Modern Spiritualism

The first comprehensive history of Spiritualism by one of the foremost Victorian psychic researchers: an indispensable source on the movement.

Modern Spiritualism (1902) was the first comprehensive history of Spiritualism. It traces the movement's historical development from its origins in animal magnetism to its decline in the late 1870s. Volume 1 covers the key figures of Paracelsus, Mesmer, Bertrand, and Esdaile. It is an indispensable source on nineteenth-century Spiritualism.Frank Podmore (1856–1910) published Modern Spiritualism in two volumes in 1902. It was the first comprehensive history of the Spiritualist movement. Podmore traces the historical development of Spiritualism from its earliest origins in animal magnetism and alchemy, to its apogee in the early nineteenth century and through to its decline from 1870 onwards, which Podmore associated with the growth of professional psychics and an increase in fraud. Volume 1 covers the key figures of the movement: Paracelsus, Mesmer, Bertrand, Esdaile, and Andrew Jackson Davis. Book 1 focuses on French, English and German Spiritualism and Book 2 on American Spiritualism and its beginnings in Arcadia. The volume includes invaluable accounts of scientific investigations into possession, poltergeists, clairvoyance, and trances. Podmore was a leading member of the Victorian Society for Psychical Research and his work remains an indispensable source for the modern-day historian of nineteenth-century Spiritualism and occult practices.