SPIRITUALISM.

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A collection of pamphlets related to table-turning. A representative collection debating the origin and veracity of the phenomena, written from religious, experimental, and spiritualist perspectives. "Table-turning became a fashionable diversion and was practised all over the country in the year 1853" (Encyclopedia Britannica).As part of the wider Victorian spiritualist movement, table-turning saw an explosion of interest and a surge in related literature in the early 1850s. The phenomenon also became an arena for the scientific scrutiny of spiritualism, culminating most famously in Michael Faraday's 1853 study in which he experimentally measured whether the table or hands moved first during a sitting. He concluded that table-turning was actually caused by the "ideomotor response": involuntary muscular movements driven by the sitters' own psychological expectations. Other perspectives posited that the movements were made by spirits from beyond the grave or were Satanic ruses intended to tempt Christians.The pamphlets comprise:i) BANTON, George. Table Moving by the Power of the Will: Similar Manifestations Obtained by the Divining Ring; Being a Statement of Original Experiments, Reprinted from the "Kentish Independent" Newspaper. With Additional Observations. 1853. First separate edition.ii) GILLSON, E. Table-Talking; Disclosures of Satanic Wonders & Prophetic Signs. A Word for the Wise. 1853. First edition, second printing.iii) GODFREY, N. S. Table-Moving Tested. And Proved t

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