spiritism - spiritualism - The Skeptic's Dictionary

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head><title>spiritism - spiritualism - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_style/style.css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_style/printstyle.css" media="print"/> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="s1.ico"> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.0"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>  <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-5487a05a7e027f30" async="async"></script>  </head> <body><br /> <div class="container"> <div class="header"> <div class="logo"> <img src="_images/logo_01.png" alt="The Skeptic's Dictionary" width="270" height="60" border="0" />           <br /> by <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/bio.html">Robert Todd Carroll</a> * est. 1994 </div> <div class="slogan"> <img src="_images/slogan_01.gif" alt="A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions" width="362" height="30" /> </div> </div> <div class="menu"> <ul> <li></li><li><a href="http://skepdic.com/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/news/">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/feedback.html">Feedback</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/faq.html">FAQ & Interviews</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tour.html">Site Map</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="middle"> <div class="left"> <h2>Topical Indexes</h2> <ul class="nav_1"> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tialtmed.html">Alternatives to Medicine</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/ticriticalthinking.html">Critical Thinking</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/ticrypto.html">Cryptozoology</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tialien.html">ETs & UFOs</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tifraud.html">Frauds, Hoaxes, Conspiracies</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tijunk.html">Junk Science</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tilogic.html">Logic & Perception</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tinewage.html">New Age</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tipara.html">Paranormal</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tiscience.html">Science & Philosophy</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/tisuper.html">Supernatural</a></li> <li> </li> </ul> <h2>Other Writings</h2> <ul class="nav_2"> <li><a href="http://59ways.blogspot.com/">Unnatural Acts blog</a></li> <li><a href="skeptimedia/skeptimediaarchive.html">Skeptimedia</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/funkarchive.html">Mass Media Funk</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/bunkarchive.html">Mass Media Bunk</a></li> <li><a href="refuge/harmarchive.html">What's the Harm?</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/news/">Newsletter Archives</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/wwwbunk.html">Internet Bunk</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/2good.html">Too good to be true</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/essays.html">Skeptical Essays</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/randr.html">Book Reviews</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/suburbanmyths.html">Suburban Myths</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/memoriam.html">In Memoriam</a></li><li></li> </ul> <h2>Other Resources</h2> <ul class="nav_3"> <li> <a href="http://sd4kids.skepdic.com/"> Mysteries and Science for Kids</a> </li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/UnnaturalVirtue.html">Podcast: Unnatural Virtue archive</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/hollow.html">A Skeptic's Halloween</a></li> <li><a href="http://renish.skepdic.com/AllNotes.html">Editor's Notes</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/getinvolved.html">Get involved</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/future.html">Future Topics?</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/permissions.html">Permission to print</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/report/">Site Statistics</a></li><li></li> </ul> </div> <div class="content"> <div class="it"> <h2>From Abracadabra to Zombies<span class="small"> | <a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html">View All</a></span></h2> <ul class="alphabet"> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#A">a</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#B">b</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#C">c</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#D">d</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#E">e</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#F">f</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#G">g</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#H">h</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#I">i</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#J">j</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#K">k</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#L">l</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#M">m</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#N">n</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#O">o</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#P">p</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Q">q</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#R">r</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#S">s</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#T">t</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#U">u</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#V">v</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#W">w</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#X">x</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Y">y</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/contents.html#Z">z</a></li> </ul> <webContent><h1>spiritism (spiritualism )</h1> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Spiritism or spiritualism is the belief