Essex County - Montclair - The Rise and Fall of Spiritualism in the Victorian Era
Monday, February 17 – Essex County
The Victorian Society in American, Northern New Jersey Chapter
Presents
The Rise and Fall of Spiritualism in the Victorian Era
7:30 P.M. at the Montclair Women’s Club, 82 Union Street, Montclair
Refreshments served.
Members Free Non-Members $10.00 Annual Membership only $40.00
For more information, please contact christinapmayer@gmail.com or 973.744.5916
For more information about the Victorian Society visit victoriansannj.org
Mac McParland is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and will present an illustrated lecture about the 19th century Spiritualist religious movement.
Spiritualism (and Spirit Mediums) grew in popularity throughout Europe and America. It's estimated that more than 8 million people were believers in Spiritualism and the ability to communicate with the dead, including prominent figures such as Queen Elizabeth, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
He will discuss the societal issues that made spiritualism such an attractive belief system and contributed to its rapid rise in popularity. Magicians of the era worked with clergy and politicians to help expose their trickery. Mr. McParland will demonstrate some of these techniques. Despite the exposition of these fakes, Spiritualism has survived to the modern-day.