The Spiritualism Symposium: Nature, Enchantment, Paranormal – Jack Hunter, Ph.D.

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

About this series

Spiritualism, the American-born religion based on the belief in communication with spirits of the dead, was once a popular movement that influenced Western culture. Yet Spiritualism’s legacy has often been censored or neglected by academia and the media. The Spiritualism Symposium examines the surprising path from the séance room to the history of science, medicine, technology, politics, and art. It also explores topics related to mediumship and the study of the supernatural. This series presentations are drawn from past symposium’s hosted annually by Shannon Taggart in Lily Dale, New York, USA—home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community.

Each lecture will be sold separately, see below for details of the other lectures in the series (if missed, these will be available on demand)

Nature, Enchantment, and the Paranormal, with Jack Hunter, Ph.D.

About this event

What role does the earthly dimension play in spiritual experiences? Can we learn about spirits from trees and fungi? Could paranormal research help us re-establish a connection with the natural world? In this illustrated talk, Jack Hunter poses these questions and more. Topics of discussion will include the history of faeries and gardens in early Spiritualism, the metaphysical significance of nature in the town of Lily Dale, and the potentials of sacred space to help the ecological environment.

Dr. Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He is an Honorary Research Fellow with the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre, and a tutor with the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, where he is lead tutor on the MA in Ecology and Spirituality and teaches on the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology. He also teaches on the Alef Trust’s MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. He is a Research Fellow with the Parapsychology Foundation, and a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association. In 2010 he founded Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal. He is the author of Spirits, Gods and Magic (2020) and Manifesting Spirits (2020), and is the editor of Mattering the Invisible (2020), Greening the Paranormal (2019), Damned Facts (2016) and Talking with the Spirits (2014). His website can be found at jack-hunter.webstarts.com

Shannon Taggart is an artist and author exploring the intersection between Spiritualism, photography, and the representation of belief. Her work has been exhibited and featured internationally, including within the publications TIME, New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek. Taggart’s monograph, SÉANCE (Fulgur Press, 2019), was named one of TIME’s ‘Best Photobooks of 2019.’ https://www.shannontaggart.com/

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

The Spiritualism Symposium: Spiritualism, Science of Crime – Cathy Gutierrez, Ph.D

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

About this series

Spiritualism, the American-born religion based on the belief in communication with spirits of the dead, was once a popular movement that influenced Western culture. Yet Spiritualism’s legacy has often been censored or neglected by academia and the media. The Spiritualism Symposium examines the surprising path from the séance room to the history of science, medicine, technology, politics, and art. It also explores topics related to mediumship and the study of the supernatural. This series presentations are drawn from past symposium’s hosted annually by Shannon Taggart in Lily Dale, New York, USA—home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community.

Each lecture will be sold separately, see below for details of the other lectures in the series (if missed, these will be available on demand)

Spiritualism, the Science of Crime and Early Forensics, with Cathy Gutierrez, Ph.D.

About this event

Caesare Lombroso, father of modern criminology and avid Spiritualist, formulated his theory of criminals using the same instruments that he brought to the séance when investigating mediums for the Society of Psychical Research. Spirit materializations and catching criminals both created bodies of absent people through foot prints, finger prints, and photographs.  By combining Darwinian evolution and phrenology, Lombroso focused on the criminal rather than the crime, and a new science had begun.  We will discover how ancient Greek wisdom, Neanderthal skulls, and mediumship all coalesced into the birth of forensics. 

Cathy Gutierrez is a candidate at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research to become a therapist in New York City. She was a Professor of Religion at Sweet Briar College for eighteen years. Her primary research interests are nineteenth-century Spiritualism and the history of esotericism, particularly where they intersect with ideas of consciousness. She has published on the Free Love movement in America, Theosophy, millennialism, and the Freemasons. Her monograph, Plato’s Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance (Oxford University Press 2009), examines the American legacy of Neoplatonism in popular religious expression and she is the editor of several collections including the Brill Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling (2015).

Shannon Taggart is an artist and author exploring the intersection between Spiritualism, photography, and the representation of belief. Her work has been exhibited and featured internationally, including within the publications TIME, New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek. Taggart’s monograph, SÉANCE (Fulgur Press, 2019), was named one of TIME’s ‘Best Photobooks of 2019.’ https://www.shannontaggart.com/

Image Title:

Eusapia Palladino’s séance at the Society of Psychic Studies of Milan, c.1909.

Courtesy of Cesare Lombroso’s Museum of Criminal Anthropology, Turin, Italy.

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

The Spiritualism Symposium: The Ancient Oracles Revived – Marjorie Roth, Ph.D.

