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Swedenborg claimed to be able to communicate with spirits and travel through the spirit world, and his followers believed that he was a highly skilled medium. He wrote many books on his experiences, though he said that the books were not written by himself. Rather, he claimed they were inspired by spirits and angels from the spirit world. Some of his books, he claimed, were inspired by infants. He also claimed to have developed skillful powers of clairivoyance and psychic ability. From his study of dreams, Swedenborg concluded, came predictions of future events.
Swedenborg demonstrated his ability before Queen Louisa Ulrica of Sweden. He told her that he knew about a secret correspondence that she had had with her brother while he was still alive because he was able to communicate with his dead spirit. Swedenborg also helped people find things that deceased relatives had left for them. (Toksvig, 185)
The idea that spirits actively help people and that mediumship can prove the existence of an afterlife was developed by Swedenborg and ultimately led to modern spiritualism. Another main idea of spiritualism, the idea that one can develop one's soul through doing good out of love for God and shunning evil, was also developed by Swedenborg. Swedenborg combined these ideas with Christianity, while later on modern spiritualism would be more all encompassing.
After Swedenborg's death, a medium named Andrew Jackson Davis is said to have channeled Swedenborg's spirit in 1844 so that Swedenborg could continue his work. In New York, he gave lectures while in a trance and they were published as The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and Voice to Mankind. This included "an evolutionary account of the origin and growth of the universe, a system of mystical philosophy, and an account of the relations between the spirit and the material world. . ." (Nelson, 53)
Swedenborgians, as his followers came to be called, have survived as organized religious groups. The two primary groups in the United States go by the name of the Church of New Jerusalem. A profile of the Church of the New Jerusalem is available on this site.
Modern spiritualism dates to March 1848 in Hydesville, New York. On December 11, Mr. and Mrs. John and Margaret Fox and their daughters, Catherine and Margaretta, moved into a house that was rumored to be haunted. The family experienced unexplained noises such as rapping sounds. The girls devised a system of communication with the entity making the noises. Specified numbers of raps meant "yes," "no," or different letters of the alphabet. Eventually they discovered that the communicating spirit was a man named Charles B. Rosna, who had been murdered by the previous owner of the house.
Reports of these strange communications became known to the public and hundreds of people flocked to the house to witness the supernatural phenomena that occurred. More spirits began to communicate with Margaretta and Catherine, and the two went on tour to promote spriritualism. Eventually, other people began to practice being mediums. In 1853, the first Spiritualism Church was founded and within two years Spiritualism claimed to have two million followers. (Anomalies Article: Spiritualism)
The main belief of Spiritualists is that a spirit world coexists overlapping the material world. When a person dies, his or her soul moves to the spirit world and will continue to progress for eternity. Each progression of the soul takes it closer to God. People can develop their souls through developing spiritual qualities in either this world or the next. Spiritualists' belief in the afterlife differs from other religions such as Christianity in that they believe the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living through mediums and psychics, and that they actively act as guides to help the living develop their souls.
Spiritualism has several main priniciples that its followers abide by. These can vary in number from seven to nine depending on their source. Here are some according to New-Age On-Line Australia
1. Vibration: Everything and everyone in the universe vibrates. Turmoil and negative feelings cause low (slow) vibration, and happiness and love cause high (fast) vibration. You can sense the vibrations in a room, object or person. God has the highest vibration of all. Mediums are able to communicate with the spirit world because they can raise their vibration high enough to contact it.In this way, mediums are able to give messages from departed spirits to their living relatives and friends.
