Gutierrez, Cathy (ed.) (2015) Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling. Leiden, Boston: Brill. - 512 p.

In Western historiography, there is a relentless interest in spiritualism and related phenomena. Continuing the trend of small-scale research in previous years, ¹ a new collection of scientific articles was published in 2015, edited by Cathy Gutierrez. ²

The title of the collection indicates its purpose-to compare spiritualism and channeling (channeling), and its structure emphasizes the dynamics of their relationship: "Defining Spiritualism", "In dialogue", "New directions", "Channeling", "The Next Step". Despite this claim, there are few articles in the collection that feature channeling and spiritualism as equal research subjects. An exception is the article by D. Katerina, in which she analyzes the current state of spiritualism on the example of the activity of the spiritualist settlement Lily Dale ³.

The explicit juxtaposition of spiritualism and channeling appears in the collection only in the editor's introduction to the collection. Taking the years 1848 and 1970, respectively, as conditional points of origin for these phenomena, Gutierrez argues that channeling is the" obvious heir " to spiritualism. Noting their similarities, she emphasizes their non-denominational nature, as well as the fact that both practices "were based on the achievements of technical experts."-

1. Moreman, Ch. (ed.) (2013) The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and Around the World. Vol. 1-3. Westport: Praeger; Kontou Т., Wilburn S. (eds) (2013) The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult. Ashgate Publishing.

2. Gutierrez, C. (2009) Plato's Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press.

3. Catherine, D.V. (2015) "Between Two Worlds. Transformations of Spiritualism in Contemporary Lily Dale", in Gutierrez, C. (ed.) Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling, pp. 294-318. Leiden, Boston: Brill.

They were born in a new world of international communication, took shape and interacted with the developing science of psychology"⁴. Speaking about what separates spiritualism and channeling, Gutierrez points out two things related to the cultural context: first, the difference in the level of development of mass media, and second, the difference in the degree of recognition of scientific achievements by society.⁵

Although most authors try to avoid generalizations, it is possible to compare spiritualism and channeling in several ways: the purpose of the practice, its intermediaries, agents, and recipients. The purpose of spiritualistic practice was to get information through special intermediaries (mediums)for the recipients of the practice from transcendent agents from the afterlife. This information was intended to promote the correct moral behavior of the recipient of the practice in this world.

The attitude of spiritualists towards mediums is twofold: on the one hand, they are considered to be naturally gifted, which means that their dominance over practice is undivided if they wish, on the other, they are deprived of power, declaring them only intermediaries, so that their natural gift ceases to give the right to social domination. If, according to the beliefs of some spiritualists, even Jesus was a medium, then modern mediums, according to the same beliefs, have lost the opportunity to claim religious leadership. Certain exceptions, which led to the formation of a clearly discernible cult around the medium, were condemned in spiritualist literature as a form of social segregation and a manifestation of the medium's egoism.

Channeling can be characterized as a kind of synthesis of the ideas of spiritualism and occultism, democratic and elite traditions. On the one hand, channelers go further than spiritualists on the path of democratizing religious practices - according to the ideology of the New Age, in principle, anyone has the opportunity to develop the qualities necessary for contact with transcendent agents. However, on the other hand, they appeal to the key idea of the same New Century, which Gordon Melton once pointed out, which states that everyone

4. Gutierrez, C. "Introduction", in Ibid., р. 2.

5. Ibid., p. 4.

man is the creator of his own world ⁶.

In this respect, if spiritualism can be positioned as a conservative practice aimed at maintaining social order in accordance with the ideal order of the afterlife, channeling can be characterized as a practice of self-development and personal success in this world. While in spiritualism the achievement of social harmony was ultimately conceived through the limitation of the subject, in channeling - if such a social task is set - its achievement is associated with the acquisition of power by a person over himself and his behavior. We can conclude that while for spiritualists the world was an arena for testing human nature, for channelers it was a platform for realizing its possibilities.

The transcendent agents in channeling can be completely different beings, but for the most part they are good, highly developed entities whose main task is to contribute to the development of humanity. The connection to spiritualism and its hierarchy of spirits is clear, but there is an important difference - the vast majority of these entities are not human. At the same time, they are not superhumans, as, for example, the "great teachers" in Blavatsky's theosophy, whom C. Partridge suggests to be considered as the forerunners of transcendent channeling agents.⁷ They are different, and their interests are ultimately completely hidden from the person.

Thus, the sphere of the personal, so important for understanding nineteenth-century spiritualism, is gradually being blurred in channeling practices. The practice of spiritualists was made possible by their personal memory, which emotionally attached them to the loved ones of the dead. For channelers, who came to popularity in the era of the TV series "Star Trek" and the widespread use of computer systems, information is important (it seems that the English word data is more appropriate) and how it can be used. The main content of their messages was not consolation, on the contrary, these messages were filled with positivity.-

6. Urban, H. '"The Medium is the Message in the Spacious Present'. Channeling, Television, and the New Age", in Ibid., p. 325.

7. Patridge, C. "Channeling Extraterrestrials. Theosophical Discourse in the Space Age", in Ibid., p. 325.

a positive optimism that opened up a new human horizon against the backdrop of the ongoing cold war.

