A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

dawn of a new era, and you must not try to conceal it any longer.” 110
Spiritualists and the spirits
themselves would continue speak of the dawning of a New Era throughout the age of modern
Spiritualism. The expectation attendant to this “dawn,” not unlike the expectations attached to
broader cultural notions of evolutionary progress, was that humankind was inevitably moving
onward and upward on a predestined path to perfection. As Moore points out, Spiritualists were
a little too dependent on the notion that change would be driven by the natural unfolding of the
spirit. 111
They believed that a spirit of social harmony would emerge naturally. This sense of
predestination combined with an emphasis on personal spiritual development as a key motive
force in achieving social justice rendered Spiritualism ineffective as a political movement. In
addition, given that the core teachings of the movement emerged from spirit communications and
the fact that the conveyance of those messages occurred via media that were characterized
primarily by their passivity, one might readily argue that Spiritualism was highly dependent on
personnel and processes outside of their control. As Adin Ballou critically observed, spiritualists
were awaiting “Some wonderful and unparalleled event to be brought about mainly by spirits for
the regeneration and harmonization of the world.” 112
This kind of passivity is central to the
displaced utopian imaginary. While holding to utopian ideals the structure of such an imaginary
consistently places the agency for bringing about such a utopia outside the human.
110 Paul McArthur, “Text Book Ritual, Valuable Data and Selected Poems for Public Workers in the Organized
Movement of Modern Spiritualism,” in Spiritualism II: The Movement, ed. Gary L. Ward (New York: Garland
Press, 1990), 24.
111 Moore.
112 Neil Lehman, “The Life of John Murray Spear, Spiritualism and Reform in Antebellum America (Ph.D. diss.,
Ohio University, 1973) 184.
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