The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England
The Darkened Room · The darkened room : women, power, and spiritualism in late Victorian England
Source entries are currently shown in Spanish; English-first entries arrive with the next cataloguing pass.
Estudio histórico de la mediumnidad femenina en el espiritismo inglés de las últimas décadas del siglo XIX, escrito contra el olvido de sus protagonistas: «What has appeared to date has, moreover, virtually ignored the existence of the female believers who played such a vital part in spiritualist practice and who were viewed by contemporaries as essential links in the chain of spirit communication» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 16». De ahí el propósito declarado, dicho como corrección de balanza: «It is particularly ironic that women have been virtually written out of a movement in which they originally held a revered and privileged place. This study attempts to right the balance» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 17».
El tema que ordena el volumen entero es la feminidad, y Owen lo enuncia desglosado en cuatro tiempos: «One of the underpinning themes of the book remains, therefore, that of femininity: the way in which spiritualist women were constructed as ‘natural’ mediums, the ‘innate’ femininity which allowed women to accede to positions of power but which then trapped them within a limiting self-definition, the transgressive femininity which emerged during some of the more extraordinary materialisation seances, and the hostility aroused by the spectacle of femininity gone awry» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 16».
El foco no es la cultura espiritista en general sino el poder: «The book seeks to detail various aspects of women’s involvement with the spiritualist world but is centrally concerned with the issues of power and subversion and, consequently, with the meaning and significance of female spiritualist practice» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 17». Y la noción de poder que emplea la toma de Foucault, con el nombre dicho: «In this account, and following the work of Michel Foucault, power is conceived as multi-dimensional and relational, a shifting commodity which implies not the static category of the powerless and hapless victim but manoeuvre, resistance and dissent» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 17».
El libro nació de un expediente: «It involved a woman, Mrs Louisa Lowe, who, in evidence given before the gentlemen of the Select Committee, claimed that she had been wrongfully incarcerated in an asylum by a belligerent husband who had used her unusual religious views as grounds for her restraint» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 15».
La conclusión que sostiene lleva su límite dentro: «Nineteenth-century female spiritualist mediumship might have been subversive, even empowering, but it was also ensnaring. Its terms of reference facilitated considerable manoeuvre for spiritualist women but ultimately conspired in defining their containment» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 276». Y el epílogo la extiende al presente con una advertencia, no con un veredicto: «Femininity is not a pre-ordained given, power does not proceed automatically from the female body, and spiritual power is not to be equated with sexual equality» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 276». Cierra: «We must not permit ourselves to become trapped in darkened rooms of our own making» «Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 276».
2183 claims · 1 source · 1 attribution
Attribution
recorded, never asserted«Owen — The Darkened Room (1990) · p. 8»
The chain of the work
the processed witness, in emeraldClaims
2183 entries — the work's own voice, with its passage«The answer is, partly by chance - although 1 am inclined to think that chance such as this comes only when there has been some preparation.» — Owen responde así a por qué acabó escribiendo sobre espíritus decimonónicos: en parte por azar, con la reserva de que el azar de esa clase llega solo cuando ha habido alguna preparación; el *1* inicial es la I del OCR.
«I began my research, however, with altogether different issues in mind.» — y declara que la investigación empezó con asuntos del todo distintos.
«I was initially interested in the idea of femininity as a social construct and wanted to look at the part played by Victorian medical science in the establishment of a feminine norm.» — cuáles eran: la feminidad como construcción social y el papel de la ciencia médica victoriana en fijar una norma femenina.
«In particular, I wanted to discover something of the fate of those women who failed to conform to society’s view ofnormative womanhood.» — y el recorte de ese interés: la suerte de las mujeres que no se ajustaban a la idea social de feminidad normativa; *ofnormative* es el guion de corte que el troceo une.
«I had already begun a preliminary study of Victorian medical psychology when, in the summer of 1981, 1 turned my attention to the nineteenth-century Parliamentary Select Committee reports on lunacy.» — la fecha y la fuente del giro: en el verano de 1981 pasa de la psicología médica victoriana a los informes parlamentarios sobre locura.
«Excited, and sensing issues which held little interest for the Commissioners, I pursued Mrs Lowe through the major British libraries, discovering in the process several of her uncatalogued pamphlets in Oxford, and uncovering a story worthy ofany high-Victorian melodrama.» — cómo reconstruyó el caso: siguiendo a la señora Lowe por las grandes bibliotecas británicas y hallando en Oxford varios panfletos suyos sin catalogar; *ofany* es guion de corte unido por el troceo.
«As the spiritualist research progressed it became clear that the change of focus would not mean the total abandonment of my original interests.» — y por qué el cambio de tema no fue abandono del anterior: la investigación espiritista siguió sirviendo a los intereses de partida.
«Indeed, it was quickly apparent that the nineteenth-century idea of femininity was crucial to the entire enterprise of Victorian mediumship.» — la razón, dicha como hallazgo temprano: la idea decimonónica de feminidad resultó decisiva para toda la empresa de la mediumnidad victoriana.
«Despite a recent upsurge of interest in Victorian spiritualism, comparatively little has been written on the subject and it has often been considered only in conjunction with its uneasy travelling companion, psychical research.» — el estado de la cuestión que declara: pese al interés reciente, se ha escrito poco, y casi siempre junto a la investigación psíquica, a la que llama compañera de viaje incómoda.
«Whilst this book argues for the importance of spiritualist women, l am not trying to suggest that there were no outstanding male mediums or that men constituted an unimportant minority of believers.» — la acotación con que impide que su tesis se lea de más: sostener la importancia de las espiritistas no es negar que hubiera médiums varones destacados ni que los creyentes hombres fueran minoría irrelevante; la *l* es la I del OCR.
«The numerous accounts of personal seance experiences, together with the published records of local spiritualist societies, suggest that as many men as women were attracted to spiritualism.» — y la base documental de esa acotación: los relatos de sesiones y las actas de las sociedades locales sugieren que el espiritismo atraía a tantos hombres como mujeres.
«Equally, although it appears that women outnumbered men as mediums, there were many outstanding male mediums.» — el matiz que conserva el *appears*: las mujeres parecen haber sido más numerosas como médiums, y aun así hubo muchos médiums varones destacados.
«This is in part because the best-known female mediums often tended not to write explanatory or self-serving tracts and memoirs, and were less inclined to take up the position of ideologue or publicist.» — Owen da una primera razón del olvido: las médiums más conocidas escribían pocos tratados y memorias, y rara vez tomaban el papel de ideólogas o publicistas.
«More particularly, though, these women have been inadvertently marginalised and their activities obscured joy exclusionary historical assumptions and concerns. The women were there but, as on so many other occasions, they have been allowed to slip between the lines of historical inquiry.» — y la razón que le parece más decisiva: supuestos historiográficos excluyentes las marginaron sin querer, dejándolas escurrirse entre los renglones de la investigación; *joy* es errata del troceo por *by*.
«Equally, the book tends to follow the lead taken by spiritualist London during the later decades of the century. Close observation of the local non-metropolitan spiritualist scene remains a rich and largely untapped area of inquiry. That book has still to be written.» — el límite que Owen se pone: el volumen sigue al espiritismo londinense, y declara la escena local no metropolitana como campo casi intacto que otro libro tendría que escribir.
«Victorian gender stereotypes have been difficult to breach, not least because they have proven remarkably resilient to head-on inquiry. Historical work in recent years has indicated that intimate insights are often gained obliquely.» — el argumento de método: los estereotipos victorianos de género resisten la indagación frontal, y las miradas íntimas se ganan de manera oblicua.
«I am not supposing for a moment that spiritualism was an unproblematic enterprise for women, or that there were no casualties of male/female power struggles. Far from it.» — la reserva con que acompaña su noción de poder: no supone que el espiritismo fuera empresa sin problemas para las mujeres ni que no hubiera bajas en las luchas de poder entre los sexos.
«based upon the celebration and exercise of female spiritual authority which, whilst ultimately limiting, often wrought positive and immediate changes in the lives of the faithful.» — la fórmula con que describe la estrategia de poder del espiritismo, con su límite dicho a la vez: se apoyaba en la autoridad espiritual femenina, limitante al cabo y a la vez capaz de cambios inmediatos en la vida de las creyentes; el arranque de la frase queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«It marked, too, the continuation of an earlier radical and heterodox tradition, and the maintenance of something akin to a female ministry which we previously assumed to have faltered and faded by the mid-century.» — y lo que además sostiene que el espiritismo continúa: una tradición radical y heterodoxa anterior, y algo parecido a un ministerio femenino que se daba por apagado a mediados de siglo.
«Victorian spiritualism was another of the hidden or forgotten factors in women’s long struggle for increased effectiveness, status, and autonomy.» — el lugar que le adjudica en la historia de las mujeres: un factor oculto u olvidado de la lucha por eficacia, estatus y autonomía.
«Research for the book draws on a variety of sources, all of which are cited in the footnotes, but it relies most heavily for the spiritualist material on the spiritualist press and a rich fund of published tracts and personal accounts.» — declara su base documental: sobre todo la prensa espiritista y un fondo de panfletos y relatos personales publicados.
«From these I slowly established a file on fifty-five practising mediums, women who each claimed to be able to contact the spirit world on a regular basis.» — y la muestra que armó con ella: un fichero de cincuenta y cinco médiums en ejercicio, cada una de las cuales decía poder contactar con el mundo de los espíritus con regularidad.
«The majority of these, with some notable exceptions, were London women, but apart from this they often had little in common. Collectively they span the spectrum of age, marital status, and social class.» — cómo se reparte esa muestra: en su mayoría londinenses, y por lo demás dispares en edad, estado civil y clase social.
«Although much can be surmised from this group, I would not want to claim that it forms in any sense a pristine sociological sample.» — la reserva que pone sobre su propia muestra: no la reclama como muestra sociológica limpia.
«Instead, what the women offer is a tantalising and sometimes detailed glimpse of individual lives which, when set against the broader backdrop, contribute vivid and illuminating specificity to our understanding of the Victorian spiritualist world.» — y lo que sí reclama de ella: vislumbres de vidas concretas que dan especificidad al cuadro general del mundo espiritista victoriano.
«In general, however, I found W. H. Harrison’s Spiritualist and James Burns’s Human Nature and Medium Daybreak the most useful, enlightening, and engaging.» — nombra los periódicos espiritistas que más le sirvieron: el Spiritualist de W. H. Harrison y el Human Nature y el Medium and Daybreak de James Burns.
«James Burns was also responsible for pioneering the publication of a great many polemical texts, lectures, and addresses, as well as more specialised works on spiritualist healing.» — según Owen, James Burns fue además el editor pionero de una gran cantidad de textos polémicos, conferencias y obras sobre curación espiritista.
«He was upset when major non-spiritualist publishing houses, sensing a lucrative market, began to encroach on his territory.» — y el disgusto de Burns cuando las grandes editoriales no espiritistas, oliendo mercado, entraron en su terreno.
«His loss, however, is the historian’s gain.» — la vuelta irónica con que Owen cierra el punto: la pérdida de Burns es ganancia del historiador.
«It long ago became clear that the validity of spiritualist claims could not be satisfactorily addressed by the investigative tools of scientific empiricism.» — Owen sitúa fuera de su alcance la pregunta por la validez de lo espiritista: hace mucho quedó claro que las herramientas del empirismo científico no la resuelven de manera satisfactoria.
«Final proof of spirit existence is notoriously elusive, and the claims and counter-claims of believers and non-believers echo down the years.» — y la razón: la prueba final de la existencia de los espíritus es notoriamente esquiva, y las afirmaciones y contraafirmaciones se repiten a lo largo de los años.
«Researchers regarded this kind of result as proof that spiritualism was mere hocus pocus.» — según Owen, los investigadores leían el resultado negativo de sus pruebas como prueba de que el espiritismo era pura patraña.
«Spiritualists, on the other hand, in an argument that is not unknown in science today, maintained that the very methods and procedures used to probe the phenomenon succeeded only in destroying it.» — y el argumento del otro lado, que Owen consigna sin arbitrar y del que anota que no es ajeno a la ciencia de hoy: los métodos con que se sondeaba el fenómeno solo lograban destruirlo.
«Many believers argued that spiritualism provided scientific evidence for the spirit’s survival after death, and did not perceive science as inimical to spiritualist beliefs.» — según Owen, muchos creyentes tenían el espiritismo por evidencia científica de la supervivencia del espíritu y no veían enemistad entre ciencia y creencia.
«Indeed, early adherents held out the fervent hope that science would prove their case, and sought to establish both the survival of the spirit and its materiality through strict adherence to the empirical method.» — y hasta dónde llegaba esa confianza: los primeros adeptos esperaban que la ciencia les diera la razón y buscaban probar por método empírico tanto la supervivencia del espíritu como su materialidad.
«Few were unduly troubled by the appearance in 1859 of Darwin’s The Origin of Species , seeing it as a verification of their own views» — según Owen, la aparición de El origen de las especies en 1859 inquietó a pocos entre ellos, que la leían como verificación de sus propias ideas; el espacio antes de la coma es del troceo.
«In contrast to Darwin’s intention, The Origin was often read as a description of the purposeful and triumphal procession of humankind.» — y cómo se leía el libro contra la intención de Darwin: como descripción de una marcha triunfal y con propósito de la humanidad.
«Spiritualists saw it as the counterpart to their views on the spirit’s progress in the other world.» — de ahí el paralelo que trazaban, según Owen: la evolución como contrapartida del progreso del espíritu en el otro mundo.
«Instead, spiritualists regarded evolutionary theory as a significant contribution to the confirmation of experience by an appeal to the physical and the material.» — y qué valor le daban: una contribución a confirmar la experiencia apelando a lo físico y lo material.
«Believers assumed that the mind was capable of understanding all that was to be known about the material world, and happily extended their understanding of materiality to include the spirit realm.» — el supuesto de fondo que Owen les atribuye: la mente podía entender todo lo cognoscible del mundo material, y esa materialidad se extendía sin problema al reino de los espíritus.
«The spiritualists’ hypothesis that a spirit’s ethereal body was composed of ‘spirit matter’ was therefore perceived as neither contradictory nor problematic.» — y la consecuencia: la hipótesis de un cuerpo etéreo hecho de materia espiritual no se sentía contradictoria.
«‘Spirit matter’ is an interesting juxtaposition which might be regarded as an attempt to reconcile the apparent dichotomy between the material and the spiritual, but it was rarely viewed in this light.» — la lectura que Owen propone del término, con su desmentido inmediato: podría verse como intento de reconciliar materia y espíritu, y rara vez se veía así.
«As far as spiritualists were concerned, it was a concept that made sense, and they soon presented it as evidence of the existence of a hitherto unknown universal element.» — cómo lo veían ellos, según Owen: un concepto sensato y, pronto, evidencia de un elemento universal hasta entonces desconocido.
«Positivistic science was confident that it could identify the laws by which the universe was regulated, and spiritualists saw no reason why their own experiences should not go to prove the existence of a new element and a new law.» — el marco de época en que sitúa esa confianza: la ciencia positivista se creía capaz de identificar las leyes del universo, y los espiritistas no veían por qué su experiencia no habría de probar un elemento y una ley nuevos.
«Spiritualists felt that what they saw and experienced during a seance not only proved their point but also extended what was known about the workings of the universe.» — según Owen, los espiritistas tenían lo visto en la sesión por prueba de su tesis y por ampliación de lo sabido sobre el funcionamiento del universo.
«Scientific researchers, on the other hand, although sometimes sympathetic to or intrigued by spiritualism, were generally willing to investigate the phenomena only within prevailing paradigms and the framework of existing natural law .» — y la postura contraria, con su matiz: investigadores a veces simpatizantes o intrigados, dispuestos a examinar los fenómenos solo dentro de los paradigmas vigentes; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The subsequent clashes between spiritualists and unsympathetic psychical researchers bear testimony to the fact that concepts of truth and reality are not absolutes.» — lo que Owen saca de esos choques: que las nociones de verdad y de realidad no son absolutas.
«Not the least of these was that believers hoped that a scientific epistemology would verify the materiality of the unseen world» — y la contradicción que señala en la posición espiritista: esperaban que una epistemología científica verificara la materialidad del mundo invisible; el verbatim se corta en el límite de chunk del troceo.
«At the heart of spiritualism and mediumship lies the unfamiliar and, to many western observers, unnerving spectacle of spirit possession.» — Owen pone en el centro del espiritismo la posesión por espíritus, espectáculo desconocido y, para muchos observadores occidentales, inquietante.
«It is perhaps not surprising, especially given the cultural norms of Victorian England, that mediumistic behaviour was often viewed with horrified disbelief and a repugnance bordering on disgust.» — y explica por las normas culturales de la Inglaterra victoriana la incredulidad horrorizada y la repugnancia con que se miraba la conducta mediúmnica, con su *perhaps* a cuestas.
«I do not and cannot make a final judgement on the reality or otherwise of the spirits.» — la abstención que Owen declara y que gobierna el libro entero: no emite ni puede emitir juicio final sobre la realidad de los espíritus.
«It presents spiritualism as a discourse - a specific historical and cultural set of beliefs and practices governed and delineated by their own rules of formulation» — y qué hace en lugar de eso: presenta el espiritismo como discurso, un conjunto histórico y cultural de creencias y prácticas con sus propias reglas de formulación.
«I have tended to concentrate on this area of inquiry, avoiding a constant engagement with the tortuous and contentious issue of how mediumistic phenomena were produced.» — el recorte de su indagación: se concentra en ese terreno y evita el asunto tortuoso de cómo se producían los fenómenos.
