1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:04,520 Speaker 1: I'm going to try something a little different, and by 2 00:00:04,559 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: something a little different, I do mean go to a 3 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: haunted museum. The library at Cassadega offered a number of 4 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: interesting offerings when it came to spiritualist literature, but not 5 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: much in the way of cultures existing outside of the 6 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:30,240 Speaker 1: white metal class in the nineteenth and twentieth century. So 7 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 1: I'm hoping that Sea Green's Haunted History House and Museum 8 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 1: will be better. It's in this little purple building near 9 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: the teeny tiny post office that's almost always closing, and 10 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 1: it looks and sounds like a bit of a tourist trap. 11 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,279 Speaker 1: But I happen to know that it used to be 12 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: a Cassadega History museum before being rebranded to be a 13 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:56,760 Speaker 1: little more pop culture touristy, and I hope there's still 14 00:00:56,840 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: some of that inside. It's not like an official part 15 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:02,959 Speaker 1: of the camp and is not claimed or vetted by 16 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:06,680 Speaker 1: the mediums. So you'd think that Sea Greens can get 17 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:09,440 Speaker 1: a little loosey goosey punk rock with how they present 18 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 1: their history. Ten bucks later, I'm in. Actually, I did 19 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: have to gently reject the manager who was trying to 20 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:19,679 Speaker 1: sell me a haunted doll for twenty dollars on the 21 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,120 Speaker 1: way in. Like, look, I have twenty dollars, but I 22 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,600 Speaker 1: just don't want a haunted doll. I'm flying spirit airlines 23 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: on the way home. Do you really think we can 24 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: afford the risk? We cannot. But I'm in the museum, 25 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: and as I suspected, a lot of newspaper clippings and 26 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: primary resources around Cassadega and twentieth century spiritualism are still here. 27 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,440 Speaker 1: It's really just a matter of finding them among the 28 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: many framed movie posters, and my favorite, a full sized 29 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: jigsaw doll on a little tricycle jigsaw from Saw. Actually, 30 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,440 Speaker 1: if you haven't seen Saw, stop the podcast right now 31 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: and go watch Saw. At least Saw one. Some of 32 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: the best sociological storytelling of our lifetimes is contained in 33 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 1: James Wand's Saw Saga. Actually, on one of my first 34 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,079 Speaker 1: dates with the guy that I eventually lost my virginity too, 35 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: on August two ten, we watched five Saw movies in 36 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: one sitting. Did not take a peabreak, did not kiss, 37 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: should have married him, didn't became a comedian. You know 38 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:29,600 Speaker 1: where that gets you? You start doing some gonzo stuff, 39 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 1: Where does that get you? I'll tell you where that 40 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: gets you Central Florida in the middle of the day 41 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 1: in a haunted museum, sitting next to a jigsaw doll 42 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: the size of a human three year old. Not too bad. 43 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: I have no regrets. To quote a hot Dog Bun 44 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:47,760 Speaker 1: I saw in Toledo last summer, we wear the chains 45 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: we forge in life, which I agree with the spirit 46 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: of There's other factors at play, for sure, but I 47 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:57,560 Speaker 1: see where the hot Dog Bun was going with it. 48 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: Where are we We're at a haunted museum, and honestly, 49 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: there's more useful information here than I was expecting. There's 50 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: acknowledgement of the Fox sisters, for example, including the fact 51 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,840 Speaker 1: that they had claimed at one time that spiritualism was 52 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: a hoax. The museum also includes the admission that spiritualism 53 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 1: had experienced a decline in the late nineteenth century, something 54 00:03:20,720 --> 00:03:23,840 Speaker 1: you would not catch the camp sanctioned mediums fessing up to. 55 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:28,600 Speaker 1: There are some references to indigenous culture, but they're about 56 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 1: on par as anywhere else in the camp. There's this 57 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: small room right past the entrance that references Native culture. 58 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: They certainly have more books than the library did on 59 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: the subject. But the twist is you're not allowed to 60 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: touch the books. Here there's this little laser jet printed 61 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: sign with a drawing of the girl from the movie 62 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: The Ring, the one who crawls out of the TV 63 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: seven Days to Live. The sign says this, please don't 64 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 1: touch books. Some are so old they will fall apart. 65 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: Some are haunted. Either way, it won't work out well 66 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:03,880 Speaker 1: for you. Thanks management and the indigenous imagery they do 67 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: use in the room ranges from innocuous to outright offensive. 68 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: There's this flickering red light bulb to set the tone 69 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: for the haunted museum. There's a couple of figurines depicting 70 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: Native life. There's the first of many scary mannequins scattered 71 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: throughout the building that the owners dressed in iParty costumes 72 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,600 Speaker 1: to fit the theme of any given room, and make 73 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:32,160 Speaker 1: no mistake, I love the haunted mannequins, but the haunted 74 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: mannequin in the Indigenous History room does seem to be 75 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:39,359 Speaker 1: wearing a costume that was left over from Disney's Pocahontas, 76 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: so not great representation wise. In a different room, there's 77 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: a mention of voodoo practices in New Orleans, but it's 78 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: only in passing. Mostly just a couple of tourist posters 79 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: for other places in New Orleans. But even this is 80 00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: more acknowledgment of other spiritual idea as in cultures. Then 81 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,360 Speaker 1: most areas of the camp will do. I need to 82 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,320 Speaker 1: get back to these mannequins for a second. The second 83 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: mannequin you encounter at Sea Green's haunted History House and 84 00:05:11,480 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: Museum has been attempted to be dressed as the Cassadega 85 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:20,599 Speaker 1: Camp founder George Colby. Now the management must know they're 86 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:24,719 Speaker 1: not dressing the mannequins very convincingly. This one, for example, 87 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,359 Speaker 1: is a female coated mannequin wearing a Mark Twain wig, 88 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 1: complete with handlebar mustache and a suit that is at 89 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: least two sizes too large, So you can only tell 90 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:38,120 Speaker 1: who the mannequin is intended to be by the sticky 91 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: hello my name is George name tag they've attached to 92 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,440 Speaker 1: the lapel. But even around this silly mannequin, there are 93 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 1: some little historical documents. In this case. Newspaper articles from 94 00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: the eighties and nineties headlines like Cassadega mediums have the 95 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:59,160 Speaker 1: right spirit, spiritualists converse with the dead and living tourists 96 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:03,480 Speaker 1: and a very optimistic Cassadega springing back after a period 97 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:07,600 Speaker 1: of decline. There's also some esoteric history I've never heard 98 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: about until coming here. One exhibit shows letters between President 99 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: Harry Truman and a d o J employee named William Underhill, 100 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,120 Speaker 1: who was a spiritualist and at one time managed the 101 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: Cassadega Hotel. So it has its problems, but Sea Green's 102 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: Haunted History House and Museum is iconic. They get all 103 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:31,359 Speaker 1: of the history out of the way in their first 104 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:34,919 Speaker 1: couple of rooms and then just make a hard mostly 105 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,280 Speaker 1: irrelevant to spiritualism, pivot into ghostie pop culture and media. 106 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:43,000 Speaker 1: After that. Instead of, for example, a room full of 107 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: information on spiritism and a spiritismo, there's a whole wall 108 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:50,400 Speaker 1: of framed pictures of those neckbeards on the Sci Fi 109 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 1: channel who claimed to hunt ghosts. There are brief, factually 110 00:06:54,720 --> 00:07:00,839 Speaker 1: questionable explainers on things like tarot cards, reading tea leaves, palmistry, astrology, 111 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,279 Speaker 1: a pile of Jack Skellington toys. Why not, and not 112 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,599 Speaker 1: to go back to the mannequins again, But since I 113 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 1: know you're curious, here are my top three mannequins. At 114 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: the first is a woman dressed as a pilgrim who 115 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:16,920 Speaker 1: has my haircut, and her name tag reads hello, my 116 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: name is Priscilla, the Puritan Queen of the desk Okay. 117 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: Coming in at number two. Male mannequin dressed in iParty 118 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: griffin door robes. His name tag says hello, my name 119 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: is Neville. Then my bottom is not that long? Horrible. Finally, 120 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: a mannequin that is also a huge gorilla wearing sunglasses, 121 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: a hat from disney World and a Pride bandanna with 122 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 1: a name tag that says, and you're not ready for this? Hello, 123 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:50,440 Speaker 1: my name is George. There's two. George is the founder 124 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 1: of the camp and also a gay gorilla. Amazing. No 125 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 1: notes if you don't want to visit this museum at 126 00:07:56,920 --> 00:07:59,200 Speaker 1: this point, I don't know how else to sell you on. 127 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: The history here is minimal. For sure. There's no reason 128 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:07,320 Speaker 1: a history museum needs a wall full of clown masks, 129 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,160 Speaker 1: or a wall full of dead baby dolls, or a 130 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 1: whole room dedicated to things that are just vaguely scary. 