Fox Sisters: Spiritualism's Unlikely Founders - HistoryNet
Jun 12, 2006 · Like the women behind those causes, female mediums broke the rules of Victorian propriety and spoke out, albeit in a trance voice, and many ...
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Spiritualism, Seances, and Suffrage | Exhibits - In Her Own Right
Spiritualism intersected with other radical political movements including abolitionism and women's suffrage, and found strong support among certain Quakers.
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Biography: Victoria Woodhull - National Women's History Museum
Further, Woodhull's political reputation was declining: her radical views supporting free love, communism, and spiritualism alienated many and suffrage leaders ...
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[PDF] Women Beyond the Veil: Authority and Societal Norms in Spiritualism
Apr 6, 2025 · It, however, fails to address nineteenth century societal expectations of women, and ways in which women's roles as mediums embraced these.
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IV. Women Preachers in Mid-Victorian Britain: Some Reflexions on ...
Feb 11, 2009 · ... Women's Suffrage. Information. Type: Articles. Information. The Historical Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 1969 , pp. 467 - 484. DOI ...
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Spiritualism, Astrology, and Women's Suffrage in Boston
May 23, 2023 · Women's suffrage was one of many progressive social movements supported by spiritualists. Like spiritualism, astrology's central tenets ...Missing: roles "historical<|separator|>
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Spiritualism in fiction - Wikipedia
This article provides a selected list of fictional stories in which Spiritualism features as an important plot element. The list omits passing mentions.
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[PDF] The Dark Circle: Spiritualism in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Fiction
Apr 18, 2012 · The decline and fall of the Spiritualist movement opened the door to the appropriation of Spiritualism as a Gothic literary trope in decadent.
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The History of Spiritualism by Arthur Conan Doyle, MD, LL.D. is a collection of essays on spiritualism. It was first published in two volumes.
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Spiritualism: Our History with Otherworldly Communication - DeKalb ...
Oct 29, 2024 · The Fox sisters, Kate and Maggie, took the country by storm by claiming they had the ability to directly communicate with the dearly departed.
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Top 10 books about spirit mediums - The Guardian
Jan 20, 2021 · 1. The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England by Alex Owen · 2. Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel · 3. Affinity by ...
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Psychical Research and Parapsychlogy - University of Canterbury
Nov 20, 2023 · The spillover of Spiritualism into the academy was surprising, yet inevitable. Much of its success can be attributed to wealthy Spiritualists, ...
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The Parapsychology Laboratory began at Duke in 1930 after Dr. William McDougall invited Drs. JB and Louisa Rhine to Durham.
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ESPecially intriguing - American Psychological Association
Apr 1, 2008 · In his experiments, Rhine would hold up the card with the back side forward and ask the subject to tell him which design was on the front of ...
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The legacy of the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory
Nov 3, 2023 · The Rhine is named after its founder Joseph Banks Rhine, the third most popular J.B. on campus after J.B. Duke and J.B.'s Roast and Chops.Missing: origins | Show results with:origins<|separator|>
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Aug 31, 2016 · In the 1930s, parapsychologist Joseph Banks Rhine aimed to use scientific methods to confirm the existence of extrasensory perception.
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Aug 7, 2025 · Do paranormal or parapsychological investigations meet the criteria often said to characterize pseudo-science? Mainstream and non-mainstream ...
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National Spiritualist Association of Churches: NSAC
NSAC unifies many churches and camps around the world. Find one in your area. FIND A CHURCH EDUCATION Join our community of teachers, ministers, mediums, and ...Missing: 2024 | Show results with:2024
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Spiritualism Explained | NSAC
Spiritualism is the Science, Philosophy, and Religion of continuous life, based upon the demonstrated fact of communication, by means of mediumship, with those ...
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Church & Camp Directory | NSAC
Locate a church by state from the lists below. Address shown is the meeting location. The phone and email are for the noted contact person.