«I have identified three possible categories of explanation, the first two of which involve phenomena, or the production of phenomena, which are explainable within a framework of known physical causes.» — las tres categorías explicativas que sí propone, de las cuales las dos primeras caben dentro de causas físicas conocidas.
«Firstly there is deliberate fraud. This was something which plagued the spiritualist community and involved conscious faking on the medium’s part.» — la primera categoría: el fraude deliberado, plaga de la comunidad espiritista y falsificación consciente de parte de la médium.
«but money was not necessarily the sole motive where fraud was concerned.» — y el matiz que le añade: el dinero no era necesariamente el único motivo del fraude.
«If a medium’s powers temporarily faltered she was sometimes tempted to supplement them.» — según Owen, la médium cuyos poderes flaqueaban se veía a veces tentada a suplementarlos.
«Deliberate fraud, therefore, meant that a medium consciously faked what spiritualists thought of as genuine spirit effects.» — la definición que fija de esa primera categoría, cuidando de decir que lo falsificado es lo que los espiritistas tenían por efectos genuinos.
«The second category, unconscious production, is a subtle and altogether different matter.» — la segunda categoría: la producción inconsciente, que llama asunto sutil y del todo distinto.
«I am presupposing the existence of a motivational unconscious and suggesting that mediums were capable of self-induced and self-regulated forms of psychological dissociation.» — y el supuesto teórico que declara para sostenerla: un inconsciente motivacional y una disociación psicológica autoinducida y autorregulada.
«Unconscious production was usually characterised by states of altered consciousness during which the medium produced phenomena in a readily explicable way, but later would not be aware of what she had done.» — cómo se reconoce esa producción, según Owen: estados alterados de consciencia tras los cuales la médium no sabía lo que había hecho.
«I do not, therefore, regard unconscious motivation or deliberate fraud as the only possible explanations, and am quite prepared to accept that we have not yet grasped the full implications of mediumship.» — la puerta que deja abierta: ni el fraude ni la motivación inconsciente agotan las explicaciones, y admite que no se han comprendido todas las implicaciones de la mediumnidad.
«Thus my third category includes causal mechanisms which fall outside our current understanding of the workings of natural law .» — la tercera categoría: mecanismos causales fuera de lo que hoy se entiende por ley natural; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«This category allows for the validity of phenomena like telepathy, telekinesis, and so on, without necessarily accepting the spiritualist causal account.» — y el deslinde con que la acota: admite la validez de fenómenos como la telepatía o la telequinesis sin aceptar por ello la explicación causal espiritista.
«I would also include here some spiritualist healing, which was often efficacious although we do not know why, and rare examples» — qué más mete ahí: parte de la curación espiritista, a menudo eficaz sin que se sepa por qué; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«This, however, remains mere conjecture on my part and plays no theoretical role in the book.» — y el límite que se pone de inmediato: eso queda como conjetura suya y no cumple papel teórico en el libro.
«Although these categories seem clear enough in themselves, they can only ever offer a very approximate and limited guideline.» — la reserva con que cierra la tipología: por claras que parezcan, las tres categorías solo dan una guía aproximada y limitada.
«Spiritualists’ metaphysical beliefs, however, directly impacted their view of reality, which in turn differed sharply from that of their critics.» — según Owen, las creencias metafísicas espiritistas afectaban directamente su visión de la realidad, muy distinta de la de sus críticos.
«The issue, then, is not necessarily so much the reality of the spirits as the way in which reality itself is symbolically constructed.» — el desplazamiento en que consiste su método: la cuestión no es tanto la realidad de los espíritus como el modo en que la realidad misma se construye simbólicamente.
«Although many of us today would reject the time-honoured notion of the historian as an objective seeker after truth, a reverence for empirical analysis remains at the heart of the discipline.» — lo que dice del oficio: aunque hoy se rechace al historiador como buscador objetivo de la verdad, en el centro de la disciplina sigue la reverencia por el análisis empírico.
«But historians are becoming increasingly aware that behind this smooth exterior lie a myriad of assumptions about the neutrality of historical agendas and the unproblematic nature of evidence.» — y lo que ese exterior liso esconde, según ella: supuestos sobre la neutralidad de las agendas históricas y sobre la evidencia como cosa sin problema.
«If this takes us into less certain waters, it is a risk worth taking.» — cómo asume el costo de esa posición: aguas menos seguras, riesgo que vale la pena correr.
«I would want to argue that there is no such thing as innocent history, and that the historical account is never a mere pale reflection of how it really was.» — la tesis historiográfica que enuncia: no hay historia inocente, y el relato histórico nunca es reflejo pálido de cómo fue en realidad.
«That The Darkened Room represents an affirmation of the feminist historical agenda will, I hope, be clear to all.» — y la declaración de partido con que cierra la introducción, dicha en modo de esperanza.
«The Darkened Room is concerned with the prominent part played by Victorian women as practising spiritualists during the 1860s, 1870s, and 1 880s, the golden age of English spiritualism.» — abre el capítulo primero fijando el recorte temporal: las décadas de 1860, 1870 y 1880, que llama la edad de oro del espiritismo inglés; el *1 880s* lleva el espacio del troceo.
«It takes us into a little-known world of public and private mediumship, dark seances, and daringly theatrical displays of psychic powers; of natural healing and women healers; of touching family episodes, and encounters with hostile and threatening critics.» — y el inventario de lo que el libro va a recorrer: mediumnidad pública y privada, sesiones a oscuras, curación natural, episodios familiares y encuentros con críticos hostiles.
«More specifically, it recasts spiritualist practice in the light of shifting attitudes to women and the uneasy negotiation of Victorian class and gender norms.» — cómo formula su operación: releer la práctica espiritista a la luz de las actitudes cambiantes hacia las mujeres y de la negociación incómoda de las normas victorianas de clase y de género.
«Spiritualists believe that it is possible for the living to contact and communicate with the spirits of the dead, but Victorian spiritualists also held that women» — la creencia común y el añadido victoriano que a Owen le interesa; el verbatim se corta en el límite de chunk del troceo, y la frase sigue diciendo que las mujeres estaban especialmente dotadas como médiums de esa comunicación.
«As mediumship is the linchpin of spiritualist practice, nineteenth-century spiritualist women were highly regarded.» — y la consecuencia que saca: siendo la mediumnidad el eje de la práctica, las espiritistas del siglo XIX gozaban de alta estima.
«The women involved in the new agitation were largely middle class and shared a distaste for and dissatisfaction with the social and political scope of their lives.» — según Owen, las mujeres de la nueva agitación feminista eran en su mayoría de clase media y compartían el disgusto por el alcance social y político de sus vidas.
«Nevertheless, some of the women involved in feminist activism came from a background of earlier bourgeois campaigns, particularly the Anti-Corn Law League and Anti-Slavery crusade, and others emerged via women-oriented philanthropic endeavours.» — y de dónde venían algunas: de campañas burguesas anteriores como la Anti-Corn Law League y la cruzada antiesclavista, o de la filantropía dirigida a mujeres.
«Although female suffrage remained in many ways the symbol of feminist aspirations, other concerns like the need for immediate improvement in women’s economic opportunities and legal position were viewed as priorities.» — la jerarquía de demandas que documenta: el sufragio era el símbolo, y la prioridad estaba en la mejora inmediata de la posición económica y legal.
«The dissonance between the perceived options for higher-class women and the possibility of either achieving or finding satisfaction in them was emphasised by the 1851 Census which indicated that in mid-Victorian England women outnumbered men, a serious matter for young women raised solely for the marriage market.» — el dato censal con que explica la tensión: el censo de 1851 mostró que había más mujeres que hombres, cosa grave para las criadas solo para el mercado matrimonial.
«Feminist involvement in emigration schemes was, to say the least, problematic.» — y el juicio con que despacha una de las salidas propuestas: la participación feminista en los planes de emigración era, por lo menos, problemática.
«In fact, employment for women in the higher professions was slow to open up but the later decades of the century did see a rapid expansion of the respectable ‘white blouse’ job market.» — según Owen, las profesiones altas tardaron en abrirse y en las últimas décadas del siglo se expandió con rapidez el empleo respetable de blusa blanca.
«But within twenty years, nearly 18,000 women were employed in these capacities, and nursing and teaching had also been opened up as suitable professions for women.» — la cifra con que lo mide: cerca de dieciocho mil mujeres en veinte años, más la enfermería y la enseñanza abiertas como profesiones aceptables.
«It is significant that this was the same period which saw the meteoric rise and then demise of the famous female spiritualist mediums of the 1870s and 1880s, some of whom were able to» — la coincidencia temporal que Owen subraya: el mismo periodo vio el ascenso y la caída de las médiums espiritistas famosas; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que algunas vivían bien de su talento.
«By the 1890s when these mediums began to fade from the scene many thousands of women had already made their way into the public domain via jobs in local government, business, and commerce.» — y el relevo que señala: cuando las médiums se apagan en los años noventa, miles de mujeres ya habían entrado al dominio público por el empleo administrativo y comercial.
«Their willingness to work for less than the standard male rates of pay stored up problems for the future and made it difficult for some self-supporting women to make ends meet, but this must be measured against the blow for freedom which waged work represented for all those who might otherwise have» — el balance que hace del trabajo asalariado femenino, con sus dos platillos: aceptar salarios por debajo del masculino acumulaba problemas, y aun así el empleo era un golpe por la libertad; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase termina diciendo *remainpd sequestered at home*, con la errata del OCR.
«Whilst increased job opportunities were one aspect of middle- and lower middle-class liberation, legal reforms were the other.» — las dos caras que distingue en la liberación de la clase media y media baja: empleo y reforma legal.
«Prior to the passing of the 1882 Married Women’s Property Act, for example, married women had no separate identity from that of their husbands.» — la situación jurídica anterior a 1882, según Owen: la casada no tenía identidad separada de la de su marido.
«In the words of the old adage, in law ‘husband and wife are one person, and the husband is that person’.» — el adagio con que la ley resumía eso, citado por Owen: marido y mujer son una persona, y el marido es esa persona.
«Perhaps most significantly, a married woman could not sue or be sued, and she was certainly unable to sue her husband.» — y la consecuencia que le parece más grave: la casada no podía demandar ni ser demandada, y menos aún demandar a su marido.
«The 1882 Act which gave her this option completely revised the law, giving married women responsibilities as well as rights.» — lo que cambió la ley de 1882, con su reverso dicho: dio a las casadas responsabilidades además de derechos.
«After 1882 a wife had control over her separate property and had recourse to the same civil and criminal remedies as an unmarried woman.» — y el contenido de ese cambio: control sobre su propiedad separada y los mismos recursos civiles y penales que una soltera.
«Legal reform affecting women was only one aspect of a more general overhaul of the Victorian legal system, but the rights ofmarried women as embodied in the 1882 Act marked a victory for the supporters ofwomen’s equality and a milestone in the recognition of female independence and autonomy.» — el lugar que le da a esa ley: hito en el reconocimiento de la independencia femenina dentro de una revisión más amplia del sistema legal victoriano; *ofmarried* y *ofwomen* son guiones de corte que el troceo une.
«But these changes took several decades (and in the case of female suffrage, much longer) to accomplish.» — y la escala temporal con que lo relativiza, con el sufragio como caso extremo.
«but it was also a time of anxiety and uncertainty as the old order began grudgingly to give way to the new.» — cómo caracteriza el periodo por su reverso: ansiedad e incertidumbre mientras el orden viejo cedía a regañadientes.
«But although women were considered central to spiritualist practice, and explicitly feminist doctrines were to be found within certain strands of the movement, the women who became faithful believers were undoubtedly drawn initially by spiritualism’s central and most sacred tenet.» — la corrección que Owen hace a una lectura demasiado política: aunque hubiera doctrinas feministas explícitas en algunas ramas, lo que atraía primero a las creyentes era el dogma central del espiritismo.
«It was firmly held that any individual, male or female, rich or poor, could become the conduit for a dialogue with the spirits.» — según Owen, se sostenía con firmeza que cualquier persona, hombre o mujer, rica o pobre, podía volverse conducto del diálogo con los espíritus.
«In general it was considered that women made a vital contribution to any spiritualist group, and they seemed to thrive within the small seance circles which quickly became the mainstay of the spiritualist movement.» — y el lugar que se les daba: contribución vital al grupo, y buen rendimiento en los círculos pequeños de sesión que fueron el sostén del movimiento.
«Time and again it was noted that women picked up the techniques of mediumship more rapidly and effectively than men, and they were often swift to move to the fore as developing mediums.» — el juicio que se repetía en las fuentes, según Owen: las mujeres aprendían las técnicas de la mediumnidad más rápido y mejor que los hombres.
«They therefore regarded the medium responsible for these spirit productions as possessing considerable spiritual power.» — según Owen, de ahí que se atribuyera a la médium un poder espiritual considerable.
«But in seances led by women the acceptance of female mediumship also hinged upon an acknowledgement of women’s spiritual authority.» — y de qué dependía además esa aceptación: del reconocimiento de la autoridad espiritual de las mujeres.
«If, during a seance, a woman became the principal actor, the instigator and director of the proceedings, it was because she was thought to possess not only genuine spiritual power but also the right to exercise it.» — la doble condición que Owen distingue: poder espiritual genuino y derecho a ejercerlo.
«Spiritualism validated the female authoritative voice and permitted women an active professional and spiritual role largely denied them elsewhere.» — la afirmación que sostiene el capítulo: el espiritismo validaba la voz femenina con autoridad y le abría un papel profesional y espiritual negado en otras partes.
«But this was not an uncomplicated moment in some mythical march of feminist progress.» — y el freno inmediato que le pone: no era un momento sin complicaciones en una marcha mítica del progreso feminista.
«It was generally thought that women were naturally predisposed to certain traits, qualities, and abilities which in turn dictated their proper role and sphere in life.» — el supuesto de época que documenta: rasgos y cualidades naturales de la mujer que dictaban su papel y su esfera.
«Paradoxically, this understanding also undercut and circumscribed the entire definition and operation of female power.» — y la paradoja que le da nombre: ese mismo entendimiento socavaba y acotaba la definición entera del poder femenino.
«Despite the fact that gender categories are always open to contestation, and that there were underlying tensions in nineteenth-century thinking about femininity, the idea of female power remained problematic for a Victorian ideology of womanhood which stressed a quite different ethic.» — el límite que fija con dos concesiones dentro: aun siendo disputables las categorías de género y tensas las ideas decimonónicas de feminidad, el poder femenino seguía siendo problemático para una ideología que subrayaba otra ética.
«distinction between the relative spheres of operation for men and women, coupled with the suggestion that women possessed an innate moral and spiritual superiority which was best exercised for the benefit of all within the confines of the home.» — Owen resume así la ideología victoriana de las esferas separadas: superioridad moral y espiritual innata de la mujer, mejor ejercida dentro del hogar; el arranque de la frase queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«This representation owed a great deal to its earlier development by the powerful Evangelical party within the Anglican church, and by the 1850s it also constituted an important part of the Nonconformist ethic.» — y de dónde la hace venir: del partido evangélico dentro de la Iglesia anglicana, y hacia 1850 también de la ética inconformista.
«The categorisation of so-called female virtues found its expression in the sentimental and idealised notion of the spiritually refined ‘angel in the house’» — la figura en que cristalizó esa categorización, según Owen: el ángel del hogar, espiritualmente refinado.
«Among the most important of these was the notion of innate female passivity, a negative attribute constructed in opposition to so-called masculine will-power.» — el primero de los constituyentes que aísla en esa ideología: la pasividad femenina innata, atributo negativo construido por oposición a la voluntad masculina.
«Along with this went the concepts of female frailty, constructed in opposition to a standard of masculine strength and virility ; a moral and spiritual sensibility which acted as the perfect foil to the amoral cut and thrust of the public world of men; and de-eroticised sexuality - women as possessing (if they possessed it at all) the most dormant of sexual instincts.» — y los tres restantes: fragilidad, sensibilidad moral como contrapeso del mundo público masculino, y sexualidad deserotizada, con el paréntesis de duda que Owen conserva; el espacio antes del punto y coma es del troceo.
«These elements worked together to produce the pervasive figure of the Victorian perfect lady, a quiet, delicate, submissive creature, a self-sacrificing wife and natural mother.» — la figura resultante: la dama perfecta victoriana, esposa abnegada y madre natural; el guion de corte de *submis-sive* queda conservado en el troceo.
«Furthermore, femininity, represented as innate and unchanging, became the basis for determining a woman’s place.» — y el uso de esa figura, que a Owen le importa más que su contenido: la feminidad representada como innata e inmutable servía para fijar el lugar de la mujer.
«Nineteenth-century prescriptive femininity, then, both relied and insisted upon a particular understanding of womanliness, and this understanding related to the idea of middle-class ‘ladies’ as opposed to working-class women.» — el corte de clase que hay dentro de esa feminidad prescriptiva: damas de clase media frente a mujeres de clase trabajadora.
«To be sure, there was another Victorian discourse of ‘the feminine’, a discourse concerned with female depravity, bestiality, and rampant sexuality, and one which displaced these elements on to» — el discurso paralelo que reconoce: otro cuadro victoriano de lo femenino, hecho de depravación y sexualidad desatada, que desplazaba esos elementos a otro sitio; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y los guiones de *dis-course* y *ele-ments* son del corte de renglón.
«But if the displacement was specific, so too were its effects.» — y la consecuencia que saca de ese desplazamiento, dicha en dos tiempos.