131 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: I couldn't get a read for the theme on this room. 132 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:22,400 Speaker 1: It's madness, it's anarchy. But it's also the only place 133 00:08:22,680 --> 00:08:26,280 Speaker 1: you see even an attempt to touch on other spiritually 134 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: based religions. However poorly done. And it's poorly done. So 135 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: this week on Ghoest Church, I want to create a 136 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: little audio room for two religious movements that were heavily 137 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: influenced by American spiritualism, A Spiritismo and the Black spiritual 138 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: Churches of America. So hop on your tricycle, my little jigsaw, 139 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: because the theme song is I'm bailing on It. I'm 140 00:08:52,520 --> 00:09:19,600 Speaker 1: bailing on It. Music playing us jash and good look. 141 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 1: Welcome back to my little slice of central Floridian paradise 142 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,840 Speaker 1: where I'm returning to my hot waterless hotel room at 143 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: the Hotel CASTI day go to sit through the notes 144 00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:05,079 Speaker 1: I took away from the library the evening before. It 145 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: was a weird night in more ways than one, but 146 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:12,040 Speaker 1: there's no time to think about that right now. Instead, 147 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: I flipped through the pictures I took on my phone 148 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,840 Speaker 1: of book pages that stuck out to me in the moment, 149 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:22,160 Speaker 1: and I asked my spirit guides, which I'm remembering correctly, 150 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:27,400 Speaker 1: is a guy named Dawn, a lady named Helen, a swan, 151 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:33,079 Speaker 1: and two archangels. I asked them to show me something. 152 00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: Here's what I know. Spiritualism was far from the only 153 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:41,000 Speaker 1: white dominant religion to make their way on stolen land 154 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: in Florida during the late nineteenth century. Baptists and Methodists 155 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: came to the area less than twenty years before, and 156 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: Protestants only had a twenty three year head start on 157 00:10:52,559 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: the Spiritualists in forming a permanent presence in Volutia County. 158 00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:00,720 Speaker 1: I wasn't aware of the majority of the actual history 159 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,719 Speaker 1: behind the land that Cassadega was settled on when I 160 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:06,640 Speaker 1: arrived at the library in town for my two hour 161 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:10,280 Speaker 1: cram session. I wanted to sort of experiment and see 162 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:13,760 Speaker 1: how much the library would teach me and how vested 163 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,400 Speaker 1: the spiritualists who lived there now are in acknowledging any 164 00:11:17,559 --> 00:11:21,559 Speaker 1: history that isn't directly taken from the mouths of settlers 165 00:11:21,640 --> 00:11:25,040 Speaker 1: who got them started. As you know by now, there 166 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: wasn't too much. One of the books had caught my 167 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: attention from across the room. Had had this bright blue 168 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,680 Speaker 1: cover a little older and in gold script it said 169 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:42,240 Speaker 1: what is spiritualism and who are these spiritualists? And I thought, yeah, exactly, 170 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: I should call my podcast that I want to know. 171 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 1: So I opened the book the page eight and there 172 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:55,200 Speaker 1: is a prominent heading that reads spiritualism is not spiritism, 173 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:59,760 Speaker 1: So let me be the first to say yes, m no, 174 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:03,640 Speaker 1: they are not the same systems of belief, but, like 175 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,160 Speaker 1: their names would indicate, there is a lot of shared 176 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:11,439 Speaker 1: history and ideas between these movements. But this book is 177 00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:17,679 Speaker 1: pretty aggressive in distancing spiritism. Page eight reads this spiritualism 178 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:21,959 Speaker 1: must be differentiated from spiritism. The terminologies of the two 179 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:27,199 Speaker 1: words absolutely necessitate, as every scholar knows entirely different meanings. 180 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:31,400 Speaker 1: Chinese Indians and Utah Mormons are spiritists believing in present 181 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:34,840 Speaker 1: spirit communications. Most of the African tribes of the Dark 182 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: Continent worshiped demons believe in spirit converse, but certainly they 183 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:44,199 Speaker 1: are not intelligent religious spiritualists. Holy shit. In addition to 184 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:49,360 Speaker 1: being outwardly racist, most of this information is wrong, and 185 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:53,200 Speaker 1: so to any current practicing spiritualists that denies a history 186 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: of racism within the religion, that's your book, you guys. 187 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:01,320 Speaker 1: It's likely that spiritism specific glee as being singled out 188 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:06,160 Speaker 1: here because of its popularity among people in Puerto Rico, Cuba, 189 00:13:06,400 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 1: and Brazil. So this library does mention spiritism, sure, but 190 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:14,839 Speaker 1: not in a kind way, which is a shame, because 191 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 1: spiritism is inherently influenced by spiritualism and is the core 192 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:27,080 Speaker 1: of Espiritismo, possibly the widest practiced version of spiritualism today. 193 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,400 Speaker 1: So a quick history, So how do you get from 194 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:37,360 Speaker 1: spiritualism to a spiritismo? In short, Hydesville and the Fox 195 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: Sisters led to spiritualism. In the eighteen forties, Spiritualism inspired 196 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:46,839 Speaker 1: a French guy named Alan Cardick. Alan Cardeck did some 197 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,800 Speaker 1: investigations of spiritualist phenomena and modified the beliefs to call 198 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:55,480 Speaker 1: it spiritism. Cardick writes a book that arrives in Latin 199 00:13:55,559 --> 00:14:00,120 Speaker 1: America and is a huge hit. In Latin America, there 200 00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:04,119 Speaker 1: were large amounts of people from Africa brought and enslaved 201 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:08,760 Speaker 1: by colonizers, which led to blending their spiritual traditions with 202 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:12,439 Speaker 1: cardex ideas that were popping off in the area. And 203 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:17,679 Speaker 1: this is approximately how a spiritusm began, a variation on 204 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: American spiritualism, whose exact beliefs and rituals vary with some 205 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: significance depending on the region it's being practiced in. The 206 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:30,400 Speaker 1: most popular areas include Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, and 207 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:34,720 Speaker 1: each branch is influenced by some degree by the indigenous 208 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:40,880 Speaker 1: cultures of these countries and indigenous African spirituality. So to start, 209 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:44,440 Speaker 1: who is Alan Cardik? First things first, that's not his 210 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:51,040 Speaker 1: real name. His real name sounds expensive. It's hippolyte Leon 211 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:57,520 Speaker 1: de nizard reveil Okay King Mr. Four names. Was raised 212 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: in France as a Roman Catholic the early eighteen hundreds 213 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:04,280 Speaker 1: and didn't develop an interest in even the concept of 214 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 1: the seance until he was in his fifties and encountered spiritualism, 215 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:12,360 Speaker 1: so he became interested in the movement the Fox Sisters 216 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:15,120 Speaker 1: had began around the same time a lot of people did, 217 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:19,880 Speaker 1: but he approached examining spiritualist phenomena with the mind of 218 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:24,800 Speaker 1: an academic kind of skeptically, and so upon investigating on 219 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,640 Speaker 1: his own terms, he was quick to dismiss Franz Mesmer's 220 00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:32,880 Speaker 1: theory of animal magnetism and stated on many occasions that 221 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:36,680 Speaker 1: there was a high likelihood that there was some fraudulence 222 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 1: at play with a lot of the medium's working, particularly 223 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: those that were doing the really spectacular physical stuff, but 224 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 1: he didn't think it was all bullshit. Alan Cardick did 225 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:54,760 Speaker 1: not claim or endorse the full spectrum of spiritualist phenomena 226 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:59,120 Speaker 1: and all of its spirit photography habitet acts, spirit hands, 227 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: and ectoplasm. And I know I still have to tell 228 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: you about ectoplasm, but it's not going to happen this week. 229 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:10,800 Speaker 1: I think it's going to happen next week, So relax. Hell. 230 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:16,440 Speaker 1: After investigating Alan Cardick boiled down his beliefs to the 231 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:21,840 Speaker 1: following simple statements. True mediums could provide information that they 232 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: couldn't have known at the beginning of a reading. True 233 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: mediums could demonstrate the skills a spirit had that they 234 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:34,240 Speaker 1: themselves didn't possess. I think a specific handwriting, speaking the 235 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: language they didn't know. All that good stuff. And finally, 236 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:42,480 Speaker 1: true mediums were able to communicate or even mimic the 237 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:48,120 Speaker 1: personality of a specific individual that had died. Cardiac called 238 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: his scale back belief system Spiritism Original tent out of ten, 239 00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,800 Speaker 1: and he published his first and most successful book on 240 00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: the subject, which was basically five hundred or so question 241 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,160 Speaker 1: and answers on what spiritism did and did not endorse 242 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,000 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty seven. And if you thought the belief 243 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: system sounded like a ripoff of spiritualism, wait till you 244 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 1: hear the name of his book. It is the Spirit's Book. Wow. 245 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,080 Speaker 1: I mean, look, he was an academic. He was not 246 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:21,720 Speaker 1: an artiste. Not everyone to think of an incredible name 247 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,240 Speaker 1: like ghost Church, which I did not think of. My 248 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,000 Speaker 1: producer Sophie thought of it, so thank you Sophie. Anyways, 249 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:35,159 Speaker 1: as creative genius Alan Cardiac explained it, spiritism was about 250 00:17:35,359 --> 00:17:39,920 Speaker 1: uniting three of the main interests of the nineteenth century together, 251 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:46,520 Speaker 1: those being science, philosophy, and religion under a singular belief system. 