Keeping in Touch: An Anthology of the Victorian SeanceMain MenuIntroductionFurther ReadingI - Spiritualism and Its BelieversII - Ambivalent SkepticsIII - Scoffers and FraudsIV - The Private SeanceV - The Public SeanceWork CitedMegan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3
12016-11-23T12:33:59-05:00Confessions of a Medium: The Revelation3plain2016-12-16T21:02:50-05:00Confessions of a Medium, published by Griffith and Farran in 1882, is the fascinating “true story” of a young man who after being persuaded that he has psychic gifts, joins up with a group of other “mediums” that travel the country to perform séances. As the title hints though the anonymous author eventually realizes not only that his colleagues are frauds but also that spiritualism itself is bankrupt of meaning and validity. The excerpt included in this section is the novel’s final chapter where the narrator’s mentor reveals the falsity of spiritualism (simultaneously revealing the tainted economic motives of some mediums) and the narrator laments his time wasted in the false system that is spiritualism, reifying traditional epistemological modes like empiricism and Christian doctrine.