On March 31, 1848, Mrs. John Fox of Hydesville, New York, summoned her neighbors to hear strange knockings that were disturbing her family. At this time the Fox household comprised John Fox, his wife, and their two young daughters, Margaretta and Kate, aged 15 and 12 years respectively. On being questioned, the raps seemed to manifest signs of intelligence, and it was eventually deciphered from them, it was said, that the disturbing influence was the spirit of a peddler, murdered for the sake of his money by a former resident of the house. It was subsequently claimed in April of that year that the Foxes, while digging in their cellar at the instigation of the spirits, discovered fragments of human hair, teeth, and bones.
The neighbors of the Fox family were deeply impressed by these "revelations" and, by way of a test, questioned the spirits on such matters as the ages of their acquaintances, questions that were answered, apparently, with some correctness. Soon afterward the daughter Margaretta Fox visited her married sister, Mrs. Fish, at Rochester, New York, where the knockings broke out as vigorously as they had at Hydesville. Her sister Catherine visited some friends at Auburn, and there, too, the rappings were heard.
Committee after committee was appointed but could not discover the cause of the sounds or how the answers to mental questions that were posed were correctly given. Some of those who sat with the Fox sisters soon found that they had similar powers. So the movement spread. The public had already been prepared for such demonstrations by the spread of the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg and demonstrations of animal magnetism. Clairvoyants had also made use of rapping prior to the mediumship of the Fox girls. The induced trance had also recently been brought to the notice of the American people by lecturers, the clergy, and others. So, accustomed to departures from orthodoxy in every direction, many found no difficulty in admitting the intervention of good or evil spirits in human affairs, and for those who refused to accept the spirit hypothesis a satisfactory explanation of the phenomena was found in electricity, electromagnetism, or the od (odic) force.
The first experimental Spiritualist organization, the New York Circle, was formed in 1851. The New York Conference was established the same year, and the preaching of a new science and faith began to make converts among the notable personalities of the day. Wisconsin governor N. P. Tallmadge, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, Professors Britten, Wells, Bryant, and Bliss of the University of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice Williams, Judge John Worth Edmonds, Professor Robert Hare, Professor James Jay Mapes, General Bullard, Horace Greeley, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullan Bryant were some of the distinguished early converts.
According to an estimate in Spirit World, there were 100 mediums in New York and 50 to 60 private circles in Philadelphia in 1851. The North American Review wrote in April 1855 that the New England Spiritualist Association, which computed the number of Spiritualists in America as nearly two million, did not overstate the facts.
Probably the strangest developments in the early history of American Spiritualism were the new motor machine of John Murray Spear and the Mountain Cove Community of Rev. James Scott and Thomas Lake Harris. As time progressed, Spiritualists struggled with many offshoot movements that claimed justification for such ideas as free love and community ownership of the spirit communications of mediums.
Soon physical phenomena began to supplement the simpler forms of spirit communication. Table turning and tilting partially replaced the phenomenon of raps. Playing of musical instruments by invisible means, "direct" spirit writing, bell ringing, levitation, and materialization of spirit hands were just some of the phenomena witnessed and vouched for by distinguished sitters.
The levitation of the great medium Daniel Dunglas Home was recorded at an early stage in his career. Slate writing and playing of musical instruments were feats practiced by the alleged spirits that frequented the "spirit room" of Jonathan Koons in Dover, Ohio.
At Keokuk, Iowa, in 1854 two mediums spoke in tongues identified—on somewhat insufficient data—as "Swiss," Latin, and Indian, and thereafter other mediums practiced trance speaking in foreign tongues, a phenomena known as xenoglossis. Recognized foreign tongues included Latin and Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Gaelic, but generally the trance utterances, when they were not in English, were not recognized definitely as any known language, and frequently the "spirits" themselves interpreted the "tongue." Speaking in pseudotongues, or glossolalia, was evidently related to the articulate but meaningless fluency of people caught up in a moment of religious ecstasy. There were a few verified cases, however, where persons in a state of exaltation spoke fluently in a language with which they were unfamiliar in their normal state.
