19. Yüzyıl Ruhçuluğunun Topluma Asimilasyonu Olarak Bilim

19. yüzyılda ruhçular bilhassa bu akımın fenomenlerini çürütmeye çabalayan bilimin kendisini kullanarak iddialarının kanıtlanması yolunda büyük çabalar sarf etmişlerdir. Ruhçuluk fenomenlerindeki en temel iddialar ruhların medyumlar aracılığıyla insanlarla iletişim kurabilmesi yahut ölmekte ya da çok uzakta olan bir yakının o esnada başka bir kişiye görünebilmeleridir. Bilimsel çalışmalar sadece ruhçuluk fenomenlerinin iddialarını doğrulamak adına değil, aynı zamanda toplumsal olarak psişik deneyimler üzerine yeni kavramlar ve kavrayış biçimleri de geliştirmek üzere kullanılmıştır. Bu makalenin amacı 19. yüzyıl ruhçuluğunun bilimi kullanıp batıl inançlı olarak yaftalanmaktan uzaklaşarak kendilerini topluma kabul ettirmeye çalıştıklarını belirlemektir. Bu sebeple 19. yüzyılda ruhçuluğun bilim adına ortaya attığı iddialar tarihsel bir süreçte belgelenmiş ve ortaya koydukları terimler irdelenmiştir. Bu fenomeni ele alan kişiler, dönemin önemli bilim insanları, akademisyenleri ve edebi figürleridir. Tamamen bilim insanları ve akademisyenlerden kurulan SPR (The Society for Psychical Research) geniş imkânlarıyla medyumları incelemiş, onları pek çok psişik deneylere tabi tutmuşlardır. Bu incelemeler Phantasms of the Living adlı antolojide ve “The Proceedings” adlı kuruluşun yayın organı tarafınca yayınlanmıştır. Ruhçuluğun bilimselleşmesi adına ortaya konan en temel terimler “psişik güç”, “telepati”, “halüsinasyon” ve “ektoplazma”dır. Bu terimlerin ele alınışıyla birlikte ruhlarla iletişim ve ruhları görme gibi iddiaların kategorileştirilebilmesinin sağlandığı sonucuna varılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

ruhçuluk, 19. yüzyıl, psişik araştırmalar, bilim, asimilasyon

Science as an Assimilation of the 19th Century Spiritualism into Society

Spiritualists in the 19th century have endeavored to prove their assessments by using science itself which tried to debunk their field’s phenomena. The most principal claims of spiritualism have been the possibility of communicating with spirits through the agency of mediums and visioning a close person who has been in the moment of dying or far away. Scientific studies have not only been used to prove these assessments but to create new concepts and perceptions about psychic experiences. The aim of this article is to determine that spiritualists have assimilated themselves into society by using science apart from being denounced as superstitious. Hereby, what spiritualists have suggested in terms of science will be documented within a historical process and the terms which they have coined will be examined. It will be clarified that the people who have evaluated these phenomena consisted of scientists, scholars and literary figures. SPR (The Society for Psychical Research), which was completely formed by scientists and scholars, investigated the mediums and put them under multiple psychical experiments. These researches were published in their anthology named as Phantasms of The Living and their periodicals named as “The Proceedings”. The terms which were coined in order to scientificate spiritualism have been “psychic force”, “telepathy”, “hallucination” and “ectoplasm”. It will be concluded that these terms have enabled to categorize the assessments of spiritualism which were communicating and visioning spirits, and also accommodated the psychic researchers and mediums to express themselves subjectively by assimilation into society.

Keywords:

spiritualism, 19th century, psychical research, science, assimilation,

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