The Thirteenth Earl (22 page)

A Historical Note on Spiritualism

I don’t want you to think that Spiritualism was a fraud. I don’t want you to think it was true either, this system of belief that involved communicating with the dead. Our latter-day mediums (like John Edward) are not like the mediums of the Victorian age. That is, the Victorians were not frauds interested in money. They were Christians and non-Christians alike who added the belief of the spirit world into their religious practice. Most mediumship was practiced in a domestic environment, with the women of the household acting as conduits to messages from beyond. Public mediums, such as our Lucy Macallister, were rare and somewhat looked down upon.

The majority of mediums were women seizing power in a world where they had access to none. A lot of them were social crusaders who thought outside of society’s stringent standards, and thus were more apt to be engaged in subversive activities. Like sitting people down at a table and attempting to see if they could contact spirits. Their interest did not stop at the paranormal, though. A great number of Spiritualists were also attracted to or involved in what we would now call radical politics. They were advocates for abolition and women’s rights; they wrote on both of these subjects in much the same way that they wrote about their religion.

Certainly, we know that many aspects of séances were faked, and others cannot ever be explained away or validated for sure, despite the utmost skepticism. It was the magician Harry Houdini who discovered actual fraud, and I used two pieces of evidence he uncovered in his campaign to expose mediums: the leg straps and the bell rung by foot. Houdini may have wanted to reveal the unscientific methods used in séances, but there is anecdotal evidence that he also respected Margery, the medium he famously exposed.

That fact demonstrates the duality and cognitive dissonance engaged in by both the public and the Spiritualists. Like Fox Mulder, most wanted to believe. Believing did not just serve as a sacred comfort, but as a template in which to work out society’s issues without having to answer them directly. Some notable mediums were actresses in the past; others had aspirations. Séances were often personal theater, devised by feminine minds, and used to work out family issues both past and present, and to give advice or guidance. It was a way to influence events and make opinions known without being exactly visible.

Quite brilliant, even if some of it was being done unconsciously. Surely some of the home mediums were not aware of the way they subtly affected family decisions, or they didn’t have the language to express their intentions. That means that others must have been conscious of what they were doing. Much the same applied to public mediums—there were those who never admitted to trickery in séances, and some who came clean later on in their lives. Interestingly, no matter the medium, most maintained that Spiritualism was a healthy way to deal with the unknown and a valid religious choice.

The historical equivalent of Lucy’s fancy London Spiritualist Society was the British National Association of Spiritualists (BNAS), founded in 1873. There were dozens of these kinds of groups, little copses of Spiritualists who just
had
to be the hippest people of their age. The prospectus of the BNAS actually mentions the group’s dedication to wealth redistribution and to remedying the “crying social evils” that result from financial inequality. There were male mediums as well. You’ll meet one in the sequel to
The Thirteenth Earl
, which I am writing as we speak.

Women in Spiritualism is too fascinating a subject to be covered in one little historical note, but if it’s something that interests you, Alex Owen’s book
The Darkened Room
is a very good place to start.

About the Author

Photo © 2014 David Cooper

Evelyn Pryce has written comic books, fronted rock bands, and founded a literacy charity group. Her first novel,
A Man Above Reproach
, won the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel in Romance. Pryce lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with three gentlemen—her husband and two cats.