Spiritualism is a new religious movement based on the belief that the spirits of the dead exist and have the ability and inclination to communicate with living people. Hereafter, or "spirit world," is seen by the spiritualists, not as a static place, but as a place where the spirits continue to evolve. Both these beliefs: that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans, leading spiritualists to a third belief, that spirits are capable of providing useful knowledge about moral and ethical issues, and about the nature of God. Some spiritualists will talk about the concept they call a "spirit guide" - a special, often contacted spirit, that is relied upon for spiritual guidance. Spiritism, the branch of spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and today is mostly practiced in Europe and Latin America, especially in Brazil, emphasizes reincarnation.
Spiritualism flourished and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s through the 1920s, especially in English-speaking countries. In 1897, spiritualism was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, largely drawn from the middle and upper classes.
Spiritualism developed for half a century without canonical texts or formal organizations, achieving magazine cohesion, tours by trans lecturers, camp meetings, and missionary activities of successful mediums. Many prominent spiritualists are women, and like most spiritualists, support causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened because of allegations of media fraud, and formal spiritualist organizations began to emerge. Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Video Spiritualism
Confidence
Medium and spirit
Spiritualists believe in the possibility of communication with the spirits of the dead, whom they regard as "human discarnate". They believe that the gifted medium of spirits for such communication, but anyone can be a medium through learning and practice. They believe that spirits are capable of growing and perfect, progressing through a higher plane or plane, and that the afterlife is not a static state, but a place where spirits evolve. Both beliefs - that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits can live on higher planes - leads to a third belief, that spirits can provide knowledge of moral and ethical issues, as well as about God and the hereafter. Therefore many believers speak of a "spirit guide" - a special spirit, often contacted, and relied upon for worldly and spiritual guidance.
According to the spiritualists, anyone may receive the spirit message, but formal communication sessions (sà © Å ances) are held by the media, who claim thus to receive information about the afterlife.
Religious view
Declaration of Principles
As an informal movement, Spiritualism has no clear set of rules, but Spiritualist organizations have adopted variations on some or all of the "Principles of Declaration" developed between 1899 and 1944 and revised in 2004. In October 1899, six articles of the "Principle Declaration" were adopted by National Spiritualist Association at a convention in Chicago, Illinois. Two additional principles were added by the NSA in October 1909, at a convention in Rochester, New York. Finally, in October 1944, a ninth principle was adopted by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, at a convention at St. Louis, Missouri.
1. We believe in Infinite Intelligence.
2. We believe that the phenomenon of Nature, whether physical or spiritual, is the expression of Infinite Intelligence.
3. We affirm that a correct understanding of the expression and living accordingly, is the true religion.
4. We affirm that the existence and personal identity of the individual continues after the so-called death change.
5. 5. We affirm that communication with the so-called dead is a fact, scientifically proven by the phenomenon of Spiritualism.
6. We believe that the highest morality is contained in the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
7. We affirm individual moral responsibility and that we create our own happiness or unhappiness as we obey or disobey the physical and spiritual laws of Nature.
8. We affirm that the door to reform is never closed to any soul here or hereafter.
9. We affirm that the teachings of Prophecy and Healing are divine attributes proven through the Middle Ages.
Protestant Christianity
When spiritism arose in Protestant Christian circles, it acquired the same features as Protestantism, from its moral system to practices such as Sunday worship and singing hymns. Nevertheless, on the important points, Christian Protestant and spiritualism are different. Spiritualists do not believe that the works or the faith of a mortal during a short lifetime can serve as a basis for establishing the soul into the eternity of Heaven or Hell; they see the Hereafter as containing a hierarchical "sphere", through which each spirit can progress. Spiritualists are different from Protestant Christians because the Judeo-Christian Bible is not the primary source from which they gain knowledge of God and the afterlife: for them, their personal contact with the spirit provides it.
