After the 1920s[edit]

Main articles: Spiritualist Church, Spiritualists' National Union, Survivalism (life after
death) and Spiritualist Association of Great Britain
After the 1920s, Spiritualism evolved in three different directions, all of which exist today.

Syncretism[edit]
The first of these continued the tradition of individual practitioners, organised in circles
centered on a medium and clients, without any hierarchy or dogma. Already by the late
19th century Spiritualism had become increasingly syncretic, a natural development in a
movement without central authority or dogma.[2] Today, among these unorganised circles,
Spiritualism is similar to the New Age movement. However, Theosophy with its inclusion of
Eastern religion, astrology, ritual magic and reincarnation is an example of a closer
precursor of the 20th century New Age movement. [10] Today's syncretic Spiritualists are quite
heterogeneous in their beliefs regarding issues such as reincarnation or the existence of
God. Some appropriate New Age and Neo-Pagan beliefs, whilst others call themselves
'Christian Spiritualists', continuing with the tradition of cautiously incorporating Spiritualist
experiences into their Christian faith.

Spiritualist church[edit]
Main articles: Spiritualist church, Spiritualists' National Union, Spiritualist Association of
Great Britain and Spiritual church movement

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.

The second direction taken has been to adopt formal organization, patterned after Christian
denominations, with established liturgies and a set of Seven Principles, and training
requirements for mediums. In the United States the Spiritualist churches are primarily
affiliated either with theNational Spiritualist Association of Churches or the loosely allied
group of denominations known as the spiritual church movement; in the U.K. the
predominant organization is the Spiritualists' National Union, founded in 1890.
Formal education in Spiritualist practice emerged in 1920s, with organizations like the
William T. Stead Center in Chicago, Illinois, and continue today with the Arthur
Findlay College at Stansted Hall in England, and the Morris Pratt
Institute in Wisconsin, United States.
Diversity of belief among organized Spiritualists has led to a few schisms, the most notable
occurring in the U.K. in 1957 between those who held the movement to be a religion sui
generis (of its own with unique characteristics), and a minority who held it to be a
denomination within Christianity. In the United States, this distinction can be seen between

the less Christian National Spiritualist Association of Churches and the more Christian
spiritual church movement.
The practice of organized Spiritualism today resembles that of any other religion, having
discarded most showmanship, particularly those elements resembling the conjurer's art.
There is thus a much greater emphasis on "mental" mediumship and an almost complete
avoidance of the apparently miraculous "materializing" mediumship that so fascinated early
believers such as Arthur Conan Doyle.[30] The first Spiritualist Church in Australia was the
United Stanmore & Enmore Spiritualist Church established in 1913. In 1921 Arthur Conan
Doyle gave a farewell to Australia speech there.

Psychical research[edit]
Main article: Parapsychology
Already as early as 1882, with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR),
parapsychologists emerged to investigate spiritualist claims. [61] The SPR's investigations
into spiritualism exposed many fraudulent mediums which contributed to the decline of
interest in physical mediumship.[62]

See also[edit]

Camp Chesterfield

List of Spiritualist organizations

Spiritism

Spiritualism in fiction

Notes[edit]
1.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m Carroll, Bret E.

(1997). Spiritualism in Antebellum America. (Religion in
North America.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
p. 248. ISBN 0-253-33315-6.

2.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Braude, Ann Braude

(2001). Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in
Nineteenth-Century America, Second Edition. Indiana
University Press. p. 296. ISBN 0-253-21502-1.

3.

^ Jump up to:a b Britten, Emma Hardinge (1884). Nineteenth

Century Miracles: Spirits and their Work in Every Country of
the Earth. New York: William Britten. ISBN 0-7661-6290-7.

4.

Jump up^ Times, New York (29 November 1897). "THREE

FORMS OF THOUGHT; M.M. Mangassarian Addresses the
Society for Ethical Culture at Carnegie Music Hall.". The
New York Times. p. 200.

5.

Jump up^ "Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ".

Retrieved 2011-05-15.

6.

Jump up^ "Pentecostal Spiritual Assemblies of Christ

International". Retrieved 2011-05-15.

7.

Jump up^ "House of Prophecy Spiritual Church".

Retrieved 2011-05-15.

8.

Jump up^ Noor Muhammad Kalachvi 1999: Irfan

9.

Jump up^ Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926). The History of

Spiritualism, volume 2. New York: G.H. Doran. ISBN 1-41010243-2.

