Monthly on the 15th of each month, from January-May
7-8:30 pm Eastern time, via Zoom
$80 full series / $20 per drop-in (select option at check-out)

PLEASE NOTE: All meetings will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time.
**April’s meeting will take place on June 15

Join practicing medium Tiffany Hopkins as she guides us through Spiritualism's greatest stories, most controversial heroes and deepest questions. The class’ book list criss-crosses the entire 170+ year history of the movement and includes everything from scholarly works to channeled spirit communication. Each month, we'll focus on a key category. You can choose to read the feature book (in bold) or one of the other options listed to expand the conversation (or if you've already read our pick!).

JANUARY: SPIRITUALIST HISTORY

We'll start at the very beginning! Emma Britten's Modern History of Spiritualism gives a fascinating take on the first twenty years of the movement.

Modern American Spiritualism
Emma Harding Britten, 1870

Unobscured Podcast
Aaron Mahnke & iHeartRadio, 2019-current

The History of Spiritualism
Arther Conan Doyle, 1926

FEBRUARY: SPIRITUALISM & CULTURE

Ann Broude's Radical Spirits has been the most recommended and talked about book on Spiritualism’s cultural impact. It focuses on the interplay between the emerging religion and the fight for women's rights.

Radical Spirits
Ann Broude, 2001

Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling
Brill, 2015

Plato’s Ghost: Spiritualism in the American Renaissance
Cathy Gutierrez, 2009

Ghosts of Futures Past: Spiritualism and the Cultural Politics of Nineteenth-Century America
Molly McGarry, 2012

Speaking To The Dead In Early America
Erik R. Seeman, 2019

A Luminous Brotherhood: Afro-Creole Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans
Emily Clark, 2018

MARCH: CHANNELED WORKS

We can't get too intellectual in a Spiritualist circle - even if our focus is reading. This month we'll go through some of the old channeled works and read what the spirits themselves had to say.

The Book of Spirits
Alan Kardec, 1857

The Magical Staff
Andrew Jackson Davis, 1873

APRIL: BIOGRAPHIES
**Please note, this meeting will take place on June 15

While much of Spiritualist history has written Victoria Woodhull out of the official pages, she has a fascinating rags-to-riches story with the kind of wild twists one might expect these days and are positively jaw-dropping for her time.

Other Powers
Barbara Goldsmith, 1998

Notorious Victoria: The Uncensored Life of Victoria Woodhull
Mary Gabriel, 1998

Sojourner Truth’s America
Margaret Washington, 2011

The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox
Nancy Rubin Stuart, 2005

The President’s Medium: John Conklin, Abraham Lincoln, and the Emancipation Proclamation
John B. Buescher, 2019

MAY: MODERN SPIRITUALISM

So where are we at now? We'll take a look at how Spiritualism has evolved into the current day.

The In-Betweens
Mira Ptacin, 2019

Lily Dale: The True Story Of The Town That Talks To The Dead
Christine Wicker, 2004

Tiffany Hopkins (@unknowitall) began studying mediumship after moving into her great-great grandmother's cottage in Lily Dale, the world's largest community of Spiritualists. For her, mediumship isn’t just talking to the dead. Developing relationship with spirit - whether that of a loved one on the other side, our own higher selves, the mother Earth or any other presence that calls to our deepest truths - involves more than just conversation and brings more than just words. Her work combines her university-trained intellect with her universe-connected heart to bring flashes of understanding to the mostly incomprehensible world of mediumship. Today, she is a practicing medium, educator and consultant.

Image: the Spiritualism shelf in my dad’s bookshelf