There are quite a few spiritualist churches explicitly Christian in theology, forms of worship and praise, and liturgical orientation. Among these Christian spiritualist groups are the historically African American denominations collectively known as the "Spiritual Church Movement", a group that includes multi-church organizations such as the Metropolitan Christendom Churches, and the International Spiritual Pentecostal Society of Christ.
Judaism
It is held by some adherents of Judaism whose spiritualism is strictly prohibited by the Bible (Tanakh). In the Book of Leviticus, one of the books about the law of God to Moses, it says that the Lord said: "I will put my face upon those who turn to the medium and spiritually to prostitute themselves by following them, and I will cut them off from their possessions. (Leviticus 20: 6).
However, among the Jews who are inclined to spiritualism, it is common to refer to the mediumship trance as "prophecy," a "vision," or "dream," and cite as texts of verse verses from Numbers 12: 6 where God says , "Hear my words: If any of you are a prophet of God, I will manifest myself in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream."
Islam
In Islam, only rarely do some traditions - especially Sufism - considers communication with possible human spirits. Most Muslims find it impossible.
However, the majority of the followers of Islam believe in the existence of the spirit as a fundamental aspect of their religion. However, these spirits are not from humans but from the creation of the third created by God (other than the creation of man and angel) called jinn. Jin is a spirit made of smoke without smoke, in a universe that is not visible to the eyes of men, who are also submissive to the law of God and, just like anyone else, can enter Heaven or Hell. The famous Jin in the Muslim tradition is Satan, which is contrary to Christian belief that he is a fallen angel. Communication with this "spirit", whether the spirit is good or evil in nature, is generally not encouraged in Islam.
In addition, the concept of Tawassul recognizes the existence of spirits both in higher realms of existence closer to God, and thus people can ask something from God through their virtues.
Spiritism
Spiritism, the spiritual branch developed by Allan Kardec and today mostly found in Brazil, has emphasized reincarnation. According to Arthur Conan Doyle, most of the English spiritualists in the early twentieth century disregarded the doctrine of reincarnation, some supported it, while a significant minority was opposed, since it was never mentioned by spirits contacted at Sense. Thus, according to Doyle, it is the empirical determination of Anglophone spiritualism - his attempt to develop a religious view of the observation of phenomena - which made the spiritualists of this period from embracing reincarnation.
Occult
Spiritualism also differs from occult movements, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn or contemporary wiccan lizards, in spirits that are not contacted to gain magical powers (with the exception of power for healing). Eliphas LÃÆ'§ vi, who is considered the founder of the occult, strongly rejects Spiritism and paves the way for eternal competition between the occultist and the spiritualist. Later, Madame Blavatsky (1831-91), founder of Theosophical Society, practiced only mediums to contact powerful spirits capable of conferring esoteric knowledge. Blavatsky does not believe that these spirits are dead men, and have belief in reincarnation that is different from most spiritualist views. Spiritualists at the time regarded theosophy as unscientific and equally occult and cult. Theosophists view spiritualism as unsophisticated and unpolitic.
Maps Spiritualism
Origins
Spiritism first appeared in the 1840s in the "Burned District" in northern New York, where previous religious movements such as Millerism and Mormonism had emerged during the Second Awakening.
The New York State region is an environment where many thoughts of direct communication with God or angels are possible, and that God will not behave violently - for example, that God will not condemn an ​​unbaptized infant immortal in Hell.
Swedenborg and Mesmer
In this environment, the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and the teachings of Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) provide an example for those who seek direct personal knowledge of the afterlife. Swedenborg, who claimed to communicate with the spirit while awake, described the structure of the spirit world. Two features of his view resonate with early spiritualists: first, that there is not a Hell and a Heaven, but a series of higher and lower heaven and hell; secondly, that the spirit is the mediator between God and man, so the divine sometimes uses them as a means of communication. Although Swedenborg warns against seeking spiritual contact, his works seem to have inspired others to desire to do so.