10. ^ Jump up to:a b Hess, David J. (June 15, 1993). Science In

The New Age: The Paranormal, Its Defenders & Debunkers.
University of Wisconsin Press. p. 20. ISBN 0-299-13820-8.
11. Jump up^ The Principles of Nature, Her Divine
Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind, Andrew Jackson
Davis, 1847.
12. Jump up^ Deveney, John Patrick (1997). Paschal Beverly
Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Black
American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Sunny
Press.ISBN 0-7914-3119-3.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b Telegrams from the
Dead (a PBS television documentary in the "American
Experience" series, first aired October 19, 1994).
14. Jump up^ Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed
by the University of Pennsylvania, The Seybert Commission,
1887. 2004-04-01.
15. Jump up^ Williams, Montagu Stephen. 1891. Later Leaves:
Being the Further Reminiscences of Montagu
Williams. Macmillan. See chapter 8.
16. ^ Jump up to:a b Arthur Conan Doyle, The History of
Spiritualism Vol I, Arthur Conan Doyle, 1926.
17. Jump up^ "The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural, by
Alfred Russel Wallace". wku.edu.
18. Jump up^ Anna Hurwic, Pierre Curie, translated by
Lilananda Dasa and Joseph Cudnik, Paris, Flammarion,
1995, pp. 65, 66, 68, 247-48.
19. Jump up^ "W.T. Stead and Spiritualism - The W.T. Stead
Resource Site".attackingthedevil.co.uk.
20. Jump up^ Underwood, Peter (1978) "Dictionary of the
Supernatural", Harrap Ltd., ISBN 0-245-52784-2, Page 144
21. Jump up^ "The spiritual magazine". 1871.
22. Jump up^ John Fairley, Simon Welfare (1984). Arthur C.
Clarke's world of strange powers, Volume 3.
Putnam. ISBN 0-399-13066-7.
23. Jump up^ A Magician Among the Spirits, Harry Houdini,
Arno Press (June 1987), ISBN 0-405-02801-6

24. Jump up^ Hereward Carrington. (1907). The Physical

Phenomena of Spiritualism. Herbert B. Turner & Co.
25. Jump up^ Joseph McCabe. (1920). Is Spiritualism based
on Fraud?: The Evidence Given by Sir A.C. Doyle and
Others Drastically Examined. London: Watts & Co.
26. Jump up^ Chung Ling Soo. (1898). Spirit Slate Writing and
Kindred Phenomena. Munn & Company. Henry Evans.
(1897). Hours With the Ghosts Or Nineteenth Century
Witchcraft. Kessinger Publishing. Julien Proskauer.
(1932). Spook crooks! Exposing the secrets of the propheteers who conduct our wickedest industry. New York, A. L.
Burt.
27. Jump up^ Fulton Oursler. (1930). Spirit Mediums Exposed.
New York: Macfadden Publications.Joseph Dunninger.
(1935). Inside the Medium's Cabinet. New York, D. Kemp
and Company. Joseph Rinn. (1950). Sixty Years Of
Psychical Research: Houdini And I Among The Spiritualists.
Truth Seeker.
28. Jump up^ The Light: A Journal Devoted to the Highest
Interests of Humanity, both Here and Hereafter, Vol I,
January to December 1881, London Spiritualist Alliance,
Eclectic Publishing Company: London, 1882.
29. Jump up^ Hess, David (1987). "Spiritism and Science in
Brazil". Ph.D thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, Cornell
University.
30. ^ Jump up to:a b Guthrie, John J. Jr.; Phillip Charles Lucas;
Gary Monroe (2000). Cassadaga: the South's Oldest
Spiritualist Community. Gainesville, FL: University Press of
Florida.ISBN 0-8130-1743-2.
31. Jump up^ (Harrison 1880: 6)
32. Jump up^ (Alvarado, Biondi, and Kramer 2006: 6163)
33. Jump up^ Charles Wyllys Elliott, Mysteries, or Glimpses of
the Supernatural, Harper & Bros: New York, 1852.
34. Jump up^ Catherine Crowe, The Night Side of Nature, or
Ghosts and Ghost-seers, Redfield: New York, 1853.
35. Jump up^ "Dreadful Tale of a Haunted Man in Newton
County, Missouri", Chicago Daily Tribune, January 4, 1891.
36. Jump up^ White, Stewart Edward (March 1943). The Betty
Book. USA: E. P. Dutton & CO., Inc. pp. 1415. ISBN 089804-151-1.
37. Jump up^ Montague Summers. (2010). Physical
Phenomena of Mysticism. Kessinger Publishing. p.
114. ISBN 978-1161363654. Also see Barry Wiley.
(2012). The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the
Enchanted Boundary. McFarland. p. 35. ISBN 9780786464708

