This Day In Spiritualist History

Feb
11
Tue
1915: Death of Mollie Fancher
Feb 11 all-day
1915: Death of Mollie Fancher

Mollie Fancher,  born on Aug. 16, 1848  was known as the Brooklyn Enigma.  Despite spending 50 years bedridden , she gained fame as an intimidating spirit medium. She died on Feb. 11, 1915.

Feb
17
Mon
1907: Death of Henry Steel Olcott
Feb 17 all-day
1907: Death of Henry Steel Olcott

With Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others he founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and became its president. In 1878 he and Blavatsky visited India. The two settled there in 1879 and in 1882 established the permanent headquarters of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, Madras. Olcott  was born on August 2, 1832 and died on February 17, 1907.

Mar
3
Mon
1920: The El Cerrito Incident
Mar 3 all-day
1920: The El Cerrito Incident

Seven people — men, women and a teen-aged girl — barricade themselves in a home located in El Cerrito, California as they spend days consulting Ouija boards. By all accounts they went insane in the process.  One of the then-crazed women warned surrounding police to stay back lest her husband — then dead three months — started killing. A priest was summoned. Doors were broken down.

 Largely forgotten today, the March 3, 1920 police scene in a small community just outside Berkeley, California has been described as one of the most unusual occult incidents ever investigated by California authorities. A documented case of Ouija-inspired mass hysteria, the incident generated front-page headlines, attracted the attention of medical professionals and prompted calls for reform legislation.

Mar
18
Tue
1877: Birth of Edgar Cayce
Mar 18 all-day
1877: Birth of Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945) was an American attributed clairvoyant who claimed to speak from his higher self while in a trance-like state. During the sessions, Cayce would answer questions on a variety of subjects such as healing, reincarnation, dreams, the afterlife, past lives, nutrition, Atlantis, and future events. A devout Christian and Sunday-school teacher, Cayce said that his readings came from his subconscious mind exploring the dream realm, where he said all minds were timelessly connected. Cayce founded a non-profit organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment, to record and facilitate the study of his channeling and to run a hospital. Cayce is known as “The Sleeping Prophet“, the title of journalist Jess Stearn‘s 1967 Cayce biography. Religious scholars and thinkers, such as author Michael York, consider Cayce the founder and a principal source of many characteristic beliefs of the New Age movement.

1891: Birth of Manly P. Hall
Mar 18 all-day

Canadian-born author, lecturer, astrologer and mystic Manly Hall  was born on March 18, 1891. Hall is best known for his 1928 work The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Over his 70 year career, he gave thousands of lectures, including two at Carnegie Hall, and published over 150 volumes. In 1934, he founded The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, which he dedicated to the “Truth Seekers of All Time,” with a research library, lecture hall and publishing house.  See a video about Manly Hall at this link.

Mar
20
Thu
1833: Birth of DD Home
Mar 20 all-day
1833: Birth of DD Home

Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume; 20 March 1833 – 21 June 1886) was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His biographer Peter Lamont opines that he was one of the most famous men of his era. Home conducted hundreds of séances, which were attended by many eminent Victorians

Mar
28
Fri
1886: First Reference to Ouija Board
Mar 28 all-day
1886: First Reference to Ouija Board

According to Mitch Horowitz, author of the critically acclaimed Occult America,the origins of the device known today as the Ouija Board can be traced back to the late 19th Century — although not reliably further back than that.  Horowitz cites a March 28, 1886 article appearing in the Sunday supplement of the New York Daily Tribune entitled “A Mysterious Talking Board and Table over Which Northern Ohio is Agitated.” The article included an illustration and description of an early talking board very similar to today’s version.

Mar
29
Sat
1772: Death of Emanuel Swedenborg
Mar 29 all-day
1772: Death of Emanuel Swedenborg

Emanuel Swedenborg,  born February 8, 1688  and died March 29, 1772, was a Swedish Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758).  Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, culminating in a “spiritual awakening” in which he received a revelation that opened his spiritual eyes so he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels, demons and other spirits. Some describe Swedenborg as a progenitor of modern Spiritualism.

Mar
31
Mon
1848: First American Séance
Mar 31 all-day

On March 31, 1848 — a watershed date in American séance history —  Kate and Margaret, just 12 and 15 years old,  conducted the first American séance.

1869: Death of Allan Kardec
Mar 31 all-day
1869: Death of Allan Kardec

Allen Kardec, the 19th Century founder of “Spiritism” and a man who changed the course of Latin American religious movements, died on March 31, 1869.

Guest Post:  How Kardec Influenced Afro-Latin Spiritual Systems