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The Spiritualist Ear

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2023

Codee Spinner
Codee Spinner*
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher, DeBary, FL, USA
*
Email: cas316@pitt.edu
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Abstract

During the nineteenth century, many heard the afterlife before they could see it. These clairaudient forays took place in the context of spiritualism, a religious movement that facilitated communication between the living and the dead. Although the senses were important to spiritualism, sound was especially crucial for developing cosmologies of the afterlife. Sound can have powerful affective effects, especially in the realm of religion. In the case of spiritualism, however, notions of sound are complicated because of the inclusion of clairaudient and acousmatic sounds. This article analyzes spiritualist soundscapes in terms of acoustemologies, using personal narratives and instructional materials to demonstrate how spiritualists developed a sense of space through sound. Not only does my analysis demonstrate the importance of sound to these spiritual communities, but it also shows that spiritualist conceptions of sound require a special understanding of the nature of sound.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 2024 , pp. 18 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Music

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References

References

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Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Shelhamer, Mary Longley. Teachings and Illustrations as they Emanate from the Spirit World. Chicago: The Progressive Thinker Publishing House, 1908.Google Scholar
Spinner, Codee. “(In)Audible Sound and Spiritualist Acoustemologies.” In Explorations in Music and Esotericism, edited by Roth, Marjorie and George, Leonard. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2023.Google Scholar
Underhill, A. Leah. The Missing Link in Spiritualism. New York: T. R. Knox and Company, 1885.Google Scholar
Carrington, Hereward. “Ingenious Frauds at Lily Dale Séances: Psychical Research Society Investigates Reported Marvels at Famous Spiritist Stronghold and Exposes Fraudulent Methods of Mediums.” New York Times (New York City), March 5, 1908.Google Scholar
“Report: Boston, September 14, 1926.” MS 88924/4/14 Reports on séances (1896–1930). Arthur Conan Doyle, British Library.Google Scholar
Séance Report from Altadena, CA; May 8th, 1924. Add MS 88924, 1, 14. Arthur Conan Doyle Archives, British Library.Google Scholar
“To the Musical Public: Introduction to Vols. III and IV of Longley's Beautiful Songs,” Longley's Choice Collection of Beautiful Songs for Public Meetings and the Home. Washington, DC: C. Payson Longley, 1899.Google Scholar
Bennett, Bridget. Transatlantic Spiritualism and Nineteenth-Century American Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.Google Scholar
Braude, Ann. Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Britten, Emma Hardinge. Modern American Spiritualism: A Twenty Years’ Record of the Communion between Earth and the World of Spirits. New York: Published by the author, 1870.Google Scholar
Carroll, Bret E. Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Caterine, Darryl. Haunted Ground: Journeys through a Paranormal America. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011.Google Scholar
Caterine, Darryl. “The Haunted Grid: Nature, Electricity, and Indian Spirits in the American Metaphysical Tradition.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82, no. 2 (June 2014): 371–97.Google Scholar
Chapin, David Alexander. “Exploring Other Worlds: Margaret Fox, Elisha Kane, and the Antebellum Culture of Curiosity.” PhD diss., University of New Hampshire, Durham, 2000.Google Scholar
Cooper, Robert. Spiritual Experiences, Including Seven Months with the Brothers Davenport. London: Heywood and Co., 1867.Google Scholar
Cox, Robert S. Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Delp, Robert W. “Andrew Jackson Davis and Spiritualism.” In Pseudo-Science and Society in 19th-Century America, edited by Wrobel, Arthur, 100–121. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1987.Google Scholar
Dewey, Dellon Marcus. History of the Strange Sounds or Rappings Heard in Rochester and Western New York and Usually Called the Mysterious Noises! Rochester, NY: D.M. Dewey, 1850.Google Scholar
Diotrephes, Doctor. The Knockings Exposed! New York: Self-published, 1850.Google Scholar
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The History of Spiritualism. New York: Arno Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Eidsheim, Nina Sun. Sensing Sound. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Elliott, Charles W. Mysteries, or, Glimpses of the Supernatural: Containing Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft, the Cock-Lane Ghost, the Rochester Rappings, the Stratford Mysteries, Oracles, Astrology, Dreams, Demons, Ghosts, Spectres, etc. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1852.Google Scholar
Feld, Steven. “Acoustemology.” In Keywords in Sound, edited by Novak, David and Sakakeeny, Matt, 12–21. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Grumbine, J. C. F. Clairaudience. Boston: The Order of the White Rose, 1911.Google Scholar
Holloway, Julian. “Enchanted Spaces: The Séance, Affect, and Geographies of Religion.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 96, no. 1 (March 2006): 182–87.Google Scholar
Kane, Brian. Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Lause, Mark A. Free Spirits: Spiritualism, Republicanism, and Radicalism in the Civil War Era. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2016.Google Scholar
McGarry, Molly. Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.Google Scholar
McMullin, Stanley. Anatomy of a Séance: A History of Spirit Communication in Central Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Pomeroy, C. G. and Chase, D. S.. “The Rochester Rappings,” New York Observer and Chronicle 29, no. 25 (June 19, 1851): 197.Google Scholar
Rose, Jonathan S., Shotwell, Stuart, and Bertucci, Mary Lou, Editors. Scribe of Heaven: Swedenborg's Life, Work, and Impact. West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation, 2005.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Shelhamer, Mary Longley. Teachings and Illustrations as they Emanate from the Spirit World. Chicago: The Progressive Thinker Publishing House, 1908.Google Scholar
Spinner, Codee. “(In)Audible Sound and Spiritualist Acoustemologies.” In Explorations in Music and Esotericism, edited by Roth, Marjorie and George, Leonard. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2023.Google Scholar
Underhill, A. Leah. The Missing Link in Spiritualism. New York: T. R. Knox and Company, 1885.Google Scholar