Swedenborg was once a highly respected inventor and scientist, achieving several engineering innovations and studying physiology and anatomy. According to New Age, Neopagan, and the Religious Movement, "in 1741, he also began to have a series of intense mystical experiences, dreams and visions, claiming that he had been called by God to reform Christianity and introduce a new church."
Mesmer did not contribute to religious beliefs, but he brought the technique, which came to be known as hypnotism, which claimed to cause trance and caused the subject to report contact with supernatural beings. There are many professional performances attached to the Mesmerism demonstrations, and practitioners teaching in the mid-19th century North America seek to entertain their audiences as well as to demonstrate the method for personal contact with the divine.
Perhaps the most famous of those who combine Swedenborg and Mesmer in a typical North American synthesis is Andrew Jackson Davis, who calls his system a "harmonious philosophy". Davis is a Mesmeris practitioner, faith healer, and fortune teller from Blooming Grove, New York. He is also strongly influenced by the socialist theory of Fourierism. His 1847 book, The Nature Principle, His Divine Revelation, and Voice to Humanity, was dictated to a friend when in a trance state, finally becoming the closest thing to canonical works in the spiritualist movement that extreme individualism prevents the development of a coherent world view.
Movement-transfers link
Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848, as the beginning of their movement. On that date, Kate and Margaret Fox, from Hydesville, New York, reported that they had been in contact with spirits who were later claimed to be murdered gambling spirits whose bodies were found at home, although there were no such records. someone ever found. The Spirit is said to have been communicated through the sounds of knocking, heard by the audience. Sensory evidence appeals to practical-minded Americans, and the Fox sisters become a sensation. As the first celebrity media, the sisters quickly became famous for their public role in New York. However, in 1888 the Fox sisters acknowledged that this "contact" with the spirit was a hoax, although soon they retracted the confession.
Amy and Isaac Post, Quiz Hicksite of Rochester, New York, had known the Foxes for a long time, and brought the girls to their homes in the late spring of 1848. Immediately convinced of the communication truth of the sisters, they became early converts and introduced young media to their quaker circle of radical friends.
As a result, many of the early participants in spiritualism were radical Quaker and others involved in the medieval reform movement of the nineteenth century. These reformers feel uncomfortable with the more prominent churches because the churches do not do much to fight slavery and even less to promote women's rights.
Such relationships with reform movements, often radically socialist, were prepared in the 1840s, as exemplified by Andrew Jackson Davis examples. After 1848, many socialists became enthusiastic spirits or occultists. Socialist ideas, especially in the Fourieris vein, had a decisive influence on Kardec and other Spiritists.
The most popular trans lecturer before the American Civil War was Cora L. V. Scott (1840-1923). Young and beautiful, her performance on the stage fascinates men. His audience is fascinated by the difference between his physical character and his eloquence by which he speaks about spiritual things, and finds contrasting support for the idea that spirits speak through him. Cora married four times, and on every occasion adopted her husband's last name. During his period of greatest activity, he was known as the Cora Hatch.
Another famous female spiritualist is Achsa W. Sprague, who was born November 17, 1827, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. At the age of 20, he fell ill with rheumatic fever and credited his ultimate recovery to intercession by the spirits. A very popular trance lecturer, he traveled about the United States until his death in 1861. Sprague was an abolitionist and a women's rights advocate.
However, another prominent spiritualist and trans-trance medium before the Civil War was Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825-1875), of a mixed race, who also played a part in the abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, many abolitionists and reformers distanced themselves from the spiritualist movement; among the skeptics is the famous abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.
Another social reform movement with significant Spiritualist involvement is an effort to improve the conditions of the Native Americans. As Kathryn Troy notes in a study of Indian ghosts at meetings:
Undoubtedly, at some level Spiritualists recognize the Indian ghosts that appear in the spirits as a symbol of further sin and guilt from the United States in relation to Native Americans. Spiritualists are literally haunted by the presence of the Indians. However, for many people, the guilt is not appeased: but, to deal with the haunting and straightening, they work hard. Spiritualist political activism on behalf of the Indians is the result of combining white mistakes and the fear of divine judgment with a new sense of purpose and responsibility.
