Who Are the Spiritualists?

The culture of the United States in the nineteenth century was much livelier, even wilder, than we think of it today. John Harvey Kellogg of cereal fame (more) and Sylvester Graham (more) of cracker fame were just two of many reformers trying to improve the health of the nation with such remedies as vegetarianism and enemas.

Victoria Woodhull (more), the first woman to run for the presidency of the United States (in 1872), advocated free love. Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy (more) wrote the "Pledge of Allegiance," without the words "under God." Not only did President Abraham Lincoln receive a fan letter from Karl Marx (text) but also he attended séances that his wife held in the White House (source).

The early Spiritualists

Spiritualism, "the belief that the dead communicate with the living, as through a medium" (source), grew out of some earlier spiritual traditions in the United States. During the nineteenth century, when such now mainstream groups as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormons, the Watchtower Society or Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Christ, Scientist or Christian Science, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church appeared in the American cultural landscape, there was quite a bit of spiritual activity. The Second Great Awakening revivals called for a return to "primitive" Christianity, but there were also such barely remembered texts and movements as Oahspe (more) which suggested a sort of new age of spirituality.

The origin of Spiritualism in the United States is generally dated 1848, with the table-tapping of the Fox Sisters (more). Later, they admitted that their activities were a hoax, but some spiritualists believed that the confession itself was not true (more). Those last two links, by the way, provide a wealth of information on nineteenth century Spiritualism.

The later Spiritualists

Spiritualism is in some ways a reflection of the rugged individualism of the national character of the United States. Nope, Pilgrim, I'm not suggesting that John Wayne was a spiritualist, but spiritualism was "an individualistic, equal-opportunity movement" (source). Women, including presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull, had more opportunities for leadership in Spiritualism than in mainstream churches, opportunities also provided by Christian Science and the Seventh-day Adventists. (Check a fascinating AC article, "Spiritualism: A Form of Female Empowerment?" (here).

Spiritual life does not get more individualistic than being able to communicate directly with the spirits. Spiritualists later split into two general branches of development. One was to take a more institutional, organized approach to spiritualism in the form of such as the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (website). Some Spiritualist organizations claimed to be Christian in nature, while others did not. These organizations often were as vocal in their rejection of fraudulent practices as were opponents of Spiritualism.

The other was to maintain one's individualism, as an independent teacher and medium. For a system of beliefs that is not bound to a text (there are no holy books of Spiritualism), there is room for a great deal of ongoing development, based upon one's own experience. Many such independent Spiritualists claim no specific religious affiliation. There is a great deal of independent, even casual Spiritualist activity today. See, for example, Wayne Thomas's AC article, "The Séance in the Dark" (here).

Even today, there are Spiritualist churches and camps across the United States. Not far from where I live, although I have never visited it, is the Cassadega Spiritualist Camp (website), a whole unincorporated town of Spiritualists, with a bookshop, a full weekly schedule of services, classes, and individual consultations, as well as a program for licensing mediums.

You can find a thorough article on Spiritualism in Wikipedia (here).

You can also learn about a rumor that Spiritualists poisoned a famous entertainer (here).

Note: As with my articles on other spiritual traditions, I am neither affirming nor denying anyone's beliefs. I also emphasize that I refer to other organizations here simply to provide cultural context, and I certainly mean no offense to anyone.