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

About this series

Spiritualism, the American-born religion based on the belief in communication with spirits of the dead, was once a popular movement that influenced Western culture. Yet Spiritualism’s legacy has often been censored or neglected by academia and the media. The Spiritualism Symposium examines the surprising path from the séance room to the history of science, medicine, technology, politics, and art. It also explores topics related to mediumship and the study of the supernatural. This series presentations are drawn from past symposium’s hosted annually by Shannon Taggart in Lily Dale, New York, USA—home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community.

Each lecture will be sold separately, see below for details of the other lectures in the series (if missed, these will be available on demand)

The Ancient Oracles Revived: Sibyls, Spirits, and the Power of a Woman’s Voice, with Marjorie Roth, Ph.D.

About this event

This talk contemplates the phenomenon of Sibylline prophecy and its distant echo in the practice of Spiritualism today.  The legendary Sibyls of antiquity uttered their oracles “with frenzied mouth, unadorned and unperfumed”, using a voice so strong it would “reach for a thousand years.”  We will encounter “Sibyls” belonging to several different time periods and walks of life up to and including the mediums of Lily Dale, exploring how their voices– and their messages– have changed worlds.

Marjorie Roth is professor of music history and studio flute at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. Her study of Sibyls and Sibylline oracles has led her to multiple artistic, social, and spiritual trends throughout history. Her research interests include 16th and 17th century music, women’s studies, alchemy and magic, and music history pedagogy. She has read papers on these topics at conferences in the US, Egypt, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Greece, and Iceland, and she is a frequent presenter at Esoteric Quest conferences sponsored by the New York Open Center.

Shannon Taggart is an artist and author exploring the intersection between Spiritualism, photography, and the representation of belief. Her work has been exhibited and featured internationally, including within the publications TIME, New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek. Taggart’s monograph, SÉANCE (Fulgur Press, 2019), was named one of TIME’s ‘Best Photobooks of 2019.’ https://www.shannontaggart.com/

Image Title: Priestess of Delphi  (1891) by John Collier

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

The Spiritualism Symposium: The Moment of Revelation – Joscelyn Godwin, Ph.D

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

About this series

Spiritualism, the American-born religion based on the belief in communication with spirits of the dead, was once a popular movement that influenced Western culture. Yet Spiritualism’s legacy has often been censored or neglected by academia and the media. The Spiritualism Symposium examines the surprising path from the séance room to the history of science, medicine, technology, politics, and art. It also explores topics related to mediumship and the study of the supernatural. This series presentations are drawn from past symposium’s hosted annually by Shannon Taggart in Lily Dale, New York, USA—home to the world’s largest Spiritualist community.

Each lecture will be sold separately, see below for details of the other lectures in the series (if missed, these will be available on demand)

The Moment of Revelation: Cases from New York’s ‘Burned-Over District’, with Joscelyn Godwin, Ph.D

About this event

New York State was the birthplace of Spiritualism, Mormonism, Adventism, Theosophy, the Shakers, Women’s Suffrage, and many other spiritual and social movements. This talk asks how their leaders got started. Did they meet Jesus in the woods (Joseph Smith), George Washington in heaven (Handsome Lake), or an angel in their alchemical laboratory (Cyrus Teed)? Discover the power of sex (Pascal Beverly Randolph, John Humphrey Noyes) or abolish it (Ann Lee)? Foresee the destiny of souls (Andrew Jackson Davis) or the end of the world (William Miller)? Build a living motor (John Murray Spear) or father spirit children (Thomas Lake Harris)? How did they treat their disciples? What does this teach us about the foundation of other cults, sects, and even religions?

Joscelyn Godwin is the author, editor, or translator of over 40 books on esoteric traditions and speculative music. Educated at Cambridge and Cornell, he taught for many years at Colgate University in New York State. 

Shannon Taggart is an artist and author exploring the intersection between Spiritualism, photography, and the representation of belief. Her work has been exhibited and featured internationally, including within the publications TIME, New York Times Magazine, Discover, and Newsweek. Taggart’s monograph, SÉANCE (Fulgur Press, 2019), was named one of TIME’s ‘Best Photobooks of 2019.’ https://www.shannontaggart.com/

The Spiritualism Symposium, curated by Shannon Taggart

British Women Surrealists by Nayia Yiakoumaki – zoom lecture

Nayia Yiakoumaki discusses the research and making of the exhibition Phantoms of Surrealism.