Believers and skeptics
In the years after the sensation that the Fox sisters welcomed, the demonstration of the medium (eg ance and automatic writing, for example) proved to be a lucrative venture, and soon became a popular form of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. The Fox sisters must earn a living in this way and others will follow in their footsteps. The skills of playing the show become an increasingly important part of spiritualism, and the visible, audible, and tangible proof of the spirits increases as the competitive medium to pay for the audience. As an independent commission of independent investigations, especially the 1887 Commission Seybert's report, fraud is widespread, and some of these cases are prosecuted in court.
Despite many examples of dishonesty, the appeal of spiritualism is strong. Prominent in the ranks of his followers are those who mourn the death of a loved one. Many families during the American Civil War have seen their people go and never come back, and battlefield images, produced through new media of photography, show that their loved ones not only die in enormous numbers, but very terrible. as well. One of the most famous cases is Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving over her son's loss, organized a sà © ra at the White House attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln. The spiral of spiritualism during this time, and then during World War I, was a direct response to the victims of the great war.
In addition, the movement attracted reformers, who by chance found that the spirits favored such causes [i] jour as the abolition of slavery, and equal rights for women. It also appeals to some people who have a materialist orientation and reject organized religion. In 1854, utopian socialist Robert Owen was transformed into spiritualism after "sittings" with the American medium of Mary B. Hayden (credited with introducing spiritualism to England); Owen made a public profession of his new belief in its publication of rational quarterly review and then wrote a pamphlet, The future of mankind; or the great and glorious revolution of the future which will be done through the agency of spirits departing from good and superior men and women.
Many scientists who investigate the phenomenon also become converts. They included chemists and physicists William Crookes (1832-1919) and evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). Nobel laureate Pierre Curie was impressed by Eusapia Palladino's current show and advocated their scientific studies. Other prominent followers include journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849-1912) and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930).
Doyle, who lost his son Kingsley in World War I, was also a member of the Ghost Club. Founded in London in 1862, the focus is on scientific studies of alleged paranormal activity to prove (or disprove) the existence of paranormal phenomena. Famous club members include Charles Dickens, Sir William Crookes, Sir William F. Barrett, and Harry Price. Ance Paris from Eusapia Palladino was attended by enthusiastic Pierre Curie and dubious Marie Curie. The famous doctor in New York City, John Franklin Gray, is a prominent spiritualist.
The claims of the spiritualists and others about the reality of ghosts were investigated by the Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882. The people formed the Ghost House Committee.
Prominent researchers who uncovered fraud cases came from diverse backgrounds, including professional researchers such as Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and Harry Price of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, and professional experts such as John Nevil Maskelyne. Maskelyne exposes the Davenport brothers by performing in the audience during their performances and explaining how the trick was done.
Hereward Carrington psychic researcher exposes cheeky media tricks, such as those used in slate writing, counter-table, trumpet medium, materialization, closed letter reading, and spirit photography. The skeptic Joseph McCabe, in his book What is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? (1920), documenting many of their fraud media and tricks.
Magicians and writers about magic have a long history of exposing methods of medium fraud. During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini conducted a well-publicized campaign to expose fraudulent media; he insisted that "Up to now everything I have investigated has been the result of a deceptive brain." Other magicians or wizards of wizard-writers from the spiritualist media have included Chung Ling Soo, Henry Evans, Julien Proskauer, Fulton Oursler, Joseph Dunninger, and Joseph Rinn.
In February 1921, Thomas Lynn Bradford, in an experiment designed to ascertain the whereabouts of the hereafter, committed suicide in his apartment by blowing the pilot light on his heater and turning on the gas. After that date, no further communication from him was received by the partner he or she recruited for the purpose.