that the human<img border="0" src="graphics/foxsisters.gif" width="195" height="291" style="float: right"> personality survives death and can communicate with the living through a sensitive <a href="medium.html">medium</a>. The spiritualist movement began in 1848 in upstate New York with the Fox sisters who claimed that spirits communicated with them by rapping on tables. (The "raps" were actually made by cracking their toe joints.) By the time the sisters admitted their fraud some thirty years later, there were tens of thousands of mediums holding séances where spirits entertained with numerous magical tricks such as making sounds, materializing objects, making lights glow, levitating tables and moving objects across the room. The mediums demonstrated every variety of psychic power from <a HREF="clairvoy.html">clairvoyance</a> and <a href="clairaudio.html">clairaudience</a> to <a HREF="kinesis.html">telekinesis</a> and <a HREF="telepath.html">telepathy</a>. Repeated charges of fraud did little to stop the spiritualist movement until the 1920's when magicians such as <a HREF="http://www.uelectric.com/houdini/contents.html">Houdini</a> exposed the techniques and methods of deceit used by mediums to fool even the wisest and holiest of men and women. </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">The Hollywood version of <a href="seance.html">séances</a> is fairly accurate: people sitting around a table, holding hands in a darkened room, a faked trance by the medium who passes on to the group any information given by the spirit, often accompanied by tricks such as the levitating table, mysterious sounds, materializing objects, etc. For many, spiritualism was "scientific proof" of life after death, which didn't involve any of the superstitious non-sense of religion. </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Spiritism was and is a worldwide phenomenon. In Italy, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino">Eusapia Palladino</a> was a star medium. In France, Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail was the main promoter of spiritualism. He wrote under the pseudonym of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Kardec">Allan Kardec</a> and introduced the word 'spiritism'. In Germany, <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9503E1D8113EE033A25757C2A9669D946897D6CF"> Anna Abend</a> gained notoriety for swindling people in many nations. In Brazil, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Xavier">Chico Xavier</a> amassed a large following, while claiming to get messages from the dead. <a href="medium.html">James van Praagh, George Anderson, Sylvia Browne, Allison DuBois, and John Edward</a> may think they have cornered the market on the dead, but these folks are tyros compared to Chico Xavier who died in in 2002 at the age of 92. Xavier published over 500 books of messages from the dead. Xavier sold 20 million copies of a book of poems he claimed were dictated to him by spirits. That was in 1932. When he died, his city and state declared three days of official mourning. According to Ronaldo Cordeiro (the Brazilian translator of the SD into <a href="http://brazil.skepdic.com/">Portuguese</a>), letters from dead people allegedly channeled by Xavier were accepted by Brazilian courts as valid evidence in at least 2 murder trials.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3">Progress can be seen in the history of spiritism. In the beginning, such things as raps and taps had to be deciphered. Slates and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritism#Talking_boards">talking boards</a> with messages from the dead came next. As detection was inevitable with any of these cumbersome methods, it soon behooved the mediums to dispense with all such gadgetry and claim to get messages directly from the spirits. The messages would either be spoken, as in channeling, or written, as in automatic writing.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><b>See also</b> <a href="apport.html">apport</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/fordhoax.html">Arthur Ford hoax</a>, <a href="autowrite.html">automatic writing</a>, <a href="chesterfield.htm"> Camp Chesterfield</a>, <a HREF="channeling.html">channeling</a>, <a href="ectoplasm.html">ectoplasm</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/ghosts.html">ghost</a>, <a href="lilydale.html">Lily Dale</a>, <a href="medium.html">medium</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/ouija.html">Ouija board</a>, <a href="seance.html">séance</a>, and <a href="http://skepdic.com/essays/psihistory.html">A Short History of Psi Research by Robert Todd Carroll</a>. </font> </p> <hr align="left" width="25%" noshade> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><b>further reading</b> </font> <p style="text-align: left"><a href="http://skepdic.com/comments/spiritualismcomments.html"><strong>reader comments </strong></a> <p style="text-align: left"><b><font face="Arial" size="3">books and articles</font></b><p style="text-align: left"> <font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0394527402/roberttoddcarrolA/"> Brandon, Ruth. (1983). <i>The Spiritualists</i>. Knopf.</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=B0007F4DK6/roberttoddcarrolA/">Jastrow, Joseph. 1935. <em>Wish and Wisdom: Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief</em>. (Published in 1962 by Dover Books as <em>Error and Eccentricity in Human Belief)</em></a>.</p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0405028016/roberttoddcarrolA/">Houdini, Harry. <i>A Magician Among the Spirits</i> (New York: Harper, 1924).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0879758171/roberttoddcarrolA/">Houdini, Harry. <i> Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: a Complete Exposé</i> (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1981).</a><b> * <a href="http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id=HouMirM&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed">Free online!</a></b> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573921610/roberttoddcarrolA/">Keene, M. Lamar. <i>The Psychic Mafia</i> (Prometheus, 1997).