Octoberfest 2016: Fraudulence During the Victorian Spiritualism Movement

Hi! Today we're going to focus on one of my favorite historical periods, the Victorian era. For some reason, this has been one of my favorite eras since I was a kid and as I get older, I love it just the same, if not a little more. But I never really explored Spiritualism or Victorian-era paranormal activities because honestly, I was more focused on the fashion and society part of the era. lol One thing I wanted to make sure to cover this year was the infamous Victorian seance. Tons of con artists basically buttered their bread with the tears of grieving relatives who, in their desperation to find peace, threw money at them in order to hear anything from their departed loved one. I'd read a bit about the Fox sisters and the Spiritualist movement during last year's April Fool's post, but I've never looked at in-depth before so I thought we'd touch on that today. The Fox sisters and the Spiritualism craze of the 1800s leads into the point of today's post, which was the infamous Victorian seance and the frauds responsible for its downfall. But let's start at the beginning. 

Origins and Explanation of the Spiritualist Movement

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So what was the Spiritualism movement, anyway? In short, it focused on the belief that living beings were able to communicate with beings on the other side--whether they be spirits, ghosts, angels or demons. Spiritualism as a whole simply acknowledges the existence of the spirit world and those in the 1800-era Spiritualist craze simply tried to bridge the gap between that and the living world. Spiritualists believe in a number of things that can supposedly be attributed to either the communication from or to a spirit. A few of these things were visions, prophecies, speaking in tongues (and as a Black kid who grew up in a Baptist, then Christian church, those three things were both scary and insanely exciting to see lol), because they dictated the person's sensitivity to spirits and their divine calling, as these people were said to be appointed by God. The latter part of that last sentence depends heavily on who one is speaking to, but the general belief was that there was life after death and spirits were just as much alive and part of our world as the living.

People in the Spiritualism craze of the 1800s developed many works on the typical behaviors and mannerisms of spirits in an effort to bring awareness to it. According to those who believed, spirits were capable of telekinesis, levitating objects, possessing people, writing messages, and other characteristics that would symbolize the continuation of life following death of the physical body. There are tons more of these that I didn't include, so make sure to check the source links.

The majority of those who became famous during the Spiritualism craze of the 1800s were women. From a more sexist point of view, women were considered to be the more sensitive and therefore more hysterical sex, so it made sense that they would be more attuned to the spirit world. There were notable men who participated and other notable men who supported the movement, but many of the names we recall today were women. The person recognized as the patriarch of the Spiritualist movement was a man named Emanuel Swedenborg, who had extensively investigated and recorded his experiences with the spiritual world following a religious epiphany back in the 1700s. He believed that he had and could communicate with both spirits and beings from other planets, and he dedicated a good portion of his latter years to recording these experiences. Many people recognize him as putting down the roots to what eventually became known as Spiritualism.

Despite the Victorians getting much of the attention for the Spiritualism movement of the 1800s, the most famous story is actually based here in the States. The Fox sisters, who I believe I covered briefly in last year's April Fools post, are largely attributed to kicking off the movement. As the story tells it, the Fox family moved into a home that was supposedly already haunted. But by accident, one of the Fox sisters discovered that by knocking in particular sequences, she could communicate with the 'spirit' in the house because he/she would knock back in a matching sequence. Neighbors were then brought over so the Fox sisters could show off their newfound skills, and somewhere in there, a former maid of the family who lived in the house beforehand revealed that a body was buried on the grounds. I believe the remains were later found behind a wall in the house, leading everyone to believe that the 'spirit' the sisters had been communicating with was the man who died. The door of possibilities blew open for them following these smaller shows, and soon after they were performing their tricks in front of larger audiences. The sisters eventually became alcoholics and after their fame had faded considerably, one of the sisters admitted that they were frauds, although she later recanted this on account of needing financial help. For the most part, the Fox sisters are recognized today as pioneers of Spiritualism, but the truth behind their abilities is still up for debate. 