Unorganized movement
The movement quickly spread throughout the world; though only in England that extends as in the United States. Spiritual organizations were formed in America and Europe, such as the London Spiritualist Alliance, which published a newspaper called The Light , featuring articles such as "Ance's Night Sight in Spiritual Sense", "Ghosts in Africa "and" Chronicles of Spirit Photography ", advertisements for" Mesmeris "and patent medicines, and letters from readers about personal contact with ghosts.In Britain, in 1853, an invitation to tea among the prosperous and fashionable often including turning tables, a type of sà © và © es where spirits are said to communicate with people who sit around tables by tilting and turning tables.One of the converted figures is the French pedagogy, Allan Kardec (1804-1869) , who made the first attempt to systematize the practices and ideas of movement into a consistent philosophical system.The Kardec books, written in the last 15 years of his life, became the basis of the textual spirit ism, which is widespread in the Latin countries. In Brazil, Kardec's ideas are embraced by many followers today. In Puerto Rico, Kardec's book was widely read by the upper classes, and eventually gave birth to a movement known as mesa blanca (white table).
Spiritualism is primarily a movement of the middle and upper classes, and is especially popular with women. American Spiritualists will meet in private homes for ances, in lecture rooms for trans lectures, at state or national conventions, and in summer camps attended by thousands. Among the most significant of the camp meetings were Camp Etna, in Etna, Maine; Onset Bay Grove, in Onset, Massachusetts; Lily Dale, in western New York State; Camp Chesterfield, in Indiana; Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp, in Wonewoc, Wisconsin; and Lake Pleasant, in Montague, Massachusetts. In setting up a camp meeting, the spiritualists took the form developed by US Protestant denominations in the early nineteenth century. Spiritist camp encounters lie most densely in New England, but also established throughout the upper Midwest. Cassadaga, Florida, is a gathering of leading spiritualist camps in the southern states.
A number of spiritualist magazines emerged in the nineteenth century, and this was largely done to withstand joint movements. Among the most important are the weekly Banner of Light (Boston), Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago), Thoughts and Materials (Philadelphia) ), Spiritualist (London), and Medium (London). Other influential periodicals include Revue Spirite (French), Le Messager (Belgium), Annali dello Spiritismo (Italian), El Criterio Espiritista, (Spain), and Harbinger of Light (Australia). In 1880, there were about three dozen monthly spiritualist magazines published worldwide. These magazines are very different from each other, reflecting the great differences among the spiritualists. Some, like the English Spiritual Magazine are both Christian and conservative, openly rejecting the flow of reform that is so strong in spiritualism. Others, such as Human Nature , are strictly non-Christian and support socialism and reform efforts. Others, such as Spiritualist , seek to see the spiritualist phenomenon from a scientific perspective, avoiding discussion of theological issues and reform.
Supernatural books were published for the growing middle class, such as 1852 Mystery , by Charles Elliott, containing "sketches of spirits and spiritual things", including reports of Salem wizard court, Cock Lane Ghost , and Rochester's rap. The Night Side of Nature, by Catherine Crowe, published in 1853, provides definitions and notes about ghosts, doppelganger, sightings and haunted houses.
The mainstream newspapers treat ghost stories and haunt them as they do on other news. An account at the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1891, "bloody enough to satisfy the most meticulous taste", tells of a house believed to be haunted by the ghosts of three murder victims who seek revenge against their murderous son , which eventually driven crazy. Many families, "do not have faith in ghosts", after which moved into the house, but all soon moved again. In the 1920s many "psychic" books were published with a variety of qualities. Such books are often based on visits initiated by the use of Ouija boards. Some of these popular books feature an unorganized spiritism, though largely insensitive.