«It became imperative for respectable working-class women to identify themselves with prescriptive virtues.» — según Owen, las mujeres respetables de la clase trabajadora quedaban obligadas a identificarse con las virtudes prescriptivas.
«It is important to recognise that in the nineteenth century the dominant construction of ‘the feminine’ was expressed in the language of class distinction.» — la advertencia que repite: la construcción dominante de lo femenino se enunciaba en lenguaje de distinción de clase.
«However, the upper strata of artisan families did not simply absorb bourgeois norms.» — y el matiz con que evita el determinismo: los estratos altos de las familias artesanas no absorbieron sin más las normas burguesas.
«It is more the case that the non-wage earning wife and pursuit of respectability became woven into the fabric of upper working-class life.» — lo que sí ocurrió, según ella: la esposa sin salario y la busca de respetabilidad se tejieron en la vida de la clase trabajadora alta.
«If spiritualists, the majority of whom were upper working and middle class, 15 identified with the dominant ideal, it was because the notion of ‘the feminine’ was one of the places where class and gender most crucially intersected.» — la explicación que da de la adhesión espiritista al ideal dominante: lo femenino era uno de los lugares donde clase y género se cruzaban con más fuerza; el 15 es la llamada a nota.
«Certainly, lower-class spiritualist women were as concerned as their middle-class counterparts to adhere to and defend contemporary standards of womanly decency.» — según Owen, las espiritistas de clase baja cuidaban la decencia femenina tanto como las de clase media.
«On the contrary, she was ‘a very womanly woman . . . possessed of that delicacy and fineness of feeling which forms the true beauty of womanhood’.» — y la fórmula elogiosa de época que recoge para mostrarlo, con los puntos suspensivos del corte que hace la fuente.
«The pervasiveness of the feminine ideal simply indicates how strongly concerns about social class interacted with gender roles and expectations.» — lo que la difusión de ese ideal indica, según Owen: hasta qué punto la preocupación por la clase social interactuaba con los papeles de género.
«The spiritualist conception of women as uniquely gifted in spiritual matters was at once both liberating and restricting.» — la doble cara que Owen le atribuye a la concepción espiritista de la mujer: liberadora y restrictiva a la vez.
«Equally, the ‘separate spheres’ ideology enabled women to accede to positions of spiritual authority precisely because it offered a familial definition of female religious influence. This definition ensured that such influence remained largely contained.» — el mecanismo de esa doble cara: la ideología de las esferas separadas abría la autoridad espiritual justo porque definía la influencia religiosa femenina en clave familiar, y así la contenía.
«Female mediumship and the authority it implied was thus a restricted practice.'» — la conclusión que saca: la mediumnidad femenina y su autoridad eran práctica restringida; el apóstrofo final es del troceo.
«It promoted a species of feminine power whilst at the same time interacting with contemporary concepts of acceptable womanhood.» — cómo operaba la mediumnidad espiritista entre esos dos términos: promovía una especie de poder femenino y a la vez dialogaba con lo que se tenía por feminidad aceptable.
«During the nineteenth century, spiritual power exercised within closely defined limits was considered appropriate for women. In this context it was validated as moral influence, and moral influence was lauded as a harmonious and uplifting component of domestic life.» — según Owen, el poder espiritual dentro de límites estrechos se tenía por apropiado para las mujeres y se validaba como influencia moral; el guion de *nine-teenth* es del corte de renglón.
«But at its most ambitious, moral influence could hope only to reclaim Christian virtues for the world of men. Influence was not to be directly equated with social or political power. ‘Power was for men, influence for women .’» — y el techo de esa influencia, con el adagio de época que lo formula: el poder era para los hombres y la influencia para las mujeres; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«This was taken to be the natural order of things as laid down in the Bible: ‘Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord .’» — el texto bíblico con que se daba por natural ese orden, citado por Owen desde sus fuentes.
«This became an accepted part ofgender ideology in which a supposed spiritual equality or even, in the case of women, superiority was more than matched by the doctrine of female social subordination.» — la ecuación que Owen señala en esa ideología: la igualdad o superioridad espiritual quedaba más que compensada por la subordinación social; *ofgender* es guion de corte unido por el troceo.
«Spiritualist women inherited a delimiting ideology that had the effect of control through confinement.» — la herencia que reciben las espiritistas, según Owen: una ideología delimitadora cuyo efecto era el control por confinamiento.
«The Evangelical solution to the spectre of insurrection based on female spiritual power was to invoke scriptural testimony on women’s weakness, inferiority, and requisite subjection to their husbands’ will.» — y la respuesta evangélica al fantasma de insurrección que ese poder abría: el testimonio bíblico sobre debilidad, inferioridad y sujeción al marido.
«As one woman expressed it: ‘the one quality on which woman’s value and influence depends is the renunciation of self.’» — la formulación que Owen recoge de una mujer de la época: el valor y la influencia de la mujer dependen de la renuncia de sí.
«Spiritualist women became the embodiment of the Evangelical ideal: ‘the medium of our intercourse with the heavenly world, the faithful repositories of the religious principle .’» — el remate con que anuda espiritismo e ideal evangélico: las espiritistas encarnaban el medio del trato con el mundo celestial; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Passivity became, in the spiritualist vocabulary, synonymous with power.» — la inversión que Owen localiza en el vocabulario espiritista: la pasividad pasó a ser sinónimo de poder.
«It is possible, although difficult to substantiate, that some spiritualist men were uncomfortable with conventional definitions of masculinity.» — una conjetura que declara como tal y no puede fundamentar: que algunos espiritistas varones estuvieran incómodos con las definiciones convencionales de masculinidad.
«There were persistent rumours, for example, about the supposed effeminacy of Daniel Dunglas Home, a leading male medium.» — el único apoyo que le da, presentado como rumor: los que corrían sobre la supuesta afeminación de Daniel Dunglas Home.
«Most spiritualist men, however, ardently defended respectable moral standards, and would have been horrified by any suggestion of ‘unnatural’ proclivities on their part.» — y el contrapeso inmediato: la mayoría de los espiritistas varones defendía con ardor los estándares morales respetables.
«Outside the seance room both male and female spiritualists adhered to conventional views of respectable moral standards and gendered behaviour.» — el deslinde que Owen traza entre la sala de sesión y el resto: fuera de ella, espiritistas de ambos sexos se atenían a la conducta convencional.
«An important element of this book is its assertion that spiritualist mediumship was capable of sabotaging the mechanics of power inherent in the Victorian codification of gender difference.» — Owen enuncia aquí uno de los ejes del libro: la mediumnidad espiritista podía sabotear la mecánica de poder inscrita en la codificación victoriana de la diferencia sexual.
«The argument hinges partly on a depiction of the Victorian seance as a moment during which we can briefly glimpse the interrelationship of class, gender, and the personal self which we call subjectivity.» — y de qué depende el argumento: de leer la sesión victoriana como momento en que se entrevé la relación entre clase, género y subjetividad.
«Indeed, certain extraordinary trance seances and believers’ participation in them point to the conflict and ambiguity involved in the acquisition of gendered identity.» — lo que esas sesiones dejan ver, según ella: el conflicto y la ambigüedad de adquirir una identidad de género.
«Spiritualists may not have set out to challenge the dominant view of womanhood, but seance behaviour itself signified a transgression and transposition of normative femininity.» — el deslinde entre intención y efecto: quizá no se propusieran desafiar la idea dominante de feminidad, y la conducta en la sesión ya era transgresión y transposición.
«For, whilst speaking directly to the feminine ideal, mediumship succeeded in effectively undermining it.» — la paradoja en que Owen lo resume: hablando en la lengua del ideal femenino, la mediumnidad lo socavaba.
«The medium’s power lay in her ability to absent herself in order to become the vessel for spirit possession, and this was a species of power which must remain, apparently by definition, contained.» — y dónde sitúa el poder de la médium, con su límite dicho en la misma frase: en la capacidad de ausentarse para volverse vaso de la posesión, poder contenido al parecer por definición.
«As we have seen, female mediumship was predicated in part on a nineteenth-century view of women as morally and spiritually refined creatures who were particularly suited to the negation of self which mediumship demanded.» — el supuesto sobre el que se apoyaba la mediumnidad femenina, según Owen: mujeres moral y espiritualmente refinadas, aptas para la negación de sí que la práctica exigía.
«Spiritualism inherited from evangelical revivalism 24 a religious tradition that gave credence to women’s superior moral qualities, but heterodox Christianity provided the precedent of women as leaders and intermediaries with God-given power.» — las dos herencias que Owen distingue: del avivamiento evangélico, la superioridad moral femenina; del cristianismo heterodoxo, el precedente de mujeres como líderes e intermediarias; *Spiritualism* aparece partido por guion de renglón en el troceo, y el 24 es la llamada a nota.
«The heterodox validation of female spiritual power and authority was undercut by a revivalist position which proclaimed the moral power of women whilst reinforcing their powerlessness in the public domain.» — y cómo una herencia neutralizaba a la otra: el avivamiento proclamaba el poder moral de la mujer y reforzaba su impotencia pública.
«It was in the powerful undertow ofpopular millenarianism, which often lay beneath the surface of the different religious sects, that the closest association with women’s spiritual authority lay.» — dónde localiza el vínculo más estrecho con la autoridad espiritual femenina: en la resaca del milenarismo popular; *ofpopular* es guion de corte unido por el troceo.
«The melding of political radicalism and the millenarian impulse held out the promise of a new heaven on earth and continued to exert a strong hold on the minds and desires of working men and women.» — la mezcla que describe: radicalismo político e impulso milenarista, con la promesa de un cielo nuevo en la tierra.
«There existed within the intricate web of millenarian beliefs and personnel during this period the persistent motifof female spiritual authority and the compelling vision of a radical re-ordering of temporal life.» — y los dos motivos persistentes que encuentra en esa trama: la autoridad espiritual femenina y el reordenamiento radical de la vida temporal; *motifof* es guion de corte unido por el troceo.
«Spiritualists did not rely upon scriptural dictates as the basis for their practices and beliefs.» — según Owen, los espiritistas no fundaban sus prácticas en dictados de la Escritura.
«Even those who held closely to their Christian beliefs sometimes strayed into flagrant heresy without undergoing any severe spiritual crisis.» — y hasta dónde llegaba eso: los más cristianos entre ellos incurrían en herejía flagrante sin crisis espiritual.
«Spiritualists were therefore less inclined to emphasise biblical injunctions in their assessment of women’s spiritual role, although this did not prevent them from becoming implicated in the Evangelical ideal of womanhood.» — la consecuencia y su límite en la misma frase: menos apego a los mandatos bíblicos sobre el papel de la mujer, y aun así implicación en el ideal evangélico de feminidad.
«There were, however, other less obvious elements in the spiritualist acceptance of female spiritual authority, and these had to do with a heterodox understanding of the value of masculinity and femininity as principles.» — y el elemento menos visible que introduce: la comprensión heterodoxa de lo masculino y lo femenino como principios.
«The following Swedenborgian interpretation was one which underlay much British heterodox thinking: ‘The Divine Love is the feminine, the Divine Wisdom the masculine principle in the Divine nature. They are inseparable, co-existent, co-animating, co-operating. They are the positive and negative poles of the infinite magnet.’» — la formulación swedenborgiana que Owen pone como sustrato del pensamiento heterodoxo británico: amor divino femenino y sabiduría divina masculina, polos de un mismo imán infinito.
«Here also were the associations that were to become so important for British spiritualism: masculine and feminine principles had attached to them certain fixed qualities; they were polar opposites with a strong mutual attraction, and they were united in the Divine.» — y lo que Owen retiene de ahí para el espiritismo británico: cualidades fijas atadas a cada principio, atracción polar y unión en lo divino.
«As one spirit communication of the 1880s explained it, the masculine principle was associated with inspiration, the intellect, wisdom, and the word; the feminine with influence, love, and the breath. ‘The feminine and the masculine are united in Christ. The breath and the word, or logos.’» — el reparto de atributos según una comunicación espírita de los años ochenta que Owen cita: inspiración, intelecto y palabra del lado masculino; influencia, amor y aliento del femenino; el guion de *communica-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«The ancient heresy of androgynous Divinity was deeply subversive of orthodox religious codes, but where the concept was translated into human terms the ramifications were truly revolutionary.» — la distinción de grados que hace: la herejía de la divinidad andrógina ya era subversiva, y traducida a términos humanos resultaba revolucionaria.
«The Owenite Communist Church, in all likelihood a very small sect but one which survived until 1849, made the leap by developing thejoannaite doctrine of the Woman-Power into the ideal of ‘the Woman-Man-Power’ as formulated by Goodwyn Barmby in 1841.» — quién dio ese salto, según Owen: la Owenite Communist Church, que llevó la doctrina joanita del Woman-Power al Woman-Man-Power formulado por Goodwyn Barmby en 1841; *thejoannaite* es unión de dos palabras en el troceo.
«This involved the combining of masculine and feminine principles in each sex and, as argued by the Owenite chialists, it was here, in a kind of psychological androgyny, that the basis of sexual equality was to be found.» — y qué esperaban de ahí los chiliastas owenitas, según ella: en una androginia psicológica estaba la base de la igualdad sexual; *chialists* es errata del troceo por *chiliasts*.
«The Swedenborgian church accepted that ‘Every human being, man or woman, is, like the Lord himself, in a certain sense bi-sexual, having both masculine and feminine qualities’, but refused to equate this with social equality.» — el corte que Owen localiza en la iglesia swedenborgiana: aceptaba la bisexualidad de todo ser humano y se negaba a igualarla con la igualdad social.
«Swedenborgians continued to insist that ‘woman, with her maternal functions and forces, is an appendage to man, a complementary and supplementary form . . . She is not the equal of man; she is not his superior.’» — y la fórmula con que lo sostenían, citada por Owen: la mujer como apéndice complementario del hombre, ni su igual ni su superior; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«radical ideas alone are not enough to effect a transformation of gender relations.» — la conclusión que Owen saca de esos casos: las ideas radicales por sí solas no bastan para transformar las relaciones de género; el arranque de la frase queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Within spiritualism the more radical component fell prey, through successive shifts in emphasis, to contemporary definitions of normative manhood and womanhood.» — y qué pasó dentro del espiritismo: el componente radical fue cayendo, por desplazamientos sucesivos, en las definiciones normativas de la época.
«Swedenborgians had held that in women the feminine element was positive and the masculine negative, whilst in men the reverse was true.» — el punto de partida de ese deslizamiento: para los swedenborgianos, lo femenino era positivo en la mujer y negativo en el hombre, y al revés lo masculino.
«Some early spiritualists spoke of a negative or passive temperament but did not associate it solely with women.» — y el estadio intermedio: los primeros espiritistas hablaban de temperamento negativo o pasivo sin adjudicarlo solo a las mujeres.
«One of the first and much-used guidelines for spiritualist ‘inquirers' read: ‘Form a circle of from four to eight persons, half, or at least two, of negative, passive temperament and preferably of the female sex, the rest of a more positive type’ (my emphasis).» — la guía para principiantes que Owen cita como prueba, con el subrayado que ella misma declara suyo; el apóstrofo recto de *inquirers* es del troceo.
«But by perceptible degrees spiritualists came to assume that ‘the feminine’ was by definition negative and part and parcel of the female temperament.» — el término de ese deslizamiento: lo femenino pasó a ser por definición negativo y propio del temperamento de la mujer.
«Thus feminine principle was conflated with female psychology, which in turn became the innate property of women.» — y la operación que Owen nombra: el principio femenino se confundió con una psicología femenina, vuelta propiedad innata de las mujeres.
«The feminine principle of heterodox thinking had been all too easily run into ‘the womanly woman’ of nineteenth-century prescriptive ideology.» — dónde fue a dar el principio femenino heterodoxo, según ella: en la mujer femenina de la ideología prescriptiva decimonónica.
«Early Weslyan theories of social equality had enabled women to argue for female spiritual authority and the right to teach, and Wesley himself had supported the activities of Methodist women preachers.» — según Owen, las primeras teorías wesleyanas de igualdad social permitieron argumentar por la autoridad espiritual femenina, y el propio Wesley apoyó a las predicadoras metodistas; *Weslyan* es errata del troceo.
«But in a nineteenth-century replay of earlier Puritan struggles, respectable Methodism sought to suppress its preacheresses.» — y lo que vino después, como repetición de las luchas puritanas: el metodismo respetable buscó suprimir a sus predicadoras; el guion de *Meth-odism* es del corte de renglón.
«Only the schismatic sects like the Primitive Methodists and Bible Christians continued to support women preachers, and even here the numbers went into decline during the 1840s once informal groups and congregations became increasingly regularised and installed in purpose-built chapels.» — quiénes las siguieron sosteniendo y con qué límite: solo las sectas cismáticas, y aun ahí en descenso durante los años cuarenta, al regularizarse las congregaciones.
«The itinerant woman preacher, invariably young, nubile, and working-class, faded from the strongholds of Primitive Methodism after 1845.» — la fecha y el perfil con que Owen cierra ese proceso: la predicadora itinerante, joven y de clase trabajadora, se apaga en el metodismo primitivo después de 1845.
«Evangelical Christianity also had a contradictory message for women.» — y el juicio que resume su lectura del avivamiento: el cristianismo evangélico traía a las mujeres un mensaje contradictorio.
«a belief in pre-millennialism was fast gaining ground in England.» — Owen sitúa el avance del premilenarismo en Inglaterra; el arranque de la frase queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«This movement was strongly associated with female preaching and saw a significant rise in the number and influence of middle-class women who stood firmly by their right to preach.» — y qué trajo consigo: predicación femenina, y más mujeres de clase media sosteniendo su derecho a predicar.