2. Healing: Spiritual healing is related to the concept of vibration. The healer raises his or her vibration to allow positive healing energy to course through them. Positive thoughts and actions create positive energy throughout the world, and the healer draws on this. The healer acts as a channel for healers from the spirit world. A healer can heal by working on someone's aura who is with them, or heal someone far away through meditation. According to Spiritualists, spiritual healing can alleviate physical and emotional problems. 3. Psychics and Predicting the Future: Spirits in the spirit world can see more variables in a person's life, and so can give accurate predictions on what is most likely to going to happen to that person in the future. Spiritualists are quick to say that psychics do not tell what is definitely going to happen, just what is most likely to happen. 4. New Age Connection: Spiritualism has contributed significantly to the more generalized new age movement. The New Age movement is a vague term for an ecclectic group of ideas that derive from Eastern religious traditons, Western religious traditions, and Paganism. In general, New Agers believe spirituality is very individual and that all people are divine. Some New Agers believe even the trees and earth are divine, and others believe in reincarnation. The way the New Age movement has derived itself from spiritualism is in some of its methods of developing spirituality. Many New Agers believe in spiritual healing, channeling, ESP, dream interpretation, and many other psychic and supernatural phenomeona as ways of developing spirituality by contacting spirits or getting in touch with one's past lives. Thse are all methods spiritualists use to communicate with the spirit world. Spiritualism is often referred to as a new age religion.
Claims of fraud: Many people believe that the channeling abilities claimed by many spiritualists are fradulent. Psychics often speak very fast when channeling and are said to be good at reading people's responses to see if they are saying anything that rings true. They then make educated guesses about the situation. For instance, when a psychic finds out there was a death in someone's family, he or she may correctly say that the death occurred in a hospital (since this is often the case.) They may mention a dead child's love for stuffed animals (which is true of many children). Adler Skeptics say that mediums rattle off vague statements while in a "trance" until they hit on something that rings true for their customer. Then they just make educated guesses about what happened.
In one study, a linguist recorded various mediums who claimed to be channeling spirits from various times and places in history. (Roberts) When the linguist studied the accents these mediums took on while claiming to channel the spirit, she discovered that the accents often did not match the time and place from which the spirit was said to come from. Often times, a medium's accent would change while channeling the same spirit. Skeptics say this shows that mediums and psychics are frauds.
Many skeptics have said that people easily agree with what they're told. According to Jill Neimark in "Do the Spirits Move You?"
"The tendency for people to agree with what they've been told at readings has been dubbed the Barnum effect, in honor of P.T. Barnum's line, 'There's a sucker born every minute.' A legendary test of the Barnum effect was offered in Paris in the 1970s, by Michel Gauquelin, who placed an ad offering free personal horoscopes. Later, 94 percent of the recipients rated their horoscope accurate. Each person had received the same horoscope, that of one of France's most notorious mass murderers. The Barnum effect is heightened incredibly in one-on-one readings, simply because of the way most psychics approach them. Many offer a kind of messianic authority that both elevates and deflates the listener, and that may veer from warmly embracing to hostile -- an all-knowing blend of mothers milk and a slap in the face."
Appeal to women: Spiritualism, since its beginning, has always especially appealed to women. Women spiritualists greatly outnumber male spiritualists and there are many reasons. Women have traditionally been left out of leadership positions in religions such as Christianity and Judaism. Cultic movements that involve experiences like possession have often attracted women. While church hierarchy leave women out, religions where spirits chose to possess whomever they want often end up appealing to women because being a medium can give them a crucial role to play in religion. The lack of structure in spiritualism has also attracted women since the lack of hierarchy prevented male dominance. With modern spiritualism's founding in the 19th century, channeling and alternative healing gave women religious leadership and a voice they did not have in other main religions. (Baer) The grouping of Spiritualism with other New Age religions has also encouraged a link between spiritualism and feminism. The New Age movement often looks to ancient religions for its ideas. Many women have started to reject traditionally patriarchical religions by worshipping a Goddess instead of a God. Many women spiritualists prefer to think of God as a Goddess. (Lefkowitz)
Good sections of this site:
Spiritualist Basics
As I mentioned earlier, this is a paper which explains many concepts of Spiritualism.
http://www.webt.com/jloffredo/sbaseNF.htm
The Story of Spiritualism
This site gives a history of Spiritualism starting with Swedenborg and going through
the Fox sisters. It gives a time line of Spiritualist history that goes through the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It gives names of prominent Spiritualists and
offers information on the Society for Psychical Research.