The movement is highly individualistic, with everyone relying on his own experience and reading to understand the nature of the hereafter. Therefore, organizations are slow to emerge, and when it is rejected by middle and trans faculty. Most of the members were content to attend Christian churches, and especially the universalist churches harbored many spiritualists.
As the spiritualist movement fades, partly through the publicity of fraudulent allegations and partly through the call of religious movements such as Christian science, the Spiritualist Church is organized. This church can claim to be the major remnants of the movement abandoned today in the United States.
More medium
Emma Hardinge Britten, born in London (1823-99) moved to the United States in 1855 and was active in a spiritualist circle as a lecturer and trans organizer. He is best known as the author of the history of the spread of the movement, especially in 1884 The Nineteenth-Century Miracle: the Spirit and Their Work in Every Country on Earth, and his 1870 Modern American Spiritualism Detailed reports of initial claims and investigations begin with the early days of the movement.
William Stainton Moses (1839-92) was an Anglican priest who, in the period 1872-1883, filled 24 notebooks with automatic writing, many of which were said to describe conditions in the spirit world. However, Frank Podmore is skeptical of his ability to communicate with spirits and Joseph McCabe describes Moses as a "deliberate fraud", which shows that apports and all his deeds are the result of deceit.
Adelma Vay (1840-1925), Hungarian spiritual media (origin), homeopath and fortune teller, wrote many books on spiritism, written in German and translated into English.
Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918) is an Italian spiritualist media from the slums of Naples who make a career in Italy, France, Germany, England, the United States, Russia and Poland. Palladino is said by believers to do a spiritualist phenomenon in the dark: multiply tables, produce apports, and materialize spirits. On investigation, all these things are found as deceptive products.
British media William Eglinton (1857-1933) confessed to a spiritualist phenomenon such as the movement of objects and materialization. All his accomplishments are exposed as a trick.
The Bangs Sisters, Mary "May" E. Bangs (1862-1917) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Snow Bangs (1859-1920), are two Chicago-based spiritualist mediums, which are from the paintings of the dead or "Spirit Portraits".
Mina Crandon (1888-1941), a spiritualist medium in the 1920s, is known for producing ectoplasmic hands during his ances sà © Å ©. The hand is then exposed as a trick when biologists find it made from a piece of carved animal heart. In 1934, psychic researcher Walter Franklin Prince described the Crandon case as "the most intelligent, persistent, and fantastic deception in the history of psychic research."
American voice media Etta Wriedt (1859-1942) was exposed as a fraud by Christian physicist Birkeland when he discovered that the sounds produced by his trumpet were caused by chemical explosions caused by potassium and water and in other cases by lycopodium powder.
Another well-known medium is Scottish materialization media Helen Duncan (1897-1956). In 1928, photographer Harvey Metcalfe attended a series of ances at Duncan's home and took Duncan's flash photographs and alleged "materialization" spirits, including his spirit guide "Peggy". The photographs reveal that the "spirits" have been fraudulently produced, using dolls made of masked papier-mÃÆ' Â ¢ chÃÆ'Ã © Ã © painted with old sheets. Duncan was then tested by Harry Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research; the photographs reveal Duncan's ectoplasm made out of thin cotton fabrics, rubber gloves, and cut-out heads from magazine covers.
Evolution
Spiritualists reacted with uncertainty to the theory of evolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Broadly speaking the concept of evolution is in accordance with the spiritualist thinking about the progressive development of humanity. Yet at the same time, the belief in the origins of animal humanity threatens the foundations of the immortality of the spirits, because if humans were not created by God, it is almost absurd that they would be specifically blessed with spirits. This causes the spiritualists to embrace spiritual evolution.
The spiritualists' view of evolution does not stop at death. Spiritualism teaches that after the spirits of death develop into spiritual states in the new sphere of life. According to evolutionary spiritualists it occurs in the spirit world "at a faster rate and in conditions more favorable to growth" than is found on earth.
