Faith Infiltration: 5th Spiritualist Church of St. Louis

Spiritualism, in a small nutshell, is the belief and practice that living humans have the ability to contact dead humans via Mediumship.  These contacted “spirits” can then pass messages from the afterlife to the living earth world. Spirits come in all sorts of forms, ranging from spirit guides to angels to dead loved ones. They also believe in a god, though this god can range from monotheistic to pantheist. Basically, what separates spiritualism from everything else is the belief in the ability to communicate with the dead.

The church has similar appearances to a typical Christian church: hymns, offering, sermon, with the addition of two things: a healing service, and a clairvoyant service. The churchgoers sang in a confident and ringing a cappella for the hymns, and then it was time for the healing service.

The healing service was almost reminiscent of a communion: six chars were placed at the front of the sanctuary, where six Reiki healers stood. Soft music played, and churchgoers could go to the front and sit while the healers worked their magic. Each of the healers performed similar sets of movements: placing hands on shoulders,  touching the base of the neck and flicking the air with their hands, and moving the hands down the body and then flicking away, as if expelling drops of nonexistent water. I went up there, and my healer asked if he could touch my shoulders. Sure thing. He touched my shoulders and I closed my eyes and listened to the music. I heard his hands as he rubbed his fingers together. I tried to believe in being healed. I think that if human energy fields exist, then they should be able to be manipulated regardless of the belief a person has about them.

The sermon was nice, though I could not help but notice that the speaker (a woman) believed in all sorts of kooky things, such as that each of us had 144,000 personal angels. Um… okay. She offered this analogy as proof of her angels: Her furnace was broken the other day, and she went outside to ask if any angels who liked working on furnaces would help her. She knows they came to help, despite the fact that her furnace is still broken.  She also insisted that miracles happen daily. How then, are they miracles, if they happen all the time? It seems like these miracles are just events you appreciate.

During the clairvoyant session, three clairvoyants took turns standing at the front podium. They would call out individual members by name or by pointing them out “To the guy with the black jacket…” and then give information said to be gleaned from spirit guides or lost relatives. There was much talk of “children running around” and “a grandma or great grandma holding you in their arms” and etc. All of the advice they gave out was general and could really apply to anybody: “Focus…Time is flexible, so don”t worry so much.”,  “Sometimes you have to choose between two things and in the end you don’t get what you want.”, to a lady wearing a boot cast, “I sense some imbalance…”

There was also a distinct sense of reinforcement of the clairvoyants from the speaker and the church-goers as well. They got repeatedly told that they were gifted, or they got gracious thank-you’s from church members. I really didn’t see any evidence of a gift – they stood at the front of the room, closed their eyes, and ran with whatever thought came to them. I could tell they genuinely believed in their ability to talk to spirits.

Overall though, I have no moral or ethical quandaries with this brand of superstition, especially when information is handed out in such a vague manner. It is when spiritism takes place of rational thinking when making decisions, robs vulnerable people of their money and the precious memories of those they have lost, or causes them to shirk evidence-based medicine, that a dilemma emerges.

Flimsy: