Modern Spiritualism
Modern Spiritualism
Looking for an examination copy?
If you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
Frank Podmore (1856–1910) published Modern Spiritualism in two volumes in 1902. It was the first comprehensive history of the Spiritualist movement. Podmore traces the historical development of Spiritualism from its earliest origins in animal magnetism and alchemy, to its apogee in the early nineteenth century and through to its decline from 1870 onwards, which Podmore associated with the growth of professional psychics and an increase in fraud. Volume 1 covers the key figures of the movement: Paracelsus, Mesmer, Bertrand, Esdaile, and Andrew Jackson Davis. Book 1 focuses on French, English and German Spiritualism and Book 2 on American Spiritualism and its beginnings in Arcadia. The volume includes invaluable accounts of scientific investigations into possession, poltergeists, clairvoyance, and trances. Podmore was a leading member of the Victorian Society for Psychical Research and his work remains an indispensable source for the modern-day historian of nineteenth-century Spiritualism and occult practices.
Product details
- Published: January 2011
- Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 9781108072571
- Length: 332 pages
- Dimensions: 216 × 140 × 19 mm
- Weight: 0.42kg
- Availability: Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Book I. The Pedigree of Spiritualism:
- 1. Possession and witchcraft
- 2. On poltergeists
- 3. The sympathetic system
- 4. Mesmer and his disciples
- 5. The second French commission
- 6. Spiritualism in France before 1848
- 7. The German somnambules
- 8. The English mesmerists
- 9. Community of sensation
- 10. Clairvoyance in England
- 11. Andrew Jackson Davis and the Univercoelum
- Book II. Early American Spiritualism:
- 1. In Arcadia
- 2. Some dwellers in Arcadia
- 3. The physical phenomena
- 4. Clairvoyance and speaking with tongues
- 5. Trance writing and speaking
- 6. General survey of the movement.
- Show more