«A fervent belief in the imminence of the second coming, and in the validity of prophesy during the last days, led to renewed insistence on the words contained in Joel ii. 28-9: ‘Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy . . . and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.’» — el texto de Joel con que se apoyaba esa predicación, citado por Owen desde sus fuentes; *prophesy* por *prophecy* es del troceo.
«The pre-millenmalists argued that, as prophesy meant preaching, an important female ministry would emerge during the final days.» — el paso lógico que Owen les atribuye: si profetizar es predicar, en los últimos días surgirá un ministerio femenino; *pre-millenmalists* es errata del troceo.
«Consequently, a strong caucus of respectable ‘lady’ preachers appeared, some of whom based the value of their mission precisely on the fact that it was a female undertaking.» — y el resultado: un grupo de predicadoras respetables, algunas de las cuales fundaban el valor de su misión en que fuera empresa de mujeres.
«By 1866, when their activities reached a peak, these female preachers were addressing large, mixed public assemblies with ease and authority.» — la fecha de auge que da: hacia 1866 hablaban con soltura ante asambleas públicas y mixtas.
«The movement undercut the scriptural indictments against women’s ministry and presented preaching as a viable activity for middle-class women.» — los dos efectos que le adjudica: quitar peso a las condenas bíblicas del ministerio femenino y volver viable la predicación para mujeres de clase media.
«It was a ‘respectable’ response but one which relied upon the language and concepts of less orthodox spiritual beliefs.» — y la tensión que señala dentro: respuesta respetable, apoyada en el lenguaje de creencias menos ortodoxas.
«The emphasis on women’s spiritual authority and the importance of individual interpretation had obvious implications for female spiritualist mediums, many of whom were themselves middle class.» — el puente que traza hacia su tema: autoridad espiritual femenina e interpretación individual tenían consecuencias para las médiums, también de clase media.
«But despite an avid following, these pre-millennialist women caused considerable controversy both within and outside the established church.» — y el precio que pagaban esas predicadoras: controversia dentro y fuera de la iglesia establecida.
«Every effort was made to contain their exposure to public life, and although this period saw a rapid expansion of women’s participation in church activities, much of it was confined to mission work amongst the poor or other women and children.» — cómo se las contenía: la participación femenina creció y quedó confinada sobre todo a la misión entre pobres, mujeres y niños.
«Therefore, although female preachers held out an example of spiritual equality to spiritualist women, mid-century revivalism also served as an indicator of the way in which female spiritual power was directed and contained.» — el balance de doble filo con que cierra: ejemplo de igualdad espiritual y a la vez muestra de cómo se dirigía y contenía ese poder.
«The heritage of spiritual power upon which spiritualist women drew had not escaped the impact of contemporary norms and definitions of femininity.» — y la herencia que les llega: un poder espiritual ya tocado por las normas de feminidad de la época.
«Not least of these was an Evangelical ideal of Christian womanhood which contributed to the circumscription of female power and authority.» — la principal de esas normas, según Owen: el ideal evangélico de feminidad cristiana.
«Spiritualism and female mediumship were deeply implicated in these prescriptive norms and values.» — la implicación que declara: espiritismo y mediumnidad femenina estaban hondamente metidos en esas normas prescriptivas.
«unchanging femininity of a very specific kind; the supposedly innate qualities upon which good mediumship was thought to depend were tied into a nineteenth-century construction of ‘the feminine’.» — el nudo del capítulo primero: las cualidades supuestamente innatas de la buena mediumnidad estaban atadas a una construcción decimonónica de lo femenino; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Together these elements compromised and qualified the very notion of female power. But there is rarely a secure fit between what is and what should be.» — y el resquicio que Owen abre acto seguido: rara vez encajan del todo lo que es y lo que debe ser.
«The following chapters outline the triumphs and tribulations of some of the many spiritualist women who did indeed operate as skilful mediums and healers in the public world; the fortunes of those who remained at home also receive their fair share of attention.» — el programa de los capítulos siguientes: las que actuaron en el mundo público y también las que se quedaron en casa.
«In both cases, this book situates spiritualist women within the context of their negotiation of the delimiting ideology of womanhood and a compromised understanding of female power.» — y el marco común en que las sitúa: la negociación con una ideología delimitadora y con un entendimiento comprometido del poder femenino.
«It was dear to believers from the outset that women were favoured by the spirits.» — abre el capítulo segundo con lo que los creyentes tuvieron claro desde el principio: los espíritus favorecían a las mujeres; *dear* es errata del troceo por *clear*.
«After all, it was through the mediumship of two young girls that the spirits first announced their intention to establish regular communication with the modern world.» — y el hecho fundacional con que lo apoya: los espíritus anunciaron su intención por la mediumnidad de dos niñas.
«In 1848 Katherine and Margaret Fox were twelve and thirteen years old, and lived in the family home in rural upstate New York.» — según Owen, las hermanas Fox tenían doce y trece años en 1848 y vivían en el campo del norte del estado de Nueva York.
«On the contrary, they discovered that they could ‘talk’ to the unseen source of the disturbances by establishing a simple code involving a specific number of raps in response to their verbal questions.» — cómo empezó el diálogo, según su relato: un código simple de golpes en respuesta a preguntas habladas.
«It was thereby established that the cause of all the trouble was the spirit of a pedlar who had supposedly been murdered in the house and buried in the cellar.» — y lo que ese código estableció, con el *supposedly* que Owen conserva: el espíritu de un buhonero asesinado y enterrado en el sótano.
«From such humble beginnings the girls became a local and then national sensation and precipitated the phenomenon known as modern spiritualism.» — el arco que traza de ahí: de un comienzo humilde a la sensación nacional que precipita el espiritismo moderno.
«It read: ‘Dear friends, you must proclaim this truth to the world. This is the dawning of a new era; you must not try to conceal it any l» — el mensaje temprano que Owen toma por tono fundacional del movimiento estadounidense; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Four years after its American incarnation, spiritualism arrived in England.» — la fecha relativa con que abre el apartado sobre Inglaterra: cuatro años después de la encarnación estadounidense.
«It was introduced to the fashionable world by Mrs Hayden, an American woman of some education and accomplishment.» — según Owen, quien lo introdujo en el mundo elegante fue la señora Hayden, estadounidense de cierta educación.
«She began to advertise her services as a spiritualist medium in October 1852, and was joined shortly afterwards by another of her countrywomen, Mrs Roberts.» — la fecha del anuncio y la segunda llegada: octubre de 1852, y poco después la señora Roberts.
«The two women were the forerunners of a steady stream of transatlantic visitors who helped establish a pattern of close ties between spiritualists in both countries.» — y el papel que les asigna: precursoras de un flujo transatlántico continuo.
«Mrs Hayden proved an almost immediate social success and soon found herself in great demand for private sittings and evening parties.» — según Owen, la señora Hayden fue un éxito social casi inmediato en las sesiones privadas y las veladas.
«She charged a minimum of half a guinea for each consultation and attracted an affluent and influential following.» — la tarifa y el público que documenta: media guinea como mínimo y una clientela rica e influyente.
«This talented American medium made several notable converts, among them the socialist and communitarian, Robert Owen, then a man of eighty-three.» — y la conversión más notoria: Robert Owen, socialista y comunitario, a los ochenta y tres años.
«More importantly, although spiritualism was lampooned and criticised in respected journals like Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, the National Miscellany, and the Leader, it caught the public imagination.» — lo que a Owen le importa más que las conversiones: pese a la burla de revistas respetadas, el espiritismo prendió en la imaginación pública; el guion de *lam-pooned* es del corte de renglón.
«Unconcerned by dire warnings that spiritualism was ‘an especially American plot’ concocted by those who sought to ‘propagate their own religious and political views’, many were keen to give the spirits the benefit of the doubt.» — la advertencia de época que recoge —una conjura especialmente estadounidense— y la actitud del público, que prefería dar el beneficio de la duda.
«Within a year of Mrs Hayden’s arrival numerous small groups up and down the country were trying, in states varying from ghastly apprehension to uncontrollable mirth, to summon the spirit bands.» — la difusión que mide en un año, con el registro emocional que va del espanto a la risa incontenible.
«Even Queen Victoria and Gladstone were known to have dabbled.» — y hasta dónde llegó, según Owen: la reina Victoria y Gladstone incluidos.
«A feeling seems pervading all classes, all sects, that the world stands upon the eve of some great spiritual revelation.» — el testimonio de época que cita sobre el clima general: la sensación de estar en vísperas de una gran revelación espiritual.
«Poor old Robert Owen, the philanthropist, has been converted, and made a declaration of faith in the public papers .» — y el mismo testimonio sobre la conversión de Robert Owen, declarada en la prensa; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«not a spiritualist at the time of her visit to England, Harriet Beecher Stowe became interested in spiritualism following the tragic death of her son.» — según Owen, Harriet Beecher Stowe llegó al espiritismo después de la muerte de su hijo, no antes de su viaje a Inglaterra; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Like many others who took the spiritualist path, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s way was paved by an existing knowledge of mesmerism, 8 whilst her husband had long since accepted the reality of the spirits which had visited him from boyhood.» — el camino previo que le atribuye: el mesmerismo, y un marido que aceptaba desde niño la realidad de los espíritus.
«A lively interest in mesmerism did not necessarily guarantee spiritualist converts.» — y la salvedad que impide la inferencia fácil: interesarse por el mesmerismo no garantizaba la conversión.
«Nevertheless, Ruskin, ^Rossetti, and their coteries attended seances, whilst the Anglo-American Barrett Browning circle in Italy was seething with spiritualist experimentation.» — los círculos literarios que censa: Ruskin, Rossetti y el grupo angloamericano de los Barrett Browning en Italia; el signo ante *Rossetti* es basura del troceo.
«Elizabeth Barrett Browning characterised those who found in spiritualism deeply consoling evidence for the immortality of the soul.» — y a quién pone como figura de los que hallaban consuelo en la evidencia espiritista de la inmortalidad.
«It was in the Midlands and the North, amongst the industrialised working class, that spiritualism initially took strongest hold.» — el mapa social que traza: el espiritismo arraigó primero en las Midlands y el norte, entre la clase trabajadora industrial.
«Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire more than equalled the metropolis as the centre of spiritualist activity.» — y el centro que nombra: Keighley, en el West Riding de Yorkshire, a la altura de la metrópoli o por encima.
«In London, a loose grouping of middle-class intellectuals and professionals became the early propagators of a particular brand of spiritualism.» — según Owen, en Londres el espiritismo temprano lo propagó un grupo suelto de intelectuales y profesionales de clase media; el guion de *profes-sionals* es del corte de renglón.
«These books differed considerably in style and content from the later outpourings of spiritualists.» — y la diferencia que marca entre aquellos libros y la producción espiritista posterior.
«From Keighley, the movement spread to Bingley, Bradford, Hinckley, Leigh, and other manufacturing districts of West Yorkshire and Lancashire, and further circles sprang up in Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry, Belfast, and Glasgow.» — la geografía de la difusión que traza desde Keighley, por los distritos fabriles de Yorkshire y Lancashire y hasta Belfast y Glasgow.
«London later became increasingly important, but the West» — el desplazamiento posterior hacia Londres, con la reserva de que las regiones siguieron pesando; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Here it was often the ‘miners, pit men, weavers and factory hands’ who became spiritualism’s most serious and ardent supporters.» — quiénes eran esos sostenes, en las palabras de la fuente que Owen cita: mineros, tejedores y obreros de fábrica.
«It was the skilled and respectable plebeians of Logie Barrow’s germinal study who took up the message of spiritualism, tramped with it to neighbouring towns and villages, and beheld its wonders in local clubs and homes.» — y a quién le toma la caracterización: los plebeyos cualificados y respetables del estudio de Logie Barrow.
«Yorkshire boasted a group of secularists, the Free-thinkers or Owenites (followers of Robert Owen) of previous decades, who were among the first to adopt spiritualist beliefs.» — según Owen, los librepensadores y owenitas de Yorkshire estuvieron entre los primeros en adoptar el espiritismo.
«David Weatherhead, founder of the Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph in the mid 1850s, was the leader of this group.» — y quién los dirigía: David Weatherhead, fundador del Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph a mediados de los años cincuenta.
«He and his Keighley circle illustrate the extent to which secularists were attracted by spiritualism’s rational emphasis and reforming creed.» — lo que ese círculo ilustra, según ella: hasta qué punto el énfasis racional y el credo reformista atraían a los secularistas.
«Whilst secularists did not always welcome spiritualists in their midst there was certainly a considerable degree of overlap.» — y el matiz que impide leerlo como fusión: no siempre se recibían bien, y la superposición era considerable.
«The promised ‘new order’ of the spirits was capable of appealing to secularists and radical spiritualists alike, and the combination of the prophetic or visionary with a radical social and political critique attracted a fairly wide plebeian constituency.» — la mezcla que explica ese atractivo: lo profético o visionario junto a una crítica social y política radical.
«Some provincial spiritualist circles, like that of the charismatic J. G. H. Brown of Nottingham, combined each of these elements to produce an enticing (if decidedly idiosyncratic) philosophy and programme.» — el ejemplo que da, con el paréntesis irónico incluido: el círculo de J. G. H. Brown en Nottingham.
«In general, however, spiritualism often merely complemented existing plebeian interests and concerns.» — y la corrección de escala: en general el espiritismo apenas complementaba intereses plebeyos ya existentes; el guion de *pleb-eian* es del corte de renglón.
«The Working Men’s Halls, Halls of Science, and Mechanics’ Institutes provided venues for secularist and spiritualist speakers who lectured enthusiastically on many of the same topics.» — los locales compartidos que censa: Working Men's Halls, Halls of Science e institutos de mecánica.
«Talks on mesmerism, herbalism, and political radicalism went down well whether or not an audience believed in the existence of spirits.» — y los temas que funcionaban con público creyente o no: mesmerismo, herbolaria y radicalismo político.
«Spiritualism was fully capable of containing the full spectrum of beliefs» — la capacidad de acomodo que Owen le atribuye al espiritismo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Proof of immortality and the joy of renewed contact with lost loved ones were powerful common factors in the acceptance of spiritualism.» — los dos factores comunes que encuentra en la aceptación del espiritismo: prueba de inmortalidad y reencuentro con los muertos queridos.
«The rationale for the soul’s survival, however, whilst not destroying Christian faith, did not require it.» — y el deslinde con el cristianismo, dicho en dos negaciones: no destruía la fe cristiana y tampoco la necesitaba.
«All of spiritualism’s wonders were explainable within a mesmeric framework of quantifiable fluids and forces.» — según Owen, el marco mesmérico de fluidos y fuerzas cuantificables bastaba para explicar todas las maravillas espiritistas.
«When pressed, the spirits often fought shy of definitive statements and preferred to rely on vague mesmeric analogies.» — y lo que hacían los espíritus cuando se los apretaba: esquivar la afirmación definitiva y recurrir a analogías mesméricas vagas.
«If really pushed they were good at telling questioners what they wanted to hear, and, after all, the majority of spiritualists were probably more concerned to contact departed friends than receive lengthy lectures on spiritual cosmology - although some were anxious to do both.» — el juicio con dos reservas dentro: sabían decir lo que se quería oír, y la mayoría de los espiritistas buscaba más el contacto que la cosmología, aunque algunos quisieran las dos cosas.
«These years saw the establishment in London of a popular spiritualist press, with James Burns’s Human Nature in 1867 followed by Medium and Daybreak in 1870 leading the field for the plebeian progressive element.» — las dos fechas con que data la prensa espiritista popular de Londres: Human Nature en 1867 y Medium and Daybreak en 1870.
«Human Nature was designed to fill the gap left by the demise in 1859 of the British Spiritual Telegraph, successor to Weatherhead’s paper, and set out to challenge the tone of the spiritualist press as then represented by the Spiritual Magazine.» — el hueco que venía a llenar y el tono contra el que se armaba, según Owen.
«James Burns interpreted much of their editorial policy as an attempt to undermine the vigorous and often anti-Christian stance of plebeian spiritualism.» — según Owen, Burns leía esa política editorial como intento de minar la postura anticristiana del espiritismo plebeyo.
«He quickly became one of the major mouthpieces for this strand of the movement, and for years his Medium and Daybreak had the widest circulation of any English spiritualist newspaper.» — y el lugar que alcanzó: portavoz principal de esa rama, con el periódico espiritista inglés de mayor circulación.
«Burns, the son of an Ayrshire smallholder, had come to the South as a young man to look for work.» — según Owen, Burns era hijo de un pequeño propietario de Ayrshire y bajó al sur de joven a buscar trabajo.
«His passionate commitment to the temperance cause won him a job with a sympathetic publisher at the end of the 1850s, and it was here that he first encountered books on American spiritualism.» — y por dónde llegó al espiritismo: la causa de la templanza le dio empleo con un editor afín, donde encontró los libros estadounidenses.
«In 1863 he established his Progressive Library and Spiritual Institution in Southampton Row, Holborn, and this small dark building subsequently served as an important spiritualist venue for many years.» — la fecha y el domicilio de su Progressive Library and Spiritual Institution, en Southampton Row.
«The Institution had an impact which far outweighed its tiny headquarters, and Burns himself was a force to be reckoned with.» — el peso que Owen le da a esa institución, muy por encima del tamaño de su local.
