Akin to a TikTok phenomenon by todays standards, throughout the 19th century, the Victorians grew utterly obsessed with Spiritualism. Ghost stories, sances, and fortune-telling ascended in popularity, while key figures of the era furthered the widespread spike in public interest, with everyone from Charles Dickens to Queen Victoria herself seemingly in touch with the spirit world. But why, in an era of realism, did the surreal become such a public curiosity? And was any of it real? Read on to find outThe Rise of a Mystical MovementThe Fox Sisters, lithograph after a daguerreotype, by Rochester Appleby, 1852. Source: US Library of CongressIn 1848, three sisters named Kate, Leah, and Margaretta Fox reported a supernatural experience. The two girls lived in New York, in a home previously inhabited by a murdered man whose ghost the sisters claimed to be communicating with. They communicated through a simple code made up of knocks on a table. Local press, such as the New York Tribune, published the story, which quickly spread to national newspapers through excitable word of mouth. Before long, mediums appeared across America, claiming to be endowed with a gift for sances, able to traverse the veil between the living and the dead. Thus, Spiritualism took root, and the scene was set.Four years later, Maria B. Hayden, a practicing medium, brought her services to London. Her sances cost a guinea per head (about 50 dollars in todays money). The sance services quickly attracted public and private audiences, with sittings for both high society and the everyman customer. But soon enough, Hayden had healthy competition from plenty of local mediums, with new businesses offering similar spiritual services. The services were a huge social success.Hypnotic Seance, by Richard Bergh, 1887. Source: National Museum SwedenThe Spiritualism movement was a perfect storm. Victorian England was rife with grief. In the 19th century, child mortality levels were exceptionally high, with one out of every five children dead before the age of five. This landscape of grief led many to believe willingly, so desperate were they to connect with the dead, to retain relationships lost to death.Victorian morality offered a perfect backdrop for the rise of Spiritualism. The movement was no threat in the eyes of the church or the state. Good for God and good for business, it was both a religious and a secular movement, at once faith-affirming in its assertion of life after death, but also a deeply interesting curiosity from an intellectual perspective. At its height, Spiritualism captivated audiences so widely that it is estimated that one book on the subject was published every week.Communicating With the Spirit WorldMary Todd Lincoln, 1860-65. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThough a time of realism, industry, and scientific progress, the Victorian Era also laid the ground for a growing belief in the occult. Victorian culture was permeated with a sense of repression and rigidity, owing to the strict morality of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. And yet, interest in the occult allowed for an exploration of the unknownsubverting the regular order.The charm of Spiritualism was in its lack of discrimination. The breadth of society could involve themselves. The industrial revolution pushed people to towns, mines, and factoriescreating laboring inner-city communities poised to welcome escapism from the daily demands of working life. Meanwhile, affluent families had the means to afford private meetings with mediums, who would facilitate a connection with a lost loved one. Those grieving were more vulnerable to the lure of Spiritualism, such as Mary Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincolns widow. Mary frequented mediums who offered the chance to reconnect with the dead. In Marys case, this included three of her four children, and her famously assassinated husband.Touring mediums brought tangible proof of Spiritualism closer to the masses. Curious customers did not need to travel far to seek out spiritual experiences. The lecture circuit offered ticketed access to sance events, where mediums would share their skills for communicating with the dead.Tools of the TradeMary Todd with Lincolns ghost, by William H. Mumler, 1872. Source: Lincoln Financial Foundation CollectionWith the spirit world now alive in the minds of the living, it was not long before spiritualism was monetized by clever, and savvy, businesspeople.Ouija boards, crystal balls, and moving tables were popular tools of the trade. Ouija boards gave power to the dead, who could spell out messages from the afterlife. Fortune-telling mediums drew narratives from images that appeared in the clouds within a crystal ball. During a sance, the table at which customers were sat could move unannounced. But was seeing really believing?Spirit photography began in America in 1861. Where mediums before had only produced spectacle, knocking, smells, and coded communicationsspirit photography offered something more tangible, empirically capturing an otherwise elusive appearance. Photographers claimed they could capture images of portrait subjects and their deceased loved ones in a single frame. When their photographic plates were developed, ghostly apparitions appeared. Many believed these apparitions were otherworldly spirits.John J. Glover, by William H Mumler, between 1862 and 1875. Source: Wikimedia CommonsAmateur photographer William Mumler was the first person to capture an apparition in photographic form. In the early 1860s, Mumler took a self-portrait. But after developing the picture, Mumler found he was not the only figure in the image. Instead, the ghostly silhouette of his cousin, long