This archive show took place at Whitechapel Gallery ( 27 April – 12 December 2021). Artists presented were Elizabeth Andrews (1882–1977), Ruth Adams (1893–1948), Eileen Agar (1898–1991), Claude Cahun (1894–1954), Ithell Colquhoun (1906–1988), Diana Brinton Lee (n/a–1982), Grace Pailthorpe (1883–1971), Elizabeth Raikes (1907–1942), Edith Rimmington (1902–1986), Sheila Legge (1911–1949) who exhibited at the London International Surrealist Exhibitions or with the Artists International Association. AIA was dedicated to the ‘Unity of Artists for Peace, Democracy and Cultural Development’ and staged an anti-war exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in 1939 which included a Surrealist section. Drawn from the Whitechapel Gallery archives and other national collections, including the National Galleries of Scotland, Edward James Archives and Jersey Heritage Trust, as well as private collections, photographs, documents and dazzlingly designed printed matter reveal women’s contribution to these ground-breaking shows.

Nayia Yiakoumaki is Curator and Head of Curatorial studies at Whitechapel Gallery, where she has developed an innovative programme of research exhibitions which investigate unknown histories of art and curating. Yiakoumaki runs the Whitechapel Gallery’s MA course Curating Art and Public Programmes in association with London South Bank University. From 2016-2017 she co-directed the Athens Biennale as Director of Research and International Networks. She is on the committees of the board for Wroclaw Contemporary, Poland; Women’s Art Library, UK and is a Trustee at Matt’s Gallery, UK. Yiakoumaki has curated a number of successful exhibitions including John Latham: Anarchive (2010), Rothko in Britain (2012), Stephen Willats: Concerning Our Present Way of Living (2014), Guerrilla Girls: Is it even worse in Europe? (2016-2017), Staging Jackson Pollock (2018), Queer Spaces: London, 1980s – Today (2019), Exercising Freedom: Encounters with Art, Artists and Communities (2021) and Phantoms of Surrealism (2020-2021).

Demonization: Xenophobia and the Other – Dr Stephen Asma

a recording of this lecture will be sent to ticketholders who miss it

Philosophy of Monsters Series – Prof. Stephen Asma

General Course Description

The category “monster” disrupts the borders and boundaries of what we consider natural, normal, and even intelligible. Our rational systems of order are upended by the monstrous. In this lecture series Dr. Asma examines the role of monsters in cognition and knowledge, the ethical and political uses of monstrosity, the relation to personal identity, and the problem of evil. A philosophical “monsterology” is committed to the idea that we can better understand the human condition by examining what scares us–what makes us vulnerable.

Demonization: Xenophobia and the Other – May 29th 2022

In this illustrated lecture Dr. Asma will explore how monster culture has played a role in antisocial representation of humans outside one’s own tribe. Stories and images embedded in religious, literary, and scientific narratives have conceptualized strangers as threats. Are there specific trends in such scapegoating? How do moral panics draw on established monster tropes and metaphors? And is it possible to overcome these entrenched tendencies in our social psychodynamics?

In this lecture Professor Asma will look at the way some monster stories and images were used in racist propaganda as well as the vilification of ethnic groups. Special attention will be given to longstanding antisemitic monster narratives in Europe, African American demonization in 19th and 20th century, and more recent cases of Islamophobia. Asma argues that demonizing outsiders is lamentable but a common feature of all human group interaction when there is competition for resources. Asma will show how most demonization strategies divide into accusations of “barbarism” on the basis of innate flaws or deleterious cultural conventions.

Speaker:

Stephen Asma is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, where he is a Senior Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture. Asma is the author of ten books, including On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears (Oxford Univ. Press), The Emotional Mind: Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition (Harvard Univ. Press), The Evolution of Imagination (Univ. of Chicago), and The Gods Drink Whiskey (HarperOne). He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Aeon magazine.

Tickets are for this lecture only – please book the rest in the series separately

Philosophy of Monsters Series – Prof. Stephen Asma

Previous ones in the series are available to view on demand:

Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum

Philosophizing Aliens, UFOs, and Astrobiology – Dr Stephen Asma

a recording of this lecture will be sent to ticketholders who miss it

Philosophy of Monsters Series – Prof. Stephen Asma

General Course Description

The category “monster” disrupts the borders and boundaries of what we consider natural, normal, and even intelligible. Our rational systems of order are upended by the monstrous. In this lecture series Dr. Asma examines the role of monsters in cognition and knowledge, the ethical and political uses of monstrosity, the relation to personal identity, and the problem of evil. A philosophical “monsterology” is committed to the idea that we can better understand the human condition by examining what scares us–what makes us vulnerable.

Philosophizing Aliens, UFOs, and Astrobiology – April 24th 2022

In this illustrated lecture Dr. Asma will examine the essential philosophical issues surrounding the existence of alien life, UFOs, and contact. Scenarios and risk-management responses will be discussed, as well as questions of epistemology, philosophy of mind, and evolution.