«He ran a weekly schedule of seances and events from the Institution, but its most important function was the dissemination of a vast array of literature covering every aspect of popular spiritualist culture: temperance, dietary reform, phrenology, and the related ‘sciences’ of mesmerism and psychology, 18 as well as publications dealing with social and political reform.» — y el catálogo de esa cultura espiritista popular: templanza, reforma dietética, frenología, mesmerismo, psicología y reforma social; el 18 es la llamada a nota.
«Many struggling or provincial mediums owed their start to him, and through his newspapers and lectures he had a profound impact on provincial believers and the strongholds of plebeian spiritualism in the Pennines and the North.» — según Owen, muchas médiums provincianas le debieron el arranque, y su influencia llegó a los bastiones de los Peninos y el norte.
«In 1869 a further weekly paper, the Spiritualist , appeared.» — la tercera cabecera que data: el semanario Spiritualist en 1869; el espacio antes de la coma es del troceo.
«It was edited by William Henry Harrison, a journalist who was interested in science and the investigative aspects of spiritualism.» — y quién lo dirigía: William Henry Harrison, periodista interesado en la ciencia y en la investigación de los fenómenos.
«These were the British National Association of Spiritualists (BNAS) and the Psychological Society of Great Britain, both of which were London based despite their grandiose titles.» — las dos organizaciones que nombra, con la ironía sobre sus títulos grandilocuentes frente a su base londinense.
«The Spiritualist remained closely identified with the BNAS until 1879 when Harrison lost favour with a controlling element within the Association.» — según Owen, el Spiritualist quedó ligado a la BNAS hasta 1879, cuando Harrison perdió el favor del grupo que la controlaba.
«Thereafter, it was replaced by Spiritual Notes which became the Association’s official organ.» — y el relevo: Spiritual Notes como órgano oficial de la asociación.
«The death-blow was delivered by the founding of Light in 1881, a paper which is still in existence today.» — el golpe final que fecha en 1881 con la fundación de Light, periódico que seguía existiendo al escribir el libro.
«Towards the end of the 1880s a rival to the London presses appeared in the form of the highly successful Two Worlds, which was published in Manchester.» — y el rival provinciano que aparece a fines de los ochenta: Two Worlds, de Manchester.
«Under the editorship of the talented and well-known medium, Emma Hardinge Britten, Two Worlds adopted a progressive and crusading stance which won it an enthusiastic readership amongst provincial and reform-minded spiritualists.» — quién lo dirigía y con qué línea, según Owen: la médium Emma Hardinge Britten, con una postura progresista y de cruzada.
«An 1888 census of spiritualist organisations undertaken by Two Worlds indicates a familiar spread throughout (but not exclusive to) the Midlands and the North of England.» — el censo de 1888 que usa como fuente, con el paréntesis que impide leerlo como exclusividad regional.
«Unfortunately, however, the census does not reflect» — y la reserva que le pone de inmediato al censo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que no refleja el número real de espiritistas activos.
«Spiritualist numbers are therefore difficult to gauge and have been put at anywhere between 10,000 and 1 00, 000.» — la horquilla que Owen da para el número de espiritistas, declarando de entrada que la cifra es difícil de calibrar; los espacios dentro del cien mil son del troceo.
«Many believers did not join local associations, remaining, perhaps for financial as well as personal reasons, in a private circle.» — y la primera razón de esa dificultad: muchos creyentes se quedaban en círculos privados sin asociarse.
«Organisational membership also fails to account for temporary or floating believers who attended seances but would not have been happy with a spiritualist label.» — la segunda razón: el creyente flotante que iba a las sesiones y no aceptaba la etiqueta.
«Local societies often developed out of successful private circles, and by the 1870s a number of these had emerged in London.» — según Owen, las sociedades locales nacían de círculos privados exitosos, y en los años setenta ya había varias en Londres.
«Perhaps the earliest was the Charing Cross Spirit-Power Circle, established in 1857, but within a decade or so it had been followed by the Christian Spiritual Enquirers in Clerkenwell, the East London Association of Spiritualists and its successor the St John’s Association, the Dalston Association of Inquirers in Hackney, and the Marylebone Spiritualist Association.» — la nómina de esas sociedades londinenses, encabezada con un *perhaps* por el Charing Cross Spirit-Power Circle de 1857.
«The Marylebone society eventually outstripped its small and humble beginnings to become the present-day Spiritualist Association of Great Britain.» — y la única que sobrevivió, según ella: la de Marylebone, hoy Spiritualist Association of Great Britain.
«As was certainly the case with the Dalston Association, they also played a key role in developing and launching budding mediums.» — la función que le interesa de esas sociedades: formar y lanzar médiums nuevas, como en la asociación de Dalston.
«In 1874, however, a different kind of organisation was established in London. The BNAS was formed with the express intention of becoming an umbrella organisation dedicated to carrying out and publicising carefully documented scientific research into spiritualist phenomena.» — la fundación de la BNAS en 1874 y su propósito declarado: investigación científica documentada de los fenómenos; el guion de *spiri-tualist* es del corte de renglón.
«Although it initially sought to unite English spiritualists of every class and shade of opinion, the BNAS in fact represented a wealthy and influential elite of London believers.» — y la distancia que Owen mide entre el propósito y el hecho: la BNAS representaba a una élite londinense rica e influyente.
«Nevertheless, the Association was proof of the fact that progressive or advanced ideas were by no means the sole prerogative of working- and lower middle-class believers.» — lo que aun así le concede: las ideas avanzadas no eran monopolio de los creyentes de clase trabajadora y media baja.
«The prospectus stated that the Association sought to ‘reunite those who are now too often divided by seemingly material conflicting interests’, and that it was dedicated to remedying the ‘excessive irregularity in the distribution of wealth’ with its resulting ‘crying social evils ’.» — el prospecto fundacional que Owen cita: reunir a los divididos por intereses materiales y remediar la irregularidad excesiva en el reparto de la riqueza; el guion de *irregu-larity* es del corte de renglón.
«Class distinction was abhorred, campaigns for penal and hospital reform favoured, and the divorce and lunacy laws criticised.» — el programa que resume de ese prospecto: contra la distinción de clase, por la reforma penal y hospitalaria, contra las leyes de divorcio y de locura.
«Members wanted to see an improvement in the health and education of the nation’s poor and, like many other spiritualists, were suspicious of both the medical profession and the established church.» — y las dos instituciones de las que desconfiaban, según Owen: la profesión médica y la iglesia establecida.
«These were jointly perceived as exerting undue influence over body and soul, and were held up as examples of corrupt and coercive monopoly interests.» — la razón de esa desconfianza: influencia indebida sobre el cuerpo y el alma, y monopolio corrupto y coercitivo.
«The BNAS was fond of talking in terms of sowing the ‘seeds of a general Reformation of Morals’, a phrase reminiscent of the earlier Owenite socialists.» — el eco owenita que Owen oye en el vocabulario de la BNAS.
«foremost among those who have opposed slavery, vice, intemperance, the legal and moral subjection of women, and the tyranny of narrow creeds, - who have advocated prison reform, education, and the maintenance of peace, have been, to their honour, a whole army of the despised spiritualists .» — el testimonio de una mujer de clase media que Owen cita como retrato del compromiso reformista espiritista; el guion de *spiritual-ists* es del corte de renglón y el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Thus, although there were certainly class tensions within the spiritualist movement, adherents across the spectrum of social class (although by no means all believers) were committed to the amelioration of social abuses and working-class ills.» — el balance con dos concesiones dentro: había tensiones de clase, no todos los creyentes participaban, y el compromiso reformista atravesaba el espectro social.
«Spiritualism was far from being the morbid and introspective phenomenon suggested by hostile critics.» — la caracterización que Owen niega a los críticos hostiles: el espiritismo como fenómeno mórbido e introspectivo.
«As the BNAS prospectus indicated, spiritualists believed ‘that the best preparation for our future state is a life of energy and activity, lived up to the highest physical, moral, and intellectual standard attainable in this world ’.» — y la fórmula del prospecto con que lo contradice: la mejor preparación para el estado futuro es una vida de energía y actividad en éste.
«They consequently pursued an ideal of individual and social perfection which manifested itself in a regimen designed to purify the body as well as the mind - vegetarianism, dietary reform, temperance, and anything that promised a wider understanding and development of the ‘higher faculties’ - along with support for reforming campaigns.» — el régimen concreto en que se traducía ese ideal: vegetarianismo, reforma dietética, templanza y cultivo de las facultades superiores; los guiones de *conse-quently* y *facul-ties* son del corte de renglón.
«They had an unbounded faith in the evolutionary progress of secular affairs which was typical of the age, and this was paralleled by a belief in the steady advancement of the spirit.» — el paralelo que Owen traza en la fe espiritista: progreso evolutivo de lo secular y avance sostenido del espíritu.
«The middle-class BNAS asserted that ‘To cause the Rights of Woman to be recognised to the full’ and ‘To cause the Wrongs of Woman to be redressed in full’ were essential aspects of its platform.» — las dos cláusulas del programa de la BNAS sobre los derechos y los agravios de la mujer.
«The commitment to individualism and a deep-seated anti-authoritarianism, which manifested itself in distrust of formal organisation, fatally undermined spiritualism as a possible political strategy.» — según Owen, el individualismo y el antiautoritarismo espiritistas socavaron su posible eficacia como estrategia política.
«Spiritualists usually maintained that the inevitable spread oftheir beliefs would guarantee the instigation of a new order.» — y con qué lo sustituían: la difusión inevitable de sus creencias bastaría para instaurar el orden nuevo; *oftheir* es guion de corte unido por el troceo.
«Although some believers subsequently moved into other groups and organisations — notably the Social Democratic Federation, Fabian Society, and (most frequently) the Independent Labour Party29 - the majority remained somewhat vague when it came to a blueprint for action.» — los destinos políticos posteriores que censa y el veredicto general: la mayoría siguió vaga en cuanto al plan de acción; *Party29* lleva pegada la llamada a nota.
«It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that women’s rights and gender relations were important considerations for some believers.» — y el vínculo que establece con su tema, con el *perhaps* a cuestas.
«It was assumed that a ‘science’ like phrenology would prove that women were potentially the equals of men, whilst female spiritual superiority was advanced as an argument for social equality.» — según Owen, se esperaba que una ciencia como la frenología probara la igualdad potencial, y la superioridad espiritual femenina servía de argumento para la igualdad social.
«The insistence on an innate and unchanging femininity fed into assumptions about what was ‘natural’ or given, both in terms of female characteristics and women’s social relationships and place in the world.» — y el costo de esa vía: insistir en una feminidad innata alimentaba los supuestos sobre lo natural y lo dado.
«The demand for equality was riding on the implicit acceptance of a ‘spheres' credo which postulated the privatised and domestic as women’s ‘natural’ domain and function.» — la contradicción que localiza: la demanda de igualdad cabalgaba sobre el credo de las esferas; el apóstrofo recto de *spheres* es del troceo.
«The contradiction between ‘the plea for equality and the assertion of sexual difference’ was, and remains, a fundamental dilemma for feminists .» — y cómo la formula en términos que alcanzan al presente: el dilema entre la demanda de igualdad y la afirmación de la diferencia sexual; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Most obviously, spiritualists believed that changes in the world, ‘the new Dispensation’, would be brought about only by the spread of spiritualism and its accompanying moral impulse.» — según Owen, los espiritistas esperaban la nueva dispensación de la difusión de su credo y de su impulso moral.
«Women, as the embodiment of the spiritual and moral, were regarded as invaluable in the promulgation of spiritual truths and for the furtherance of meaningful social reform.» — y el lugar que las mujeres ocupaban en ese esquema: encarnación de lo espiritual y lo moral, y por eso imprescindibles.
«Female moral influence as a vital mechanism for change was explicitly argued by progressive feminist spiritualists in lectures such as that of Miss Samuel’s ‘Woman’s Work for the Extension of Spiritual Truth’ where it was also fielded as the means to, and rationale for, female equality .» — el título de conferencia que Owen usa como prueba, de Miss Samuel; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«These are the kind of women whom I address, and men too, for I do not believe in ‘man’ questions and ‘woman’ questions.» — según Owen, así se dirigía la señora Burns a sus lectoras desde el Domestic Department, negando que hubiera cuestiones de hombres y cuestiones de mujeres.
«She was speaking to the decent women, spiritualist wives and mothers who accepted and fulfilled their God-given role.» — y a quién hablaba en realidad, según la lectura de Owen: a las esposas y madres espiritistas que aceptaban el papel dado por Dios.
«All such ‘true-hearted’ females would recognise that their first duty was to home and children, the ‘heaven-appointed sphere’, where they would provide the physical and moral nourishment necessary for the establishment of health and habits of sturdy sobriety.» — el contenido de ese papel según la misma fuente: hogar e hijos como esfera señalada por el cielo.
«In tones redolent of the Social Purity movement, and indicative of the element of moral puntanism which featured strongly in British spiritualism, Mrs Burns issued her call to her readership.» — el tono en que Owen lo sitúa: el del movimiento de pureza social y el puritanismo moral del espiritismo británico; *puntanism* es errata del troceo por *puritanism* y el guion de *spiritual-ism* es del corte de renglón.
«She was addressing the worthy men and women, having no truck with a double standard, and this, by implication, meant that she expected men to conform as rigidly as women to respectable sexual norms.» — y lo que Owen le reconoce: no admitía doble rasero, y esperaba de los hombres la misma conformidad sexual.
«These views, however, did not find favour with all believers.» — el contrapunto con que abre la otra corriente: no todos los creyentes compartían esa posición.
«A stringent critique of the institution of marriage and the nuclear family had formed a central part of the earlier Owenite socialist platform and, as some Owenites on both sides of the Atlantic had been attracted to spiritualism during the middle decades of the century, their influence was evident within certain spiritualist circles .» — de dónde venía esa otra corriente, según Owen: la crítica owenita del matrimonio y la familia nuclear; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The impact of Owenism on spiritualism was complex, and in Britain there was little sympathy for the radicalism of the Owenite position on women, gender relations, and the family.» — y el límite que le pone a ese influjo: en Gran Bretaña había poca simpatía por el radicalismo owenita en materia de mujeres y familia.
«Nevertheless, Robert Owen had become a spiritualist late in life, Yorkshire provided a sizeable group ofOwenite converts, and ripples of Owenism continued to move out through the spiritualist ranks .» — lo que aun así queda del owenismo, según ella: la conversión tardía de Robert Owen y las ondas que seguían moviéndose por las filas espiritistas; *ofOwenite* es guion de corte unido por el troceo.
«American spiritualist movement had been established within a radical context and many of its first and most ardent» — y la otra vía de ideas progresistas: el espiritismo estadounidense, nacido en contexto radical; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«proponents were men and women with prior involvement in communitarian and social reform movements.» — quiénes fueron los primeros espiritistas estadounidenses, según Owen: gente ya metida en movimientos comunitarios y de reforma; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana y el guion de *communi-tarian* es del corte de renglón.
«Many women became involved in spiritualism via their participation in women’s rights agitation and the anti-slavery crusades, 41 and there was a strong feminist presence amongst American mediums and believers.» — la vía de entrada que documenta para muchas mujeres: la agitación por los derechos y las cruzadas antiesclavistas; el 41 es la llamada a nota.
«Leading feminists also often became interested in spiritualism at some point during their careers, attracted by otherworldly promises of a new age which would see the development of women’s full potential.» — y el atractivo que le adjudica para las feministas destacadas: la promisión de una era nueva con el potencial femenino desplegado.
«The close association of British and American spiritualism, combined with the current ‘woman question’ debates, ensured that the feminist voice and critique of dominant ideas in relation to women would have a hearing in Britain.» — el canal por el que la voz feminista llegó a Gran Bretaña, según Owen: la asociación estrecha entre los dos espiritismos.
«Emma Hardinge Britten, for example, had spent her youthful years in America where she had faced hardship and abuse in the cause of women’s rights and abolitionism.» — según Owen, Emma Hardinge Britten pasó su juventud en los Estados Unidos, con penurias y agravios por la causa de los derechos y del abolicionismo; el guion de *youth-ful* es del corte de renglón.
«This woman had the ability to fill halls with anything from 1,500 to 3,000 people, and in 1859 was telling her American audiences that the time had come for women to claim full social, religious, and political equality with men.» — el tamaño de su público y lo que decía en 1859: había llegado la hora de reclamar igualdad social, religiosa y política plena.
«In common with other progressive British spiritualists, Emma Hardinge Britten’s attitude to women’s issues lay somewhere between the radical American and conservative British viewpoints.» — y dónde la sitúa Owen: entre el radicalismo estadounidense y el conservadurismo británico.
«Emma Hardinge Britten supported this view and argued that, with marriage presented as the only viable option, there was ‘But one mission . . . open to women - that of being laid on the counter for man to choose as toy or ornament .’» — la imagen con que Britten describía el matrimonio como única salida, citada por Owen: la mujer puesta en el mostrador para que el hombre elija juguete u ornamento.
«Her discussion centred around criticism of both the idealisation of woman as the ‘companion of manhood’ and the glorification of female domesticity inherent in the ‘spheres’ dogma: ‘Trace the history of the past, and you will find that, from the earliest ages, woman has appeared ever, not as the helpmeet of man, so much as an appendage upon the condition of man. ’» — los dos blancos de esa crítica y la fórmula histórica de Britten: la mujer aparece siempre como apéndice de la condición del hombre, no como su compañera.
«Although she accepted the idea of innate gender difference, emphasising that women had unique qualities which made them more spiritual than men, she did not equate this with a limited or privatised role.» — la posición de Britten con su tensión interna consignada: aceptaba la diferencia innata y no sacaba de ella un papel privado y limitado; el guion de *empha-sising* es del corte de renglón.
