Paschal Beverly Randolph: The Timely Aid to Spiritualists

Paschal Beverly Randolph is a figure in Spiritualism that most people have heard of, but whose teachings very few people have actually taken the time to study. Mark Twain's quote, "A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read." comes to mind."

Paschal Beverly Randolph was a free person of color* born in New York City in 1825. He was a famous Spiritualist Medium & Occultist; he was founder of the earliest known Rosicrucian Order in the United States. He was extremely well versed in Eastern Mystical Traditions, was a world traveler in an era where most people rarely left the town they were born in, and was well versed in traditions of folk magic, including African-American Rootwork.

[*Randolph's own perception of his racial identity seems to have been very fluid and complex at various times identifying as Creole, White, Mixed Race (claiming English, French, German, Native American and Malagasy ancestry), and later on, as African-American.]

While I'm not going to go too deeply into his life as this isn't the purpose of this particular post, he was a bit of an eccentric, and his life was filled with paradoxes.

A clearly brilliant thinker with a massive scope of knowledge, it's somewhat difficult to pin down any a clear opinion of his on anything, because he would often change opinions, or present different views depending on the audience or situation. He seemed to very much enjoy flustering social norms, and forcing others to confront their beliefs head on as brilliant minds often do. A Socrates or Diogenes comes to mind, a bit mad, but brilliant, and possibly inspired.

In his 1861 book Dealings with the Dead, Randolph presents what is essentially an alternative to the Harmonial Philosophy developed by Andrew Jackson Davis. Andrew Jackson Davis is considered the Father of Spiritualist Philosophy among American Spiritualists, and his works such as The Principles of Nature published in 1845, and his Great Harmonia published between 1850 and 1861, were almost immediately accepted as near divine revelation by most American Spiritualists, and quickly became the standard theological, and philosophical banner of Spiritualism; even if many did not credit Davis with their reliance on his texts, Spiritualists would generally still teach within the framework of his teachings. Although Spiritualism was still in it's early years, and open to Free Thought and open discussion, to critique these teachings put one outside the established status quo; to do so was a very bold claim at the time, if not slightly almost heretical.

Randolph wrote, "Not a human being, whom I ever saw, was fully satisfied with either Modern Spiritualism, or what is called Harmonial Philosophy; for the more a man bases his hopes of a life hereafter upon either of them, the more he stands on slippery ground."

He goes on to critique that the arguments presented by popular Spiritualists, and those more versed in Harmonial Philosophy. He claims that most Spiritualists are misguided by the current teachings of the day, and that they often lead to feelings of doubt, and cause many to either return to a Christian Church, or lead to atheism.

Paschal instead presents his own philosophy of Spiritualism: a deeply mystical path where one focuses on inner cultivation of the soul, where Mediumship and Psychic Phenomena are secondary, the true Clairvoyant is nearer to an individual that has worked towards enlightenment or a beatific vision. He did not dismiss Spiritualist phenomena, but felt they were only stages along the way of development, and that one would move beyond communing with the dead, to communing to higher orders of spirits, and eventually achieving a kind of mystical union with the the Spirit of God.

Both men, Davis and Randolph clearly drew from the same shared tradition that included the teachings of Swedenborg, Mesmerism, Christianity, and American Transcendentalism. They both were also trained doctors, and had several things to say on scientific theories of health, wellness, and human biology that are fairly antiquated and honestly come off today as being extremely bizarre, if not boarding on offensive.

Their doctrines aside, both men are remembered today for their brilliance, writing, and immense spiritual creativity that helped build early Spiritualism into a movement that accepted Free Thought and exploration of the Spiritual Worlds.

Although Randolph is not largely studied today, there was a period of time for the Spiritualists in Rochester, New York where Randolph's book Dealings with the Dead made an fairly large impact in the Spiritualist community. Randolph's work became considered a weapon for Spiritualist teachers and writers to use against their biggest competitor of the day, the Church of Christian Science.

In the early 1900s Christian Science was one of the fastest growing religions in the country. Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late 1800s, Christian Science offered a metaphysical Christianity, that promoted the concept that all illness was an illusion centered in incorrect thoughts, and offered spiritual healing through prayer, and the reading of scriptures along with their text book Science and Health.

Many of the outward practices such as spiritual healing, affirmative prayer, the conceptions of God as Spirit, and Jesus as a wise Teacher and Healer are incredibly similar to Spiritualist teachings, as such both religions tended to resent another as misguiding followers with incorrect teachings.

Educated Spiritualists who had studied both Eddy's work, Science and Health, and had been familiar with Randolph's book, Dealings with the Dead. Quickly discovered that many of the passages in Dealings with the Dead were incredibly similar to Eddy's work, to the point that many believed that she may have plagiarized parts of his work, as his book predated hers by several years. Dealings with the Dead  quickly became the defense of Spiritualists in Rochester against the arguments of Christian Science.

 The work was mentioned by Rev. Benjamin Austin, of Rochester, NY in an essay discussing Christian Science,

"Science and Health is a compilation from Berkeley and Swedenborg, from Dealings with the Dead, and from Dr. Quimby, and Evan's Mind Cure. There are original features, it is true, but they are not numerous or important."

The work is also sited immensely in the novel, Timely Aid by Mrs. Delia Horn. Delia Horn was a Rochester Spiritualist who according to a reference by Rev. Austin, was at one point a pubil of Mrs. Eddy. Timely Aid is a work of Spiritualist teachings and apologetics written in the format of a popular  novel. In the book Spiritualism, Protestantism, and Christian Science are weighed, with Spiritualism coming out as the victor. In this novel almost every argument given in favor of Christian Science is contrasted with a quote, or in some cases entire passages from Dealings with the Dead.

As happens, the fighting between the two denominations passed into history. But the memory of Paschal Beverly Randolph as a brilliant Spiritualist thinker persists.

To end with a passage from Timely Aid, which quotes from Paschal Beverly Randolph's Dealings with the Dead:

"Turning to my old book Dealings with the Dead, penned by Paschal Randolph, we find: "God who made us well knows that there is more of good than evil in our hearts, by virtue of our ancestry - Nature and Himself"