Introducing: Ghost Church by Jamie Loftus

Jamie Loftus investigates American spiritualism, a tradition of communing with the dead that takes place in camps full of mediums across the country.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I would ask you if you believed in ghosts, but
every time I do that, there's like a swarm of
angry redditors that descend on me like wasps. So I'll
ask you this instead. Have you heard of ghost Church?
My name is Jamie Loftus, the creator behind the Lida podcast,
my year in Mensa, and a bunch of other stuff,

(00:21):
and I love a freaky niche American experience. So what
if I told you there are camps across the US
dedicated to communing with the dead. What if I told
you the religion behind these camps had attracted the likes
of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Frederick Douglas, Mary Todd Lincoln,
Queen Victoria dan Ackroyd, and the first woman to run

(00:42):
for the U S presidency. No, but what if I
told you I've been there and I've seen it myself.
American Spiritualism is a religion I've been tangentially aware of
for years. But it wasn't until I went to the
religion's largest surviving camp in Cassadega, Florida, that I started
to learn out the US as bizarre and somewhat tortured

(01:03):
relationship with the spirit communication The assumptions that come along
with it are expected. Is it a cult? Are they witches? No,
and relax. But the reality of how the religion came together,
how it was blown apart, and how it's managed to
mostly survive for nearly two centuries undetected is fascinating. My

(01:23):
new series Ghost Church follows this uniquely American religion from
its origin to a week of n sweating in Florida,
listening to medium's drunk gossiping at a karaoke night, trying
to make ends meet. I went to spiritualist churches post
churches across the country to find out how a religion
that was started as a prank by two preteen sisters

(01:44):
in upstate New York snowballed into a movement that consumed
the final years of Harry Houdini's life. It's not a cult,
They're not witches. But the history of American spiritualism intersects
with the history of the industrial era, of the rise
of science, of the backlash to first wave feminism and abolition,

(02:05):
and today with the billion dollar New Age movement that
the religion hasn't managed to capitalize on. I'll be taking
a look at this entire Bizarro history on our impulse
to debunk systems of belief at the celebrity psychics that
have watered down and jacked up prices on access to spirit,
and take you on my own journey through a week
communing with the mediums of Cassadega, Florida. Taking a class

(02:27):
where a table would connect you with the dead spirit
of your pets, to services where reverence tell you about
ghosts you didn't know we're standing right behind you, to
rivalries between mediums and psychics who are neighbors. I'm not
asking you to believe or disbelieve anything. I'll be interviewing
mediums from the camp and skeptics alike. I'm just asking
you to get in the spirit circle with an open mind.

(02:49):
Let's see what comes through. You can listen to Ghost
Church by me Jamie Loftus starting on April on the
i Heeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcast Sage