Spiritualism

From RationalWiki
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Fraud)
m (Psychology)
Line 33: Line 33:
 
===Psychology===
 
===Psychology===
  
Research and empirical evidence from [[psychology]] for over a hundred years has revealed that where there is not fraud, [[mediumship]] and spiritualistic practices can be explained by psychological factors. Trance mediumship which is claimed by the spiritualists to be caused by discarnate [[spirit]]s speaking through the medium have been proven to be personalities from the medium's subconscious mind.<ref>Joseph Jastrow ''Fact and Fable in Psychology'' Macmillan, 1901</ref><ref>Millais Culpin ''Spiritualism and the New Psychology, an Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge'' Longmans, Green & Co., 1920</ref><ref>Wilfrid Lay ''Man's Unconscious Spirit the Psychoanalysis of Spiritism'' Dodd, Mead and company, 1921 </ref><ref>Leonard Zusne, Warren H. Jones ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking'' Psychology Press; 2 edition, 1989 ISBN 0805805087</ref>
+
Research and empirical evidence from [[psychology]] for over a hundred years has revealed that where there is not fraud, [[mediumship]] and spiritualistic practices can be explained by psychological factors. Trance mediumship which is claimed by the spiritualists to be caused by discarnate [[spirit]]s speaking through the medium have been proven to be personalities from the medium's subconscious mind.<ref>Joseph Jastrow ''Fact and Fable in Psychology'' Macmillan, 1901 also see Millais Culpin ''Spiritualism and the New Psychology, an Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge'' Longmans, Green & Co., 1920 and Wilfrid Lay ''Man's Unconscious Spirit the Psychoanalysis of Spiritism'' Dodd, Mead and company, 1921</ref><ref>Leonard Zusne, Warren H. Jones ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking'' Psychology Press; 2 edition, 1989 ISBN 0805805087</ref>
  
 
== Spiritualism in the UK. ==
 
== Spiritualism in the UK. ==

Revision as of 04:15, 30 December 2012

Can such things be?

Paranormal

Icon ghost.svg
The Twilight Zone

Were you looking for spirituality?

Spiritualism is the belief that one can contact the dead through a medium leading a séance.

Contents

Origin

In Hydesville, New York in 1848, the farmhouse of John D. Fox was filled with mysterious rapping sounds. The noises created a buzz throughout town, and the farmhouse became a local phenomenon. Two of the Fox daughters, Margeret and Kate (who the noises seemed to center around) attributed the sound to a spirit named Mr. Splitfoot. Eventually, a pattern was established to the knocks in response to questions, whereby one knock meant yes and two knocks meant no. Leah Fox, the older married sister of Margeret and Kate, returned home for a visit and discovered the town's fascination with the raps. Sensing a great money-making scheme, she took her sisters on the road to Rochester and founded the Society of Spiritualists. As the spirit seemed to follow them, people in Rochester could, for a price, ask the spirit yes or no questions. The sisters went on a tour of cities, including Philadelphia and New York. As Spiritualism increased, so did the number of séances not involving the Fox sisters. Mediums would lead them, asking spirits yes or no questions, which were responded to with the same system of raps.

Exposure

On October 21, 1888, Margeret, done with traveling, wrote to the New York World. She explained that everything the Fox sisters had done was a fraud. They had begun in their house by pulling an apple connected to a string, and eventually discovered that by snapping toe joints against wood, the sound would resonate throughout the house. It is speculated that at the time of the confession, there were 8 million Spiritualists in the United States.

Explanation

Science

There is currently no scientific evidence that spirits can communicate through mediumship. There has been over one hundred years investigation of mediumship and so far all results have proven natural explanations such as fraud and psychological factors, not spirits coming through. Spiritualists are well known for quote mining early reports from parapsychologists and the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in defence of the view that spiritualism has been scientifically proven. There are problems with this as most members of the SPR did not endorse the view that spirits can communicate with mediums and the minority of experiments which claimed to of proven spiritualism were never replicated by any other scientists.