«Emma Hardinge Britten used the theme of spiritual superiority as an argument in favour of women’s influence in the male world of affairs and denounced the appropriation of feminine traits to a determined and strictly domestic destiny.» — cómo giraba el argumento: la superioridad espiritual como razón para influir en el mundo masculino de los negocios.
«It was a leading example of the way in which a spiritual or religious theme could be employed to support a more overtly political imperative and the demand for rights in the temporal world.» — y por qué a Owen le interesa el caso: muestra un tema religioso puesto al servicio de una demanda política de derechos.
«Far from refined spirituality confining women to the purely domestic, it entitled them to a sphere and mission of their own.» — la inversión que Britten opera, según Owen: la espiritualidad refinada no confina al hogar, da derecho a esfera y misión propias.
«‘Woman’, she claimed, ‘has not found, as yet, her sphere ’, 47 whilst a true mission was equated with working for the benefit of humanity.» — la frase de Britten que Owen destaca —la mujer no ha encontrado todavía su esfera— y la misión con que la llenaba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Emma Hardinge Britten’s attachment to the notion of high-flown female qualities led her to suggest that motherhood, teaching, and healing were amongst the most appropriate female missions.» — y el límite de esa apertura: las misiones que Britten proponía seguían siendo maternidad, enseñanza y curación.
«‘Woman, then, demands a mission,’ she cried, ‘woman demands an occupation . . . some place in life.’» — la exclamación de Britten que Owen recoge: la mujer exige una misión, una ocupación, algún lugar en la vida.
«Every female child must be trained ‘to do something to earn her bread, and make herself an occupation in whatever sphere her mind and heart shall fit her for’.» — y la consecuencia práctica que sacaba: educar a toda niña para ganarse el pan.
«She is not a mere domestic and social convenience .’ 48 However, Emma Hardinge Britten also acknowledged the liberating virtues» — el remate de la cita y el giro con que Owen introduce la otra cara de Britten; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana y el 48 es la llamada a nota.
«The Association recognised that marriage often represented the only respectable means of support available to women - particularly middle-class women such as those of its own membership.» — según Owen, la BNAS reconocía que el matrimonio era a menudo el único sostén respetable de la mujer, sobre todo de la clase media a la que pertenecían sus socias.
«There was a group of refined spinsters within the Association who were experiencing severely straitened circumstances during the 1870s and 1880s, and who were amongst those who adamantly supported the payment of mediums.» — el grupo concreto que documenta: solteras venidas a menos dentro de la asociación, defensoras firmes del pago a las médiums.
«Activists were arguing ‘for woman’s unique contribution to the public world’ 50 which they, like Emma Hardinge Britten, presented in terms of a beneficial extension of the female qualities and virtues to a domain beyond that of immediate family and friends.» — la forma del argumento activista, según Owen: extender al mundo público las virtudes femeninas, no negarlas.
«In practice it gave moral authority to the concept of the working bourgeois woman.» — y su efecto práctico: autoridad moral para la mujer burguesa que trabaja.
«Again, the Association’s prospectus stated that, amongst the many questions relating to marriage, the ‘effects resulting from marriages contracted from mercenary motives’ warranted immediate attention.» — el punto del prospecto de la BNAS sobre los matrimonios por interés; el guion de *marri-age* es del corte de renglón.
«Another female believer went further, claiming (incorrectly) that ‘The spiritualist has been the first to recognise the evil and misery of loveless unions, and the corruption which too-often lurks under the so-called sanctities of marriage.’» — una reclamación de primacía que Owen recoge con un *incorrectly* entre paréntesis: no fueron los espiritistas los primeros en denunciar las uniones sin amor.
«The ideal of unions based on mutual equality, love, and respect had been voiced by Owenites and feminists who had» — y a quién le da la anterioridad: owenitas y feministas; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«James Burns, representing radical plebeian opinion, was writing in 1867: Spiritualism does not annul the marriage relation, but puts it on a firm and natural basis, declaring it to be a crime to form a union on external or conventional grounds, but only on that spiritual affinity, which makes the very beings of the beloved dear to each other, and which augments and intensifies with the experience of life.» — la posición de James Burns en 1867, citada por Owen: el espiritismo no anula el matrimonio, lo funda en la afinidad espiritual y hace crimen de la unión por motivos convencionales; el pasaje arranca en la plana 59 y sigue en la 60.
«These were guided by principle, but those who act without principle tail in the result.» — el remate de esa cita de Burns, con *tail* por *fail* en el troceo.
«Although anxious to repudiate any notion that spiritualists did not approve of marriage itself, Burns nevertheless argued that it should be founded upon compatibility and mutual regard.» — según Owen, Burns cuidaba de no parecer contrario al matrimonio y lo quería fundado en compatibilidad y respeto mutuo.
«He viewed divorce as the proper course of action where the partners were no longer ‘fittingly man and wife’.» — y qué proponía cuando eso faltaba: el divorcio.
«His directness belied the more effusive attitudes usually reserved in his newspapers for the generic state of connubial bliss.» — el contraste que Owen señala entre esa franqueza y el tono efusivo habitual de sus periódicos.
«Many, like Burns himself, travelled the country lecturing to spiritualists, members of temperance societies, Primitive Methodists, and ‘all friends of social progress’ on such subjects as ‘Love, Courtship and Marriage’.» — el circuito de conferencias que censa y los públicos que reunía.
«When it came to a detailed critique of ‘the marriage relation’, however, progressives had to tread carefully.» — la cautela que Owen les atribuye a los progresistas al criticar la relación matrimonial en detalle.
«English spiritualists encouraged the companionate ideal but it was invariably linked to a sexual conservatism, often puritanism, which regarded marriage as the sole site of respectable sexual relations.» — y la razón de esa cautela: el ideal de compañía iba atado a un conservadurismo sexual que hacía del matrimonio el único sitio respetable.
«Indeed, if, by the mid-century, the ideal of private and domesticated womanhood was under attack, feminists were still very much concerned with the idea of sexual difference, innate» — el matiz con que impide leer el ataque al ideal doméstico como abandono de la diferencia sexual; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«In this climate American spiritualism, which was renowned for its more radical stance, became something of an embarrassment.» — según Owen, el espiritismo estadounidense, de postura más radical, se volvió un estorbo para el británico.
«Emanuel Swedenborg had established a theory of correspondences between earthly and spiritual life, one aspect of which was the proposition that every man and woman had a soul mate, or spiritual affinity .» — la doctrina swedenborgiana de las correspondencias y la afinidad espiritual, de la que Owen hace derivar el asunto; el guion de *correspon-dences* es del corte de renglón y el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«This philosophy had been adopted by many nineteenth-century communitarians and was popular amongst American spiritualists who, to the mortification of established and highly respectable Swedenborgians, used its tenets to support the abandonment of unwanted marriage partners in favour of true ‘spiritual affinities’.» — el uso que se le dio, para bochorno de los swedenborgianos respetables: justificar el abandono del cónyuge en nombre de la afinidad verdadera.
«Although by no means all American spiritualists were committed to free love, the open alignment between spiritualists and communitarian projects resulted in the association of spiritualism with a profligate lifestyle.» — y la salvedad con que Owen abre el punto: no todos los espiritistas estadounidenses defendían el amor libre, y la asociación con los proyectos comunitarios les puso fama de disipados.
«John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of the Oneida community, which attracted many spiritualists and had a notorious reputation for loose living, blamed the spiritualists for bringing the doctrine of free love into disrepute .» — según Owen, John Humphrey Noyes, fundador de Oneida, culpaba a los espiritistas del descrédito del amor libre; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The fine distinctions expressed by avowed ‘free lovers’ were, however, lost on the American public, which reacted with scandalised outrage.» — y lo que pasó con esas distinciones finas: se perdieron ante un público escandalizado.
«As a result, leading American spiritualists felt compelled to play down the connection between spiritualism and progressive sexual views.» — la consecuencia sobre los propios espiritistas: minimizar el vínculo con las ideas sexuales progresistas.
«One spiritualist spokesman admitted that more than half of the best-known mediums and believers ‘are guilty of immoral and licentious practices’, but added that this justly provoked the abhorrence of all right thinking people’.» — la admisión de un portavoz espiritista que Owen cita, con su reprobación pegada; el guion de *best-known* es del corte de renglón.
«By the 1850s influential American believers were representing the spiritualist ideal as established unions based on mutual love and respect, whilst emphasising the legal and political aspects of female equality.» — el viraje que fecha en los años cincuenta: uniones establecidas sobre amor y respeto, e igualdad legal y política.
«The resolution moved by Andrew and Mary Jackson Davis at a Spiritualist Congress in 1856, which spoke of securing women’s rights within marriage, was symptomatic of this trend.» — y la resolución de Andrew y Mary Jackson Davis de 1856 que toma por síntoma de ese viraje.
«But American spiritualism never altogether shook off the taint of immorality.» — el resto que quedó, según Owen: el espiritismo estadounidense nunca se sacudió del todo la mancha de inmoralidad.
«The spectre of American ‘Atheists, Infidels, and Lechers’ 64 haunted the British faithful who were profoundly fearful of becoming too closely associated with American irregularities.» — el fantasma con que Owen describe el temor británico, en las palabras de la fuente; el 64 es la llamada a nota.
«When, for example, James Burns lectured on the subjects of marriage and gender relations he strove to emphasise the high moral nature of spiritualism.» — según Owen, Burns insistía en la altura moral del espiritismo cuando hablaba de matrimonio y relaciones de género.
«‘What is mis-called free love, much fretted over in the consideration of American Spiritualism by English Spiritualists . . . is a very small drop in the ocean. Doubtless there are some who are in the mire, but the vast majority are rightly and mortally opposed to it.’» — la carta de un espiritista inglés de viaje por los Estados Unidos que Burns publicó en 1868, citada por Owen: el mal llamado amor libre es una gota muy pequeña en el océano.
«We find this want of freedom a ‘social evil’ not only in conjugal life, but in fraternal love, and, indeed, in all forms of societal action .» — y otro tramo de esa correspondencia, que extiende la falta de libertad más allá de la vida conyugal; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Whilst he could not deny the connection between American spiritualism and radical sexual views, Burns tried to get round the equation of free love with rampant promiscuity.» — la maniobra que Owen le atribuye a Burns: no negar el vínculo y sí romper la ecuación entre amor libre y promiscuidad.
«During the early optimistic days, Burns had sometimes referred indirectly to Swedenborgian principles by using terms like ‘spiritual affinity’, but they were meant to represent the ideal of a loving or ‘moral’ basis for ‘true’ marriage, and he was appalled» — el sentido en que Burns usaba la afinidad espiritual, según Owen: base amorosa del matrimonio verdadero; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Burns also stressed the importance of social responsibility in more unorthodox unions, noting that Swedenborgian-influenced writers like Andrew Jackson Davis and Warren Chase wrote ‘from a scientific viewpoint’ - a phrase calculated to legitimise the discussion, stress rationality, and remove any suggestion of venereal passion» — y la función que Owen le adjudica a esa fórmula científica: legitimar la discusión y quitarle todo aire de pasión venérea.
«When one spiritualist read William Hepworth Dixon’s Spiritual Wives and wrote excitedly to inquire if any free love sects existed in England or France, Burns retorted tartly that he knew of no such societies .» — el episodio con que lo ilustra: Burns respondiendo con sequedad que no conocía ninguna secta de amor libre; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Burns subsequently printed Andrew Jackson Davis’s denunciation of the book in which he called it gross misrepresentation and a forum for the author’s ‘impure fancies’.» — y la denuncia de Andrew Jackson Davis contra el libro de Dixon que Burns reprodujo.
«However, Burns must have entertained doubts about the American’s sincerity as he sought a further private assurance of his anti-free love stance.» — la inferencia que Owen saca, marcada como tal: Burns debió de dudar de la sinceridad de Davis y le pidió garantías en privado.
«However, he reserved the right to remark that ‘While we do not desire to throw mud, we should be equally careful not to seek a muddy foundation for the fair edifice of human progress. ’» — la reserva con que Burns cerraba el asunto, citada por Owen; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«She denounced the American free love movement, calling it a ‘dangerous but wide-spread epidemic of popular thought’,» — y la condena de Emma Hardinge Britten al amor libre estadounidense, en sus propias palabras.
«British spiritualists also became increasingly anxious as hostile critics (even those writing years later) refused to let accusations of immorality drop, often citing old allegations of spiritualist ‘paramours called “affinities’” who live together in ‘promiscuous adultery’.» — la persistencia de la acusación que Owen documenta, con las comillas encadenadas de la fuente; el guion de *adul-tery* es del corte de renglón.
«It was becoming clear that if spiritualists wanted to retain any kind of respectable reputation they must take a firm line on everything pertaining to free love.» — la conclusión práctica a que llegaban, según Owen: línea firme contra el amor libre para conservar la respetabilidad.
«Attitudes hardened, and by the 1880s there was no longer any attempt at (or pretence of) an open forum on the subject.» — y hasta dónde llegó ese endurecimiento en los años ochenta, con el paréntesis irónico sobre el foro abierto.
«During the previous decade spiritualism had been the target of considerable hostility from the medical profession, much of it directed against spiritualist mediumship and the challenge it represented to ideas of psychological normalcy.» — la presión que venía del otro flanco: la hostilidad médica contra la mediumnidad como desafío a la normalidad psicológica.
«Spiritualists, as we shall later see, were forced to defend themselves against charges of moral perversity and incipient madness,» — las dos acusaciones que Owen anuncia para más adelante: perversidad moral y locura incipiente.
«The reverberations continued to be felt during the early 1880s and were exacerbated by salacious revelations at the Old Bailey trial of Susan Fletcher, an American medium.» — y el proceso que agravó todo: el juicio de la médium estadounidense Susan Fletcher en el Old Bailey.
«Under such circumstances it is hardly surprising that ‘affinityship’ and everything it represented was now openly condemned.» — la consecuencia que saca de ese cuadro: la condena abierta de la afinidad y de todo lo que representaba.
«In an editorial James Burns unequivocally warned his readers against ‘loose’ and contaminating individuals who had recently arrived (doubtless from America) within British spiritualist circles, going on to note with satisfaction that the majority of spiritualists shunned such company.» — el editorial de Burns que Owen cita, con el paréntesis irónico sobre la procedencia de los recién llegados.
«Free love had been irrevocably discredited, and Emma Hardinge Britten rejoiced that ‘pure true spiritualism’ had at last triumphed over ‘the midnight darkness’.» — y el júbilo de Britten por el triunfo del espiritismo puro sobre la oscuridad de medianoche.
«British spiritualism had never constituted a threat to the sanctity of marriage and the family.» — el balance de Owen sobre todo el episodio: el espiritismo británico nunca amenazó la santidad del matrimonio ni la familia.
«Progressive spiritualists sought an amelioration of specific abuses, and believers like Emma Hardinge Britten challenged the ‘spheres’ orthodoxy inherent in the domestic ideology, but free love and everything it represented was essentially abhorrent to the majority of the faithful.» — y el reparto exacto de ese balance: mejora de abusos concretos y desafío a la ortodoxia de las esferas, con el amor libre aborrecido por la mayoría.
«The ideology of home and family, representing social stability, decency, and morality, prevailed in the spiritualist camp.» — lo que prevaleció en el campo espiritista, según Owen: la ideología del hogar y la familia como estabilidad y decencia.
«Although progressives still favoured women’s emancipation and equality, the enduring ideal of the final decade of the century remained the woman who was ‘Well Domesticated . . . knows how to Cook a good plain meal . . . fis] Economical . . . Orderly and a Lover of Home’.» — el ideal que sobrevivió a la última década del siglo, en la cita de la fuente; el *fis]* es basura del troceo.
«Despite discussion of what Emma Hardinge Britten called ‘the place and mission of woman’, and a commitment to women’s rights, spiritualists still identified closely with the image of ‘the precious little woman’.» — la distancia que Owen mide entre el debate sobre el lugar y la misión de la mujer y la imagen que seguía operando.
«We have seen how spiritualist women made their appearance against a backdrop of debate over ‘the woman question’.» — el resumen con que cierra el capítulo segundo: las espiritistas aparecen sobre el fondo del debate de la cuestión de la mujer.
«The mediumistic project rested on received notions of innate femininity and yet often outstripped and outmanoeuvred them.» — y la tensión que deja planteada: la mediumnidad se apoyaba en las nociones recibidas de feminidad y a la vez las desbordaba.
«English spiritualists were not concerned with a political restructuring of the nuclear family, but mediumship strained as well as served and supported familial» — el deslinde final: no había programa de reestructuración de la familia, y la mediumnidad tensaba lo mismo que sostenía; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«A critique of sexual mores was never overtly on the agenda but seance behaviour drastically subverted accepted ideas of decency and womanliness.» — Owen separa el programa del efecto: nadie puso en el orden del día una crítica de las costumbres sexuales, y la conducta en la sesión subvertía las ideas aceptadas de decencia.
«Female inediumship involved the negotiation of the treacherous waters of class definition, gender roles, and sexuality.» — las tres aguas traicioneras que la mediumnidad femenina tenía que navegar, según ella; *inediumship* es errata del troceo.
«And yet, for all the contradictions and difficulties, mediumship was the cornerstone upon which spiritualist women’s ascendancy depended.» — y aun con todas las contradicciones, dónde pone la piedra angular del ascenso de las espiritistas.