Many of the "spirit" writings were signed with the names of great people—particularly Franklin, Swedenborg, Plato, Aristotle, St. John, and St. Paul. Trance lecturing before audiences was also practiced, books of inspirational sayings were published, and poetry and drawings were produced in abundance. These "automatic" productions had a character of their own— often vague, high-sounding, incoherent, and distinctly reminiscent. In cases where they displayed even a fair amount of merit, as in the poems of T. L. Harris, it was pointed out that they were not beyond the capacity of the medium in a normal state. As a rule they had a superficial appearance of intelligence, but on analysis were often found to be devoid of meaning.
Spiritualist Literature
With the spread of the movement, Spiritualist periodicals, most short-lived, sprung up. The Univercoelum of 1847 and the Spirit Messenger, which succeeded it in 1849, were mouthpieces of the "harmonial" philosophy as articulated by Andrew Jackson Davis. A similar paper, Disclosures from the Interior and Superior Care for Mortals, was published by Rev. James L. Scott, founder of the Mountain Cove Community, and Thomas Lake Harris. The Spiritual and Moral Instructor, by T. S. Hiatt, and Heat and Light also came into existence. The first true Spiritual-ist periodical was issued on July 1850 by former "magnetist" La Roy Sunderland. The title, The Spiritual Philosopher, was changed a year later to Spirit World. In 1852 the Shekinah was launched on its short career by S. B. Brittan and Charles Partridge. After 18 months it was absorbed by Joseph R. Buchanan's Journal of Man.
The first periodical that could boast of permanence was the Spiritual Telegraph, born of a resolution of the New York Conference in 1852. It ran until 1860, when it was absorbed by Andrew Jackson Davis's The Herald of Progress.
In 1854 the Society for the Diffusion of Spiritual Knowledge, the first well-organized Spiritualist body, started the Christian Spiritualist (1854-57), and the year 1857 witnessed the appearance of The Banner of Light, which ran into the 1930s. Other early periodicals were The Spiritual Clarion, The New Eva, The Light from the Spirit World, of St. Louis, the Age of Progress, and The Sunbeam. Later ones included the Religio-Philosophical Journal, the Western Star, The Spiritual Scientist, The American Spiritualist, the New England Spiritualist, The Spiritual Age, and The Lyceum Banner.
Trends in the Movement
From the beginning of the movement those who accepted the actuality of the phenomena arrayed themselves into two separate schools, each represented by a considerable body of opinion. The theory of the first was frankly Spiritualistic, and the second tended toward mesmerism or animal magnetism under one name or another, with a flavor of contemporary scientific thought. These two schools had their foundation in the early days of animal magnetism, when the more rationalist ideas of the magnetists were pitted against the theological theories of angelic or diabolic possession.
In the United States the hypothetical "force" of the rational-ists went by such names as od (odic) force, electromagnetism, and so forth. Poltergeist disturbances, occurring from time to time, were ascribed either to spirits or to odic force, as in the case of the Ashtabula poltergeist. Asa Mahan, one of the "rationalists," suggested that a medium could read the thoughts of sitters by means of odic force. The protagonists of magnetic theory attributed trance speaking to the subject's own intelligence, but after the birth of American Spiritualism in 1848 a Spiritualist interpretation became more common.
Notwithstanding these conflicting theories, little was done in the way of scientific investigation, with the exception of the experiments conducted by Robert Hare, a professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, which resulted in Hare's conversion to Spiritualism. His critics denounced him violently, and he was obliged to resign.
Very few exposures of fraud were made, partly because the majority of the sitters accepted the phenomena with unquestioning faith, and partly because the techniques with which such detection might be made were not available. The collaboration of skillful, trained, and disinterested investigators, such as those who later applied themselves to the elucidation of parapsychology, was entirely lacking in the early days, and the public was left to form its own conclusions.
Spiritualism in the United States was, from the first, intimately bound up with socialism. It was, in fact, the outgrowth of the same original outlook that produced socialistic communities and occasioned the rise and fall of so many strange religions. Warren Chase, Horace Greeley, T. L. Harris, and other prominent Spiritualists founded such communities, and "inspi-rational" writings (today called channeling) frequently gave directions for their construction.