In a conversation at the London Spiritualist Alliance, John Page Hopps (1834-1911) supported evolution and spiritualism. Hopps claims that mankind has begun to be imperfect "beyond the darkness of the beast" but will rise to "an extraordinary angel of light". Hopps claims humans do not fall but the creatures are uphill and that after their deaths will evolve in a number of environments of existence toward perfection.
Theosophy goes against the spiritualist interpretation of evolution. Theosophy teaches the theory of metaphysical evolution mixed with human devolution. Spiritualists do not accept the theological devolution. To the theosophy of humanity begins in perfect state (see the Golden Age) and falls into the process of progressive materialization (devolution), developing the mind and losing spiritual consciousness. After the collection of experience and growth through repeated reincarnation, mankind will regain the original spiritual state, which is now one of the perfection of self-consciousness. Theosophy and spiritualism are the most popular schools of metaphysical thought especially in the early 20th century and thus always contradict in their different beliefs. Madame Blavatsky is critical of spiritualism; he distanced theosophy from spiritualism as far as he could and fellowship with the occult east.
Spiritualist Gerald Massey claims that Darwin's theory of evolution is incomplete:
This theory contains only half the explanation of the origin of man and the need for spiritualism to carry it and complete it. For a while this ascent on the physical side has evolved through the myriads of age, the Divine descendants have also taken place - the human being becomes the spiritual incarnation of God as well as the human development of the creation of the animals. The cause of its development is spiritual. Darwin's theory is not at all against us - we think it requires it; he just does not deal with our side. He can not go lower than earth's dust for life's problems; and for us, our main interest should be in the spiritual realm.
Spiritualists believe that without spiritualism "Darwin's doctrine is a broken link". Gerald Massey says "Spiritualism will accept evolution, and carry it out and make both ends meet in perfect circles."
The famous media that rejects evolution is Cora L. V. Scott, he rejects evolution in his lectures and instead supports a kind of pantheistic spiritism.
Alfred Russel Wallace believes qualitative new things can emerge through the process of spiritual evolution, especially the phenomenon of life and mind. Wallace connects these new things with a supernatural agency. Later in his life, Wallace was an advocate of spiritualism and believed in immaterial origins for higher mental abilities of humans, believing that evolution suggests that the universe has a purpose, and that certain aspects of living organisms can not be explained in terms of pure materialistic process, in a 1909 magazine article entitled "The World of Life", which was later expanded into a book of the same name. Wallace argues in his 1911 book World of Life for a spiritual approach to evolution and describes evolution as "the creative force, the directive mind and the ultimate goal". Wallace believes natural selection can not explain intelligence or morality in humans so it is advised that non-material spiritual powers are responsible for this. Wallace believed that the spiritual nature of humanity can not occur only through natural selection, the origin of spiritual nature must originate "within the invisible universe of spirits".
Oliver Lodge also promotes a version of spiritual evolution in his books Man and the Universe (1908), Making of Man (1924) and Evolution and Creation (1926). The spiritualist element in synthesis is most prominent in Lodge's 1916 Raymond's book, or Life and Death, which revives a great public interest in paranormalism.
After the 1920s
After 1920, spiritualism developed in three different directions, all of which exist today.
Syncretism
The first of these continues the tradition of individual practitioners, organized in media-centered circles and clients, without any hierarchy or dogma. Already at the end of the nineteenth century spiritualism became increasingly syncretic, a natural development in a movement without central authority or dogma. Today, among these irregular circles, spiritualism is similar to the movement of the new age. However, theosophy with the introduction of Eastern religion, astrology, ritual magic and reincarnation are examples of a closer predecessor of the movement of the new century of the 20th century. Syncretic spiritualists today are very heterogeneous in their beliefs about issues such as reincarnation or the existence of God. Several new beliefs and appropriate neo-pagan beliefs, while others call themselves "spiritualist Christians," continue the tradition by carefully incorporating spiritualist experiences into their Christian faith.
