American Spiritualism

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Spiritualists took up Swedenborg's practice of communicating with inhabitants of the spirit world and made the reception of inspirational spirit messages the central and distinguishing feature of their religion. In this, they parted from Swedenborg's example, democratizing a practice that he had warned should be strictly limited.

Another major component of Spiritualist ideology and practice derived from the heterodox medical practices developed by Viennese physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) and elaborated upon by his students. Mesmer postulated the existence of an invisible but universally pervasive and scientifically demonstrable magnetic fluid called "animal magnetism." Mesmer believed that the manipulation of one's personal portion of the fluid during hypnosis--a practice that came to be called mesmerism--could induce physical and spiritual healing. Spiritualists incorporated the magnetic fluid into their cosmology, and the trance into their practice.

A third important ideological element of Spiritualism was the communitarian philosophy of 18th-century French socialist reformer Charles Fourier (1772-1837). He had suggested that social and spiritual harmony required the reorganization of human society into small communities and the establishment of all human relationships--from economic ones to sexual ones--on natural forces of attraction. His followers in the United States attempted in the 1840s and early 1850s to apply his principles through the formation of experimental communities called "phalanxes," particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. Though most phalanxes were very short-lived, Fourier's ideas continued to influence American social reformers. With the combination of Swedenborgianism, mesmerism, and Fourierism, the heart of Spiritualist belief was complete.

Cultural Contexts

Several features of American life had combined by the middle of the 19th century to produce both an enormous expansion of spiritual opportunity and a profound spiritual malaise. The republican ideology of the American Revolution had encouraged a questioning of traditional sources of religious authority and exalted the validity of the individual conscience. At the same time, intensifying currents of revivalism and Romantic idealism put a premium on personal religious experience and direct individual contact with the divine.

Many socio-economic and political developments fostered in many Americans an uneasy feeling that their cosmos was cold and that their society had exchanged moral direction for excessive materialism. To these people, Spiritualism offered a consistent theology and cosmology. It postulated a comforting hierarchy of invisible spirits who served as agents of divine activity and cosmic order. Spiritualists believed that warm, friendly, and "familiar" spirits guided their consciences and their society in accordance with God's will, took a strong interest in their personal concerns, and soothed them with images of a domestic and sentimental cosmos. Their democratization of religious power permitted them to tap the wisdom of the spirit world independently of institutionalized churches and ministers, and to seek religious truth from sources other than the Bible. It promised spiritual harmony, unity, and order among all humans.

Spiritualists found in the spirits' promise of a coming utopian age not only spiritual comfort but also a rationale for their continuing dedication to the variety of moral and social reform movements of the day, particularly abolitionism, women's rights, communitarianism, temperance, marriage reform, prison reform, and peace and Christian nonresistance. Spiritualism was particularly important as a vehicle for women's rights activity, since it offered women opportunities for both religious roles denied them by most other religious groups and healing roles denied them by the medical establishment.

There were, of course, other reasons for Spiritualism's appeal. It provided consolation for those whose loss of friends and relatives to the common occurrence of premature death left them wanting scientific assurance that the soul survived the dissolution of the physical body, the certainty of future reunion with loved ones in the afterlife, and an opportunity to chat with the departed in the meantime.

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