252 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,840 Speaker 1: In some ways, it was much easier to buy into 253 00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:54,320 Speaker 1: Spiritism because of its clarity. The Fox sisters had assembled 254 00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:58,200 Speaker 1: the belief system of Spiritualism kind of in real time 255 00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:01,200 Speaker 1: in this chaotic way, and didn't have a lot of 256 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,800 Speaker 1: control over dictating what they did and did not think 257 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 1: was real. In the case of Cardec and Spiritism, the 258 00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:11,800 Speaker 1: Spirit's Book was far better equipped to serve as a 259 00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:16,359 Speaker 1: sort of alleged scientific endorsement to mediumship as well as 260 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 1: I viewing the moralistic ideas that tend to define religion, 261 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: and for its time, it's a pretty progressive text. It 262 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:28,679 Speaker 1: endorses the idea of evolution, a theory that some public 263 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 1: schools still won't teach, and at the time Darwin's theory 264 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:37,160 Speaker 1: had been published less than twenty years before Cardek started writing. 265 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:42,320 Speaker 1: The book also incorporated Eastern reincarnative ideas in a way 266 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 1: that spiritualism proper always skewed a little too Christian to 267 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: commit to. Many branches of a spiritismo uses Cardek's work 268 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:57,600 Speaker 1: heavily influenced by spiritualism as sort of the foundation. In general, 269 00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: a spiritismo requires belief in an omnipotent God and belief 270 00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:06,919 Speaker 1: in the spirit realm. Like American spiritualism's sexy signature blend 271 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:10,919 Speaker 1: of a non wrathful but still basically Christian God without 272 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: all of the heaven, hell and brimstone. A spiritismo believes 273 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:19,440 Speaker 1: that spirits inhabiting our bodies can evolve over time in 274 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:25,120 Speaker 1: their morality, and that communication with a spiritistas or mediums 275 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:29,520 Speaker 1: basically will help facilitate this process of growth. Other shared 276 00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:34,800 Speaker 1: practices include trans mediumship, or a medium's ability to become 277 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 1: possessed by a spirit and completely change their voice and 278 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:42,640 Speaker 1: mannerisms in the process. You might remember this phenomena when 279 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:47,920 Speaker 1: I shared a clip of Reverend Dr Louis Keith channeling Lucerne. 280 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,880 Speaker 1: You pick your time of us down to the very 281 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: second of your all time. You pick your time when 282 00:19:55,280 --> 00:20:00,360 Speaker 1: you enter this aspect and you pick your birthdage months day. 283 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: You pick your name long before you get here, whether 284 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:08,359 Speaker 1: you like it or not. Another blend of indigenous traditions 285 00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:13,240 Speaker 1: combining with spiritualist ideas was the a spiritus most spin 286 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: on the seance, the mesa or mass that required practitioners 287 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:22,879 Speaker 1: gather around a mesa or table, often with additional rituals 288 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:27,919 Speaker 1: or embellished altars that could include goblets of water flowers, 289 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:32,879 Speaker 1: small statues and figurines, tobacco and candles. Music can be 290 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,640 Speaker 1: integral to the experience. In her paper Spiritist mediumship as 291 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 1: historical mediation African American pasts, Black ancestral presence, and Afro 292 00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:48,680 Speaker 1: Cuban religions. Researcher Elizabeth Perez described lyrics that maybe understood 293 00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:51,199 Speaker 1: as products of the Cuban and Puerto Rican histories from 294 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,360 Speaker 1: which they emerged, rich in the experiences of women, persons 295 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,440 Speaker 1: of African descent, and those from the lower classes, excluded 296 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:01,240 Speaker 1: from the official histories, yet still resonant to day. Unlike 297 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:06,959 Speaker 1: spiritualists in Cassadega, those practicing a spiritismo tend towards group sciences, 298 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 1: not the one on one sessions that are commonly practiced 299 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:14,920 Speaker 1: in Lily Dale, Cassadega, and other camps. So Alan Cardix book. 300 00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: The Spirits Book became very popular in several countries that 301 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:22,960 Speaker 1: were in a state of physically and intellectually violent colonial 302 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:27,240 Speaker 1: flux throughout the nineteenth century, and the branches that develop 303 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 1: tend to be very specific to the culture, history, and 304 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: moment of the area they existed in. I wanted to 305 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:38,919 Speaker 1: give examples of a few different branches here, including Puerto 306 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:44,200 Speaker 1: rican A Spiritismo, a Spiritismo de cardon A, Spiritismo Cruisal, 307 00:21:44,680 --> 00:22:00,680 Speaker 1: and Santa Rismo, each having very unique traditions. Let's start 308 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:04,760 Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico had been colonized by Spain 309 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: back in the fifteen hundreds. Spain brought disease and religion 310 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:14,440 Speaker 1: and kidnapped enslaved people, and like most imperialists and express 311 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,800 Speaker 1: desire to quash the indigenous cultures and practices that predated 312 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,879 Speaker 1: their invasion. Many African enslaved people, forcibly brought to the 313 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,840 Speaker 1: region were from the Yoruba land region of Africa that 314 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:31,360 Speaker 1: includes what is now Nigeria, the Binian Republic, and Toba. 315 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:36,960 Speaker 1: Their beliefs included spirit communication and many different gods and goddesses, 316 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,560 Speaker 1: just as different indigenous American groups slowly pooled their ideas 317 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: with other groups, tribes, and often escaped slaves taking refuge 318 00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:50,520 Speaker 1: in Spanish Florida, a new system of beliefs began to emerge, 319 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:55,280 Speaker 1: what is now known as Puerto Rican espiritismo. This combination 320 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,359 Speaker 1: of Yoruba practices and that of indigenous Puerto Rican people 321 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: known as Tanos, also brought in the concept of metaphysical 322 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:08,960 Speaker 1: healing and the use of some physical mediumship meaning tobacco spells, etcetera, 323 00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,560 Speaker 1: and even some Spanish folk medicine found its way into 324 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,720 Speaker 1: the evolving spiritual culture. The concept of healing was a 325 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: significant part of a spiritismo, to the point where an 326 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,760 Speaker 1: entire branch, a Spiritismo di Cordon, was built around the concept. 327 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:28,800 Speaker 1: These sounds like rituals would generally consist of a circle 328 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,639 Speaker 1: of people chanting, swinging their arms and beating the floor 329 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,920 Speaker 1: until a hypnotic trance state was achieved. It's said to 330 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 1: be a very intense ritual mentally, physically, emotionally, with no 331 00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:46,000 Speaker 1: real leadership system except for a head medium who would 332 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:49,480 Speaker 1: purify the room to protect others from bad spirits before 333 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:52,639 Speaker 1: a ritual began. What I also think is really interesting 334 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:56,040 Speaker 1: is that these ceremonies tend to have a very open 335 00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: door policy. This particular branch blended elements of Catholicism, Kardecian 336 00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:06,240 Speaker 1: Spiritism which does sound like star Trek, and Tana religious rituals, 337 00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: implementing dances called aratos. Alan Cardick's work became popular among 338 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:17,640 Speaker 1: different classes in different ways. Different classes tended to practice 339 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:22,320 Speaker 1: with different ceremonies, and the upper class remained most engaged 340 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:26,920 Speaker 1: in espiritismo during wartime. A good example of this is 341 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:30,040 Speaker 1: the Ten Years War, a conflict that began in eighteen 342 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,760 Speaker 1: sixty eight in which Cuba fought Spain for their independence 343 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:38,240 Speaker 1: and were supported by Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Dominican volunteer 344 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:42,160 Speaker 1: troops who shared their struggle. This was the most engaged 345 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,159 Speaker 1: the middle class had ever been with the movement, as 346 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,440 Speaker 1: they began to lose soldiers who they knew. This is 347 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,800 Speaker 1: very similar to what was happening in the Continental US 348 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:55,159 Speaker 1: with the Civil War around the same time. Because of 349 00:24:55,359 --> 00:25:00,160 Speaker 1: the variety of blended cultures and political tensions, even war 350 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,359 Speaker 1: branches of a spiritismo developed in Puerto Rico. One leaned 351 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:08,119 Speaker 1: further into cardex work and was called White Table a 352 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:13,200 Speaker 1: Spiritismo for the seance table, while others used American spiritualisms 353 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:17,480 Speaker 1: increasing popularity as a means to practice their indigenous religion 354 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:22,360 Speaker 1: that had been deemed uncivilized by the imperialists, such as 355 00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:26,400 Speaker 1: the Congo religion. Over in Cuba, losses from the Ten 356 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:31,560 Speaker 1: Years War increased a spiritis most popularity and spiritual beliefs 357 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,800 Speaker 1: brought by an increasing number of enslaved African people helped 358 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,720 Speaker 1: shape the ideas further. For the record, slavery was not 359 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: abolished in this area until eighteen eighty six. This particular 360 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,920 Speaker 1: offshoot was called a spiritismo cruise Ou, which pulled from 361 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:54,280 Speaker 1: some Catholicism and another African diasporic religion called Palo that 362 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,320 Speaker 1: developed among enslaved people in Cuba. They would use Palo 363 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:03,280 Speaker 1: cauldrons and others significant objects while still observing Catholic saints. 