Spiritualist Church
The second direction taken is to adopt a formal, patterned organization after Christian denomination, with an established liturgy and a set of seven principles, and training requirements for the media. In the United States the spiritualist churches are mainly affiliated with either the National Spiritualist Association of Churches or the loose denominational group known as the spiritual church movement; in the United Kingdom the main organization is the National Association of Spiritualists, founded in 1890.
Formal education in spiritual practice emerged in the 1920s, with organizations such as the William T. Stead Center in Chicago, Illinois, and continued today with Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall in England, and the Morris Pratt Institute in Wisconsin, USA.
The diversity of beliefs among organized spiritualists has led to some schisms, most notably in England in 1957 between those who hold the movement to become a sui generis religion (with its own unique characteristics), and the minority regard it as a denomination in Christianity. In the United States, this distinction can be seen between the less Christian organizations, the National Spiritualist Church Association, and the more Christian spiritual church movement.
The practice of organized spiritualism today resembles another religion, has discarded some of the performances of the show, especially the elements that resemble art art. Thus, there is a much greater emphasis on the "mental" medium and the almost complete aversion of the seemingly miraculous "materialization" mediator who so fascinates early adherents like Arthur Conan Doyle. The first spiritualist church in Australia is United Stanmore & amp; The Spiritualist Church of Enmore was founded in 1913. In 1921, Conan Doyle gave a farewell speech to Australia there.
Psychic research
Already as early as 1882, with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), parapsychologists appeared to investigate spiritualist claims. SPR's investigation into spiritualism reveals many fraudulent media that contribute to a decrease of interest in the physical medium.
See also
- Camp Chesterfield
- List of Spiritualist organizations
- Spiritism
- Spiritualism in fiction
Note
References
Further reading
- Clodd, Edward (1917). Questions: A Brief History and Examination of Modern Spiritualism . Grant Richards, London.
- Doyle, Arthur Conan (1975) History of Spiritualism. Arno Press. New York. ISBN: 9780405070259
- Hall, Trevor H. (1963). The Spiritualists: The Stories 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 . Book of Prometheus. pp. 177-223. ISBNÃ, 0-87975-300-5.
- Lehman, Amy (2009). Victoria Women and Theater Trance: Medium, Spiritualist and Mesmeris in Performance . McFarland. ISBNÃ, 0-7864-3479-1.
- Mann, Walter (1919). The Follies and Frauds of Spiritualism . Rationalist Association. London: Watt & amp; Co.
- McCabe, Joseph. (1920). What is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? The Evidence Provided by Sir A. C. Doyle and Others Demonstrated Drastically . London: Watt & amp; Co.
- Mercier, Charles Arthur (1917). Spiritualism and Mr. Oliver Lodge . London: Mental Culture Company.
- Moreman, Christopher M. (2013). Spiritualist Movement: Talking with the Dead in America and around the World 3 Volume . Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-39947-3.
- Podmore, Frank (1911). New Spiritualism . Henry Holt and Company.
- Price, Harry; Dingwall, Eric (1975). Revelations of a Spirit Medium . Arno Press. Reprint edition 1891 by Charles F. Pidgeon. This rare, forgotten, and forgotten book gives "insider knowledge" of 19th century deception.
- Richet, Charles (1924). Thirty Years of Psychic Research into a Metaphysical Review. Macmillan Company. New York. ISBN: 0766142191.
- Rinn, Joseph (1950). Sixty Years of Psychic Research: Houdini and I Am Among The Spiritualists . Truth finder.
External links
- "American Spirit: A History of the Supernatural" - An hour long historical public radio program exploring American spiritualism.
- The Open Directory Projects page for "Spiritualism"
- Videos and Images from the original Fox Family family home site.
- "Spirit Communication Investigation" - Joe Nickell
- "Spiritualism Revealed: Margaret Fox Kane Confessing Fraud" - Skeptical Report
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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