«Some women longed and prayed for mediumistic gifts, others worked hard to attain them.» — los dos caminos hacia el don que distingue: el deseo y la oración, o el trabajo.
«The potential implied by the youthful female mediumship of the Fox sisters went largely unrealised in England during the 1850s» — abre el capítulo tercero con lo que no ocurrió: el potencial de la mediumnidad juvenil de las Fox quedó sin realizar en Inglaterra; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«If young girls were manifesting remarkable mediumistic powers during these years, they were doing so in the privacy of their own homes.» — y dónde estaban esas niñas mientras tanto, según Owen: en la intimidad de sus casas.
«Instead, the more readily accessible world of spiritualist mediumship was dominated by mediums like the eminent society favourite, Daniel Dunglas Home, and matronly women such as Mrs Guppy and Mrs Mary Marshall.» — quiénes dominaban la escena visible en esos años: Daniel Dunglas Home y matronas como la señora Guppy y la señora Mary Marshall.
«The 1870s ushered in the beguiling, youthful creatures who were to succeed in changing the face of English spiritualism.» — el cambio que fecha en los años setenta con la entrada de las médiums jóvenes.
«These young women introduced new, thrilling, and daring phenomena and a theatrical style of mediumship which emphasised visual spectacle and display.» — y qué traían: fenómenos nuevos y un estilo teatral que ponía el acento en el espectáculo visual.
«Their achievements marked a unique moment in the history of the movement.» — el valor que Owen le da a ese momento dentro de la historia del movimiento.
«It identifies the manifestations which made them famous, examines the role played by social class in career mediumship, and considers both the light and darker sides of female stardom during this exciting era.» — el programa del capítulo, con las dos caras del estrellato femenino anunciadas desde el título.
«Until the 1870s the peak of success in the field of spirit communication was the production of the ‘direct’ spirit voice or writing, a process which culminated in spontaneous speech or messages produced quite independently of the medium although at her behest.» — el techo técnico anterior a los años setenta, según Owen: la voz o la escritura directa, producidas con independencia de la médium y a instancia suya; el guion de *indepen-dently* es del corte de renglón.
«Sometimes the medium was able to facilitate this only by going into trance and thus absenting herself from conscious involvement, but this strategic development meant that the spirit was now an autonomous entity able to communicate with sitters at will.» — y el efecto de ese arreglo: la ausencia consciente de la médium hacía del espíritu una entidad autónoma; el guion de *communi-cate* es del corte de renglón.
«Startling though unseen spirit voices might be, many sitters were more gripp» — la preferencia del público que señala; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana y la frase sigue con la mediumnidad física.
«Guppy perfected the production of spirit ‘apports’, usually flowers or pretty gifts, which showered down on the surprised and delighted sitters, and by the start of the 1870s a good medium could coax the spirits into performing many favourite tricks.» — según Owen, la señora Guppy perfeccionó los aportes de flores y regalos que caían sobre los asistentes.
«This was the production of a fully formed materialised spirit who made an appearance at seances and walked about the room in full view of all those present.» — el logro que todavía se les escapaba a las médiums británicas: el espíritu materializado que camina por la sala a la vista de todos.
«Materialisation was considered difficult and dangerous to perform and was undoubtedly the acme of mediumistic development.» — y el lugar que ocupaba en la escala: cumbre del desarrollo mediúmnico, difícil y peligrosa.
«Full-form materialisation had been perfected in America by the veteran mediums, Kate and Margaret Fox, but English sitters had yet to experience its wonders.» — quién la había perfeccionado antes, según Owen: las veteranas Kate y Margaret Fox en los Estados Unidos.
«One such medium was a young London girl, Florence Cook.» — y la médium con que abre el caso central del capítulo.
«Florence Cook was born in 1856, the first child of parents who had moved to London from rural Kent.» — según Owen, Florence Cook nació en 1856, primera hija de una pareja llegada del campo de Kent.
«Her father was connected with the printing trade and worked for some time as a compositor.» — el oficio del padre: la imprenta, y un tiempo como cajista.
«At the time of his death in 1879, Henry Cook owned the family home in Dalston, Hackney.» — y el dato patrimonial que fija la clase de la familia: Henry Cook era dueño de la casa de Dalston al morir en 1879.
«The Cook family of parents and four children occupied that somewhat shadowy terrain between upper working and lower middle class, kept at least one servant, and ran a respectable and comfortable home.» — la posición social que Owen le adjudica, en el terreno sombrío entre la clase trabajadora alta y la media baja.
«All seemed well until about 1870 when Florence, some time after her fourteenth birthday, began to fall prey to disconcerting trance-like states.» — y el comienzo de los estados de trance, poco después de cumplir catorce años.
«These young girls became prey to experiences that they could neither understand nor control, and some were left to the tender mercies of families and physicians who tried to make sense of the vivid images, noises in the head, glowing balls of light, and trance-like states which beset their daughters and patients.» — el cuadro general en que Owen inscribe el caso: niñas presa de experiencias que no entendían, dejadas a familias y médicos; el guion de *under-stand* es del corte de renglón.
«Others, girls who were less sure of themselves or their place in the family affections, clung for months or years to a terrified silence before finally finding solace in a spiritualist circle.» — y la otra salida que documenta: meses o años de silencio aterrado antes del consuelo del círculo espiritista.
«According to one account, ostensibly supplied by Florence herself, it was because her mother was in such despair that she finally complied with a friend’s advice and took her daughter to a spirit circle.» — la primera versión del comienzo de Florence Cook, atribuida a ella misma, con el *ostensibly* que Owen conserva.
«However, in an interview given many years later, Florence said that she began her initial spiritualist experiments at home with a school friend and her parents, and that it was here that her mediumistic gifts first became apparent.» — y la segunda versión, dada por ella años después, que Owen consigna al lado sin armonizarlas.
«Messages received at these first seances told Florence that she was destined to become a famous medium, and gave her instructions for finding the secretary of the local spiritualist society.» — lo que decían los mensajes de aquellas primeras sesiones, según esa segunda versión.
«In this second account, Florence found her way to the Dalston Spiritualists’ Association through spirit guidance, but it is highly likely that the Cook family already knew something about the society as they lived in close proximity to its secretary and some of the most active members.» — la objeción de verosimilitud que Owen le pone, marcada como probabilidad: la familia vivía cerca del secretario y de los socios más activos.
«Mediums liked to embellish their past with mystical encounters and propitious spirit intervention, and it is quite possible that Florence preferred this more romantic version of her initial contact wit» — y la razón general que ofrece para esas divergencias, en modo de posibilidad; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Thomas Blyton, secretary of the Dalston Association in its early years, was employed by the railway company, and was clearly an experienced spiritualist and efficient officer.» — quién era Thomas Blyton, según Owen: empleado del ferrocarril y secretario eficiente de la asociación de Dalston.
«Thomas Blyton took her under his wing and she soon became a participating member in the weekly seances.» — y qué hizo con Florence Cook: la tomó bajo su ala y la incorporó a las sesiones semanales.
«Mediums might be made in heaven but mediumship, the combination of gift and craft, required careful preparation under a skilled and benevolent eye.» — la definición de mediumnidad que Owen ofrece, como combinación de don y oficio; el guion de *prepara-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«Mediums must serve an apprenticeship which involved gaining control over the spirits and harnessing their power.» — y en qué consistía el aprendizaje: ganar control sobre los espíritus y aprovechar su fuerza.
«It was this vital element of control that differentiated possession from derangement, and unsupervised novices dabbled with the spirit world at their peril.» — el criterio que separaba posesión de desvarío, según Owen: el control, y el riesgo de la novicia sin supervisión.
«A developing circle was made up of friends or trusted members of a spiritualist society, and was invariably led by the most experienced person in the group.» — la composición del círculo de desarrollo: amigos o socios de confianza, dirigidos por el más experimentado.
«The circle met regularly to hold seances, which were usually conducted in semi-darkness as this was considered particularly conducive to spirit intercourse.» — y la penumbra en que se trabajaba, tenida por propicia al trato con los espíritus; el guion de *particu-larly* es del corte de renglón.
«A serious seance often began with a prayer, or some similarly elevating reflection designed to introduce the right tone to the proceedings, and the participants (or sitters) would then join hands in a demonstration of harmony.» — la apertura ritual de una sesión seria: oración o reflexión elevada, y las manos unidas como muestra de armonía.
«The linked circle was also thought to be more powerful as it maintained the uninterrupted flow of energy between sitters, and it was the duty of each of these to concentrate» — la razón que se daba para el círculo enlazado: mantener el flujo ininterrumpido de energía; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«One respected spiritualist explained: The first indications of success usually are a cold breeze passing over the hands, with involuntary twitchings of the hands and arms of some of the sitters, and a sensation of throbbing in the table.» — las primeras señales de éxito según una guía espiritista de la época que Owen cita: brisa fría, temblores involuntarios y latido en la mesa.
«If the table moves, let your pressure be so gentle on its surface that you are sure you are not aiding its motions .» — y la instrucción de control que la misma guía daba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«When you think that the time has come, let some one take command of the circle and act as spokesman .» — el reparto de papeles que prescribía: alguien toma el mando del círculo y habla por él; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The developing circle was designed to train incipient mediums and improve on the quality of phenomena it obtained.» — la función doble del círculo de desarrollo, según Owen: formar médiums y mejorar los fenómenos.
«Once the spirits had arrived, a youthful medium might be invited to take over.» — y el momento en que entraba la médium joven.
«This involved addressing a question to the visiting spirit who would then respond using a prearranged code of knocks or raps - usually one rap for ‘no’, three for ‘yes’, and two to express doubt or uncertainty.» — el código de golpes con que empezaba una médium, según Owen: uno para el no, tres para el sí y dos para la duda.
«The restrictions of the yes/no response were overcome by using a printed alphabet and pointing to its individual letters so that, by rapping at the appropriate letter, the spirit could construct entire sentences.» — y cómo se salvaba el límite del sí y el no: un alfabeto impreso al que se apuntaba letra por letra.
«However, messages produced in this way were often garbled or missed the point and usually the method was thankfully abandoned if the medium became more skilled.» — el resultado que ese método daba, según ella: mensajes confusos, abandonados en cuanto la médium progresaba.
«Under Mr Blyton’s guidance my development from that period was rapid.» — según Owen, así recordaba Florence Cook su formación bajo la guía de Blyton.
«I always used to say that mediumship was like catching a fever.» — y el símil con que la propia Cook describía la mediumnidad: como agarrar una fiebre.
«There was a period when I never went to a seance without coming away with a fresh development;» — el ritmo de aquel aprendizaje, en sus palabras: ninguna sesión sin un desarrollo nuevo.
«I have gone through the whole string of phenomena associated with all the mediumship I have ever heard of, and if there is a phase you can mention that I have not at one time or another passed through, I shall be glad to know it .» — y el desafío con que Cook cerraba el recuento de su repertorio; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«In June 1871 Blyton published an article on Florence Cook in the Spiritualist, and other believers became aware for the first time of a new and promising young medium.» — la fecha del debut público que Owen fija: junio de 1871, en el Spiritualist de Blyton.
«Frank Herne and Charles Williams were then obtaining materialised spirit faces at dark seances, and Florence was sent to take part in several joint sittings with them.» — con quiénes la pusieron a trabajar entonces: Frank Herne y Charles Williams, que obtenían caras materializadas.
«Contact with more experienced mediums was invariably beneficial and constituted an important, if informal, aspect of training.» — el valor formativo que Owen le da a ese contacto, informal y beneficioso.
«Charles Williams was also a resident of Hackney and was undoubtedly known to the Dalston Association if» — y la vecindad que documenta: Williams vivía también en Hackney; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«each of whom claimed the ‘King’ entourage as controls.» — el dato que anuda a Cook con Herne y con los Holmes: todos reclamaban por controles al séquito de los King; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Whatever Florence learnt through her connection with Herne and the Holmes’s (they, like Williams, and in common with most mediums, were exposed as imposters at various points in their careers), it was not long before ‘Katie’ had suggested that the young medium move into a cabinet as a means of improving the phenomena.» — y el paréntesis con que Owen consigna, sin resolverlo, que todos ellos fueron denunciados como impostores en algún momento.
«The cabinet, already in use by Herne, Williams, and Mrs Guppy, was essentially a device which shielded the medium from public gaze and maintained the dark conditions thought necessary for the production of spirit forms.» — la definición del gabinete que da: dispositivo que oculta a la médium y mantiene la oscuridad tenida por necesaria.
«It could be rough-and-ready, perhaps a heavy curtain draped across a corner or large cupboard, but many were permanent box-like affairs which were free-standing and accessible only from the front.» — y sus formas: desde una cortina en una esquina hasta cajones fijos accesibles solo por delante.
«As materialisations became increasingly daring, this invisibility of the medium became a contentious issue.» — el problema que esa invisibilidad abría a medida que las materializaciones se volvían más audaces; el guion de *invisi-bility* es del corte de renglón.
«But it was still early days when Florence began to experiment; she was fifteen years old.» — la edad con que Owen sitúa el comienzo de esos experimentos: quince años.
«At first the young medium managed only to produce a static ‘death-like face, with staring eyes’ which appeared from between a gap in the cabinet’s curtains .» — el primer resultado: una cara estática de mirada fija asomada entre las cortinas; el guion de *death-like* es del corte de renglón y el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Florence herself commented on the ‘fixed and glassy stare of the eyes - like the eyes of sleepwalkers [sic]’ manifested by these early faces, and added that in this state the spirits were blind.» — y lo que la propia Cook decía de esas caras, con el *sic* que la fuente ya trae: ojos de sonámbulo, y espíritus ciegos.
«However, she claimed that if the sitters were lively and contributed plenty of singing and laughter the spirit eyes would soon ‘sparkle and dance with life and intelligence.» — el remedio que ella proponía, según Owen: canto y risa de los asistentes para que los ojos brillaran.
«This humorous, playful note was a constant aspect of Florence Cook’s seances, and one which made them popular entertainme» — la nota lúdica que Owen tiene por constante en sus sesiones; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«She did not care for restraint or misery, and the production of dead relatives to the accompaniment of copious weeping from sitters was not a motif of her mediumship.» — y lo que su mediumnidad evitaba, según Owen: los parientes muertos y el llanto abundante.
«Florence claimed that she disliked this because she preferred to remain conscious in order to see what was happening.» — la razón que Cook daba para no gustar del trance: prefería estar consciente y ver lo que pasaba.
«On the other hand, she also complained that it was frightening to be fully conscious and ‘shut up in a nearly dark room with a person in white floating about it, who had a head and shoulders, but no legs or body ’.» — y la queja contraria que también hacía, que Owen consigna al lado sin armonizarlas.
«Finally, despite its more unpleasant aspects, Florence succeeded in materialising ‘Katie’s’ face, and from then on ‘Katie King’ became a regular feature of Florence Cook’s materialisation seances.» — el logro con que se fija su repertorio: la cara de Katie King como número regular.
«This account appeared in the Daily Telegraph and referred to Florence as ‘Miss Blank’:» — la fuente periodística que Owen usa para describir una sesión, con el seudónimo con que llamaba a la médium.
«We were told to sing, and so we did - at least the rest did, for the songs were spiritualistic ones for the most part, which I did not know.» — el relato del Daily Telegraph que Owen reproduce, empezando por el canto de apertura.
«We did so; and there was pretty Miss Blank tied round the neck, arms, and legs to the chair, in a very uncomfortable and apparently secure manner. We sealed the knots, shut her up in the cupboard, and warbled again.» — y el procedimiento de control que describe el mismo cronista: atada al cuello, brazos y piernas, con los nudos sellados.
«It was slightly pale, and the head was swathed in white drapery. The eyes were fixed, and altogether it looked ghostly.» — la aparición tal como la describe esa crónica: pálida, envuelta en tela blanca, de ojos fijos.
«The doors were opened, and little Miss Blank was found tied, with seals unbroken, and to all appearance in a deep sleep . . .» — el desenlace que el cronista consigna: la médium atada, con los sellos intactos y al parecer profundamente dormida; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«On assuring her I did not do anything so improper, the manipulations were permitted.» — y el intercambio con la aparición que el mismo cronista relata, sobre si apretaba la mano.
«This type of production, complete with the medium being secured inside the cabinet by the spirits, put Florence marginally ahead of the competition.» — la ventaja competitiva que Owen le adjudica a ese número; el guion de *competi-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«‘Katie King’ was becoming well known and she would appear in stronger light than was usually permitted.» — y la marca distintiva de Katie King: se dejaba ver con más luz de la habitual.
«Florence’s spiritualist supporters were well satisfied and she began to develop a firm following.» — el efecto sobre su público, según Owen: seguidores satisfechos y una clientela firme.
«Until the beginning of 1872, Florence had held a teaching post at Miss Eliza Cliff s school in nearby Richmond Road, but teaching and spiritualism did not mix and in January of that year she was asked to leave.» — el empleo que perdió y la fecha: enero de 1872, expulsada de la escuela de Miss Eliza Cliff.
«This perhaps made it more imperative that she should succeed as a medium, especially as it could not have escaped her notice that Frank Herne was being financed by Charles Blackburn, a wealthy Manchester spiritualist.» — la presión económica que Owen infiere, marcada con un *perhaps*, y el ejemplo del patrocinio de Blackburn a Herne.
«In May 1872, Kate Selina Cook, some three years younger than her sister, became entranced for the first time, threatening the older girl’s sovereignty even within her own family.» — y la competencia que le sale en casa: su hermana Kate Selina Cook entra en trance por primera vez en mayo de 1872.