38. Jump up^ Simeon Edmunds. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical

Survey. Aquarian Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780850300130 "1876 also saw the first of several exposures of
another physical medium, William Eglington, in whose trunk
a false beard and a quantity of muslin were found by
Archdeacon Colley. He was exposed again in 1880, after
which he turned to slate-writing. In this he was exposed by
Richard Hodgson and S. J. Davey of the SPR in 1885.
Davey a clever conjuror, was able to duplicate all Eglington's
phenomena so perfectly that some spiritualists, notably
Alfred Russel Wallace, insisted that he too was really a
genuine medium."
39. Jump up^ Frank Podmore. (1902). Modern Spiritualism: A
History and a Criticism. Volume 2. Methuen & Company. pp.
283-287 "It seems reasonable to conclude that all the
marvels reported at [Moses] seances were, in fact, produced
by the medium's own hands: that it was he who tilted the
table and produced the raps, that the scents, the seed
pearls, and the Parian statuettes were brought into the room
in his pockets: and that the spirit lights were, in fact, nothing
more than bottles of phosphorised oil. Nor would the feats
described have required any special skill on the medium's
part."
40. Jump up^ Joseph McCabe. (1920). Spiritualism: A Popular
History From 1847. Dodd, Mead and Company. pp. 151-173
41. Jump up^ Joseph Jastrow. (1918). The Psychology of
Conviction. Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 101-127
42. Jump up^ Walter Mann. (1919). The Follies and Frauds of
Spiritualism. Rationalist Association. London: Watts & Co.
pp. 115-130
43. Jump up^ Brian Righi. (2008). Ghosts, Apparitions and
Poltergeists: An Exploration of the Supernatural through
History. Llewellyn Publications. p. 52. ISBN 9780738713632 "One medium of the 1920s, Mina Crandon,
became famous for producing ectoplasm during her sittings.
At the height of the sance, she was even able to produce a
tiny ectoplasmic hand from her navel, which waved about in
the darkness. Her career ended when Harvard biologists
were able to examine the tiny hand and found it to be
nothing more than a carved piece of animal liver."
44. Jump up^ C. E. M. Hansel. (1989). The Search for Psychic
Power: ESP and Parapsychology Revisited. Prometheus
Books. p. 245. ISBN 978-0879755331
45. Jump up^ Joseph McCabe. (1920). Is Spiritualism based
on Fraud?: The Evidence Given by Sir A.C. Doyle and
Others Drastically Examined. London: Watts & Co. p. 126
46. Jump up^ Malcolm Gaskill. (2001). Hellish Nell: Last of
Britain's Witches. Fourth Estate. p. 100.ISBN 9781841151090
47. Jump up^ Jason Karl. (2007). An Illustrated History of the
Haunted World. New Holland Publishers. p. 79. ISBN 9781845376871

48. Jump up^ Simeon Edmunds. (1966). Spiritualism: A Critical

Survey. Aquarian Press. pp. 137-144.ISBN 978-0850300130
49. Jump up^ Paul Kurtz. (1985). A Skeptic's Handbook of
Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. p. 599.ISBN 0-87975300-5
50. Jump up^ Janet Oppenheim, The Other World: Spiritualism
and Psychical Research in England, 18501914, 1988, p.
267
51. ^ Jump up to:a b Janet Oppenheim, The Other World:
Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850
1914, 1988, p. 270
52. Jump up^ G. Baseden Butt, Madame Blavatsky, p. 120
53. Jump up^ Gerald Massey, Concerning evolution, p. 55
54. Jump up^ Gerald Massey, Concerning evolution, pp. 6061
55. Jump up^ Frank Podmore, Bob Gilbert, Modern
spiritualism: a history and a criticism: Volume 2, 2001,
pp. 135136
56. Jump up^ Debora Hammond, The Science of Synthesis:
Exploring the Social Implications of General Systems
Theory, 2003, p. 39
57. Jump up^ Wallace, Alfred Russel. "World of Life". The
Alfred Russel Wallace Page hosted byWestern Kentucky
University. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
58. Jump up^ Martin Fichman, An elusive Victorian: the
evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace, 2004, p. 159
59. Jump up^ Edward Clodd, Question: A Brief History and
Examination of Modern Spiritualism, p. 300
60. Jump up^ Peter J. Bowler, Science for all: the
popularization of science in early twentieth-century, 2009, p.
44
61. Jump up^ Ray Hyman. (1985). A Critical Historical
Overview of Parapsychology. In Paul Kurtz. A Skeptic's
Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. pp. 396. ISBN 0-87975-300-5
62. Jump up^ Rosemary Guiley. (1994). The Guinness
Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. Guinness Publishing. p.
311. ISBN 978-0851127484

References[edit]

Brandon, Ruth (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for

the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Braude, Ann (2001). Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and

Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-215021.

Britten, Emma Hardinge (1884). Nineteenth Century

Miracles: Spirits and their Work in Every Country of the
Earth. New York: William Britten. ISBN 0-7661-6290-7.

Brown, Slater (1970). The Heyday of Spiritualism. New

York: Hawthorn Books.

Buescher, John B. (2003). The Other Side of Salvation:

Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious
Experience. Boston: Skinner House Books. ISBN 1-55896448-7.

