Victorian spiritualism capitalised on the desire to transcend death to create new ways of making money
Our research into the business history of spiritualism in 19th-century Britain suggests that the similarities go deeper than a shared fascination with communicating with the dead.
Victorian Britain is often remembered as an age of industrial progress, scientific discovery and astonishing feats of engineering. Department stores, arcades and luxury brands fed a growing appetite for shopping. Yet the Victorians were also fascinated by ghosts, the supernatural and the macabre.
These tendencies might first be written off as a contradiction – the perseverance of premodern supernaturalism among an increasingly modern society. But a closer look reveals that the technologies that transformed Victorian commerce and entertainment also helped make ghosts visible, reproducible and profitable.
https://theconversation.com/victorian-spiritualism-capitalised-on-the-desire-to-transcend-death-to-create-new-ways-of-making-money-294302