Victoria Woodhull

After the Civil War, many Americans needed to speak to the dead. Millions of fathers, brothers, and sons had died terrible deaths during the war. Spiritualism with its seances and spirit mediums offered a gentle and loving way to absorb this tremendous loss.

Goldsmith estimates there were about 10 million spiritualists in the post-war years. The electric telegraph, no doubt, inspired all the knocking effects of the spirit tables and spirit slates.

Victoria Woodhull was a charismatic woman and highly sought after trance medium after the civil war. After the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt's seven year-old boy, he turned to trance medium Victoria to conduct seances for him.

During her mediumistic life Victoria would receive communication from kings, queens, and thinkers from the past. She even ran for President of the United States twice, first in 1872 and 20 years later in 1892.

I have embedded a video below for those interested.

I think Victoria Woodhull is an interesting and challenging case Azur. I have an immense amount of material about her and would suggest that she used her purported Mediumship and her Sisters healing very much as an adjunct of proposing her own views.

There is very little actual material to support the view of her Mediumship and her extreme views destroyed the first national American Association of Spiritualists. It is very important to take the real history of Woodhull into account not this youtube glamorisation. A fascinating woman who spent much of the latter part of her life married in England to a wealthy man having given up most of her previous ideals.

I was in the midst of major research on her to do an article intended for Psychic News when the SNU did their dastardly deed. Hopefully it may gain inclusion in the future. I place her very much in the Anna Eva Fay category (about who a joint article from Lis and I was published in Psychic News and we received a congratulations from Fays recent biographer Barry Wiley).

Admin wrote:I think Victoria Woodhull is an interesting and challenging case Azur. I have an immense amount of nmaterial about her and would suggest that she used her purported Mediumship and her Sisters healing very much as an adjunct of proposing her own views.

Ther is very little actual material to support the view of her Mediumship and her extreme views destroyed the first national American Association of Spiritualists. It is very important to take the real history of Woodhull into account not this youtube glamorisation. A fascinating woman who spent much of the latter part of her life married in England to a wealthy man having given up most of her previous ideals.

I was in the midst of major research on her to do an article intended for Psychic News when the SNU did their dastardly deed. Hopefully it may gain inclusion in the future. I place her very much in the Anna Eva Fay category (about who a joint article from Lis and I was published in Psychic News and we received a congratulations from Fays recent biographer Barry Wiley).

Thanks for your view Jim.

Actually Azur it is not "a view" it is based on hours of research and cold hard facts.

That is what this site is about. If material is to be put up on here you need to really check out its provenance. One reason for this site is to try and correct some of the erroneous material which is strewn all over the web. Lis and I spend hours on research in the history and have a huge mass of material to base our facts upon.

Please remember that with posts like this.

Admin wrote:Actually Azur it is not "a view" it is based on hours of research and cold hard facts.

That is what this site is about. If material is to be put up on here you need to really check out its provenance. One reason for this site is to try and correct some of the erroneous material which is strewn all over the web. Lis and I spend hours on research in the history and have a huge mass of material to base our facts upon.

Please remember that with posts like this.

www.thefreedictionary.com/view defines ''view''

a. An examination or inspection.

If you feel that strongly and if I upset you, you can remove them.

Look Azur, this guy's videos are factually incorrect and therefore create a wrong impression of our history. I am happy to leave them in place but with these caveats.

These caveats are based upon the recorded history of that time, books, newspaper articles, spiritualist magazines all of which I have access too.

Admin wrote:Lokk Azur this guys videos are factually incorrect and therefore create a wrong impression of our history. I am happy to leave them in place but with these caveats.

These caveats are based upon the recorded history of that time, books, newspaper articles, spiritualist magazines all of which I have access too.

You've made that point Jim

Hi Azur you can see I am passionate about digging out the facts.


I have just finished 3 weeks analysis of all available newspaper articles upon the Fox sister from 31/3/1848 to 31/12/1851 searching using about 10 different phrases. Fascinating material. I believe Paul Gaunt will be publishing one of my finds in the next edition of Psypioneer because it was in a specific area of interest I knew he was researching.

Currently I am slogging through Digitalised Australian papers we then cross reference things to books and magazines also with other researchers ........Oh I forgot its a two hander here thats what Lis is doing too on other subjects lol.

Thats when I am not being leader of a Spiritualist Centre, running a group, platform mediumship, this forum, writing articles and working to earn money. Hmm maybe I should get a life lol

It's not a problem for me Jim like I said you can remove the videos if I have upset you. It wasn't my intention.

No its actually also important to show people the sort of errors that appear all to frequently upon the web. By doing so and debating it then people may be more discriminating. I do hope that you have read Psypioneer, the work of Paul Gaunt and Leslie Price with the co contributors is invaluable to Spiritualisms past. Of course a fellow Aus Garth Willey hosts it on his Woodlands Way Sanctuary Web Site http://www.woodlandway.org/Psypioneer_Journal.htm

Admin wrote:No its actually also important to show people the sort of errors that appear all to frequently upon the web. By doing so and debating it then people may be more discriminating. I do hope that you have read Psypioneer, the work of Paul Gaunt and Leslie Price with the co contributors is invaluable to Spiritualisms past. Of course a fellow Aus Garth Willey hosts it on his Woodlands Way Sanctuary Web Site http://www.woodlandway.org/Psypioneer_Journal.htm

Yes I am aware of Psypioneer

Perhaps people might find reading Lois Beachy Underhill's book 'The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull' (Bridge Works Publishing Co. NY 1995) of interest and a means of clarifying exactly what Woodhull's involvement in the Spiritualist Movement was and was not about.

Good idea especially regarding the timing and reason she entered the Spiritualist movement. Still thats for an article or deeper story. As ever the hours of painstakig research are underway again.