364 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 1: Because this branch was innovated and frequently observed by enslaved people, 365 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: spirits channeled would often be deceased enslaved people who spoke 366 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 1: Bosol Spanish, which was a dialect that was developed out 367 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:21,199 Speaker 1: of necessity that combined the colonizing enslaver's language with ki Congo, 368 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,399 Speaker 1: a Bantu language spoken by enslaved people who were originally 369 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: from the Congo. This branch of the spiritismo is alter heavy. 370 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:33,320 Speaker 1: I think photos of the dead candles to summon their 371 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:38,879 Speaker 1: specific spirit. And finally, there was Santa Rismo, a blend 372 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:43,199 Speaker 1: of you guest it Spiritismo and Santoria, which was one 373 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 1: of the most popular religions innovated in the nineteenth century 374 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,760 Speaker 1: in Cuba. Santoria is an African diasporic religion that combines 375 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: elements of the Yoruba religion from West Africa, Roman Catholicism, 376 00:26:56,680 --> 00:27:00,119 Speaker 1: and spiritism. As written by Kardak in their prod Do, 377 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,239 Speaker 1: says mediums can communicate with spirits while themselves possessed by 378 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:09,800 Speaker 1: the dead. Leaders include the Godfather and Godmother Awesome aka 379 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:14,200 Speaker 1: the Padrino and Madrina, who conduct mediumship sessions around a 380 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:18,320 Speaker 1: table and play or sing Afro Cuban chants and prayers 381 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,359 Speaker 1: to attract good spirits. Rituals would sometimes end with a 382 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:27,880 Speaker 1: ceremony called sahumerio, a purification ritual that uses charcoal, garlic, 383 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:31,560 Speaker 1: and herbs to extract evil spirits and wash them away 384 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 1: with blessed water. A Spiritismo at large became extremely popular 385 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,960 Speaker 1: and outlived the American spiritualism craze in the continental US, 386 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,040 Speaker 1: which had pretty thoroughly wound down by the nineteen twenties. 387 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 1: Even though a Spiritismo was banned during the Cuban Revolution 388 00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:52,240 Speaker 1: in the nineteen fifties, the movement didn't die out. It 389 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:56,159 Speaker 1: was just forced underground, and there are plenty still practicing 390 00:27:56,320 --> 00:28:00,320 Speaker 1: in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Brazil now, with Brazil aiming 391 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:04,360 Speaker 1: nearly four million practicing members as of two thousand ten. 392 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:10,240 Speaker 1: Spiritismo and if many forms tells the story of forced enslavement, 393 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,960 Speaker 1: of imperialism, of an underclass combining multiple systems of belief 394 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: for their circumstances. Should any of it had to have happened, No, 395 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,560 Speaker 1: these circumstances were born of oppression, which makes it particularly 396 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: relevant that a spiritismo and spiritualism are enmeshed in this optimism, 397 00:28:29,960 --> 00:28:32,920 Speaker 1: the idea that what is coming next will be better 398 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 1: than what you're experiencing now. So I decided to ask 399 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:42,280 Speaker 1: an expert. Dr Carlos Camacho is a sociologist whose dissertation 400 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:48,440 Speaker 1: is called Navigating Ocha LGBT Practitioners, Participation and Navigation of Lukumi. 401 00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,600 Speaker 1: There's a section of this paper that focuses on spirit 402 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:56,520 Speaker 1: communication and a spiritismo entirely. He's also an alumnus of 403 00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,200 Speaker 1: the Bechtel cast. But we're not here to talk teenage 404 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:03,280 Speaker 1: mutant ninja to today. We're here to talk religion. Here's 405 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:07,440 Speaker 1: a bit of our conversation. So Alan Cardick heard about 406 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,320 Speaker 1: and started saw this wave of spiritualism that was spreading 407 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,480 Speaker 1: in the Americas and in Europe, and wanted to create 408 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:19,479 Speaker 1: his own more quote unquote scientific approach to this um 409 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 1: and so that version got really popular in Puerto Rico 410 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: and in Cuba where UM. The reason it's relevant to 411 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:32,080 Speaker 1: my research interests is that when the enslaved peoples from 412 00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:35,960 Speaker 1: West Africa were brought to the Caribbean, the Yoruba people specifically, 413 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:38,520 Speaker 1: there were lots of parts of their religion that were 414 00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,000 Speaker 1: left behind, and so one of the things that they 415 00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:45,200 Speaker 1: had in Nigeria, um what is today known as Nigeria, 416 00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: was the Agun society, which was their way of connecting 417 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: with ancestral spirits and the dead, and that didn't come 418 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,760 Speaker 1: over in mass in the same way. And so as 419 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,600 Speaker 1: part of the process of recotification of the religion in Cuba, 420 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:03,360 Speaker 1: there was a bringing in of certain parts of other traditions, 421 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: including the particular brand of diesel or spiritism that became 422 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: really popular in the Caribbean, especially in the Spanish speaking Caribbean. 423 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: That then when Locumi sent thatia came to the United States, 424 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: it came um here with the waves of Cuban, Puerto 425 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,840 Speaker 1: Rican and other migrants bringing the traditions. In the studies, 426 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,480 Speaker 1: a lot of Camacho's research traced how and why Cardix 427 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:34,560 Speaker 1: ideas were implemented into the existing spiritual practices of displaced 428 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,840 Speaker 1: African people and groups indigenous to Puerto Rico and Cuba. 429 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,640 Speaker 1: He unpacks that process and the controversy that surrounds it 430 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 1: in academia here. So, when the peoples were brought over 431 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:53,080 Speaker 1: Um to be enslaved in the America's, one of the 432 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 1: groups that came first arguably in popularity in Cuba was 433 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: the Eco and Go or Congo people um and so 434 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: they brought their traditions that today we would call Balo 435 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:13,000 Speaker 1: boombe Um balomonte Um, which is a Gongo religion that 436 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:18,120 Speaker 1: was similar to Lucumi and Santia recodified in the in 437 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,800 Speaker 1: Cuba and then spread to the Americas. When the Oruba 438 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: people came over the way, they engaged with religion was 439 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,120 Speaker 1: that they were willing to bring in other factors, and 440 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:35,000 Speaker 1: so they were able to bring people in, which from 441 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 1: a certain perspective makes sense. You have something that works, 442 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: we're going to bring you in and we're going to 443 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: use it. And so one of the things that is 444 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:49,480 Speaker 1: at times theoretically fraught. Various academics have different perspectives on 445 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:53,640 Speaker 1: what the process was, but the gist of it is 446 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:57,000 Speaker 1: that when the europa people came, you could not practice 447 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:01,080 Speaker 1: the religion in the same ways in the Americas the 448 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:05,400 Speaker 1: way it was practiced in Africa and Nigeria. In Uruba land, 449 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,600 Speaker 1: you had the Ocean people living in the Ocean Village, 450 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,560 Speaker 1: and so all the priests lived there. If you needed 451 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,000 Speaker 1: to do something with Oshan, you would go to the 452 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:20,160 Speaker 1: Ocean village. If you were a Shango priest, you lived 453 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: with the Shango people, and so these things were very 454 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:29,160 Speaker 1: separate and distinct. Priests were initiated into one priest that 455 00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:33,240 Speaker 1: was not tenable for the enslaved peoples in Cuba, and 456 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:38,120 Speaker 1: so part of that recodification was initiating each other into 457 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:44,280 Speaker 1: the mysteries of various arisia too maintain the religion, to 458 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:48,360 Speaker 1: keep the spirits alive in the Americans because you couldn't 459 00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:50,600 Speaker 1: do it the old way, so you had to create 460 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:54,400 Speaker 1: a new way. Part of that the Egogun society did 461 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:58,600 Speaker 1: not make it to um the America's in the same 462 00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,320 Speaker 1: way at the time, and so it spitted these more 463 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,200 Speaker 1: as it got popular with the whites in Cuba and 464 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. It worked, and so they were able to 465 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:10,720 Speaker 1: then use it and bring it into their practice with 466 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,480 Speaker 1: their own flavor to then communicate with their ancestors. And 467 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: so one of the things that was interesting is that 468 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,280 Speaker 1: and this is this part is very um between believers 469 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:25,520 Speaker 1: and academics and scholar practitioners. There's a lot of um 470 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: in fighting about some of the specifics of this UM, 471 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:33,080 Speaker 1: but that in your Ruba land, you had your ancestors. 