Carroll, Bret E. (1997). Spiritualism in Antebellum America.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-333156.

Chapin, David. Exploring Other Worlds: Margaret Fox,

Elisha Kent Kane, and the Antebellum Culture of
Curiosity, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
2004.

Davenport, Reuben Briggs (1888). The Death-Blow to

Spiritualism. New York: G.W. Dillingham.

Deveney, John Patrick; Franklin Rosemont

(1996). Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century
Black American Spiritualist, Rosicrucian, and Sex
Magician. Albany:State University of New York
Press. ISBN 0-7914-3120-7.

Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926). The History of Spiritualism,

volume 1. New York: G.H. Doran. ISBN 1-4101-0243-2.

Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926). The History of Spiritualism,

volume 2. New York: G.H. Doran. ISBN 1-4101-0243-2.

Fodor, Nandor (1934). An Encyclopaedia of Psychic

Science.

Guthrie, John J. Jr.; Phillip Charles Lucas; Gary Monroe

(2000). Cassadaga: the South's Oldest Spiritualist
Community. Gainesville, FL: University Press of
Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1743-2.

Harrison, W.H. 1880. Psychic Facts, a Selection from

Various Authors. London: Ballantyne Press.

Hess, David (1987). "Spiritism and Science in Brazil". Ph.D

thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, Cornell University.

Lindgren, Carl Edwin (January 1994). "Spiritualism:

Innocent Beliefs to Scientific Curiosity". Journal of Religion
and Psychical Research 17 (1): 815. ISSN 2168-8621.

Lindgren, Carl Edwin (March 1994). "Scientific

investigation and Religious Uncertainty 1880
1900". Journal of Religion and Psychical Research 17 (2):
8391. ISSN 2168-8621.

Moore, William D. (1997). "'To Hold Communion with

Nature and the Spirit-World:' New England's Spiritualist
Camp Meetings, 18651910". In Annmarie Adams and
Sally MacMurray (editors). Exploring Everyday
Landscapes: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, VII.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0-87049983-1.

Podmore, Frank, Mediums of the 19th Century, 2 vols.,

University Books, 1963.

Salter, William H., Zoar; or the Evidence of Psychical

Research Concerning Survival, Sidgwick, 1961.

Telegrams from the

Dead (a PBS television documentary in the "American
Experience" series, first aired October 19, 1994).

Tokarzwna, Krystyna; Stanisaw Fita (1969). Bolesaw

Prus, 18471912: Kalendarz ycia i twrczoci (Bolesaw
Prus, 18471912: a Calendar of [His] Life and Work).
Warsaw: Pastwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.

Weisberg, Barbara (2004). Talking to the Dead. San

Francisco: Harper.

Wicker, Christine (2004). Lily Dale: the True Story of the

Town that talks to the Dead. San Francisco: Harper.

Further reading[edit]

Clodd, Edward. (1917). The Question: A Brief History and

Examination of Modern Spiritualism. Grant Richards,
London.

Hall, Trevor H. (1963). The Spiritualists: The Story of

Florence Cook and William Crookes. Helix Press.

Kurtz, Paul. (1985). Spiritualists, Mediums and Psychics:

Some Evidence of Fraud. In Paul Kurtz (ed.). A Skeptic's

Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. pp.

177-223. ISBN 0-87975-300-5

Lehman, Amy (2009). Victorian Women and the Theatre of

Trance: Mediums, Spiritualists and Mesmerists in
Performance. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-3479-1.

Mann, Walter. (1919). The Follies and Frauds of

Spiritualism. Rationalist Association. London: Watts & Co.

McCabe, Joseph. (1920). Is Spiritualism Based On Fraud?

The Evidence Given By Sir A. C. Doyle and Others
Drastically Examined. London: Watts & Co.

Mercier, Charles Arthur. (1917). Spiritualism and Sir Oliver

Lodge. London: Mental Culture Enterprise.

Moreman, Christopher M. (2013). The Spiritualist

Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and
around the World 3 Vols. Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-399473.

Podmore, Frank. (1911). The Newer Spiritualism. Henry

Holt and Company.

Price, Harry; Dingwall, Eric. (1975). Revelations of a Spirit

Medium. Arno Press. Reprint of 1891 edition by Charles F.
Pidgeon. This rare, overlooked, and forgotten, book gives
the "insider's knowledge" of 19th century deceptions.

Rinn, Joseph. (1950). Sixty Years Of Psychical Research:

Houdini And I Among The Spiritualists. Truth Seeker.

"American Spirit: A History of the Supernatural" - An hourlong history public radio program exploring American
spiritualism.

Open Directory Project page for "Spiritualism"

Video and Images of the original Fox Family historic home

site.

"Investigating Spirit Communications" - Joe Nickell

"Spiritualism Exposed: Margaret Fox Kane Confesses

Fraud" - Skeptic Report

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