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The Spiritualists' National Union supports and has helped to unify around 340 Spiritualist churches and centres throughout the United Kingdom.Missing: current | Show results with:current
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Become a Member - The Spiritualists' National Union
You can become a member of your local Spiritualist Church or Centre. Support your church and its services, attend meetings and vote on important matters. Many ...
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THE SPIRITUALISTS' NATIONAL UNION - Charity Commission
We promote SNU Spiritualism, administer a College, run educational courses, conduct examinations, award Certificates, Diplomas, etc., appoint Ministers and ...
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Home of Mediumship & Spiritual Healing | Lily Dale Assembly | Lily ...
LDA is a registered non-profit 501(c)3 Religious Organization in New York State. Donate Now!Find a Medium · Lily Dale Life · 2025 Season Calendar · Catalog
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The Tiny New York Town Where Mediums Give Voice to the Dead
Sep 5, 2025 · Lily Dale is home to about 40 mediums who connect thousands of spiritual seekers with their deceased loved ones.
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The World's Largest Spiritualist Community | Lily Dale, NY
Today, Lily Dale embraces its rich history of mediumship and healing ... LDA is a registered non-profit 501(c)3 Religious Organization in New York State.
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Our Organization | NSAC
The mission of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) is to effect a complete organization of the Spiritualists of the United States of ...
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[PDF] New Age Healing: Origins, Definitions, and Implications for Religion ...
Aug 25, 2022 · Another contemporaneous influence was spiritualism (Melton 1992). A century later, these intertwined threads evolved into the Human Potential ...
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Oct 28, 2019 · The New Age Movement was a type of Western esoterism drawing from Spiritualism, Western occult traditions, astrology, and Theosophy.
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The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the ...
Theosophy is treated as part of the New Age movement, three key figures in its incipient development being identified as H. P. Blavatsky, Carl Gustav Jung, and ...
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New Age - Influences - Patheos
Theosophy, New Age's third 19th-century influence, contributed an interest in world religions, comparative mysticism, and an evolutionary mindset to the New ...
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New age spiritualism, mysticism, and far-right conspiracy
Apr 20, 2022 · He held that 'All creatures are pure nothingness' only receiving being derivatively from God. His mysticism emphasized the 'quite mind' free ...
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Using science to investigate the paranormal
Feb 14, 2022 · This story looks at the scientific instruments, methods and technologies used to test (or debunk) spiritualist mediums, fairy apparitions and ghostly visions.
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New Age Spiritualism: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Oct 12, 2009 · Spiritualist beliefs often integrate facets of philosophy, culture, jargon, and rituals from historical religions blended with pseudoscience and ...<|control11|><|separator|>
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Part VI. Parapsychological Techniques
Read chapter Part VI. Parapsychological Techniques: Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques, Background Papers (Complete Set)...
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National Academy of Sciences' opinion on parapsychology.
Responds to a survey of over 200 members of the National Academy of Sciences, who expressed an overall skepticism about the existence of ESP and ...
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Harry Houdini Debunked Claims of Abraham Lincoln's Spiritualism
The evidence of Abraham Lincoln's supposed belief in Spiritualism includes his attendance at séances, his alleged professions of belief to other believers.
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People reporting experiences of mediumship have higher ... - NIH
People reporting experiences of mediumship have higher dissociation symptom scores than non-mediums, but below thresholds for pathological dissociation.
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Oct 19, 2013 · We thought when we read the original accounts of how seances were carried out that they wouldn't fool anyone. We were wrong. A lot this is do ...Missing: procedure | Show results with:procedure
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All Articles | Skeptical Inquirer
Harry Houdini Debunked Claims of Abraham Lincoln's Spiritualism. Skeptical Inquirer Volume 49, No. 2 · March/April 2025 · Jason Emerson. The evidence of Abraham ...
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Parapsychology is science, but its findings are inconclusive
Feb 4, 2010 · A comprehensive review of major empirical studies in parapsychology involving random event generators or remote viewing.