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SPIRITUALISM and Spiritism

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Author Topic: SPIRITUALISM and Spiritism  (Read 4302 times)
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Bianca
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« Reply #15 on: July 15, 2007, 06:57:49 am »





Origins

Modern Spiritualism first appeared in the 1840s in the Burned-Over District of upstate New York where earlier religious movements such as Millerism (Seventh Day Adventists) and Mormonism had emerged during the Second Great Awakening. It was an environment in which many people felt that direct communication with God or angels was possible, and in which many people felt uncomfortable with notions that God would behave harshly — for example, that God would condemn unbaptized infants to an eternity in Hell.[1]


Swedenborg and Mesmer

In this environment the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and the teachings of Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) provided an example for those seeking direct personal knowledge of the afterlife. Swedenborg, who claimed to communicate with spirits while in trance states, described in his voluminous writings the structure of the spirit world. Two features of his view particularly resonated with the early spiritualists: first, that there is not a single hell and a single heaven, but rather a series of spheres through which a spirit progresses as it develops; second, that spirits mediate between God and humans, so that human direct contact with the divine is through the spirits of deceased humans.[1]

Mesmer did not contribute religious beliefs, but he contributed a technique, later known as hypnotism, that could induce trances and cause subjects to report contact with spiritual beings. There was a great deal of showmanship in Mesmerism, and the practitioners who lectured in mid-19th century America sought to entertain audiences as well as demonstrate a method for personal contact with the divine.[1]



One can see the excitement experienced by onlookers as the Mesmerist induces a trance. By Swedish painter Richard Bergh, 1887.Perhaps the best known of those who combined Swedenborg and Mesmer in a peculiarly American synthesis is Andrew Jackson Davis who called his system the Harmonial Philosophy. Davis was a practicing hypnotist, faith healer and clairvoyant from Poughkeepsie, New York. His 1847 book The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind,[2] dictated to a friend while in trance, eventually became the nearest thing to a canonical work in a Spiritualist movement whose extreme individualism precluded the development of a single coherent worldview.[3]
« Last Edit: July 15, 2007, 07:00:08 am by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
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