This Day In Spiritualist History

Sep
5
Fri
1892: Death of Stainton Moses
Sep 5 all-day
1892: Death of Stainton Moses

William Stainton Moses (Nov. 5, 1839 – September 5, 1892) was an English cleric and spiritualist medium. He promoted spirit photography and automatic writing, and co-founded what became the College of Psychic Studies.

Sep
23
Tue
1838: Birthdate of Victoria Woodhull
Sep 23 all-day
1838: Birthdate of Victoria Woodhull

Victoria Woodhull (September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927), a medium and carnival show clairvoyant, was the first woman-owned Wall Street brokerage house, the first woman to address a Congressional committee and the first woman to run for president. She championed free love, believed that marriage was institutionalized slavery and supported paid sex work.

Oct
3
Fri
1804: Birth of Allan Kardec
Oct 3 all-day
1804: Birth of Allan Kardec

Allen Kardec, the 19th Century founder of “Spiritism” and a man who changed the course of Latin American religious movements, was born on October 3, 1804.

Oct
5
Sun
1861: Birth of Spirit Photography
Oct 5 all-day
1861: Birth of Spirit Photography
On October 5, 1861, in a photographic studio at 258 Washington Street in Boston, William Mumler created the first spirit photograph. According to the popular retelling, Mr. Mumler was developing some experimental self-portraits that he had taken when he discovered that an image of a ghostly young woman appeared in one of them. Mr. Mumler reported later that he recognized the image as a cousin who had passed away 12 years earlier. This date marks the beginning of spirit photography, a practice whose rise in popularity corresponded with the early days of Spiritualism.

Oct
17
Fri
1880: Birth of Hereward Carrington
Oct 17 all-day
1880: Birth of Hereward Carrington

Hereward Carrington (17 October 1880 – 26 December 1958) was a well-known British-born American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, and he wrote over 100 books on subjects including the paranormal and psychical research, conjuring and stage magic, and alternative medicine.

Nov
1
Sat
1941: Death of Margery Crandon
Nov 1 all-day
1941: Death of Margery Crandon

Mysterious rapping, eerie music, otherworldly voices — witnesses ascribed these strange phenomena and others to the historic séances of Margery “Mina” Crandon, one of America’s most celebrated spiritualist mediums. Read more here.

Nov
5
Wed
1839: Birth of Stainton Moses
Nov 5 all-day
1839: Birth of Stainton Moses

William Stainton Moses (Nov. 5, 1839 – 5 September 1892) was an English cleric and spiritualist medium. He promoted spirit photography and automatic writing, and co-founded what became the College of Psychic Studies.

Nov
8
Sat
1847: Birthdate of Bran Stoker
Nov 8 all-day
1847: Birthdate of Bran Stoker

Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.

Nov
14
Fri
1849: First Séance for Paying Public
Nov 14 all-day
1849: First Séance for Paying Public

On Nov. 14, 1849, Kate and Margaret addressed a sizable audience at the Corinthian Hall in Rochester. This is now marked as the first demonstration of spiritualism before a paying public.

Nov
16
Sun
2001: Death of Rosemary Brown
Nov 16 all-day
2001: Death of Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Isabel Brown (nee Dickeson, 27 July 1916 – 16 November 2001) was an English composer, pianist and spirit medium who claimed that dead composers dictated new musical works to her. She created a small media sensation in the 1970s by presenting works purportedly dictated to her by Claude DebussyEdvard GriegFranz LisztFranz SchubertFrédéric ChopinIgor StravinskyJohann Sebastian BachJohannes BrahmsLudwig van BeethovenRobert Schumann and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Brown claimed that each composer had his own way of dictating to her: Liszt controlled her hands for a few bars at a time, and then she wrote down the notes; Chopin told her the notes and pushed her hands on to the right keys; Schubert tried to sing his compositions; and Beethoven and Bach simply dictated the notes. She claimed the composers spoke to her in English.