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll have written that some psychical investigators did not use scientific controls in their experiments, so it made it easy for the medium to perform trickery, especially in dark séance conditions.[1]

Fraud

There is a long history of fraud in spiritualist practices such as those found in mediumship and séances. Many mediums have been caught using tricks and even using theatrical props in their séances to convince their audience of the presence of spirits. Most nineteenth-century mediums were caught out in fraud at some point in their careers. (Owen, 2004). On the subject of fraud Paul Kurtz wrote:

No doubt a great importance in the paranormal field is the problem of fraud. The field of psychic research and spiritualism has been so notoriously full of charlatans, such as the Fox sisters and Eusapia Palladino–individuals who claim to have special power and gifts but who are actually conjurers who have hoodwinked scientists and the public as well–that we have to be especially cautious about claims made on their behalf.[2]

Séances always take place in darkness so the poor lighting conditions become an easy opportunity for fraud. Ectoplasm was a substance that spirits take physical form in according to mediums and spiritualists of the 19th and early 20th century however the substance was revealed to be made of cheese-cloth, butter, eggs or soap. Mediums would also use plastic toy dolls, or stick faces from magazines and newspapers onto props to pretend to their audiences spirits were contacting them. Ectoplasm has been an embarrassment for spiritualism and this is the reason no modern day spiritualists mention it. Recent spiritualist practices in the 21st century only focus on mental mediumship.

Well known debunkers of spiritualism included Joseph McCabe author of Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud?, Frank Podmore the author of many books exposing the fraud of mediumship and the book The Follies and Frauds of Spiritualism by Walter Mann

Psychology

Research and empirical evidence from psychology for over a hundred years has revealed that where there is not fraud, mediumship and spiritualistic practices can be explained by psychological factors. Trance mediumship which is claimed by the spiritualists to be caused by discarnate spirits speaking through the medium have been proven to be personalities from the medium's subconscious mind.[3][4]

Spiritualism in the UK.

There are over 300 spiritualist churches in the UK.[5] In April 2008 the British government intends to introduce a law which will make claims made by spiritualists subject to consumer legislation. Consequently if a clairvoyant charges an individual for services and that consumer subsequently deems those services to be "defective" then the consumer will have a legal right to seek compensation and damages.[6] The spiritualist movement is unsure how best to respond to this situation.[7]

See also

References

  • Christine Andreae (1974). Seances and Spiritualists.
  • Ann Braude (2001). Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America.
  • Ruth Brandon (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
  • Jenny Hazelgrove (2000). Spiritualism and British Society Between the Wars.
  • Georgess McHargue (1972). Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms: A Survey of the Spiritualist Movement.
  • Antonio Melechi (2009). Servants of the Supernatural: The Night Side of the Victorian Mind.
  • Alex Owen (2004). The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England.
  • Ronald Pearsall. (2004) Table-Rappers: The Victorians and the Occult.
  • Jim Steinmeyer. (2005) Hiding The Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible.

Footnotes

  1. Robert Todd Carroll The Skeptic's Dictionary Wiley; 1 edition, 2003 ISBN 0471272426
  2. The Problem of Fraud by Paul Kurtz
  3. Joseph Jastrow Fact and Fable in Psychology Macmillan, 1901 also see Millais Culpin Spiritualism and the New Psychology, an Explanation of Spiritualist Phenomena and Beliefs in Terms of Modern Knowledge Longmans, Green & Co., 1920 and Wilfrid Lay Man's Unconscious Spirit the Psychoanalysis of Spiritism Dodd, Mead and company, 1921
  4. Leonard Zusne, Warren H. Jones Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking Psychology Press; 2 edition, 1989 ISBN 0805805087
  5. Spiritualism homepage
  6. Psychic crackdown
  7. Spiritualist response
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support