The Problem of Fraud
American Spiritualism has been characterized by a wide range of phenomena, and there has been a problem distinguishing genuine phenomena from those that are fraudulent. For example, the Davenport brothers, who traveled far and wide, advertised Spiritualism by inexplicable noisy demonstrations but most likely were simply very good stage magicians. The medium Henry Gordon introduced levitation of the human body, and D. D. Home produced phantom hands that dissolved in the grasp of the sitters. Home's accomplishments remain a mystery. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan discovered psychometry, which William Denton corroborated in some exciting experiments. William H. Mumler accidentally became the first exponent of spirit photography. Mary Hardy produced the first paraffin wax molds. Emma Hardinge Britten, Nettie Colburn (also known as Henrietta Sturdevant Maynard), and Cora Scott (later Cora L. V. Richmond) did inspirational speaking, and Mary J. Hollis and Mrs. J. H. Conant became outstanding trance mediums. The infamous Henry Slade was the major exponent of slate writing, and Charles Foster led in the art of pellet reading and skin writing (dermography).
The Fox sisters, who gave the first impetus to modern Spiritualism, were soon eclipsed in power and variety of demonstrations by these and other mediums. But they were also the first who had to bear the brunt of the backlash against Spiritualism, which was soon to come. In the sisters' first university examination, on February 17, 1851, Professors Austin Flint, Charles A. Dee, and C. B. Coventry of Buffalo University, delivered the following verdict on their phenomena: "It is sufficient to state that the muscles inserted into the upper and inner side of the large bone of the leg (the tibia) near the knee joint, are brought into action so as to move the upper surface of the bone just named, laterally upon the lower surface of the thigh bone (the femur), giving rise, in fact, to a partial lateral dislocation. This is effected by an act of the will, without any obvious movements of the limb, occasioning a loud noise[,] and a return of the bone to its place is attended by a second sound."
The revelation by Mrs. Norman Culver of an alleged confession by one of the Fox sisters cast more doubt on their credibility.
Then, in 1857, the editor of The Boston Courier offered $500 for the production of genuine phenomena and provided a committee from Harvard University be the umpire. On behalf of the Spiritualists, a Dr. Gardner accepted the challenge. The committee consisted of Professors Pierce, Louis Agassiz, and Horsford of Harvard University, N. B. Gould of the Albany Observatory, the editor of the Boston Courier, and a few friends of Gardner's. The mediums were Mrs. Brown (Leah Fox), Kate Fox, J. V. Mansfield, Mrs. Kendrick, George Redman, and the Davenport brothers.
Two days were devoted to the manifestations. They were imperfect and unsatisfactory, and the committee returned a negative verdict, promising also a later report of additional investigations, which, however, was never issued. After the failure of the Cambridge investigation, Gardner extended invitations to the press to attend séances with the same mediums. Several papers published impressive accounts.
The Progress of the Movement
Over the years important records of observations and long experiments were published by E. A. Brackett, Epes Sargent, a Dr. Wolfe, Allan Putnam, and Eugene Crowell. An early history of Spiritualism by E. W. Capron, Modern Spiritualism, was supplemented by Emma Hardinge Britten's Modern-American Spiritualism (1870), outlining 15 years of progress. Many organizations and Spiritualist churches worked for the advancement of the cause. In 1873 the first camp meeting was initiated at Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts. It was quickly followed by others.
The years between 1880 and 1890 witnessed four outstanding events: the report of the Seybert Commission; the self-exposure of Margaret and Kate Fox in 1885; the founding of the American Society for Psychical Research for systematic and organized psychical research in 1885, with the participation of a group of distinguished scientists; and the discovery of the remarkable mediumship of Leonora Piper.
The Seybert Commission was set up by the University of Pennsylvania, which received an endowment of $60,000 from the will of Spiritualist Henry Seybert to investigate Spiritualist phenomena. After issuing a preliminary negative report in 1887, which was widely resented, the committee discontinued the investigation.
The self-exposure of Margaret and Kate Fox did not result in the deathblow to Spiritualism hoped for by anti-Spiritualists, because the motives of the sisters were called into question and their confession was followed a year later by full retraction.
The emergence of psychical research with the founding of an American branch of the Society for Psychical Research in 1885 was of far-reaching importance, marking the beginning of regular attention to Spiritualist phenomena. At about the same time William James discovered and became intensely interested in Leonora Piper's powers. He wedded his research to that of the new organization and lent it the prestige of his name. Richard Hodgson joined James in the Piper investigations and acted as secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research until his death in 1905. The American branch of the society was then dissolved, but its work was quickly resumed by Columbia professor James H. Hyslop, who assumed leadership of a reorganized American Society for Psychical Research and conducted its work until his death in 1920.
