In a post titled “Fascinating Findings“, I wrote about Spiritualism — a 19th century faith tradition that recognized women’s authority in religious matters and that was at the forefront of most progressive movements of the time. The roots of Spiritualism lay in a belief in communication with the dead; indeed, that the dead were not really gone forever, but continued to exist “on the other side.” The initial appeal of such a belief system was to women who suffered mightily due to the high infant mortality rates of the time. The high death toll of the Civil War and the resulting grieving family members led to increased interest — the need to believe — in this phenomenon.
The recently published biography, “The Apparitionists“, tells the story of William Mumler who managed to take photographs which showed images of the dead loved ones of the individuals being photographed. The most famous such subject was Mary Todd Lincoln, whose photograph shows her husband’s spirit looking down on her.
A summary of the story that the book tells is in the New Yorker. The Atlantic Monthly carried a well-researched story on the same topic exactly four years ago (almost to the day).
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In the course of my research, I almost missed the significance of references to spirit communication in some of the letters. However, additional research helped to illuminate the meaning of those references. In the process I also found links between Spiritualism and Theospophy and the ways in which these served to elevate Hindu concepts in the consciousness of Indian as well as Western thinkers.
However, to me the most fascinating aspect of Spiritualism is the fact that, despite being a flawed concept, it made space for fearless thinking regarding other challenging issues of the time. Among these — abolition of slavery, women’s rights, vegetarianism and the theory of evolution!