The Rise of Spiritualism: Media and Skepticism

Image I: The Fox Sisters: Leah, Kate (middle), and Maggie (far right), (Smithsonian)

The rise of modernist Spiritualism can be attributed to a handful of sensational events, though none as significant as the one which took place in the Hydesville, New York home of sisters “Maggie” and Kate Fox. Late one evening in March of 1848, the sisters were rattled by the sounds of an incessant rapping on their walls and furniture. The New York Tribune reported on the phenomenon, attributing the sounds to “spiritual rappings:” a deceased man’s attempts to contact the living from beyond the grave (Diniejko). The publication of the event sparked a cult following and interest in communication with the dead, as both sisters toured England to recount their harrowing tale and participate in requested seances (Smithsonian).

Religious & Scientific Thought Revolutions

Further accredited with the rising interest in communication with the dead were the works of Swedish “mystic” Emmanuel Swedenborg, Naturalist Charles Darwin, and physician Franz Mesmer. Swedenborg’s work as a scientific philosopher and theologist underscored the rising religious reformation that swept England in the Victorian Era, while Darwin’s Origin of Species furthered the religious crisis in his transitioning to focus on Natural Laws (“His Theology”). Franz Mesmer’s magnetism experiments incorporated ideas of transferring energy or other life sources from a stronger body to that of a weaker body. Many believed, at first, that this method could even serve as a form of medical treatment or healing! Ultimately, Spiritualism and its practices served as a gateway for the expansion and exploration of beliefs and scientific knowledge – without imploring the public to completely curb their previously-held religious affiliations (Luckhurst). This collective interest in pursuing new avenues of thought opened the door for Spiritualist exploration, and introduced women’s roles as mediums.

Mediums and the Changing Role of Women

Referenced as the “golden age of belief in supernatural forces,” Victorian England proved entirely receptive to the practice of mediums, who alleged they could channel direct messages from the deceased (Luckhurst). One such woman was Maria Hayden, who journeyed from the United States to England in 1852 to offer her services as a medium – for a set price, of course (Diniejko). Interest in the inner workings of spirit communication undeniably opened a new door for social reform and the place of women in society. Many believed women to be ideal mediums because they were said to have a “more delicate nervous system,” (Luckhurst). It was this belief that provided women with a platform to earn social and financial freedom – not only were they allowed to communicate with the public, they were able to charge for their services and detach themselves from sole dependence on the male figures in their lives.

Literary Influence: Written Media and the Periodical

Images III and IV (Luckhurst)

“There is ‘no time in the recorded history of the world when we do not find traces of preternatural interference and a tardy recognition of them from humanity’” – Arthur Conan Doyle

Cep, Casey. “Why Did so Many Victorians Try to Speak with the Dead?” The New Yorker, 24 May 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/why-did-so-many-victorians-try-to-speak-with-the-dead.

Most significant in the rise and perpetualism of spiritualism spanning the 1800s, however, was the role of media. Spiritualism became a subculture in and of itself due largely in part to a wide range of technologies and practices associated with the movement (Diniejko). Demonstratively, technological innovations propelled fanaticism and heightened mystic intrigue. The use of the word “medium” in describing those who could communicate with the dead was a direct reflection of the multiple “mediums” and formats of communication which the public were provided with (Cep): including but not limited to the development of spirit photography, table moving (Image 3; Luckhurst), and perhaps most notably the circulation of hundreds upon thousands of periodical issues and pamphlets promoting the sensation’s mysticism (Image 4; Luckhurst). 

From the span of the 1850s to the 1880s there was a minimum of one book and more than 100 periodical issues published per week that addressed the topics of spiritualist philosophies and practices (Cep). Key periodicals in circulation included The Occultist (Image 5), The British Spiritualist Telegraph (Image 6), the Spiritualist (Image 7), Human Nature, and Medium and Daybreak (Diniejko). Considering the mass quantity of materials in circulation, the discussion and sensationalism surrounding spiritualism was impossible for the general public to overlook. 

