Spiritualism
From New Age Village
Commonly considered the modern spiritualist movement of the 19th century, Spiritualism was a religious and philosophical phenomena that started in the United States in 1848. Although often marred by fraud, it popularized the use of mediums or psychics to contact the dead, and spotlighted various forms of paranormal phenomena still widely discussed today.
There are two basic facts in spiritualism: the continuity of personality and the powers of communication after death. It teaches that death works no miracle, that it is a new birth into a spiritual body, the counterpart of the physical which is gifted with new powers.
Contents |
Introduction
Read through our spiritualism library.
- Introduction to Spiritualism
- Historical Review of Spiritualism - Fascinating series of aticles about spiritualism history.
- Spiritualism FAQ
- Spiritualism Glossary
Influential People
Influential figures in Spiritualism.
- Sir William Crookes
- Andrew Jackson Davis
- The Fox Sisters
- Daniel Dunglas Home
- Katie King
- Rev. William Stainton Moses
More people...
Phenomena of Spiritualism
- Apparitions - The term covers all visionary appearances, hallucinations, clairvoyance, and similar unusual perceptions. "Apparition" and "ghost" are frequently used as synonymous terms, though the former is, of course, of much wider significance.
- Apports - The name given to various objects, such as flowers, jewelry, and even live animals, materialized in the presence of a medium.
- Automatic Writing, Drawing, & Painting - The process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. The writer's hand forms the message, and the person is unaware of what will be written.
- Clairvoyance - Form of extra-sensory perception in which a psychic acquires knowledge about a contemporary object, situation, or event by paranormal means.
- Direct Writing, Drawing, & Painting
- Ectoplasm - Mysterious protoplasmic substance streaming out of the body of mediums by the manipulation of which, either by the subconscious self or by discarnate intelligences, phenomena of a super-physical order, including partial and complete materializations, are produced.
- Elongation - Common at spiritualistic séances, a stretching out of the medium's body, till his height is increased by from three inches to nearly a foot. The feat is ascribed to spirit agencies.
- Emanations - Theory of the universe was that it emanated from a great first Being and there was a reciprocity in all things. In man too there exists an astral quality, emanating from the stars, which, whether physical or not, when compared with the physical body may be considered a spirit.
- Levitation - A term in use among spiritualists to denote the raising in the air of the human body or other objects without visible means, and presumably through the agency of disembodied spirits.
- Luminous Phenomena - of frequent occurrence in physical mediumship. On rare occasions they are witnessed in apparent independence of mediumistic conditions. The chronicles of religious revivals are full of instances of transcendental light.
- Materialization - The formation by a spirit of a temporary physical organisation, visible and palpable, by means of which it can come into touch with material objects. Materialisation is the most important of the physical phenomena of spiritualism, and in its earlier stages was confined to the materialising of heads and hands, or vague luminous figures.
- Rappings - Percussive sounds of varying intensity without visible, known or normal agency.
- Sixth Sense - The faculty of spiritual perception, which is distinct from, and higher than, the five physical senses.
- Spirit Photography - Photographs on which alleged spirit-forms are visible.
- Table Turning - Psychic phenomena in which a table is made to rotate, tilt, or rise completely off the ground by the mere contact of the operator's finger-tips, and without the conscious exercise of muscular force.
- Telekinesis - The faculty of moving material objects by thought alone.
- Telepathy - The paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings or activity of another person.
- Thoughtforms - their existence is definitely claimed by occult science and there is interesting evidence to consider it an important experimental problem of psychical research.
- Trance - The term is loosely applied to many varied pathologic conditions— e.g., hypnosis, ecstasy, catalepsy, somnambulism, certain forms of hysteria, and the mediumistic trance.
- Transfiguration
- Xenoglossis - Speaking in tongues unknown to the psychic or medium.
Tools of Spiritualism
- Book Tests - Book tests are experiments to exclude the working of telepathy in mediumistic communications.
- Cabinet - Curtain enclosed space in which mediums claim to condense the psychic energy which is necessary for seance-room manifestations.
- Control - The operator on the "other side" in charge of séance proceedings. This operator may also be called a "guide."
- Cross-Correspondence - Correspondences found in the script of two or more automatic writers acting without collusion, and under such conditions that the possibility of communication by normal means is removed.
- Medium -
- Ouija Board and similar devices -
- Planchette - A planchette is an instrument designed for the purpose of communication with spirits.
- Psychical Research - A scientific inquiry into the facts and causes of mediumistic phenomena.
- Seance - A sitting held for the purpose of communicating with the dead, an essential requirement being that at least one member of the company be possessed of mediumistic powers.
Classic Books
Read classic spiritualism books.
- Spirit Teachings - (By William Stainton Moses) - Spirit Teachings is regarded as Spiritualism's greatest classic. Its "author", the Rev. W. Stainton Moses, regarded as the man who gave Spiritualism its "bible."
- These Mysterious People - (By Nandor Foder) - Short narratives that explore the stories of famous mediums, both past and present.
- Researches into the Phenomena of Spiritualism - (By Sir William Crookes) -
- Psychical Research and Survival - (By Prof. James Hyslop) -
- Contact With the Other World - (By Prof. James Hyslop) -
- Raymond or Life and Death - (Sir Oliver Lodge) - This best-selling book from the turn of the century explores life after death, and focuses in particular on making contact with the author's departed son who was killed in WW1.
- The Vital Message - (By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) - Conan Doyle, the famed inventor of Sherlock Holmes, was also an avid enthusiast of Spiritualism.
- The New Revelation - Doyle continues his study of the other side.
- Was Abraham Lincoln a Spiritualist? - 19th century medium, Nettie Colburn, gained fame as the psychic advisor to the late, great president.
- The Edge of the Unknown - By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
More books...
Articles
- Soul Substance - Classic article that attempts to provide scientific evidence for the existence of the soul.
- The Technique of a Seance - To those unfamiliar with the séance, this article describes the events that typically occur.
- Practical Study of Mediumship - Discusses the phases and variations of mediumship.
- History of the Piper Case - Interesting account about the experiments conducted on a medium from the turn of the century.
Related Topics
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