by Blake Bentley
Just the word medium conjures up images of darkened séance rooms, discarnate voices, and materialized entities. While these are valid forms of mediumship, Hollywood has done nothing to help mediumship palatable for the masses.
Spiritualism got its official start in 1848, although mediumship itself has always existed. It spread all across the United States and at one time had a very large following. It was a fad. Home séances were being held as often as dinner parties today. The movement even worked its way into the White House at one point, in which a teenage medium, named Nettie Maynard, gave Lincoln a message about abolishing slavery. She told him, “Sir, you have been called to the position that you now occupy for a very great purpose. The world is in universal bondage; it must be physically set free, that it may mentally rise to its affairs of this nation as well as a Congress at Washington. This Republic is leading the van of Republics throughout the world.”  Had it not been for this very message, Lincoln may not have been moved to abolish slavery. (more…)