Conversations with the dead, spiritualism, and other bizarre Victorian hobbies

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

During the era of Queen Victoria, an increased interest in mysticism, occultism, spiritualism and death reigned in society. Mediums and psychics roamed around England, receiving decent profits from simple-minded citizens who believed in mysticism much more than in science. Why are there ordinary citizens! Pundits organized ghost hunting and studied the behavior of ghosts and spirits. And it seems that every first person could talk to the dead at that time.

1. Spiritualism: if only the dead could speak

Spiritualism, a religion that was born and became popular during the Victorian period, was based on the belief that the dead can communicate with the living. Spiritualists believed that spirits were more "advanced" than humans and, as a result, could provide advice from the underworld. This movement originated in Hydesville, America on March 31, 1848, thanks to the sisters Catherine, Leah, and Margaret Fox, but quickly spread to many English-speaking countries. It was brought to England by Maria B. Hayden in October 1852. Spiritualism peaked in popularity in the 1880s, but was largely discredited after some major media outlets claimed it was a scam. However, the movement survived and remained relatively popular, despite all the controversy, until it was finally forgotten in the 1920s. The Spiritualist Church still exists today with branches in Canada, the United States and England, although on a much smaller scale than during the Victorian period, when Spiritualism had about 8 million adherents.

2. Mediums: How About Chatting With the Dead

Mediums, people who could communicate with the dead on behalf of the living, were often women because it was believed that women were more passive and therefore more receptive to the spirit world. Many female mediums were also involved in the teetotal, suffragist, and anti-slavery movements of the day. In this way, they were able to circumvent the typical gender constraints of the period, which led to the proliferation of mediums in the late 19th century. Being a medium was a very lucrative business, and wealthy patrons laid out mountains of money to be able to talk with their deceased loved ones. In the meantime, they were deceived and often robbed during the sessions by insidious mediums and their assistants. This practice gradually died out after many of the more famous mediums were exposed as fraudsters in the 1880s.

3. Ouija: An important message from a deceased aunt

Attempts to communicate with the dead were in vogue during the Victorian period, as evidenced by the boom in popularity of spiritualism and mediums. Ouija were a popular form of entertainment in Victorian salons. The practice was so popular that even Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of American President Abraham Lincoln, had spiritualist friends and sat in the White House in an attempt to contact her son William Wallace Lincoln after he died of typhoid fever at age 11. Even royalty weren't immune to insanity. Queen Victoria was believed to have had a personal medium at Buckingham Palace and attended séances in hopes of speaking to her husband, Prince Albert, who also died of typhoid fever in 1861. During the sessions, mediums allegedly received messages from deceased loved ones, entered a state of trance, and otherworldly entities infiltrated them. They used props such as Ouija boards or writing tablets, and even made the spirits turn tables. In the end, most of the sessions were debunked as fraudulent.

4. Memento mori: smile … although you can't

And now the creepiest "feature" of the Victorian era. Posthumous photographs were ordered by grieving family members to capture the last time a loved one (and, often it was his only photograph. The tradition actually preceded the emergence of modern photography, because posthumous paintings were popular in the early centuries, but, unfortunately, they were extremely expensive. In 1839, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre invented daguerreotype (the earliest form of photography), he allowed families to retain an accessible memory of their loved ones. As creepy as it may sound, the dead became excellent subjects for photography. Long exposure times required people to remain absolutely still. so the dead in these photos came out best.

5. Magic, esotericism and occultism: do not want to join a secret society

Besides talking to the dead, the Victorians founded many strange clubs and organizations. For example, in London there was a "Ghost Club", founded in 1862, which was dedicated to paranormal research. Even more popular was the Order of the Golden Dawn, which studied ceremonial magic, occultism, astrology, alchemy, hermetic Kabbalah and tarot. The famous Theosophical Society, an esoteric philosophical group founded by Madame Helena Blavatsky, and many other groups were founded to satisfy the Victorian passion for the unknown. Magicians, fortune tellers, tarot readings, and magic games were also extremely popular during this period.