472 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,760 Speaker 1: It was one collective group of people. It was just 473 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,600 Speaker 1: your people. Once you bring the Americans into play, you 474 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: have the native peoples that are on the islands who 475 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 1: are in various stages of a genocide per the European 476 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: expansionist imperialists UM forces UM and so there's different types 477 00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:59,000 Speaker 1: of dead spirits walking around that has to be engaged 478 00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:02,840 Speaker 1: with because now you're on someone else's sacred land. And 479 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,920 Speaker 1: so there was an incorporation of certain classes of spirits 480 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:11,080 Speaker 1: that then began to be part of this reformulation. And 481 00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,680 Speaker 1: so there were certain things that became more popular in 482 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,160 Speaker 1: Cuba that now are sort of standard, like use of 483 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:21,320 Speaker 1: tobacco to engage with spirits that wasn't necessarily something that 484 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,560 Speaker 1: would have been done by the people in Yurubu land 485 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:28,280 Speaker 1: before enslavement. And so there was a lot of these 486 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:31,799 Speaker 1: shifting um and changing forces, and so it's spited these 487 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:35,879 Speaker 1: minds of practice. While not indigenous to the Ruba people, 488 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:40,880 Speaker 1: the Gmo people, or the native people's of the islands, 489 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,879 Speaker 1: it served a function to fill the gap that um 490 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:48,480 Speaker 1: was stolen the enslavement, that they weren't able to continue 491 00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:51,560 Speaker 1: to practice. And so one of the things that my 492 00:34:51,680 --> 00:34:54,360 Speaker 1: godfather often talks about is that it has to make sense, 493 00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:56,839 Speaker 1: and for them, it made sense to have this new 494 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,920 Speaker 1: practice that might have some Christian um overlays, like you 495 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: start um spiritual nsis with the our Father, but once 496 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,920 Speaker 1: you get the spirits in the room, it's a very 497 00:35:08,120 --> 00:35:12,400 Speaker 1: non Christian conversation and there's a lot of non Christian 498 00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:16,359 Speaker 1: things happening. And because he's been listening to the show 499 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:22,080 Speaker 1: Brag Carlos brought up an important distinction between spiritualism at 500 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:27,280 Speaker 1: present and a spiritismo then and now, the tendency spiritualists 501 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:30,840 Speaker 1: have to channel the odd dead famous person, whether it 502 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:35,239 Speaker 1: be Benjamin Franklin or JP Morgan just spitball in here. 503 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,000 Speaker 1: Camacho makes the following distinction and spoke on the changes 504 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:42,960 Speaker 1: he's noticed following the history of a spiritismo. There are 505 00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,319 Speaker 1: really famous spirits that, as far as I'm aware, are 506 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:50,680 Speaker 1: commonplace in a spiritismo. Um. What you do see is 507 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:56,960 Speaker 1: you'll find um native spirits and enslaved spirits that are 508 00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:03,240 Speaker 1: around trying to help their descendants to improve given their experiences, 509 00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: to not have that be replicated in the current generation. Uh, 510 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,200 Speaker 1: which is an interesting phenomenon in a variety of different levels. 511 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,680 Speaker 1: But you also see a very clear given the politics 512 00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:20,279 Speaker 1: of certain parts of the Lukami community being very sort 513 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:26,040 Speaker 1: of pro black, very sort of um pro people of color, 514 00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:30,239 Speaker 1: um anti imperial, given that there are some of those 515 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:35,040 Speaker 1: political dynamics, the way spirits communicate and are translated is 516 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:40,719 Speaker 1: a little different. So in Alan Cardis spiritualism, the way 517 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,400 Speaker 1: it's sort of the classes of spirits are understood, like 518 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,120 Speaker 1: you do have the Native, you have the African you 519 00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:53,520 Speaker 1: have these very rigid stereotypical caricatures, but in practice, given 520 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:56,959 Speaker 1: how some spirits do not identify themselves in that way, 521 00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:00,080 Speaker 1: there has been a movement away from that in that 522 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:04,960 Speaker 1: at least the last thirty forty years. And I think 523 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,840 Speaker 1: that's also shifting socio political dynamics. In the United States. 524 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,040 Speaker 1: The religion Lukumi came to the US in the sixties, 525 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,080 Speaker 1: and so you had Black nationalists, you have the Young Lords, 526 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,520 Speaker 1: you have all of these distinct socio political movements, and 527 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 1: then you have this religion that was kept alive by 528 00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:26,000 Speaker 1: enslaved people's So there's a particular politic that some in 529 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,960 Speaker 1: the religion today sort of maintained to shift some of 530 00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:32,600 Speaker 1: those dynamics and relationships with spirit. Thank you again to 531 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:36,359 Speaker 1: the wonderful Dr. Carlos Camancho. You can find out more 532 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:38,600 Speaker 1: about him and his work at the links in the 533 00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:56,080 Speaker 1: description of this episode. The final area of spiritualism that 534 00:37:56,239 --> 00:38:00,719 Speaker 1: it's difficult to find acknowledgment of in Cassadega are volumes 535 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:04,480 Speaker 1: on black spiritualism in America. Now, that is not to 536 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,719 Speaker 1: say that there are no black spiritualists, but for a 537 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:11,600 Speaker 1: religion that was founded on the ideas of abolition and 538 00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: found an early supporter and none other than Frederick Douglas. 539 00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:20,839 Speaker 1: Some may find the persistent whiteness of spiritualism confusing. In fact, 540 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:24,799 Speaker 1: my opinion is that the Cassadega Spiritualist camp right now 541 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:29,320 Speaker 1: excuse less progressive than when it was founded. Many of 542 00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:32,200 Speaker 1: the spiritualists I talked to in Florida are center left 543 00:38:32,280 --> 00:38:36,440 Speaker 1: politically or libertarian and straight up Republican in more cases 544 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:41,360 Speaker 1: than one, pretty far from their somewhat radical origins. It 545 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,560 Speaker 1: didn't feel awesome, and it made me question how early 546 00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:50,480 Speaker 1: spiritualists had characterized themselves. And upon further investigation, reports that 547 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: early Spiritualists in Cassadega had been extremely welcoming of the 548 00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:59,040 Speaker 1: black community, many of whom were freed slaves, may have 549 00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:02,840 Speaker 1: been exagg rated at the time. It's an exaggeration that 550 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 1: follows Cassadega to this day, as suggested by a trip 551 00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:10,520 Speaker 1: Advisor review I found from a black couple in that 552 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:15,200 Speaker 1: declared the camp quote the most racist place in Florida, 553 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,319 Speaker 1: and that's got to be a real contest. Here's how 554 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,880 Speaker 1: the spiritualists put it. I'm taking this from the current 555 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:25,800 Speaker 1: definitive Cassadega history book, or the one that's still in print, 556 00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:30,920 Speaker 1: called Cassadega the sounds oldest Spiritualist community. This is a 557 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,640 Speaker 1: section on the Camp's earliest relations with the black community. 558 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:38,680 Speaker 1: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they Camp 559 00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:40,960 Speaker 1: made an effort to reach out and touch the African 560 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:45,040 Speaker 1: American community in the vicinity. Even so, most blacks initially 561 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:49,120 Speaker 1: shied away from Cassadega. They disappeared from the streets after sunset, 562 00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:51,920 Speaker 1: mused to one observer, and watched the spiritualists attending the 563 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:55,960 Speaker 1: meetings with much reticence. According to a local white spiced account, 564 00:39:56,040 --> 00:40:00,759 Speaker 1: African Americans evidently feared Northern spiritualists as ghosts or goblins. 565 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:05,800 Speaker 1: In however, Professor William F. Peck addressed a large delegation 566 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,000 Speaker 1: of blacks and told them that the spirit world had 567 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:11,600 Speaker 1: been chiefly instrumental in bringing slavery to an end. So 568 00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:16,000 Speaker 1: this account is loaded and extremely biased, almost completely ignoring 569 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:18,719 Speaker 1: the general politics of the American South in the late 570 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:22,680 Speaker 1: nineteenth century. Because regardless of what they considered to be 571 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:27,479 Speaker 1: a progressive community, it's understandable that local black residents would 572 00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:30,640 Speaker 1: not have been interested in fraternizing with a mostly white 573 00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,239 Speaker 1: Northern frene religious group that was already attracting a lot 574 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,759 Speaker 1: of controversy and speculation because this was an area that, 575 00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:41,920 Speaker 1: at different points in history was literally run by the KKK. 576 00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:45,120 Speaker 1: And while Professor Peck's actions flew in the face of 577 00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:47,879 Speaker 1: racial taboos of the time by lecturing to a black 578 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:51,000 Speaker 1: audience at all, it's safe to say that the most 579 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,560 Speaker 1: potent years of diversity and cooperation within Spiritualism had already 580 00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:59,320 Speaker 1: passed by the time Cassadega opened in the eighteen nineties. 