A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
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time, and space. It promised <strong>the</strong> extension <strong>of</strong> science <strong>in</strong>to arenas Bacon had consigned to<br />
Authority and Faith. It held forth <strong>the</strong> oxymoronic vision <strong>of</strong> a faith built on fact and observable<br />
phenomenon—“a glimpse <strong>of</strong> an ultimate <strong>in</strong>candescence where science and religion fuse <strong>in</strong>to<br />
one.” 138<br />
Spiritualist practice put irreconcilable realms <strong>in</strong>to communication—present and past,<br />
liv<strong>in</strong>g and dead—an optimistic hyperbole <strong>of</strong>fered partially <strong>in</strong> response to <strong>the</strong> l<strong>in</strong>ger<strong>in</strong>g question<br />
<strong>of</strong> communication’s sheer possibility—as “an answer to <strong>the</strong> dread that separate centres <strong>of</strong><br />
consciousness must always be strangers.” 139<br />
Most fundamentally, communion with spirits<br />
brought <strong>the</strong> assurance that one need not fear <strong>the</strong> alienation from self that death threatens. The<br />
mortal and immortal selves were fused as one by promises from beyond <strong>the</strong> grave.<br />
Communion with <strong>the</strong> O<strong>the</strong>r simultaneously functioned centrifugally. Spiritualism<br />
<strong>in</strong>jected stra<strong>in</strong>s <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>determ<strong>in</strong>acy <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> very transparency it promised. The l<strong>in</strong>es <strong>of</strong><br />
communication it opened were as suggestive <strong>of</strong> collapse as <strong>the</strong>y were <strong>of</strong> progress. If one could<br />
be simultaneously <strong>in</strong> Poughkeepsie and Cleveland, and speak to <strong>the</strong> dead about <strong>the</strong> future, <strong>the</strong><br />
basic coord<strong>in</strong>ates <strong>of</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g beg<strong>in</strong> to shudder. If one can speak scientifically <strong>of</strong> such th<strong>in</strong>gs, than<br />
what <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> science that proclaims <strong>the</strong>ir impossibility? At <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Self it was <strong>the</strong> capacity<br />
<strong>of</strong> mediumship that most directly threatens <strong>in</strong>tegrity. The l<strong>in</strong>ks between <strong>the</strong> understood<br />
<strong>in</strong>stability <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e and <strong>the</strong> capacity to bridge <strong>the</strong> worlds <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> liv<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>the</strong> dead were<br />
legion. 140 The medium hovered between <strong>the</strong> slackness <strong>of</strong> neuras<strong>the</strong>nia and <strong>the</strong> fraught tensions<br />
<strong>of</strong> hysteria. One Frederick R. Marv<strong>in</strong> went so far as to discuss <strong>the</strong> pathology <strong>of</strong> “mediomania,”<br />
afflict<strong>in</strong>g “women, especially at puberty or <strong>the</strong> menopauses, or at some period between puberty<br />
138 Myers, 290.<br />
139 Myers, 282.<br />
140 See Basham.<br />
119 Frederick R. Marv<strong>in</strong>, The Philosophy <strong>of</strong> Spiritualism and The Pathology and Treatment <strong>of</strong> Mediomania (New<br />
York: Asa K. Butts and Company, 1874).<br />
79