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
Spirit Mediums and Conjurers
12016-11-23T12:43:33-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3714plain2016-12-16T21:09:11-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3On June 15th in 1873, a spiritualist named George Sexton delivered an address on spiritualism to an eager London audience. With rhetorical fluency and visual demonstrations, Sexton revealed the “stage tricks” of many mediums while insisting on the validity of spiritualism itself. The oration caused uproar in society and spiritualist circles applauded him for debunking mediums that were not ‘true’ believers (medium D.D. Home did similar work in his 1877 memoir Lights and Shadows, see Lamont 908). It is interesting to compare Sexton’s piece to those in the first section to see how the public setting of the former affected its structure and the kind of evidence Sexton produced.
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12016-11-23T13:10:43-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3V - The Public SeanceMegan Bruening3plain2016-12-16T20:58:12-05:00Megan Brueningb3bbdc9bd1941527cc9ff27849ef1a643abdd7d3