Conclusionary Responses

                   Well now it comes to that point in the semester when the solution to the inevitable questions are found. At the start of the semester I too had one of these questions in mind "The role of mediums and seances in early American spiritualism." Like many arguments today I found myself caught up in a circular argument. Like many controversial topics that have been around since the dawn of time spiritualism and whether it is fact or fiction is one of them. The answer to this question, in my opinion,
is  in the eye of the beholder. Mediums and seances for those who believed served as saviors allowing believers to converse with deceased loved ones. For non-believers seances and mediums were one of the greatest acts of fraudulence known to man. I wonder if they would feel the same if they were around today?

Houdini in The Right Way to do Wrong
An Expose of Successful Criminals
1906

                     From the resources that I have found over the course of the semester I can not find any true accounts of mediums and the acts that they produced to be of a faulty nature. Of course there are those who can't believe what they themselves don't see or truly understand but one can't argue with the fact that in several of my resources that some very well known critics were swayed by the spiritualist movement. Spiritualism, like many belief systems, is not scientifically certifiable. It requires those involved to believe in something of which they cannot see. For some, in the case of spiritualism, this inability to believe in something non-tangible, is  not achievable. Houdini himself, who actually did believe in spiritualist, could not in all honesty disprove what the Davenport Brothers and their spirit communications did with their cabinet act. Houdini might have been able to untie himself but he did not have the aid of spirits to tie him back up.

               Mediums and seances roles in early American Spiritualism are similar as mediums and seances are today. Though today I believe there to be less pomp and circumstance. For those who want to believe, or like me believe, in what mediums and seances can do they act as a means to communicate with deceased loved ones. Mediums and seances act in a way as a final step in the grieving process. Mediums allow people to truly come to grips with death. By being able to have that missed conversation with a loved one for some makes what mediums and seances do an invaluable asset to society.

             The role of mediums and seances in early American Spiritualism is up for grabs. From the resources I have gathered it was for some a means to communicate with lost loved ones and for others like a trip to the circus. Whatever the feeling gathered from mediums/seances in early America, I have found no truly definitive resources that have been able to disprove what was done.