Author Arthur Conan Doyle was so taken by the movement that he paused his drafts of Sherlock to better investigate the subject, and ultimately published over a dozen novels with references to Swedenborg’s works and influence on the rise of Spiritualist theology. Eventually, the quantity of circulated media grew to be so substantial that James Burns established the Progressive Library and Spiritualist Institution in 1863 (Diniejko) that “lent over several thousand volumes” and provided spaces for seances and additional Spiritualist practices (“Progressive Library”). As the discussion furthered, Spiritualist societies cropped up all over England with a mass concentration in London. The early 1870s into 1890s showed the emergence of The Spiritualist Association of Great Britain (1872), the British National Association of Spiritualists (1873), The National Spiritualists’ Federation (1890), and the Spiritualists’ National Union (1901)” (Diniejko).

Images V (“The Occultist”), VI (“The British Spiritual Telegraph”), and VII (“The Spiritualist”)

Spearheading the charge of spirit writing and spiritualist journalism in the late 1890s was W.T. Stead. Asserting that he was able to communicate with the spirit of a woman by the name of Julia Ames, Stead was a prolific proponent of the Spiritualist movement. He believed emphatically in the necessity of documenting, recording, and circulating his and others’ experiences with spirits. His journal, Borderland, proved one of the most influential literary journals of the Spiritualist movement as he attempted to legitimize the connection between the world of the living and dead. His journalistic ventures categorically prompted further media and literary discourse surrounding the nature of communication with the dead, though his journal swiftly descended into questionable personal anecdotes and “ghost stories,” (Crofton).

Skepticism in Propelling Sensation

In furthering the sensationalist spotlight on Spiritualism, it can be affirmed that all publicity is good publicity. With the mass amounts of information circulating and presence of Spiritualist societies naturally came dissenters of Spiritualist practices. Skeptics were determined to expose mediums, spiritual rappings, photography, and table moving as nothing more than a display of trickery – no different from a magician’s sleight-of-hand. This dissenting spark was only further validated by Maggie Fox’s admission in an 1888 issue of the Spiritual Telegraph that her and her sister’s story had always been but a mere fabrication (Smithsonian). 

Magician William S. Marriott attempted to expose fraudulent mediums in his obtaining a copy of Gambols with the Ghosts: a secretly issued periodical to a select audience of mediums with instructions on how to “dupe the public.” Marriott published four exposés in cooperation with Pearson’s Magazine in 1909 and 1910 in which he dismantled the validity of séances and implored that scientists were the “‘ideal subject for the wiles of the conjurer or the medium,’” (Polidoro). Marriott’s work in disproving the spiritualist phenomenon even led Arthur Conan Doyle, once a firm believer, to admit that several of the practices he bore witness to must have been manufactured illusions (Polidoro). 

Further, priests represented a mass body not only skeptical but actively displeased with the newfound fanaticism surrounding spiritual practices and inquiry. Spiritualism directly challenged preconceived Orthodox notions of the afterlife, and what Heaven and Hell represented for those who had passed on into the other world. In opposing these preconceived notions, clergymen condemned all those who dabbled in seances, spirit communications, or spirit rappings as a gross and unfounded display of exhibitionism (Cep). 

What? If I told you all about the tricks?

Upon my soul?—the whole truth, and nought else,

And how there ’s been some falsehood—for your part,

Will you engage to pay my passage out,

And hold your tongue until I’m safe on board?

England’s the place, not Boston—no offence!

I see what makes you hesitate: don’t fear!

I mean to change my trade and cheat no more,

Yes, this time really it ’s upon my soul!

Be my salvation!—under Heaven, of course.

Mr. Sludge, “The Medium” – Dramatis Personae – Robert Browning, Book, Etext, http://www.telelib.com/authors/B/BrowningRobert/verse/dramatispersonae/mrsludge.html.