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font size="3"> <a href="http://www.csicop.org/sb/2000-03/i-files.html">Nickell, Joe. 2000. Spirit Painting Part I: The Campbell Brothers.</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font size="3">Nickell, Joe. 2002. Undercover among the spirits. <i>Skeptical Inquirer.</i> 26:2 (March/April), 22–25.</font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0312151195/roberttoddcarrolA/">Randi, James. <i>An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural </i>(N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, 1995).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><font color="#000000"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0879751983/roberttoddcarrolA/">Randi, James. <i>Flim-Flam!</i></a></font> <a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0879751983/roberttoddcarrolA/"> (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books,1982).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0486255514/roberttoddcarrolA/">Rawcliffe, Donovan Hilton. <i>Occult and Supernatural Phenomena</i>(New York: Dover Publications, 1988).</a> </font> </p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1573920215/roberttoddcarrolA/">Stein, Gordon. "Spiritualism," in <i>The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal </i>edited by Gordon Stein (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996).</a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font size="3"><a href="http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/new_age_spiritualism_i_still_havent_found_what_im_looking_for#When:15:10:19Z"> Stollznow, Karen. 2009. "New Age Spiritualism: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For." </a></font></p> <p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"><a HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0879758643/roberttoddcarrolA/">Tanner, Amy. <em>Studies in Spiritism </em>(Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1994).</a></font><p style="text-align: left"> <b><font face="Arial" size="3">website</font></b><p style="text-align: left"><font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="http://www.skeptiseum.org/index.php?override=home.php&subcat=Spiritualism">Skeptiseum: Spiritualism</a></font><p style="text-align: left"> <font face="Arial" size="3"> <a href="https://webspace.utexas.edu/cokerwr/www/index.html/spiritualism.shtml"> Spiritualism and Channeling</a> - Rory Coker</font><p></webContent> Last updated December 23, 2013 </p> </div> </div> <div class="right"> <div class="right_it"> <div class="search"> <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="domains" value="skepdic.com" /> <input type="text" name="q" maxlength="255" value="" size="20" /> <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" /> <br /> <div class="search_2"> <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="" /> Web     <input type="radio" name="sitesearch" value="skepdic.com" checked="checked" /> Skepdic.com <br /> <img src="_images/logo_google.gif" alt="Google" width="48" height="19" /> </div> <input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-3542920166946725" /> <input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1" /> <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;" /> <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en" /> </form> </div> <div class="center"> <p align="right"><a href="http://skepdic.com/authorpage.html"><strong>Books by R. T. Carroll </strong></a></p> <p align="right"><a href="http://skepdic.com/authorpage.html"><img src="http://skepdic.com/graphics/CTDcover140.jpg" alt="cover The Critical Thinker's Dictionary" width="140" height="212" /></a></p> <div align="right"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0471272426/roberttoddcarrolA/"> <img src="_images/book_01.jpg" alt="The Skeptic's Dictionary" border="0" width="140" height="171" /></a> </div> <h2 align="center">OTHER LANGUAGES</h2> <ul class="nav_4"> <li><a href="http://nederlands.skepdic.com/">Dutch</a> </li> <li><a href="http://sdkinderen.skepdic.com/">Dutch voor kinderen</a></li> <li><a href="http://dictionnaire.sceptiques.qc.ca/">French</a> </li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.com/German/morgenwelt.html">German</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.gr/">Greek</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.szabadgondolkodo.hu/szkeptikus/szotar/">Hungarian</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.vantru.is/efahyggjuordabokin/">Icelandic</a></li> <li><a href="http://italiano.skepdic.com/">Italian</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.genpaku.org/skepticj/">Japanese</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.rathinker.co.kr/skeptic/index.html">Korean</a></li> <li><a href="http://brazil.skepdic.com/">Portuguese</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepdic.ru/">Russian</a></li> <li><a href="http://slovnik.skepdic.com/">Slovak</a></li> <li><a href="http://skepticus.org/dicc/">Spanish</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.vof.se/skepdic/">Swedish</a></li> <li><a href="http://turkish.skepdic.com/">Turkish</a></li> </ul> <p>Print versions available in <a href="http://www.lannoo.be/content/lannoo/wbnl/listview/1/index.jsp?titelcode=24816&fondsid=8" >Dutch</a>, <a href="http://skepdic.com/russian.html">Russian</a>, <a href="http://www.rakkousha.co.jp/info/index.html#2" > Japanese</a>, and <a href="http://www.aladdin.co.kr/shop/wproduct.aspx?isbn=8995876441" >Korean</a>.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="footer"> <a href="spells.html"> <img src="graphics/larrow.gif" alt="larrow.gif (1051 bytes)" border="0" align="bottom" width="14" height="26"> spell</a> | <a href="shc.html">spontaneous human combustion <img src="graphics/rarrow.gif" alt="rarrow.gif (1048 bytes)" border="0" align="bottom" width="13" height="26"></a></div> </div> <div class="bottom"> © Copyright 1994-2016 <a href="http://skepdic.com/refuge/bio.html">Robert T. Carroll</a> * This page was designed by <a href="http://www.cristianpopa.com/portfolio-2/">Cristian Popa</a>.</div> </body> </html>

CINXE.COM

spiritism - spiritualism - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com