581 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:04,799 Speaker 1: Spiritualism was always a woman dominated movement, even when male 582 00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,440 Speaker 1: mediums began to crop up with some success, and several 583 00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:11,960 Speaker 1: black women were involved in its formative years. One of 584 00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,719 Speaker 1: the reasons this is is because close allies of the 585 00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:18,160 Speaker 1: Fox Sisters, a white couple named Amy and Isaac Post, 586 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,360 Speaker 1: Isaac Post going on to become a medium and write 587 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:26,160 Speaker 1: some early Spiritualist texts, where radical Quaker abolitionists who were 588 00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:28,879 Speaker 1: known for their left wing politics in upstate New York 589 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:32,879 Speaker 1: and would harbor fugitive enslaved people in their home as 590 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:36,640 Speaker 1: they were getting into spiritualism. It was this group of 591 00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:41,840 Speaker 1: Quakers that first brought abolitionist, suffragist and all around legend 592 00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,000 Speaker 1: Sojourner Truth into the spiritualist fold beginning in the mid 593 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,960 Speaker 1: eighteen fifties, after Truth gave a speech on abolition in 594 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,360 Speaker 1: the area. She bought a home in Harmonia, Michigan, and 595 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:58,239 Speaker 1: became associated with the Battle Creek Spiritualist community. This was 596 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:02,160 Speaker 1: considered to be one of the early spiritualist utopias that 597 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:06,480 Speaker 1: eventually fell to make way for wait for it, a 598 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:10,760 Speaker 1: training center for the U. S. Army during World War One. However, 599 00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:14,960 Speaker 1: it's not known whether Truth ever formally joined the community, 600 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:18,600 Speaker 1: but spiritualism has certainly laid its claim that she did. 601 00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:24,080 Speaker 1: Sojourner Truth was unquestionably the most famous alleged black spiritualist 602 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:26,919 Speaker 1: of her era, but far from the only well known 603 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:31,120 Speaker 1: black woman to early spiritualism. There was also Harriet Jacobs, 604 00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:34,279 Speaker 1: a formerly enslaved woman who fled her abuser in the 605 00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:38,399 Speaker 1: early days of spiritualism and met with none other than 606 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,359 Speaker 1: Amy Post, who encouraged Jacobs to write on her experience. 607 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:47,200 Speaker 1: Under the pseudonym Linda Brent, Jacobs wrote a seminal nineteenth 608 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:51,120 Speaker 1: century memoir called Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 609 00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:54,920 Speaker 1: As a writer who had lived on both sides of slavery, 610 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,200 Speaker 1: Jacobs leveraged her belief and abilities to place emphasis on 611 00:42:59,280 --> 00:43:03,400 Speaker 1: the pain and suffering that black people had endured in America. But, 612 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:08,960 Speaker 1: like Sojourner, truth spiritualists lay claim to Jacob's unequivocally, but 613 00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:13,800 Speaker 1: scholars aren't convinced that she was a converted believer. Aaron 614 00:43:13,920 --> 00:43:17,359 Speaker 1: Eve Forbes wrote in her paper do Black Ghosts Matter? 615 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:21,480 Speaker 1: Harriet Jacob's spiritualism? As she does with the slave narratives 616 00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:25,480 Speaker 1: and domestic fiction, Jacob's quickly masters the discourse of spiritualism, 617 00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:28,040 Speaker 1: using it to gain for herself a voice in the 618 00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:30,520 Speaker 1: social debates of her day, while at the same time 619 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,239 Speaker 1: subtly and carefully reworking that discourse to suit her own ends. 620 00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:38,400 Speaker 1: Writer Harriet E. Wilson was a novelist and a successful 621 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,960 Speaker 1: practicing trans medium of her time. She debuted in Boston 622 00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:44,759 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy six and became one of the first 623 00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:48,879 Speaker 1: black spiritualists to lecture in what would normally be segregated 624 00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:53,239 Speaker 1: spaces in New England. She channeled spirit as well as 625 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:58,520 Speaker 1: messages on abolition and intersectional feminism. There was also Rebecca 626 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:04,280 Speaker 1: Cox Jackson born in sevent who experienced the relatively common 627 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:08,960 Speaker 1: spiritualist awakening visions and interactions with Spirit as a child, 628 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:13,000 Speaker 1: but being born a free black woman in Pennsylvania, could 629 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:17,080 Speaker 1: only credit her reading and writing skills to Spirit. Being 630 00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:20,759 Speaker 1: barred from a formal education herself, Jackson would go on 631 00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:24,279 Speaker 1: to establish a popular science circle in her home, which 632 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:27,880 Speaker 1: didn't only offer an opportunity to include more Black Americans 633 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:31,400 Speaker 1: in the movement, but centered them and gave an opportunity 634 00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:34,960 Speaker 1: to speak with their dead. Jackson became a local legend 635 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:39,520 Speaker 1: in a culture where Black Americans, specifically black women, had 636 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:44,960 Speaker 1: perspectives that were frequently disrespected or outright ignored. Spiritualism and 637 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:49,160 Speaker 1: mediumship was an opportunity to not just center there often 638 00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,840 Speaker 1: ignored experiences, but explain them in their own words, with 639 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:57,120 Speaker 1: significance and an emphasis that was nothing short of religious. 640 00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:01,879 Speaker 1: So what happened? Why aren't there far more black spiritualists 641 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:06,480 Speaker 1: living in and lecturing at Cassadega with regularity? You might 642 00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:09,439 Speaker 1: be able to guess. While there had been successful black 643 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:12,680 Speaker 1: mediums working in the early years of the religion, white 644 00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:16,319 Speaker 1: spiritualists weren't always as committed to equality as they may 645 00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:19,640 Speaker 1: have sounded on paper. A perfect example of this came 646 00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:23,320 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety three, one year pre Cassadega, when the 647 00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:28,880 Speaker 1: National Spiritualist Association of Churches, originally called the National Spiritualist 648 00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:33,279 Speaker 1: Association literally the n s a was founded. Now, for 649 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,160 Speaker 1: the record, Cassadega was affiliated with the n s a 650 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:39,000 Speaker 1: C for a long time, but has since struck out 651 00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:42,000 Speaker 1: as an individual entity all its own. But this was 652 00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:44,560 Speaker 1: not the case in the late nineteenth century. In the 653 00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:48,439 Speaker 1: late nineteenth century, virtually all of American society was still 654 00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:51,960 Speaker 1: racially segregated, and the n s a C was no exception. 655 00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:55,759 Speaker 1: While black people were a part of the religion, black 656 00:45:55,920 --> 00:46:00,120 Speaker 1: members would be placed in quote colored auxiliary society is 657 00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:06,560 Speaker 1: unquote within spiritualism. Unsurprisingly, this insistence on segregation in an 658 00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:11,520 Speaker 1: allegedly progressive religion led to increased tension, and many black 659 00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:15,520 Speaker 1: spiritualists saw a need to design similar religious organizations in 660 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:20,120 Speaker 1: which they could be leaders, not auxiliary appendages. This came 661 00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:22,680 Speaker 1: to blows in a big way around World War One. 662 00:46:23,280 --> 00:46:25,239 Speaker 1: The n s a C decided that there was a 663 00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:30,000 Speaker 1: need for a completely separate, all black Spiritualist organization and 664 00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:34,719 Speaker 1: installed Joseph P. Whitwell, a white spiritualist leader, to lead 665 00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:39,360 Speaker 1: a meeting in Cleveland in April of This resulted in 666 00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:43,920 Speaker 1: a significant protest. Six out of twenty delegates requested to attend, 667 00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:49,440 Speaker 1: Withdrew furious that this historically equality touting religion was still 668 00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:55,400 Speaker 1: insisting on segregation. It was popularized by abolitionists. It's so bizarre. 669 00:46:56,080 --> 00:47:00,640 Speaker 1: The fourteen remaining delegates formed the National Colored Spiritualist Association 670 00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:05,200 Speaker 1: of Churches, still appointing some white spiritualists as their leaders. 671 00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:09,319 Speaker 1: The organization was not long for this world. The next year, 672 00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:12,759 Speaker 1: the n c s a C formally adopted the same 673 00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:16,000 Speaker 1: declaration of principles you still here at the beginning of 674 00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:21,520 Speaker 1: Cassadega today, including we believe that the highest morality is 675 00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:26,200 Speaker 1: contained in the Golden Rule. Whatsoever he would that others 676 00:47:26,239 --> 00:47:31,320 Speaker 1: should do onto you, do you also onto them the brainworms. 