Ambivalent Skeptics - An Introduciton
Conducting research for this project led me to a virtual mountain of criticism railing against spiritualism and the practice of séances in particular. Kenneth Pimple argues, “Commentators on Spiritualism from 1850 to about 1950 fall into two major camps…scoffers [and] believers” (81). Looking more closely at the critiques though I found a select group of authors who were willing to give séances a chance, to be objective observers of a highly controversial practice. These writers came to mixed conclusions about spiritualism in a tone that is far more balanced and even that of the more absolute critics found in the next chapter. This concession should not be underrated because as Peter Lamont comments, “Magic and mystery [elements associated with spiritualism] were fought against because they made the world more ambivalent, less certain, less orderly” (904). These critics concede that the Victorian worldview may not be adequate to explain all of the epistemological ‘disorder’ that spiritualism introduced.
What is particularly interesting about the critics in this chapter is the way that they interpret the séance and its background of spiritualism as a potential means to truth: while remaining unconvinced if they actually encountered a spirit at the séance he attended, the critic ponders how spiritualism could represent a new way of thinking about what it means to be alive, to be human, or to know. This extrapolation from spiritualism to another discursive realm (such as epistemology) is not uncommon. It was not unusual for doctors or scientists to consider spiritualism and its rise as a sign of mental illness (one that hysterical females would be especially susceptible to). As fascinating as this explanation is, I am more interested in the ambivalent critics who quietly and subtly revealed how at its core, spiritualism was about asking questions in a new way. And for them at least, these writers were weary of dismissing a form of thought that offered so much hope and promise to people in a time were traditional discourses were constantly under the threat of being dismantled.