A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

hearts of men to help their brothers, will lighten their minds so that the giants of ignorance and
self-aggrandizement will be slain, and over their graves will be placed the words, “Light and
Love.” 88
The spirits themselves were champions of reform. One of the most popular Spiritualist
texts of mid-century, Judge John Worth Edmonds’ and George Dexter’s Spiritualism, was
largely made up of “long didactic messages from Bacon and Swedenborg on the subject of
progress.” 89
The displaced utopian imaginary was ultimately less concerned with concrete political
movements than it is with the utopian per se. In the end, it depended upon the power of some
Other and/or the transformative power of death to bring about its looked for utopian ends.
However, to take form, it must draw upon the political understandings of its day, thus we see
Spiritualism’s affiliations with the various modalities through which radical change was
imagined at the time. One wing of progressive reform that Spiritualism evinced a special
connection to was feminism. As Jeffrey Sconce notes, Spiritualism “provided one of the first
and most important forums for women’s voices to enter the public sphere... While in a state of
mediumistic trance, these women were able to comment (through the ‘telegraphic’ voices of the
dead) on a variety of contemporary social issues of concern to women, including marital
equality, reproductive rights, and universal suffrage.” 90
The idea that they merely spoke at the
spirits’ behest allowed for a freedom of expression generally forbidden to women of the time. In
a very real sense, the voices from beyond that sought to guide America were the voices of the
American woman. Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frances Willard were all
interested in Spiritualism, but never publicly identified themselves as adherents. 91
Spiritualists
88 Milburn, 4.
89 Moore, 22.
90 Sconce, 12.
91 Moore.
60