Popular mainstream alien-mania quickly settles into sci-fi tropes that, albeit fun, obscure more serious questions about the biology, psychology, and the philosophical meaning of alien life. But in the Academy, scholars also avoid these serious questions in favor of a purely cultural analysis of alien reports, preferring to study the human history and cultural impact of alien storytelling while taking a somewhat dismissive stance toward the possible reality of extraterrestrial life.

In this lecture, Professor Asma will not try to convince skeptics or true believers to change their minds, but rather consider the interesting evolutionary questions about alien bodies, brains, cultures, and technologies. Would aliens have similar anatomies or emotional palettes with mammals for example? Would they converge on the same science as humans? Given what we know about large civilizational human clashes, can we infer anything about the political consequences of contact?

Speaker:

Stephen Asma is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, where he is a Senior Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture. Asma is the author of ten books, including On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears (Oxford Univ. Press), The Emotional Mind: Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition (Harvard Univ. Press), The Evolution of Imagination (Univ. of Chicago), and The Gods Drink Whiskey (HarperOne). He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Aeon magazine.

Tickets are for this lecture only – please book the rest in the series separately

Philosophy of Monsters Series – Prof. Stephen Asma

Previous ones in the series are available to view on demand:

Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum

Inner Monsters: Psychopaths and Psychologizing Monsters – Dr Stephen Asma

a recording of this lecture will be sent to ticketholders who miss it

Philosophy of Monsters Series – Prof. Stephen Asma

General Course Description

The category “monster” disrupts the borders and boundaries of what we consider natural, normal, and even intelligible. Our rational systems of order are upended by the monstrous. In this lecture series Dr. Asma examines the role of monsters in cognition and knowledge, the ethical and political uses of monstrosity, the relation to personal identity, and the problem of evil. A philosophical “monsterology” is committed to the idea that we can better understand the human condition by examining what scares us–what makes us vulnerable.

Inner Monsters: Psychopaths and Psychologizing Monsters – March 6th 2022

In this illustrated lecture, Professor Asma will examine the transition from traditional external monsterology (e.g., creatures, demons, etc.) to our contemporary fascination with psychopaths and inner monsters of human psychology. Why has the 20th and 21st century focused so heavily on monsters of the mind?

Asma will describe the “subjective turn” in philosophy during the Modern era that eventually gave us an aesthetics of the “sublime,” Schopenhauer’s monstrous “will” and Freud’s view of the mind as an alienated and conflicted psyche. We will focus on a few famous cases including the Leopold and Loeb trial, the cases of John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer, and some reflections on narcissism in Incel mass shootings. These cases will be examined in light of recent psychological work on empathy.

Speaker:

Stephen Asma is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, where he is a Senior Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture. Asma is the author of ten books, including On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears (Oxford Univ. Press), The Emotional Mind: Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition (Harvard Univ. Press), The Evolution of Imagination (Univ. of Chicago), and The Gods Drink Whiskey (HarperOne). He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Aeon magazine.

Tickets are for this lecture only – please book the rest in the series separately

Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum

The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman – Zoom Lecture

This will be recorded for ticketholders only

Two modern adventurers sought a treasure possessed by the legendary” Wild Men of Borneo.” One found riches. The other vanished forever. Had he shed “civilization” or gone mad? Global headlines suspected murder. Lured by these mysteries, Carl Hoffman journeyed to find the truth, discovering that nothing is as it seems in the world’s last Eden. Tracing the entwined tales of Michael Palmieri, one of the world’s most successful tribal art field collectors, and Bruno Manser, the Swiss environmentalist who abandoned Western society to live among the Penan nomads of the rainforest, Hoffman reveals both the grandeur and the precarious fate of the one of our last wild places.

Carl Hoffman is the critically acclaimed author of five books. His New York Times bestselling Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest, was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” a NY Times best seller and one of the Washington Post’s 50 notable books of 2014. The Last Wild Men of Borneo was a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Competition and an Edgar Award. The Lunatic Express was one of the Wall Street Journal’s ten best books of 2010. His most recent, Liar’s Circus, was named one of Kirkus Review’s 100 best books of 2020. He is a former contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler and Wired magazines and he has travelled on assignment to eighty countries.

The History of Christmas – Professor Ronald Hutton – Zoom Lecture

Most people realise that the way in which they celebrate Christmas now was largely developed by the Victorians, but also that there are aspects of it which descend directly from very important and very ancient pagan festivals. This talk is designed to explain when and how our familiar midwinter customs developed, and why. It will look at the origins of the rituals, the decorations, the pastimes and the characters that have come to be associated with the modern Christmas, and also at those we have lost from the previous two millennia. In the process it will suggest that the most ancient associations of all are perhaps those which we take most for granted, or regard as the most commercialised, today.

Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He is a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs.

Watch a recording of This Lecture, & 100s of others, for free when you join our Patreon www.patreon.com/theviktorwyndmuseum