When We Spoke to the Dead

Ghosts spoke. Women listened. Everything changed. It began with whispers in a dimly lit room. In the 1840s,the Fox Sisters–and the legions of mediums they inspired–ignited the Spiritualist movement that swept through Victorian parlors and presidential campaigns alike. Contacting the dead wasn’t merely a parlor trick: It was a political statementa declaration of self that still echoes. S├⌐ances attracted suffragists and scientistsskeptics and charlatansgiving women a voice in a society that often refused to hear them. But as Spiritualism surgedit also blurred the lines between faithfraudfeminismand financial opportunitydrawing figures as varied as Harry HoudiniVictoria Woodhulland even modern self-help gurus into its ever-expanding orbit. From wartime s├⌐ances to the rise of televangelistsfrom Victorian ghosts to goop-approved wellness ritualsWhen We Spoke to the Dead unearths the forgotten roots of today’s obsession with manifestationmysticismand the power of belief. Exploring America’s deep-seated hunger for the unseen–whether through politicspersonal empowermentor grief–this book traces how the supernaturalonce condemned as heresybecame the ultimate commodity. Step inside the s├⌐ance room. The spirits have been waiting.