Spiritualism emerged in upstate New York about 1840. The movement was based upon the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg claimed an ability to communicate with the dead while fully awake and to have knowledge of the structure of the spirit world. There were two aspects of his writings which particularly appealed to the early spiritualists; the first being that human spirits were intermediates between God and the living and that God often used spirits as a means of communication. The second aspect was that he taught that neither one heaven nor one hell existed in the afterlife, rather a series of higher or lower levels which were attainable for all humans even after death. Swedenborg’s view did not condone the seeking of contact with the dead; however it was the central inspiration for spirit mediums and séances widely used by the Spiritualist Religion. Franz Mesmer did not contribute to the movement with religious philosophy but with a technique for inducing a hypnotic state which was believed to open a conduit between the person in the trance and spirits of departed loved ones.

The “rapping movement” of Spiritualism began in 1848 when two young sisters named Kate and Margaret Fox claimed to have made contact with a murdered peddler who communicated with loud rapping sounds which were audible to anyone present. The sisters were accepted as genuine by family friends, Amy and Isaac Post. The Posts were Quakers who were disenchanted with their organized religion because of its lax fight against slavery. 

They converted to the new religion of Spiritualism or The Reform Movement as they called it and were able to sway many other radical Quakers to their side. Women were particularly drawn to the movement because of its teachings of non-violence, equal rights for women and blacks and abstinence from alcohol.

The sect gained enormous momentum throughout the state of New York, eventually spreading into the entire continent. Mediums and trance lecturers were held in an esteem of rock star status. Celebrity mediums traveled the country speaking before huge 

During the 1880s, The Society for Psychical Research set up commissions to investigate frauds, actually prosecuting some cases. The Society was established in London in 1882 as a scientific study of the paranormal. Despite rampant fraud, the movement remained strong, appealing to those who were grieving the loss of a loved one. The surge of interest which followed the horrific casualties of The Civil War began to wane as the new century dawned.

In the 1920s, the loosely formed and individualistic movement was replaced by The Spiritualist Church. The church service developed closely following the format of a Christian service, having an opening prayer, hymns, a “sermon” or address and ending with live readings of the congregation by a medium. The Spiritualist Church survives to the present in all parts of the world but mostly in English speaking nations.