LitHub recently published an interesting piece on the American Spiritualist movement of the 19th century. It focuses on how progressive many of its adherents were in terms of politics and lifestyle – advocating Abolition, Women’s Suffrage, the right to reproductive self determination. It points out how many serious scientists and inventors believed in Spiritualism. It sort of soft pedals the issue of how much deception took place at seances. It never discusses that turning point when Pascal Beverly Randolph and Emma Brittten proposed moving beyond passive mediumship to develop technologies for consciously conversing with disembodies intelligences and controlling them when necessary.
https://lithub.com/the-complicated-yet-inspiring-history-of-spiritualism-in-america/.