dead, hovered behind him. Mumler was enterprising, and his services as a spirit photographer became both popular and lucrative. However, it is likely that Mumler created these spirit snaps by placing a glass plate with an image of the dead in front of his camera.Suspicions at the time were spurned by a sense of injustice, with well-known voices throwing weight behind accusations of fraud. PT Barnum, the famous showman, declared Mumlers work as a devilish act, preying upon the vulnerable and grieving. So much so that Mumlers case went to court, with Barnum testifying against him. Though Mumler was acquitted, his business was over.Material proof of spiritualism was inconsistent at best. Fraudsters and con artists persisted, yet people still believed.Famous FansElizabeth Barrett Browning, by Karoly Brocky, 1839-44. Source: Wikimedia CommonsMany notable figures of the Victorian Era were also keen spiritualists. Those in the arts were ready-made believers, already deeply invested in the potency of the human psyche. Poets and authors such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Charles Dickens were all known to have engaged in spiritualist activities.Conan Doyles interest in the movement endured throughout his life, and he considered himself a student of these matters, often prioritizing his writing on spiritualism over his Sherlock Holmes chronicles. He called it the most important phenomenon since the Christ episode. In 1926, Conan Doyle published the influential two-volume, the History of Spiritualism, which became the first major historical work on the study of Spiritualism.Arthur Conan Doyle with a spirit, photo by Occult World. Source: FlickrLikewise, Elizabeth Barrett Browning regularly wrote of her interest in spiritualism. She and her husband, Robert Browning, attended a sance in the 1850s which involved table tilting, levitation, and rapping. Elizabeth believed it all. Her husband deemed it fake. Elizabeth wrote to her sister, Arabella, in raptures about what she had seen:It is true enough that you may move tables muscularly by cheating, & perhaps even unconsciously when in a state of excitement. But this doesnt account for actual phenomena the least in the world. It does not account for tables being moved, when touched gently by the tips of the little fingersraised up on two feet and one foot and then, toppled over. Such things have been done in Florence even. Still less does it account for tables being moved without touch of finger or foot. Does it, do you think? Elizabeth seemingly acknowledged the skepticism shared by her husband and sister. Though logic prevailed, it did not offer Elizabeth the answers. For all her sane sense and thoughtfulness, she was adamant in her belief in the unexplainable: For the explanation of these table phenomena, as ordinarily observed, seems to be simply that you mesmerize the wood, which, when saturated with the magnetic fluid from you, partakes of your vitality as if it were a living thing itself.Feminine SpiritualismFlorence Cook, photo by Occult World. Source: FlickrThrough Spiritualism, Victorian women shed the restraints of the era. It was believed that a womans femininity and intuition made her more receptive to spirits. Rarely in the Victorian working world, were women more respected in a profession than men. Esteemed spiritualists such as Florence Cook became notorious for their powers of manifestation, calling flirtatious spirits that would touch, and even kiss, the sitters.Being a space where women could thrive, Spiritualism naturally attracted female fanatics. In fact, Spiritualisms most famous fan, and the namesake of the era, was Queen Victoria herself.Along with her husband, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria participated in many sances. After Alberts death at the age of 42 in 1861, Victoria was increasingly eager to communicate with the dead. In Birmingham, a family sance was reported to have resulted in the appearance of the ghost of Albert, with a message for Victoria, using a nickname only Albert would have known. A newspaper editor was a serendipitous sitter at the sance and thus, the story spread to London with haste. The queen caught wind of this and had two of her courtiers attend the next sanceUnder strict orders not to reveal their identities, the courtiers visited the Lee familys next spiritual gathering. At this sance, the Lees 13-year-old son began to speak with the voice of Prince Albert. He addressed the two courtiers, discussing details only Albert would have known. They reported back to the queen, who asked the Lees to hold a sance at Windsor Castle, where Albert was once more called, and indeed appeared before his widow. Queen Victoria went on to hire a resident medium, who, for 30 years, assisted her spiritualist endeavors.From a boy in Birmingham to the queen of England, Victorian spiritualism was a movement for all, connecting people across every social boundary.BibliographyClment Chroux and others,The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult, 2005Nesbit, Kate. Revising Respiration: Mesmerism, Spiritualism, and the Shared Breath of Poetic Voice in Elizabeth Barrett BrowningsAurora Leigh.Victorian Poetry56, no. 3 (2018): 213-232.https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/vp.2018.0014.Doyle, Arthur Conan.The History of Spiritualism. ofCambridge Library Collection Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.Hildebrand, Jayne. Spirituality.Victorian Literature and Culture51, no. 3 (2023): 50913. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1060150323000256.Pamela Neville-Sington, The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her Sister Arabella,Essays in Criticism, Volume 54, Issue 3, July 2004.