What were some tricks of fraudulent psychics during the Spiritualist craze?

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As I mentioned earlier, seances were commonly where the psychics and mediums were able to show their audience the power of their skills in communicating with the dead. As the critics and debunkers of the Spiritualism movement would later show, there were a few signature things that the mediums would always do during these public performances and it was these things that were later proved to be false. Here are some of them:

Fake ectoplasm--Most people who believe in ghosts believe that they leave some kind of energy or footprint (of sorts) behind, mostly in the form of ectoplasm. During these seances, the spirit would leave rubbery, mucus-like globs that could manifest anywhere, but usually manifested from an orifice on the medium's body.  For the frauds in the Spiritualism world, this 'ectoplasm' could be made of butter muslin, chewed up gauze and fabric, hidden somewhere and covertly brought back out during the seance. Debunkers would attend a medium's seance, wait for these things to 'manifest,' and examine them later, where the truth would reveal itself. The frauds were usually known to have either hidden them somewhere on their bodies, whether it be in their mouths or down their pants. Unsuspecting sitters and audiences would be completely oblivious to the trickery, and would see the globs as proof of spirit presence. Some would try and get creative by cutting out pictures of deceased celebrities and gluing them to the cheesecloth or muslin, and using that as the ectoplasm. According to Houdini himself, some people would create veils, faces, and some would attempt to create entire bodies that they could commandeer like puppets in order to trick their audience. 

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Fake physical spirits/spirit cabinets--This was one of the lazier tricks, but most mediums would bring an assistant along with them. This person was usually responsible for the turning off of the lights and making sure that the audience was all in the correct place for the seance. That's on the surface. Really, however, the assistant was the accomplice for the fraudulent medium, as they would help them carry out their tricks and, at times, take on the physical forms of the 'spirits' that the mediums would pretend to be manifesting. Sometimes they would wear costumes and wigs, and other times they would simply place a sheet or veil over their heads and walk around the darkened seance room. Spirit cabinets were devised partially as a way to separate true mediums from frauds, but mediums were able to get their assistant positioned as a mole in the audience, and when they would inspect the spirit cabinet (as was custom to ensure the medium wasn't sneaking materials into the room), they would discreetly place the materials in the room.

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Fake rapping, table turning and levitations--I mentioned the rapping sound when I was talking about the origins of the movement and how the Fox sisters used this as the primary means of their communications with spirits. They established a code of knocks and asked the spirits questions, and they would respond in kind with their answers. During seances, fake rapping wasn't hard to pull off, for either the medium or their assistant, if they had one. Fraudulent mediums would often have sitters gathered around a table, holding hands with their eyes closed, and very slick mediums would join the sitters' hands together, which gave them time to pull off the rapping. With table levitations, most mediums could pull that off by discreetly sticking their toe under the table leg and while everyone is focused on waiting for the 'energy' to move the table, they begin to lift one side and in some cases would then begin to hold it in the air using their knees. Smaller tables were easier to perform this with, probably because it took less effort to raise the table. Another strategy was to drive a pin into the table and use a slotted ring (or magnet) to lift the table discreetly. One of the Fox sisters admitted that she and her sisters utilized this trick in their performances but she later recanted this confession. 

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Fake music from spirits--This one sounds rather kooky, but a popular trend during Victorian seances was "spirit music," which was when spirits would play various musical instruments during the seance. This was a method that mediums would often cite as to how the trick wasn't faked but it was found that placing a resin thread with a weight over the strings of an instrument then discreetly pulling on it would cause the strings to respond. Another typical trick was to bring along instruments and keep them where the audience could clearly see them, but hide an assistant with a replica of the instrument in another room. They would then play the instrument and the crowd would be mystified.

