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Spiritualism & woman's rights: responses to male repression

PostPosted: 29 Jul 2016
by ex-l
Interesting corrolations between spiritualism (the Brahma Kumaris are a 'spiritualist cult', not a 'spiritual cult') and politics ...

A quote from an article on Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for the position of the President of the USA, who was also one of the country’s most prominent spiritualists at the time ...
Spiritualism and woman's rights drew from the same well: Both were responses to the control, subjugation and repression by [religion] and state.

For women – sheltered, repressed, powerless – the line between divine inspiration, the courage of one’s convictions, and spirit guidance became blurred.”

Just like the Brahma Kumaris of the Om Mandli in Sind, Woodhull lived "at a time of political and spiritual upheaval, in a country shattered by civil war and riven by racial divides" and "a time when the growing spiritualist and suffragist movements fed and strengthened each other". In her case, 19th Century America.

Far from unique, it seems to be a global phenomenon. A similar dynamic also emerged amongst the "Tromba" spiritualists of the Sakalava people in Madagascar who are also possessed by "royal" spirits.

See also:

[url]The Possessed and the Dispossessed: Spirits, Identity, and Power in a Madagascar Migrant Town[/url] by Lesley A. Sharp