When spiritualism dawned, suddenly women who wanted to engage in the civic and religious and political culture were becoming transmediums.

Science, as it reaches the public mind, has both served to discredit and unintentionally reaffirmed mystical ideas.

When spiritualism dawned, suddenly women who wanted to engage in the civic and religious and political culture were becoming transmediums.

Americans were in love with mesmerism because it was something that you could do in your own home. You could mesmerize or hypnotize your aunt or your mother or your father and people would go into these trance states and you could introduction autosuggestions tot hem or as some people saw it, you could cure them of illnesses.

Women had no clerical role anywhere in the Western world, period.

I think spiritualism, mesmerism, the mental healing movement, provided some people with the most meaningful experiences of their lives.

Even back in its colonial days, America developed a reputation as a safe harbor for people with unusual or radical religious beliefs.