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Fake medium possessions--While many seances took place with the medium in the same room as the audience, some took place with what is referred to as a spirit cabinet. In these types of seances, the medium would enter the cabinet and at some point during the seance, the ghost would 'materialize.' Debunkers would note that despite the ghost's supposed identity, it would still coincidentally favor the medium's appearance. Some frauds would attempt to fool their audience that a child's ghost was in the room, when really they were simply utilizing the benefits of a dark room and crawling around on their knees to create a shorter ghost.

Fake spirit photography--This one wasn't necessarily a trick performed at seances, but many photographers during the time of the Spiritualism movement saw an opportunity to capitalize on the boom and thus dubbed themselves 'spirit photographers.' What this means is that they were able to capture deceased loved ones in photos with living relatives, and some got their come up from becoming spirit photographers. Double exposures weren't hard to do despite photographs still being in their infancy, and this was often the method that frauds would use in order to impose spirit forms onto the photographs. 

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Who were notable supporters and critics of the movement?

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Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the notable supporters of Spiritualism and he spent a lot of his time with organizations based on investigating evidence of supernatural phenomena. He believed that the dead were capable of communicating with the living, and his belief in the Spiritualism movement and those who performed seances was what ended his friendship with Houdini. Despite this, Doyle continued to support Spiritualism and after his Sherlock Holmes series, he began writing exclusively about Spiritualism and speaking at seminars about it. 

Robert Owen is largely considered to be one of the pioneers for Spiritualism. He helped create the foundation for some of the movement by creating seven key principles and this move helped to legitimize the religion and get it officially registered. He was a late in life converter, but he eventually committed fully to the movement as a religion and even claimed to have had encounters with the spirits of various dead presidents. 

Charles Dickens is typically categorized as a supporter of Spiritualism, but a bit of reading reveals that he was more of a skeptic than a staunch believer/opposer of the movement. The theatrics of the seances amused him, but most of the seances and Spiritualism-related events that he attended were for the purpose of debunking them, not trying to get anything out of them. Despite his skepticism in the tenets of Spiritualism, Dickens was a part of the London Ghost Club. His more scientific approach kept him from committing to the beliefs entirely, but he did enjoy the concept behind a good spooky story (obviously lol) and did express open-mindedness at what happens after death.  

As far as critics go, one of the most notable people to attempt to bring about the downfall of the Spiritualist movement was Harry Houdini. Much of his disdain for fraudulent psychics and mediums came from the accusations of fraud that he faced in his own line of work. After the bulk of his career was over, he dedicated a lot of time to attending seances, exposing the frauds and trying to educate others on how to spot them. During a seance he'd attended with then-friend Arthur Conan Doyle, a medium exposed herself as a fraud with a made-up message from Houdini's mother. He already suspected Spiritualism as a whole was full of fakes, but this event caused him to publicly denounce it as a legitimate religion. He continued his efforts to expose frauds up until his death. 

Robert Browning was a vocal critic of the Spiritualism movement although his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was said to be a believer. He believed mediums and their supposed abilities to communicate were the lowest form of fraudulence and he felt that his wife's trusting nature, as well as the trusting and believing nature of others, was what led the charlatans to take advantage of them. Despite having participated in a few practices and attending seances with his wife, he never swayed from his opinion that the entire thing was a big charade by frauds trying to exploit people for a buck. 

Michael Faraday was a prominent scientist during the time when the Spiritualism movement was taking off, and from jump he dismissed claims that supernatural phenomena was at the root of the strange occurrences taking place during seances. He was brought in to investigate the claims but after attending a couple of seances, immediately dismissed Spiritualism as a whole as he could find no rational explanation.

Research resources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 

So that's it for me today. I really like the contrast between the witchcraft post I put up last week and this one, which is everything the witch hunters were against. It's funny how the world changes like that, isn't it? As late as 1770, the last few documented witch crafts were still taking place. A century later, some of the same areas once infamous for witch hunts are bringing in psychics and the like to contact the other side. The contrast of those two posts wasn't intentional, but I enjoyed it all the same and I hope you did too. See you in a couple of days!