677 00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:34,680 Speaker 1: It requires for your segregated group to claim the Golden 678 00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:38,480 Speaker 1: Rule as a part of your religion is just I 679 00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:42,200 Speaker 1: hate America. It's extremely difficult to find records of the 680 00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:44,880 Speaker 1: n s a C, but it is said to have 681 00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:49,320 Speaker 1: existed until the nineteen seventies. It's possible that after the 682 00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:52,719 Speaker 1: Civil Rights movement there was no more social precedent for 683 00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:56,920 Speaker 1: segregating spiritualism. But during this stretch of a half century, 684 00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,200 Speaker 1: there became many other spiritual options for Black Americans that 685 00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,920 Speaker 1: didn't require operating as an auxiliary for a white religion, 686 00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:10,719 Speaker 1: most popularly the movement of independent Black spiritual churches, many 687 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:15,280 Speaker 1: of which still exist today. Dr Margharita Simon Guillory wrote 688 00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:18,600 Speaker 1: on the history of black spiritualist churches in her wonderful 689 00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:25,080 Speaker 1: book Social and Spiritual Transformation in African American Spiritual Churches, 690 00:48:25,719 --> 00:48:29,320 Speaker 1: in which she unpacks this crossover between early black and 691 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:33,720 Speaker 1: white spiritualists and examines the ways in which Black spirituality 692 00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:38,440 Speaker 1: is to this day often overlooked in religious history. Her 693 00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:42,320 Speaker 1: primary research was done in New Orleans, where she described 694 00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:46,040 Speaker 1: the Black spiritual culture in an interview with the Religious 695 00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:51,840 Speaker 1: Studies Project in Spiritual Churches, the African American Spiritual churches 696 00:48:52,040 --> 00:48:56,879 Speaker 1: um that that I researched are a blended religious group, 697 00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:59,919 Speaker 1: and I like that term blendedness and what they've done. 698 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:05,000 Speaker 1: And they have conjoined all of the various elements from 699 00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:08,160 Speaker 1: institutionalized religions, and I'll talk about that in just the moment, 700 00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:12,320 Speaker 1: and they've created their own unique religion, specifically the spiritual 701 00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:16,520 Speaker 1: churches in New Orleans. They've conjoined Protestant traditions with the 702 00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:21,920 Speaker 1: focus on Pentecostalism, they pulled from their worship style. Catholicism 703 00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,920 Speaker 1: is a major bedrock in spiritual churches in New Orleans 704 00:49:26,120 --> 00:49:30,560 Speaker 1: just because Catholic religion, Catholicism is the predominant is still 705 00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:34,760 Speaker 1: today the predominant religion. That's that's practice in New Orleans 706 00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:40,600 Speaker 1: and particular in Louisiana in general. They also incorporate American spiritualism, 707 00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:44,040 Speaker 1: the ability to communicate with the dead that was birthed 708 00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:47,160 Speaker 1: in Western New York in Highsville, New York. They also 709 00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:51,040 Speaker 1: sort of conjoined and mix into their faith who do 710 00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:55,400 Speaker 1: and voodoo and this this notion of voodoo is derived 711 00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:59,600 Speaker 1: directly from Haitian voodoom. So and when you look at 712 00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:03,440 Speaker 1: sort of their belief system in their ritual practices, you 713 00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:07,160 Speaker 1: could see a little of all of these religions. Guillory's 714 00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:11,120 Speaker 1: research was primarily done in pre Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, 715 00:50:11,520 --> 00:50:14,360 Speaker 1: and I highly recommend her work. She breaks down the 716 00:50:14,520 --> 00:50:19,280 Speaker 1: religious intersections, of which spiritualism is just one that defined 717 00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:23,600 Speaker 1: these religions that were dominated by black women. She also 718 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:27,880 Speaker 1: gets into how environmental racism has destroyed or weakened the 719 00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:32,320 Speaker 1: Black spiritual church movement. Following her Kane Katrina, a number 720 00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:35,560 Speaker 1: of churches were destroyed and then reclaimed by the city 721 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:40,240 Speaker 1: as eminent domain, drastically reducing the number of spiritual churches 722 00:50:40,360 --> 00:50:45,040 Speaker 1: in the area. The ways in which the changing landscape 723 00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:48,960 Speaker 1: around spiritual churches we can tell a lot. If you 724 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:51,600 Speaker 1: look at the change in landscape of spiritual churches, it 725 00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:57,799 Speaker 1: tells us a lot about other landscapes and shifting landscapes 726 00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:05,799 Speaker 1: in New Orleans, demographically escapes, social landscapes, economic landscapes, political landscapes. 727 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:08,520 Speaker 1: If you just focus on the spiritual churches, we could 728 00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,160 Speaker 1: see all of these sort of dynamics that are going 729 00:51:11,239 --> 00:51:16,480 Speaker 1: on post Katrina. About seventeen of the fifty plus churches 730 00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,320 Speaker 1: that were in New Orleans or operating in New Orleans 731 00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:23,600 Speaker 1: pre Katrina were located in the ninth ward um, so 732 00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:28,759 Speaker 1: they were destroyed. And the last chapter of my book 733 00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,560 Speaker 1: sort of talks about that the ways in which not 734 00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:36,520 Speaker 1: only did they not only were some of them structurally destroyed, 735 00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:42,080 Speaker 1: but because of some very deliberate economical and political and 736 00:51:42,200 --> 00:51:46,319 Speaker 1: structural changes that occurred in post Katrina New Orleans, they 737 00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:49,080 Speaker 1: were sort of the lands in which these churches, even 738 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:51,440 Speaker 1: if they were in a position where they could have 739 00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:54,480 Speaker 1: you restored the church they were taken and they were 740 00:51:54,520 --> 00:51:58,120 Speaker 1: converted to green spaces. I'll be linking to more of 741 00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:02,839 Speaker 1: Guileleris work in the description of this episode. But by 742 00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,879 Speaker 1: the mid twentieth century or so, the spiritualist religion as 743 00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:09,880 Speaker 1: it had been founded by the Fox Sisters had lost 744 00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:14,720 Speaker 1: many black spiritualists to independent spiritual churches and other movements. 745 00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,719 Speaker 1: And based on this history, it's no wonder why and 746 00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:21,920 Speaker 1: so what we see is a religion that was popularized 747 00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,799 Speaker 1: by abolitionists that by the early twentieth century was still 748 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:30,440 Speaker 1: proving hostile to black spiritualists. In the case of Cassadega, 749 00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:33,600 Speaker 1: this issue appears to be compounded by the even more 750 00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:37,960 Speaker 1: intense racial inequality in the American South once that affected 751 00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:42,880 Speaker 1: the Cassadega area immeasurably in the early twentieth century. By November, 752 00:52:43,920 --> 00:52:48,520 Speaker 1: the ku Klux Klan was holding open parades in nearby Daytona, Florida, 753 00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:52,440 Speaker 1: in an attempt to intimidate local black voters out of 754 00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:57,480 Speaker 1: voting at all. To stage essentially a complete political coup 755 00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:01,600 Speaker 1: of the area. The KKK burned to black theaters in 756 00:53:01,680 --> 00:53:05,759 Speaker 1: Daytona as well beat people and when completely unpunished by 757 00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:09,359 Speaker 1: law enforcement who were deeply invested in looking the other way. 758 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:15,960 Speaker 1: Clan candidates virtually swept judicial, municipal and legislative office primaries 759 00:53:16,040 --> 00:53:22,239 Speaker 1: in something called the Clan Vocation was held in an 760 00:53:22,280 --> 00:53:26,120 Speaker 1: event that attempted to declare Florida as a quote self 761 00:53:26,239 --> 00:53:30,080 Speaker 1: governing realm in the invisible Empire unquote. This is just 762 00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:34,840 Speaker 1: a hundred years ago, and this deeply racist terrorism literally 763 00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:41,600 Speaker 1: surrounded the Cassadega community. But the KKK never came to Cassadega. 764 00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:44,800 Speaker 1: Maybe a relief for the camp, But the books I 765 00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:49,600 Speaker 1: consulted indicate no record of the majority white religion being 766 00:53:49,719 --> 00:53:53,120 Speaker 1: public allies to Black Americans as they had been in 767 00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:56,919 Speaker 1: the early days of the Spiritualist movement. One would think 768 00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:01,160 Speaker 1: if they had been, the KKK may showed up. The 769 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:06,080 Speaker 1: history book Cassadega, the sounds oldest Spiritualist community treats this 770 00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:10,840 Speaker 1: as something of a mystery, talking around the issue like this, 771 00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:15,759 Speaker 1: Cassadega escaped the clan's wrath during the nineteen twenties. The 772 00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:18,400 Speaker 1: terrorist group did not so much as burn across in 773 00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:22,719 Speaker 1: the Spiritualist community. Defies explanation considering the crimes committed by 774 00:54:22,719 --> 00:54:25,200 Speaker 1: the clan and the victims who suffered their drubbings. The 775 00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:28,840 Speaker 1: revived KKK of the twenties fantasized of a cultural purity 776 00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:34,200 Speaker 1: that is one Americanism. One could speculate that because Cassadega 777 00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:37,879 Speaker 1: went dry before either state or national prohibition became law, 778 00:54:38,280 --> 00:54:41,640 Speaker 1: and since the Spiritualist manifested a strong sense of patriotism, 779 00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,240 Speaker 1: the clan looked elsewhere for more appealing targets to terrorize. 780 00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:49,560 Speaker 1: Perhaps the Spiritualists seemed too ordinary to typically American to 781 00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:52,799 Speaker 1: attempt the clan. If the town's progressive ideas on race 782 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:56,680 Speaker 1: and gender coupled with its unorthodox faith, bid Cassadega sitting 783 00:54:56,760 --> 00:54:59,680 Speaker 1: duck for the clan. What saved the tiny community from 784 00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:03,239 Speaker 1: the clan ends abuse remains a mystery, even if you're 785 00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:06,759 Speaker 1: willing to put this writer's dog whistle of too ordinary 786 00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:10,800 Speaker 1: and too typically American as a way of describing middle 787 00:55:10,880 --> 00:55:14,520 Speaker 1: class white people. It is at least true that Spiritualists 788 00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:19,200 Speaker 1: in Cassadega proudly displayed the American flag and historically celebrated 789 00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:23,600 Speaker 1: patriotic holidays with regularity, And it may have been this 790 00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:28,880 Speaker 1: jingoistic tilt that protected the majority white religion and deterred 791 00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:32,239 Speaker 1: Black and Indigenous people from wanting any part of it. 792 00:55:35,400 --> 00:55:38,040 Speaker 1: But most of this information I have to find on 793 00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:41,600 Speaker 1: my own time. It's not available on the camp's grounds. 