Moving from a theoretical comparison of spiritualism and channeling as ideologies that are similar in form but differ in their key content to a general overview of the collection's articles, it should be noted that the first section is devoted to different perspectives of the study of spiritualism. The article by A. Crabtree examines it in the context of the development of psychology and parapsychology, the study by A. Versluis is devoted to the analysis of the ideological influence of Swedenborgianism on American spiritualism, the generalizing article by M. Keller introduces the reader to the content of modern discussions about the phenomenon of "possession". M. Tromp considers the seance as a place where gender stereotypes were easily revised, in particular including in the relationship of women with each other. The article by C. Gutierrez is devoted to determining the place of spiritualism in the process of changing the content of certain religious concepts, primarily salvation, sin and hell, in the rhetoric of various religious associations in the United States in the second half of the XIX century and, in part, due to the socio-economic development of the country, which completely changed the attitude to the "dead" and everything related to the sphere of death.

The articles in section II, "In Dialogue," are devoted to the reconstruction of relations between spiritualism and other religious movements in post-war America. Among them, the authors focus on the religious ideas of the New Age movement, Christian Science, and the teachings of J. H. Noes. In addition, the same section contains an article that reveals the specifics of mediums ' treatment of images of Indian spirits.

The articles in section III, New Directions, may have been intended to deal with the current state of spiritualism, but there are only two such articles - a field study of spiritualism in the spiritualist settlement of Lily Dale (D. Katerin) and an analysis of the transformation of the practice and ideology of spiritualism in modern Brazil, prepared by Brazilian researchers. The other two articles in the section (L. Sharp and J. W. Munro) are devoted to French spiritualism and generally do not go beyond the description of its characteristic specifics.

Articles IV of the Channeling section deal with various aspects of the topic. Article X. Urbana connects the content of channelers ' messages (using the examples of Jane Roberts, JZ Knight, Shirley McClain) with the development of television technologies. R. Bradby's article explains the typology of channeling according to V. Hanegraaf and establishes the correspondence of the channeling materials (works of J. R. R. Tolkien). Roberts, E. Shukman) taxonomies of the New Age activist V. Bloom. The article by A. Klin-Oron, which draws on the author's field research materials, develops the typology of channeling in Israel. Partridge shows the relationship of the most popular transcendental channeling agents - extraterrestrials-with the theosophical teaching of "great teachers."

The articles in the last section "The Next step" deal with various issues - in the article by J. R. R. Tolkien. Kripal presents an overview of the available evidence on the study of remote viewing by the secret services of the United States and the USSR, D. Kovan's article examines the struggle between skeptics and parapsychologists in the context of modern mass culture, M. Barkun's research reveals the fate of Dorothy Martin, one of the earliest active figures of the UFO cults in the esoteric community, the main character of the well-known collective monograph with with the participation of L. Festinger ⁸. The collection concludes with an article by C. Albanese, which reveals the features of "metaphysical religiosity", to which the author refers spiritualism, theosophy, the New Thought movement and the New Age movement. The main subject of the study is the law of attraction, the existence of which is declared in the text "The Teachings of Abraham", received by the channeler Esther Hicks at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries, and the development of ideas about which Albanism demonstrates in a broad historical perspective, starting from the middle of the XIX century and ending with the present.

In conclusion, a few words should be said about the research position of C. Gutierrez, which is characteristic of many modern studies of spiritualism. Spiritualism is considered

8. Festinger, L., Riecken, H.W., Schachter, S. (1956) When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World. New-York: Harper and Row.

in the context of secularization as a reform movement that promoted the social advancement of representatives of marginal or peripheral social groups at that time (first of all, the analysis is conducted in the framework of gender and postcolonial studies). In fact, the practice of spiritualism gave an indulgence to proclaim ideas that were very unpopular with the traditional establishment on behalf of the "supernatural". Gutierrez says that "spiritualism was one of the first widely known manifestations of complete metaphysical multiculturalism." ⁹

In the case of spiritualism, the attempt to determine which religious teachings are more individualistic and which are less so fails. First, history knows enough spiritualists with conservative beliefs (among the most striking domestic examples are the works of E. I. Molokhovets). The degree of liberality of the teachings of spiritualists directly depended on their public, and if in the United States the liberal public saw the spiritualists as allies, then in Russia they could well count on support in moderate conservative circles. Secondly, the practice for those spiritualists who did not want to break with the church was directly conditioned by the Bible text (it was used to verify messages received during practice). In this respect, spiritualism, represented by its individual representatives, remained a bibliocentric religion, insisting not so much on the destruction of old social institutions as on their reform in accordance with the Christian ideal. This" reform "was not at all aimed at asserting the rights of the individual - individualism under the name of" egoism " was strongly condemned. Third, spiritualism, despite the fact that many of its followers positioned themselves as critics of social institutions, did not imply their complete rejection. It is true that the ideology of spiritualism in general was not conducive to the creation of new social institutions, but such "anti-institutionalism" was caused not so much by an orientation towards the principle of individualism, but by the conviction that the existing social institution is the church to which one belongs.-

9. Gutierrez, C. "Introduction", in Ibid., p. 3.

As many spiritualists believe, it is quite suitable to be a place of unification for believers. In this respect, an attempt to determine the degree of liberality / conservatism of spiritualism does not lead to a positive result - spiritualists cannot be fully correlated with either a liberal or a conservative socio-political movement.

Unlike spiritualism in the second half of the 19th century, modern channeling, judging by the publications of the authors of the collection, easily correlates with the liberal movement. It can be assumed that the popularity of channeling is associated with the process of blurring the space of personal memory in the modern information society, and the social atomism that accompanies this process, based on a high level of individual self-sufficiency, sets the need for unconditional "trans-temporal" authority of "extraterrestrials" and other entities not related to human history. Speaking from a temporary "nowhere", such entities are necessary for individuals who are alienated from their own and common history - they do not act as universal authorities of morality or religion (for example, Jesus or Moses in the spiritualist epistles), but rather as modern "coaches" aimed at developing the individual in accordance with his personal wishes and goals. aspirations.

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