Other keen and able investigators arose. Hereward Carrington established his claim to renown and Hyslop's mantle was placed on the shoulders of Walter F. Prince. In the early twentieth century, Piper's earlier role was filled by "Margery" (Mina Crandon). The controversy produced by her phenomena, focused in the investigation of the Scientific American and of Harvard committees, split the psychical research community and its major organization. Prince and other American Society for Psychical Research leaders withdrew and founded the Boston Society for Psychic Research in 1925. The Boston society competed successfully with its New York rival for 15 years until the Margery controversy had died and a merger was worked out.
Spiritualism in the Twentieth Century
The nineteenth century has been called the "heyday of Spiritualism," and the period up to World War I was certainly the time when most attention was paid to it. However, such a designation, coupled with the knowledge of the negative results of so many investigations of the movement, led many to assume that it had largely died out. Such was not the case. In 1893 the National Spiritualist Association, later the National Spiritual-ist Association of Churches (NSAC), began to bring some order to the organizational chaos of state and local associations, provided a united front to respond to other competing groups, such as the Theosophical Society, and presented a creed abstracted from spirit teachings.
The NSAC dominated the movement for a generation but in the 1920s began to experience internal discord arising from some mediums' belief in reincarnation. While French Spiritual-ists had adopted a reincarnationist position, in general British and American mediums were opposed to it. As early as 1924 it became an element of contention, with the withdrawal of Amanda Flowers and the formation of the Independent Spiritualist Association. In 1930 the NSAC passed a strong statement repudiating reincarnation only to have the majority of the New York membership withdraw and reorganize as the General Assembly of Spiritualists. The issue would arise again and again.
The twentieth century also saw the emergence of an African American presence in the Spiritualist movement. Some joined the NSAC, but as early as 1913 Leafy Anderson founded the Eternal Life Christian Spiritualist Association. Through the remainder of the decade 11 additional congregations were founded, and in 1920 Anderson moved to New Orleans to pastor the congregation there. In 1922 the NSAC pushed black members out of its fellowship, and they founded the National Colored Spiritualist Association of Churches. Over the next decade additional black denominations were founded and began to spread throughout the African American community nationally.
Among the larger Spiritualist churches that appeared over the century were the Universal Church of the Master (formed in California in 1908), the International General Assembly of Spiritualists (1936), the National Spiritual Science Center (1941), the Spiritual Episcopal Church (1941), the Universal Spiritualist Association (1956), and the United Spiritualist Church (1967).
Spiritualism seems to have spread slowly and consistently across the United States through the century. However, with the emergence of parapsychology and the refocus of psychical research away from the claims of Spiritualists and toward the laboratory production of psi phenomena, Spiritualism was largely forgotten. The last great crusade against it was conducted by the magician Harry Houdini in the 1920s. A number of Spiritualist mediums attained some public recognition as psychics but were rarely identified with their churches. One such medium was Arthur A. Ford, who first came to public notice when he claimed to have received a message left behind by Houdini at the time of his death. Ford went on to inspire the formation of the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (now the International Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship), a fellowship of non-Spiritualists who wanted the resources of the psychic world to investigate the religious life. He ended his career with a famous séance on Canadian television for Episcopal bishop James A. Pike.
The Pike séance revealed a continuing problem of Spiritualism. Several years after the séance and both Pike's and Ford's death, an examination of Ford's papers revealed that he had faked the séance. Periodically, word of similar fraudulent activity served to substantiate that Spiritualism was itself saturated with fakes and thus should simply be dismissed as a movement of consequence. In 1960, psychical researcher Andrija Puharich uncovered the fake materializations going on at Camp Chesterfield. Then, in 1976, Lamar Keene quit his career as a fake medium and offered detailed information about a circle of churches operating what amounted to a confidence scheme to provide a constant stream of phenomena for their members.
Meanwhile, during the same period, Spiritualism had to compete with the revival of occult religion in the New Age movement. Integral to the New Age has been mediumship under a new name, "channeling." However, Spiritualism has largely remained aloof from the New Age movement, its adherents not participating to any marked degree.
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