794 00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:44,320 Speaker 1: And I'm very grateful that there are scholars who have 795 00:55:44,480 --> 00:55:48,719 Speaker 1: dedicated their careers to preserving the histories of movements like 796 00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:52,480 Speaker 1: a Spiritisma and the Black Spiritualist Church, ones that are 797 00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:56,600 Speaker 1: so underdiscussed that I didn't know they existed before working 798 00:55:56,680 --> 00:56:00,200 Speaker 1: on this show. And okay, I sort of bear ate 799 00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:04,160 Speaker 1: the lead earlier. Things did get interesting after my night 800 00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:07,320 Speaker 1: at the library in Cassadega, So if you will indulge me, 801 00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:10,600 Speaker 1: let's go back there for a second. My two hours 802 00:56:10,640 --> 00:56:12,560 Speaker 1: were almost up the night I was at the library, 803 00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:14,960 Speaker 1: and I hadn't been able to do much more than 804 00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:19,160 Speaker 1: frantically snap pictures of books that don't exist anywhere else 805 00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,560 Speaker 1: and could easily be lost to history forever. If a 806 00:56:22,680 --> 00:56:26,440 Speaker 1: leak sprung in the ceiling, and given how much maintenance 807 00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:29,799 Speaker 1: a lot of buildings in Cassadega need, it's not out 808 00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:33,960 Speaker 1: of the question. The married volunteer librarians from Rhode Island 809 00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,520 Speaker 1: continued to talk to the main librarian, Richard, in a 810 00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:40,000 Speaker 1: thick accent that makes me homesick whenever I hear it. 811 00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:43,080 Speaker 1: It's an accent that cannot be reproduced in movies. Matt 812 00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:45,080 Speaker 1: Damon forgot how to do it ten years ago, and 813 00:56:45,239 --> 00:56:48,080 Speaker 1: no one wants to talk about it. But the librarian's 814 00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:52,520 Speaker 1: voice is slow and soothing. He advises the woman from 815 00:56:52,560 --> 00:56:56,440 Speaker 1: Rhode Island to calm her temper in her dealings with spiritualists, 816 00:56:56,800 --> 00:56:59,759 Speaker 1: something her husband is eager to jump on, he says, 817 00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:02,200 Speaker 1: keep telling her to calm down. You know you want 818 00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:04,360 Speaker 1: to be a medium, and you can't be walking around 819 00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:07,000 Speaker 1: getting piste off all the time. I want to ask 820 00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:10,279 Speaker 1: them for more time here, because sure, this place is 821 00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,520 Speaker 1: kind of a mess. But between random volumes on World 822 00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:17,600 Speaker 1: War two and sticky ancient doctor filled books, there are 823 00:57:17,960 --> 00:57:22,320 Speaker 1: documents and ideas that might not exist anywhere else. I'm 824 00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:27,040 Speaker 1: flipping through something called a spiritualist solo graph from that 825 00:57:27,160 --> 00:57:31,800 Speaker 1: reads as your galactic father mother, I Liolia, seek to 826 00:57:31,880 --> 00:57:34,120 Speaker 1: warm you with my heart's love and try to fill 827 00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,800 Speaker 1: you with the wisdom and understanding which will help you 828 00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,560 Speaker 1: find the easy way and the light burn for you 829 00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:43,760 Speaker 1: are my own dearly beloved children. On other book reads, 830 00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:47,960 Speaker 1: was Abraham Lincoln, a spiritualist and the book itself kind 831 00:57:47,960 --> 00:57:50,160 Speaker 1: of feels around in the dark for about eighty pages 832 00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:53,960 Speaker 1: before admitting, no, probably he wasn't. I pick up a 833 00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:57,040 Speaker 1: CD rom on the ground that says the story of 834 00:57:57,160 --> 00:58:00,320 Speaker 1: how the sun has influenced cultures since this start of 835 00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:04,200 Speaker 1: written words, twenty seven minutes of the most important history 836 00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:08,760 Speaker 1: you will ever witness. There's more solographs with illustrations of 837 00:58:09,120 --> 00:58:11,840 Speaker 1: the sun within the sun, a wheel within a wheel, 838 00:58:12,160 --> 00:58:15,200 Speaker 1: the beam within a beam, old volumes of the Journal 839 00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:18,480 Speaker 1: of the American Society of Psychical Research from the nine 840 00:58:18,720 --> 00:58:21,880 Speaker 1: twenties and thirties. But I already know there's no way 841 00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:24,320 Speaker 1: that the library is going to be open a second 842 00:58:24,440 --> 00:58:28,320 Speaker 1: longer than seven o'clock. I can hear the librarian nearly 843 00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:30,600 Speaker 1: counting down the minutes until he can go home with 844 00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,080 Speaker 1: his dog, and I know there's no use in asking, 845 00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,760 Speaker 1: so I take pictures in the low overhead lighting until 846 00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:39,800 Speaker 1: the minute I can't anymore. My phone gets all hot 847 00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:41,880 Speaker 1: in my hands, like when you're trying to finish an 848 00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:45,000 Speaker 1: argument with your boyfriend before a plane takes off. That's 849 00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:48,160 Speaker 1: to me picking a fight before getting on a Spirit 850 00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:52,800 Speaker 1: Airlines flight. Well, good for you all, So my time 851 00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:55,680 Speaker 1: at the library is up, and the volunteers from Rhode 852 00:58:55,680 --> 00:58:58,280 Speaker 1: Island and the librarians start to pack up, shut off 853 00:58:58,360 --> 00:59:00,760 Speaker 1: the lights behind me. As I leave, I get the 854 00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:03,160 Speaker 1: feeling that a lot of what I managed to capture 855 00:59:03,240 --> 00:59:07,760 Speaker 1: from the library, however frantically documented, won't be much help 856 00:59:07,920 --> 00:59:10,320 Speaker 1: to get to the bottom of the spiritualist movement if 857 00:59:10,360 --> 00:59:13,240 Speaker 1: there is one, and scrolling through my phone at the 858 00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:17,560 Speaker 1: Hotel Cassadega later that night, I realized that I was right. 859 00:59:18,640 --> 00:59:21,600 Speaker 1: But something happens as I'm leaving the library that night, 860 00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:24,400 Speaker 1: and I want to be careful to protect this person's identity. 861 00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:27,280 Speaker 1: But what I will say is that I am approached 862 00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:30,080 Speaker 1: by a medium at the camp who I've met before. 863 00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:33,440 Speaker 1: We have a good rapport, and they asked me what 864 00:59:33,600 --> 00:59:36,400 Speaker 1: I've been eating on nights like this, nights like the 865 00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:39,320 Speaker 1: three before this one where the one restaurant in town, 866 00:59:39,520 --> 00:59:44,080 Speaker 1: Sanatra's Restaurante isn't open. And I tell them the truth. 867 00:59:44,920 --> 00:59:48,040 Speaker 1: I have been walking to the gas station a half 868 00:59:48,080 --> 00:59:51,880 Speaker 1: hour away and getting stockpiles of diet gatorade and those 869 00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:54,800 Speaker 1: little fried chicken bites that come in paper cups under 870 00:59:54,840 --> 00:59:59,120 Speaker 1: heat lamps. Pretty good stuff. The medium laughs and asks 871 00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:02,160 Speaker 1: me if I'm here is but I am serious. The 872 01:00:02,240 --> 01:00:05,080 Speaker 1: reason I've been doing this is because a different medium 873 01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:07,480 Speaker 1: implied to me the other day that it would be 874 01:00:07,600 --> 01:00:10,400 Speaker 1: a bad look for a visiting reporter who is still 875 01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:14,080 Speaker 1: seeking out the approval and cooperation of the spiritualists to 876 01:00:14,200 --> 01:00:18,600 Speaker 1: be ordering delivery for dinner, and I took it to heart. 877 01:00:19,120 --> 01:00:21,560 Speaker 1: So the medium I'm talking to laughs and asks me 878 01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:24,520 Speaker 1: to go to dinner with them, and I say yes 879 01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:27,520 Speaker 1: and go to their car. Now does that sound dangerous? 880 01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:29,960 Speaker 1: Sure it does, But I have a policy in these 881 01:00:30,040 --> 01:00:33,400 Speaker 1: kinds of situations where every single instinct is to say no, 882 01:00:34,200 --> 01:00:36,120 Speaker 1: and uh to say yes and see if I die 883 01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:38,960 Speaker 1: or not. So we're on our way to Perkins Restaurant, 884 01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:43,160 Speaker 1: the Dennis of Florida for a four course meal of salad, 885 01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:47,120 Speaker 1: half sandwich, a slice of pie, and better information on 886 01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:51,480 Speaker 1: spiritualism in its current era than any disheveled library could 887 01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:54,360 Speaker 1: have provided. So what I learned at dinner is for 888 01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:58,920 Speaker 1: another time for today. Spiritualism's history is full of these 889 01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:03,320 Speaker 1: kinds of characters. Believers and deniers alike have intense opinions 890 01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:06,520 Speaker 1: and systems of belief, and the influence of the religion 891 01:01:06,720 --> 01:01:10,520 Speaker 1: extends far in spite of their somewhat diminished power today. 892 01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:14,560 Speaker 1: And yes, this extends to its influence on the evolution 893 01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:18,440 Speaker 1: of the Black Spiritualist Church and a Spiritismo. And for 894 01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:21,600 Speaker 1: my money, one of the major failures of Spiritualism to 895 01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:24,920 Speaker 1: this day is to acknowledge issues and their own history 896 01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:28,360 Speaker 1: that i'd wagers still presents a major barrier to entry 897 01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:31,680 Speaker 1: to the religion to this day. And then there are 898 01:01:31,880 --> 01:01:37,520 Speaker 1: conflicts within the religion that are just weird. And next 899 01:01:37,600 --> 01:01:40,840 Speaker 1: week we're gonna look at one of my favorite kinds 900 01:01:40,920 --> 01:01:44,920 Speaker 1: of historical stories, a weird and petty conflict between two 901 01:01:45,040 --> 01:01:47,640 Speaker 1: famous people who you think would have something better to do, 902 01:01:48,080 --> 01:01:52,520 Speaker 1: but they don't. In our penultimate episode of Ghost Church, 903 01:01:53,040 --> 01:01:56,000 Speaker 1: I'll be taking a look at the decades long battle 904 01:01:56,200 --> 01:02:01,040 Speaker 1: between Harry Whodini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for real. 905 01:02:01,680 --> 01:02:03,600 Speaker 1: And yes, I think we actually are going to get 906 01:02:03,640 --> 01:02:06,840 Speaker 1: to ectoglossoms, So look forward to that. That's next week 907 01:02:07,240 --> 01:02:13,439 Speaker 1: on Ghost Church. Wow. Ghost Church is a Cool Zone 908 01:02:13,480 --> 01:02:17,640 Speaker 1: Media production created, written, and hosted by me Jamie Loftus. 909 01:02:18,120 --> 01:02:21,720 Speaker 1: The show is produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Ian Johnson. 910 01:02:22,080 --> 01:02:25,960 Speaker 1: Our theme song is by Speedy Ortiz that's Sadie Dupley, 911 01:02:26,360 --> 01:02:30,760 Speaker 1: Andy Moholt, Audrey, Zy Whiteside and Joey Dubeck. Music is 912 01:02:30,880 --> 01:02:32,080 Speaker 1: by Zoe Brad