Spiritualist, What Do They Do?

If you don't know what a spiritualist is maybe I can help clarify.  There seems to be a variety of definitions of what exactly a spiritualist is, but from my research it seems that spiritualist believe that life continues after death of the body.  They also believe that life after death continues in the form of teaching of spiritual advancement.  While spiritualists believe in God, they do not believe the soul can be doomed and sent to hell. While some would dispute the fact that spiritualism is in fact any form of religion, spiritualism has many followers and believers in the concept and in fact do consider it a form of religion.

 Although I've never actually used a medium's services, I found it interesting that they claim to be able to contact the souls of the dead through seances. While I have never really thought about using a medium, after researching what they are and what they do, I think it would be interesting to see what could possibly transpire in a reading.

More interesting I found is the modern history of spiritualism.  It actually dates back to the late 1840's when two sisters by the name of Fox claimed they heard knocking sounds in a house apparently created by a murdered peddler. They further claimed they could communicate with the deceased peddler.  Word of this communication rapidly spread and popularity in spiritualism took off.  In 1951 test were performed and doubt over the sister' credibility was in question.  Over thirty years later in 1888 the Fox sisters admitted the whole thing was a hoax and they had been the ones knocking in the house.  Popularity in spiritualism had already soared and the confession of the ploy didn't seem to sway believers in the religion.  There have been other cases of fraudulent spiritualist however the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 was set in place to make it illegal for mediums to collect money for their services. In 2008 this law was repealed.  In Spiritualist churches it is also forbidden to use tarot cards to perform their services.

 In the state of Michigan I found many Spiritualist churches all offering services and meetings to those who are interested.  I also found many services offered by psychic mediums.  So, I think it's interesting to understand the history of the Spiritualist Church but also the fact that this form of religion has been around for so long.  Some view tarot readings and medium services as being solely entertainment while others take a medium's readings seriously.  I think it really is up to the individual whether they believe the words of a medium but in all honesty, you never know what you may find out in the end. You may find something your looking for or at least be comforted by the a reading from an outside source.  I think if anything you are partaking in a service that's been around for over a century.