The Rise Of Contemporary Spiritualism

Talking to the dead and communication with 'the other side' is often presented as a taboo in an increasingly technological and medically advanced world. However, practices of spiritualism and mediumship continue to remain popular and in high demand within contemporary Western societies. This book analyses the practices of today’s mediums, who insist on standing at the threshold between life and death, interpreting signs and passing on communications, and asks how such concepts and practices are perceived by contemporary society. Using first-hand material gathered from alternative fairs, mediumistic congresses, séances, and interviews with both practitioners and clients, as well as thorough textual analysis, Anne Kalvig provides a clear overview of the various forms of consumption of mediumship in Western society and places these within a socio-cultural, religious and historical context. She also raises questions as to the controversies surrounding spiritualism and its representation and relationship with popular culture and the media. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of sociology, religious studies, folklore, media studies and anthropology as well as to anyone interested in the upsurge of contemporary spiritualism, psychic phenomena and the paranormal.

Talking to the dead and communication with 'the other side' is often presented as a taboo in an increasingly technological and medically advanced world. However, practices of spiritualism and mediumship continue to remain popular and in high demand within contemporary Western societies. This book analyses the practices of today’s mediums, who insist on standing at the threshold between life and death, interpreting signs and passing on communications, and asks how such concepts and practices are perceived by contemporary society. Using first-hand material gathered from alternative fairs, mediumistic congresses, séances, and interviews with both practitioners and clients, as well as thorough textual analysis, Anne Kalvig provides a clear overview of the various forms of consumption of mediumship in Western society and places these within a socio-cultural, religious and historical context. She also raises questions as to the controversies surrounding spiritualism and its representation and relationship with popular culture and the media. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of sociology, religious studies, folklore, media studies and anthropology as well as to anyone interested in the upsurge of contemporary spiritualism, psychic phenomena and the paranormal.

In Supernatural Entertainments, Simone Natale vividly depicts spiritualism’s rise as a religious and cultural phenomenon and explores its strong connection to the growth of the media entertainment industry in the nineteenth century. He frames the spiritualist movement as part of a new commodity culture that changed how public entertainments were produced and consumed. Starting with the story of the Fox sisters, considered the first spiritualist mediums in history, Natale follows the trajectory of spiritualism in Great Britain and the United States from its foundation in 1848 to the beginning of the twentieth century. He demonstrates that spiritualist mediums and leaders adopted many of the promotional strategies and spectacular techniques that were being developed for the broader entertainment industry. Spiritualist mediums were indistinguishable from other professional performers, as they had managers and agents, advertised in the press, and used spectacularism to draw audiences. Addressing the overlap between spiritualism’s explosion and nineteenth-century show business, Natale provides an archaeology of how the supernatural became a powerful force in the media and popular culture of today.

The Spirituality Revolution addresses the major social issue of spirituality which requires immediate attention if we are to creatively respond to spiralling outbreaks of depression, suicide, addiction and psychological suffering.

Contemporary alternative spirituality, as studied by sociologists, is usually seen as a recent phenomenon dating from the 1960s and 1970s. However, when viewed from a longer-term perspective this form of religious expression is actually seen to reintroduce concepts that recur throughout Western cultural history. This book argues, therefore, that spirituality in the 21st Century actually shares many of the same characteristics as Classical, Mediaeval, Renaissance and Modern spiritualities. It is neither entirely new, nor is it clearly alternative to more established religions. The book is divided into two parts. The first sets out the context in which contemporary alternative spirituality has formed, charting its development as an academic term and a social phenomenon. The second part looks at how these two elements have developed in countries that are historically Catholic, focussing on specific examples in contemporary Italy: spiritualities based on the sacralisation of nature; those concerned with health and wellbeing; and those which are fascinated by mystery.Catholic majority countries are particularly interesting in this instance, as the Catholic Church has a unique cultural hegemony with which to compare alternative spiritual practices. It concludes that spirituality, if framed in a longer historical perspective, is a way of acting and seeing the world which was built, and continues to be built upon complex relations with various contradictory sources of authority, such as religion, magic thinking, secularism, rationalism, various spheres of lay culture. This is a bold take on the spirituality milieu and as such will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies working on the sociology of religion, contemporary spirituality and the rise of the "spiritual but not religious".

With church attendance in the UK taking dramatic reductions over the last twenty years, the contemporary context for religiosity and spirituality would seem to be in a dire state. However, exploring beyond the surface level of church attendance, we come to discover a significant diversification of both religious practice and spiritual belief that is navigating a rapidly changing world and a world in which moral values have shifted in the opposite direction to Church dogma. Spiritualism, and its many facets, is a key player in this “spiritual shift” towards less organised forms of religion, the consequences of which will dramatically impact the British religious landscape of the 21st century. This “spiritual shift” is characterised by a wide set of alternative beliefs that hold long histories of persecution at the hands of the Church. Furthermore, demographers are challenged to try and quantify the deep complexities of people’s beliefs that are not accurately grasped through each decade’s general census. Despite how a person may identify themselves in the census, this tragically misses out the complexity of religious belief and attitudes regarding more specific questions and therefore tells demographers very little about the true religious landscape. Accepting these shortcomings of modern demographic data on religiosity, demonstrates that the data we have likely represents only a narrow understanding of the reality of religious and spiritual life. This understanding has not been helped by the diversification and individualisation of religious beliefs as well as the fast-changing nature of digital religion. In this essay, the historical background and present-day role of spiritualism in British society will be investigated with the central aim of taking an in-depth look at the social context of spiritualism’s presence in Britain, the commercialisation of spiritualism and how both technology and changes in social values are being navigated by spiritualists. This analysis will particularly focus on the role of women in spiritualism and the rise in acceptance of LGBTQ groups in society as important factors effecting not only the rise of spiritualism, but the British religious landscape as a whole. Firstly, it is important to consider where spiritualism originated in order to understand its contemporary presence.

In "The Mask and Face of Contemporary Spiritualism," Julius Evola analyzes everything from spiritism to Satanism, from parapsychic research to anthroposophy, from theosophy to mysticism, tackling as he goes Freudianism, Nietzscheanism, and figures like Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Steiner, Anton LaVey, Krishnamurti and George Gurdjieff.

Includes Internet access card bound inside front matter.