Victorian Mystic Spiritualism: How Claims of Supernatural Power Became The First Cringe Comedy

       As long as organized religion has maintained a relevant grip on the social imagination, there likewise has been stranger and more esoteric traditions that exist within the fringes of its larger shadow. While typically seen as detrimental, sometimes even dangerous, to the mainstream social order, the Victorian Era saw an emergence of a variety of "spiritualist" groups that were generally treated as either laughably misguided and/or controversially fascinating. "Spiritualism" was defined in the time period as any religious or semi-religious movement that claimed to be able to communicate with departed spirits or manipulate natural energies, and so naturally many Victorians were keenly interested to casually observe a subgroup more obsessed with death and pseudoscience than they were out of morbid curiosity. However, as these practices clashed with the burgeoning scientific literacy of the age, spiritualists began to look less like the wizened magicians and taboo intellectuals they painted themselves as and more like the conmen and crazies spawned from the awkward desperation of an emerging entertainment market that they actually were. As there image deteriorated into what one popular article deemed a "species of religious fungi", the mood of audiences watching supposed spiritualist meetings began to switch from naïve curiosity to poorly hidden mockery as they watched with grinning faces their distressed entertainers attempt to explain their zany beliefs and prove their extraordinary supernatural powers. Not unlike the self-help gurus and dietician yoga instructors of today who train their kundalini energy and ability to astral project (also referring to themselves, quite ironically, as spiritualists), these performances would be heralded by newspaper journalists as some of the first exhibitions of comically self-induced public embarrassment.
    On March 22, 1871, the Birmingham Daily Post (BDP) catalogued a meeting of such spiritualists, noting with particular condescension how these communities tend to "flourish for a while in a very large town, and then die of inanition," further emphasizing the "little -very little" nature of the mass of people who seem to be exercising their last spiritual throes. If the account of these movements the writer describes is legitimate, the tiny amount of followers is most likely an indicator that the heyday of the "paradise street spiritualists" has most likely approached its end and that audiences by this time are already weening off their initial curiosity and entering their phase of "ridicule and popular disbelief".  
     The appeal of Spiritualism didn't only derive from the supposed powers that one could control, but also from its brash assortment of eccentric and unapologetic leaders. Often led by charismatic or at the very least greatly impassioned representatives, spiritualists depended on these figures to  rake in public interest and money. However, many times this could also work to their disadvantage as some could advocate practices that had otherwise become "irrelevant" to their approved methods or "throw [general] discredit upon the cause". The article follows one such speaker whose intellectual ideas rung" with much volume but little melody...in an energetic yet rather unconvincing manner," consistently speaking over his peers and admonishing any naysayer in the audience in an incredibly patronizing manner. The journalist notes that this was in violation of the Chairman's wishes, with the story devolving into a Stooge-like performance between the "rational" spiritualists (it in it of itself quite ironic) desiring to derive some form of legitimacy by attempting  to stop their lunatic ramblings of their wildly confident unplanned guest speaker. The audience "during the delivery of these sentiments evidently wanted to laugh but didn't," incurring what I can only imagined to be stifled giggles as their self proclaimed "medium of no mean order" made a fool of himself. 
    The skeptical and insulting language used by the author evokes a pretty piteous image of the spiritualists, essentially making them out to be deluded pseudointellectuals whose general incompetence creates an entertaining pastime for onlookers. At one point the medium in question scoffs that he has at least "shown the audience he knew a little of the subject" he ranted about for nigh on an hour, to which the audience "applauded vociferously" as if to cement that "little" was all he really knew. Interestingly, the author ties the presence of women to the display, noting that they constituted a sizeable portion of their passive supporters while men tended to be the voice of  either the clearest reason or most radical lunacy, further emboldening readers to link the hilarity of new wave philosophy to the women's increasing presence in Victorian society. 
      Spiritualism would transcend the boundaries of simple seances and levitation, maintaining its fringe support until to modern day. The kinds of "secularist" admonishment described in the story directly parallel the arguments made by those who laugh at the loud and proud astrologists and Hare Krishnas of today. More fascinatingly to me however is how the spiritualists themselves act: the mixture of self-righteous superiority which causes them to "treat their opponents like children" and a confidence that allows them to eschew any regard for what the public deemed "normal and acceptable" in tandem elicits an inward shiver of vicarious embarrassment that we come to enjoy. I observe similar behavior online, on YouTube and social media, of people acting incredibly cringe online, whether consciously or unconsciously, which can sometimes garner actual support, regardless of whether it was meant to be ironic. The author concludes that given the debacle on Paradise Street, spiritualism "would in all possibility laugh itself out of existence" if it ever was seen as anything more than occult nonsense. Little did they know that everything from its transience to its cringeworthy entertainment value would become its own niche in the modern internet domain where it is commoditized and rehashed in thousands of different shades and absurdity. 
 

Works Cited: 
"Spiritualism and its Local Mediums." Birmingham Daily Post, 1871, pg.6. 

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