http://www.newage.com.au./library/spiritualism.html
The Seven Principles of
Spiritualism
This gives a detailed explanation for the Seven Principles of Spiritualism that I
mentioned earlier.
http://www.newage.com.au/library/Principles.html
Anomalies Article:
Spiritualism
This site gives a brief history of Spiritualism beginning with the Fox sisters and
going through the nineteenth century.
http://www.sonic.net/~comix/anomalies/articles/ga00005.htm
What is Spiritualism?
This site gives information on Spiritualists' view of death. It also talks about
"spirit guides" and how they convey their teachings to Earth.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~reverent/spiritualism.html
First Spiritual Temple
This is the webpage of the First Spiritual Temple in Brookline, MA. Information about
the church, its history, its services, and events are available here.
http://www.fst.org/
Good Sections of this site
What is Spiritualism?
This site offers Spiritualist views on the afterlife and on how spirits interact with the physical world. It also gives a brief history on Spiritualism's origins. It also gives a link to information on EmanuelSwedenborg.
http://www.fst.org/spirit1.htm
National Spiritualist Association of Churches
This website provides links to local Spiritualist churches which have websites, and
offers the addresses to Spiritualist churches all over the country. It has addtional
pages explaining the principles of Spiritualism and its history.
http://www.nsac.org/
Universal Spiritualist Association
This website gives some information on the Universal Spiritualist Association, which
is a large organization consisting of Spiritualists from all over the nation. It gives
an address and telephone number to contact them and offers some basic information on
spiritualism.
http://www.spiritualism.org/
Harmony Grove Spiritualist
Association
This is another association of Spiritualist churches. This website gives information
on Spiritualist events around the country and tells what the Spiritualists are
currentlydoing. It also offers valuable information on the basics of Spiritualism, its
history, and how mediums and psychics work. It also offers links to other spiritualist
sites.
http://www2.4dcomm.com/hgchurch/indexm.htm
Good Sections of this site
What is Spiritualism
This page gives some of the principles of spiritualism and gives a declaration of its principles.
http://www2.4dcomm.com/hgchurch/HGmWHAT.HTM
Spiritualist Churches
on the Web
This website give links to websites of Spiritualist churches in the U.S.
http://www.nucleus.com/~gateway/sp_rlink.html
Spiritualism- Masterpiece of Deception
This site offers some criticisms of Spiritualism from a Christian perspective.
http://home.cdsnet.net/~rkhaeske/html/spiritualism_-_masterpiece_of_deception.htm
Spiritualism
This is an entry about Spiritualism in an encyclopedia.
http://www.blueshingles.com/researchcentral/paranormal/spiritua.html
New Age Movement
This site offers information on what ideas, both ancient and modern, have contributed
to the New Age movement in general. It relates some of the concepts for Spiritualism to
New Age in general.
http://cis-leazer.org/newage.htm
Psychic Phenomena
This site offers some theories on psychic phenomena. It also gives examples of
psychic prophecies.
http://www.wa.net/~omniverse/omnipsi4.html
Church of New Jerusalem;
Swedenborgianism
This is the Swedenborgianism profile page which is a part of the New Religious
Movements page that this Spiritualism website is a part of. It offers a brief overview
and history of Swedenborg and his religion, and has a similar format to this webpage.
http://etext.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/nrms/borg.html
The Swedenborgian Church
This is one of the main Swedenborgian webpages. It is maintained by a Swedenborgian
church in Massachusetts and offers information on both this church and others in the
U.S. It also gives biographical information on Emanuel Swedenborg and an overview of
the beliefs of the Swedenborgians today.
http://www.swedenborg.org/
Select articles are available through Searchbank for people based in an institution with a license.
Created by
Hilary Chaudhuri
For Soc 257: New Religious Movements
Spring Term, 1998
University of Virginia
Last updated: 07/24/01