The cultural relevance of discussions surrounding spiritual skepticism continued to bleed into other literary formats, chiefly that of Robert Browning’s “Mr Sludge, ‘The Medium.’” Though his wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning was rather fond of Swedenborg’s writings on Spiritualism, Robert Browning certainly aligned more with a categorical and cynical skepticism of the movement. “Mr. Sludge” is based on the actual American medium, Daniel Home, with the point of view embodying his hypothetical defense of Spiritualist practices (Armstrong). Though certainly a commentary on the public as well as Browning’s own skepticism surrounding Spiritualism, his poem also serves as an argument into the relevance of discussions involving foundations of truth, imagination, and acquisition of knowledge (Armstrong); ironically not all that dissimilar to the thought revolutions from which Spiritualism first sprung.  

Spiritualism: Sensation and its Impact

In essence, Spiritualism was sensational in its ability to invite the Victorian public to pursue new avenues of thought and possibility. In partnering new technologies with revolutions in scientific and physiological thought, communication with the dead was an exciting new avenue that toyed with the interweaving of realms and provided a safe space for the channeling of grief and loss. In a time period troubled with rising numbers in infant deaths, Civil War, and all-around bloodshed, the plausibility of communicating with deceased loved ones was enough for the public to buy into the methods and theologies of Spiritualism (Cep). At its core, the intrigue and mysticism surrounding the topic was a case study into the human desire for knowledge and understanding of evidence we cannot fully comprehend; it is undeniably the human condition to want to understand that which we cannot. Death, in its ambiguity, is a concept that will always be subject for fascination and study. 

In both asking and never fully answering questions at the heart of spirit communication, the sensationalism of Spiritualism continued well on into the 1900s, imposing lasting effects on today’s society. Skepticism, periodicals, literary documentation and discourse propelled the discussion of the plausibility of spirit communication, in its various formats, to the forefront of mainstream media – and left lasting impressions on the Gothic genre of writing and immortalization of the infamous “ghost story,” (Luckhurst). We see modern spiritualism in the practice of psychics, tarot cards, and healing crystal shops all across the United States and, more expansively, the world. While the sensationalism at the heart of the movement has certainly died down, the remnants of exploring human thought and inquiring into the realities of the Afterlife remain.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Isobel. “Browning’s Mr. Sludge, ‘The Medium.’” Victorian Poetry, vol. 2, no. 1, 1964, pp. 1–9. 

“The British Spiritual Telegraph.” The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals, Pat Deveney’s Database, http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/british_spiritual_telegraph/.  

Cep, Casey. “Why Did So Many Victorians Try to Speak with the Dead?” The New Yorker, 24 May 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/why-did-so-many-victorians-try-to-speak-with-the-dead. 

Crofton, Sarah. “’Julia Says’: The Spirit-Writing and Editorial Mediumship of W. T. Stead.” 19, Open Library of Humanities, 21 Apr. 2013, https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/1547/print/. 

Edited by Andrzej Diniejko, Victorian Spiritualism, https://victorianweb.org/victorian/religion/spirit.html.  

“Gambols With The Ghosts.” American Hauntings, https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/gambols-with-ghosts. 

“His Theology.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emanuel-Swedenborg/His-theology. 

 Luckhurst, Roger. “The Victorian Supernatural.” British Library, 15 May 2014, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-victorian-supernatural. 

Magazine, Smithsonian. “The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 30 Oct. 2012, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-fox-sisters-and-the-rap-on-spiritualism-99663697/. 

Mr. Sludge, “The Medium” – Dramatis Personae – Robert Browning, Book, Etext, http://www.telelib.com/authors/B/BrowningRobert/verse/dramatispersonae/mrsludge.html.

“The Occultist (Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor).” The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals, Pat Deveney’s Database, http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/occultist_hbl/index.html. 

Polidoro, Massimo. “William S. Marriott’s Gambols with the Ghosts.” Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 27, no. 2, 2003. 

“Progressive Library & Spiritual Institution.” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/progressive-library-spiritual-institution.  

“The Spiritualist.” The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals, Pat Deveney’s Journal Database, http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/spiritualist/index.html.