Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Margery Crandon
Spiritualist conventions took pace regionally, and it was at such gatherings often under the guise of spirit that abolitionism was heralded and the seeds of women’s suffrage were planted. One such spiritualist Cora Maynard claimed to have influenced the writing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Some of these women had the ears of the greatest men of their time, from Cornelius Vanderbilt to President Abraham Lincoln.įirst lady Mary Todd Lincoln on more than one occasion invited spiritualists to conduct seances at the White House, some of which were attended by President Lincoln himself. Spiritualism became a one-way ticket out of a stifling Victorian existence that enabled its bearers to travel freely, speak for themselves, and even take lovers. Rather, Victorian women were valued for their delicate dispositions, “intuition and nervousness” - the weaker and more infirmed the better - precisely the traits that, according to Laurence Moore were believed to make them ideal hosts to the spirit world.įrail women who never thought to challenge their station, found themselves drawing crowds of followers, speaking on stages, traveling across the country and receiving remuneration. Women did not vote, did not speak publicly, did not leave the house without a man at her side, and most definitely, had neither religious nor educational pathways to become leaders of more established religions.
LADY HOUDINI PROFESSIONAL
What set spiritualism apart from other religions was that it was ushered forward primarily by women, offering an unusual professional entry point into a Victorian society whose education, government and public forums were for men only. Even when the sisters later admitted to making the whole thing up, it was far too late to put the genie back in the bottle - or the dead back in their final resting place.Īfter all, the rate at which scientists were discovering strange and mysterious new phenomena that materialized things out of thin air, such as the telegraph, electromagnetic induction, and radioactivity, that it was surely just a matter of time that science broke the barrier between this world and the next.Īnd, families devastated by loss in recent wars were especially susceptible. In19th and early 20th century America, Spiritualism, the belief and ability to communicate with the dead, had risen to a fever pitch of religious intensity.Īfter two sisters reported hearing spirit rappings in their Hydesville, New York home in 1848, it seemed as if everyone was trying to either communicate with Spirit or be the medium through which that communication took place. Houdini was far from the only one who believed there were spirits among us.
It would be the last seance she would ever attend. Seance top the Knickerbocker hotel October 31, 1936, with Mrs.
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