Spiritualism in Antebellum America .
Spiritualism conjures up images of fake spirit-rapping, gloomy seances, and dramatic mediums.
Bret E. Carroll does not deny that these may be a part of the story, but Carroll asks his readers to look more deeply into Spiritualism as a genuine religious ideology. Spiritualists drew on the Swedenborgian legacy of contact with spirits but developed that legacy in ways that suited the culture of the antebellum United States. They sought democratized access to the sacred. At the same time, however, they lived in what they understood to be a highly structured universe. Concentric spheres radiating outward from God through levels of spirits to the humans on the margins traced both boundaries and opportunities for Spiritualist seekers.