«Cook home mounted, Florence began to complain of bad experiences with malignant spirits, and unpleasant poltergeist phenomena began to afflict the household.» — lo que sobrevino con esa presión: espíritus malignos y fenómenos de poltergeist en la casa; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«It seems that Florence kept her head but recognised that she could not afford to falter or rest.» — el juicio que Owen arriesga con un *it seems*: Cook mantuvo la cabeza y supo que no podía detenerse.
«She knew that she must try for ever more startling phenomena, and this meant a full-form materialisation.» — y a qué la obligaba eso: a la materialización de cuerpo entero.
«Florence Cook set herself to the task and in the spring of 1873 she succeeded in producing the first full spirit materialisation seen in Britain.» — la fecha que Owen fija para la primera materialización completa vista en Gran Bretaña: la primavera de 1873.
«though we had left Miss B. tied and sealed to her chair, and clad in an ordinary black dress somewhat voluminous as to the skirts, a tall female figure draped classically in white, with bare arms and feet, did enter at the open door,» — la crónica del Daily Telegraph sobre esa primera aparición de cuerpo entero, con el contraste entre el vestido negro de la médium y la figura blanca de brazos y pies desnudos.
«It had believers and non-believers alike clamouring for entrance to her seances, offering expensive gifts in exchange for privileged seats, and seeking access to her Hackney home.» — y el efecto que Owen le atribuye a esa hazaña: creyentes y no creyentes disputándose la entrada, con regalos caros por un asiento privilegiado.
«There were trips and dinners. Mr Luxmoore, a Justice of the Peace and wealthy supporter, offered a cruise on his yacht,» — los favores materiales que Owen censa alrededor de Florence Cook: viajes, cenas y un crucero en el yate del juez Luxmoore.
«Whilst ‘Katie’ reigned, the young girl from Hackney received attention, status, material reward, and differing degrees of access to the public world. ‘Katie King’ was Florence Cook’s passport to success.» — y el balance que hace del personaje: mientras Katie reinó, la muchacha de Hackney tuvo atención, estatus y acceso al mundo público.
«Interestingly, cross-cultural studies have indicated that major factors in determining the recipients of spirit possession are low status and its accompanying powerlessness, combined with a sense of personal deprivation - the lack of any meaningful satisfaction or fulfilment.» — el hallazgo antropológico que Owen trae al caso: estatus bajo, impotencia y privación personal como factores de la posesión; el guion de *fulfil-ment* es del corte de renglón.
«Although it would be misleading to suggest that social anthropologists find themselves in total agreement about the nature of spirit possession, or about the complex inter-relationship between religious beliefs and the social order, the evidence indicates a common denominator of ‘deprivation, frustration, and discontent’.» — y la cautela con que lo usa: los antropólogos no coinciden del todo, y la evidencia apunta a un denominador común de privación, frustración y descontento.
«In this context, possession and spirit ratification act as strategies for obtaining attention, social standing, and privileges that are otherwise denied.» — la función que de ahí se sigue: la posesión como estrategia para obtener atención, posición y privilegios negados por otras vías.
«These findings have a bearing on nineteenth-century mediumship, which perhaps appeared particularly attractive to women of all classes during a period of restricted personal facility and sexual inequality.» — cómo aplica esos hallazgos al siglo XIX, con el *perhaps* que los acota.
«However, although social class was not in itse» — la salvedad que introduce sobre la clase social; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que la clase no indicaba la mediumnidad pero sí determinaba su esfera.
«Spiritualists liked to emphasise that public mediumship was a comparative rarity, a mere ‘one in a thousand’, whilst» — según Owen, a los espiritistas les gustaba subrayar que la mediumnidad pública era una entre mil; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«A private medium invariably operated within a small circle of family or friends, her seances were closed to outsiders, and she received no direct payment.» — la definición de médium privada que Owen fija: círculo pequeño, sesiones cerradas y sin cobro directo.
«But just as in practice the clearly delineated schema of separate spheres was constantly undermined by contradictions and tensions, the distinction between public and private mediumship also proved to be somewhat elastic.» — y el paralelo que traza: la distinción entre lo público y lo privado resultó tan elástica como el esquema de las esferas.
«Where the public/private distinction broke down was when a medium (often of lower-class origin) was taken up by a wealthy benefactor or interested researcher who offered patronage in return for control.» — dónde se rompía esa distinción, según Owen: en el patrocinio que compraba control.
«This arrangement still gave mediums the favoured private status because, although they received financial support, they made no direct charge for their services.» — y por qué el arreglo conservaba el estatus privado: había sostén económico y no cobro por servicio.
«Kate Fox, for example, was paid an annual sum of $1,200 in the mid-i850s by Horace Day, a wealthy American manufacturer. In return she gave free seances to all genuine investigators and was therefore classed as a private medium.» — el caso con que lo documenta: Kate Fox pagada por Horace Day y clasificada por eso como médium privada; *mid-i850s* es errata del troceo.
«As these sole providers were often gentlemen, the anomaly arose of the private female medium who was kept by a man, gave sensational seances to which the rich and famous clamoured for entrance, and whose activities became more public than the most ‘public’ of mediums.» — la anomalía que Owen señala en ese arreglo: la médium privada mantenida por un hombre resultaba más pública que las públicas.
«The success of ‘Katie King’ brought her to the attention of Charles Blackburn, the wealthy Manchester believer who helped finance Frank Herne as well as W. H. Harrison’s Spiritualist.» — cómo llegó Cook a Charles Blackburn, financiador también de Herne y del Spiritualist de Harrison; el guion de *Manches-ter* es del corte de renglón.
«He enthusiastically endorsed the full-form materialisations of ‘Katie King’, and was now prepared to pay ‘to the said medium or her family a sum equal to the stipend received by many a hard-working curate for his ministrations’.» — la fórmula del acuerdo, citada por Owen: una suma igual al estipendio de un coadjutor trabajador.
«He saw her when he was in London, and she wrote to him when he was in Manchester.» — y la forma cotidiana de esa relación, según Owen.
«Florence Cook, then, was a lower-class girl who succeeded in making money from her mediumship whilst securing private status.» — la posición exacta en que la sitúa: muchacha de clase baja que ganaba dinero conservando el estatus privado.
«Although believers chose not to express this directly, public mediumship was associated not only with the working classes but also with middle-class assumptions about lower-class morality.» — lo que estaba detrás de esa jerarquía y no se decía, según Owen: los supuestos de clase media sobre la moral de la clase baja.
«The rationale that working-class mediums needed to earn a living and might therefore be more tempted to resort to legerdemain if their gifts deserted them or failed to come up to scratch merely cloaked other class-based anxieties.» — y la racionalización que las encubría: la médium pobre, más tentada al truco si el don le fallaba.
«Certainly, amongst more affluent believers and researchers there was built-in resistance to the idea that a ‘lady’ could possibly stoop to fraud.» — la resistencia que documenta entre creyentes acomodados: una dama no podía rebajarse al fraude.
«Although this was by no means true, private mediumship remained closely associated in spiritualist minds with middle-classness, uplifting moral imperatives, and the sanctity of the family circle;» — y la asociación que se mantenía pese a no ser cierta, según Owen: lo privado con la clase media y la santidad del círculo familiar.
«The bottom line was that public mediums were often suspect where private ones were not.» — el resultado práctico de esa jerarquía: la médium pública era sospechosa y la privada no.
«The ‘private’ label therefore had important connotations, and lower-class girls like Florence Cook hung on to it for as long as possible.» — y por qué las muchachas de clase baja se aferraban a la etiqueta de privada.
«By common consent, the two princesses of the spiritualist world during the 1870s were Florence Cook and Mary Rosina Showers.» — las dos princesas del mundo espiritista de los años setenta, según Owen: Florence Cook y Mary Rosina Showers.
«Florence was petite, pretty, and dark. Mary Rosina was plump, attractive, and fair, with a ‘large mop of hair falling down to her waist’ and a dreamy look in her eyes.» — el retrato contrastado que hace de las dos, con la descripción de época sobre la melena de Showers.
«Florence came from an artisan’s home in a London suburb; Mary Rosina was the daughter of Colonel Charles Lionel Showers and came from a comfortable middle-class home in Teignmouth» — y la distancia social entre ambas: la casa artesana de un suburbio londinense frente a la hija del coronel Showers; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Furthermore, perhaps in honour of her friend, Mary Rosina’s spirit form was called ‘Florence’.» — el detalle que Owen anota con un *perhaps*: la forma espiritual de Showers llevaba el nombre de su amiga.
«It also says something for the social standing of the Dalston members and Cook family that Mrs Showers, always mindful of her class origins, should have felt comfortable with them.» — y lo que de ahí deduce sobre la posición social del círculo de Dalston.
«Both girls were ‘managed’ to a certain extent by interested parties outside their immediate families.» — la tutela que documenta sobre las dos: gestionadas por interesados ajenos a la familia.
«During the early part of 1874 Florence Cook’s patron, Charles Blackburn, passed the management of her seances to William Crookes, a scientist and future president of the Royal Society.» — el traspaso que fecha a comienzos de 1874: de Blackburn a William Crookes, futuro presidente de la Royal Society; el guion de *manage-ment* es del corte de renglón.
«Crookes was extremely interested in spiritualist phenomena and had conducted a series of famous test seances with Florence Cook during 1873-4.» — las sesiones de prueba que Crookes había hecho con Cook en 1873 y 1874.
«His proprietary attitude upset and annoyed some spiritualists, including upon occasion Blackburn, and his association with young female mediums was cause for comment at the time.» — y el malestar que su actitud posesiva provocaba, con los comentarios de época sobre su trato con médiums jóvenes.
«Mary Rosina was managed by Mr Luxmoore who arranged many of her seances and offered her the hospitality of his London home in Gloucester Square.» — quién gestionaba a Showers, según Owen: el señor Luxmoore, en su casa de Gloucester Square.
«Once the girls’ mediumship had been established, entrance to their seances was jealously guarded by these male protectors and champions.» — y la función de esos protectores: guardar celosamente la entrada a las sesiones.
«It was rumoured that presents ofjewellery were required from strangers who wanted to view ‘Katie King’, but even these visitors were carefully vetted and seated well away from the cabinet.» — el rumor que Owen consigna como rumor: joyas a cambio de ver a Katie King, y aun así asientos lejos del gabinete; *ofjewellery* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«It was argued that these arrangements were necessary in order to maintain harmonious conditions during a seance, but in effect it ensured a sympathetic environment and cut down the chance of hostile witnesses or attempts at debunking the medium.» — la razón que se daba y el efecto que Owen le atribuye: armonía declarada, público afín y menos testigos hostiles.
«The numerous glowing reports that appeared in the spiritualist press were usually written by this chosen inner sanctum of supporters and must be read in that light.» — y la advertencia de método que saca de ahí: los informes elogiosos de la prensa espiritista salían de ese círculo escogido.
«Amelia Corner had already seen ‘Florence Maple’ three times, but she commented that upon this occasion her ‘pensive beauty and graceful attire’ were unsurpassed.» — según Owen, Amelia Corner elogiaba así la aparición de Florence Maple en su cuarta visita.
«She also noted the spirit’s head-dress which she thought too intricate for a seventeen-year-old girl to have manufactured in a darkened room, and the dress which hung in graceful folds.» — y el argumento con que Corner defendía la autenticidad: el tocado era demasiado intrincado para fabricarlo a oscuras.
«could not distinguish the features, but the face was sufficiently lighted up to present a corpse-like appearance.» — el testimonio de Amelia Corner dentro del gabinete, sobre el aspecto cadavérico de la médium; el arranque —*The light was dim so that I*— queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Caroline Corner then entered the cabinet but she was so upset by the medium’s ghastly face that she turned away exclaiming, ‘How horrible.’» — la reacción de la hija, Caroline Corner, ante la misma cara.
«She and her mother both left the cabinet but, under instructions from ‘Peter’, returned a few minutes later to find the medium still entranced but restored to her normal appearance.» — y el desenlace, con el espíritu llamado Peter dando las instrucciones.
«The somewhat ghoulish aspects of this seance were one of Mary Rosina’s trademarks, and other witne» — el rasgo que Owen tiene por marca de fábrica de Showers: lo macabro; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Miss Marryat strongly disliked ‘Lenore’ who was seldom properly formed and invariably created an uncanny atmosphere.» — según Owen, a Florence Marryat le desagradaba el espíritu Lenore, mal formado y de atmósfera inquietante.
«Sometimes this spirit also had a terrible ‘charnel-house smell about her, as if she had been buried a few weeks and dug up again ... it resembled nothing but that of a putrid corpse .» — y el olor que Marryat le atribuía, en sus propias palabras; los puntos suspensivos y el espacio final son del troceo.
«Although the novelist was not the most objective of witnesses, there were many other reports of noticeable weight loss in entranced mediums as well as of ‘spirit smells’.» — la reserva que Owen pone sobre esa testigo y el contrapeso documental que ofrece: otros informes de pérdida de peso y de olores.
«However, none of this seemed to offend Florence Cook.» — el contraste con que cierra el tramo: nada de eso parecía molestar a Florence Cook.
«mediums gave joint seances at which ‘Katie King’ and ‘Florence Maple’ would appear together, parading up and down with every appearance of great enjoyment.» — las sesiones conjuntas de Cook y Showers, con los dos espíritus desfilando juntos; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Indeed, an important and often overlooked aspect of Victorian mediumship was that it could be enormous fun.» — el aspecto que Owen dice que suele pasarse por alto: la mediumnidad victoriana podía ser diversión enorme.
«Some spirits were known for their playfulness. Thomas Blyton was once tied up by ‘Katie King’ during a seance, covered with a table cloth, then an antimacassar, and made to sit still whilst a chair covered with various musical instruments was balanced on his head.» — la broma que Katie King le hizo a Thomas Blyton, según Owen: atado, cubierto y con una silla de instrumentos en la cabeza.
«On another occasion the amiable Mr Blyton was invited by ‘Katie’ to feel how real she was, and then, much to the delight of the spirit, was shocked to find a great hole in the back of her head.» — y la segunda broma: el agujero en la nuca del espíritu, para deleite de éste.
«‘Katie’ explained that in her hurry she had ‘omitted to finish herself.» — la explicación que dio Katie King, según la fuente: con las prisas se había dejado sin terminar.
«In a different vein, both Florence Cook and Mrs Guppy claimed to have had experiences of levitation and transportation by spirit hands, and Mrs Guppy was a demon with her spirit ‘apports’.» — los otros números del repertorio: levitación y transporte, y la señora Guppy como maestra de los aportes.
«When Dr Alfred Russel Wallace requested a sunflower at one seance a six-foot specimen complete with clods of earth fell at his feet.» — el aporte que cayó cuando Alfred Russel Wallace pidió un girasol: un ejemplar de dos metros con terrones incluidos.
«The Princess Marguerite expressed an interest in prickly cactus and more than twenty dropped on the table and had to be removed with tongs.» — y el que siguió al interés de la princesa Marguerite por los cactus espinosos, retirados con tenazas.
«There were reports of live eels and lobsters, sea water and star fish.» — el resto del inventario de aportes que Owen recoge: anguilas y langostas vivas, agua de mar y estrellas.
«This kind of expertise enabled Mrs Guppy to spend several years in Europe, particularly Italy, where she gave seances for aristocrats like the Duchess d’Arpino.» — y a dónde le llevó esa pericia: años en Europa dando sesiones para aristócratas.
«But if the spirits could be mischievous they were not always kind, and when Mrs Guppy requested the spirits for an apport of tar the unfortunate recipient (her friend, Mrs Berry) ran from the house looking like a magpie, and remained estranged for many years.» — el reverso de esa travesura: el aporte de alquitrán que le costó a la señora Guppy una amistad de años.
«This activity, whilst not always pleasant for the person concerned, often delighted the spirits gjid spectators and, where conscious fraud was behind it all, presumably the medium as well.» — el juicio con que Owen cierra el punto, dejando abierta la hipótesis del fraude consciente; *gjid* es basura del troceo por *and*.
«The entire business of mediumship was, of course, superb theatre. Some of the best seances of the 1870s resembled nothing more than masterpieces of dramatic orchestration with young girls in the starring roles.» — la lectura teatral que propone: las mejores sesiones de los años setenta como obras maestras de orquestación dramática.
«In fact, some mediums like Emma Hardinge Britten and the American, Annie Eva Fay, had come from theatrical backgrounds.» — y el dato biográfico que la apoya: Britten y Annie Eva Fay venían del teatro.
«But for dramatic appeal it was difficult to match ‘Katie King’.» — quién se llevaba la palma dramática, según Owen.
«At her emotional farewell seance of 21 May 1874, lor example, ‘Katie’ emerged from the cabinet dressed in pure white, her long auburn hair hanging in ringlets down her back.» — la fecha de la sesión de despedida de Katie King y su aparición de blanco; *lor* es errata del troceo por *for*.
«Katie asked Mr Tapp to take the bouquet to pieces, and lay the flowers out before her on the floor; she then sat down, Eastern fashion, and asked all to draw round her, which was done, most of those present sitting on the floor at her feet.» — el relato de la despedida que Owen reproduce: el ramo deshecho y el corro sentado en el suelo.
«Katie then took a pair of scissors and cut off a quantity of her hair, giving everybody present a liberal portion.» — y el reparto de reliquias que siguió: mechones de pelo para todos los presentes.
«She then took the arm of Mr Crookes and walked all round the room, shaking hands with each.» — el paseo del brazo de Crookes con que el espíritu se despidió de cada asistente.
«After she had thus cut several great holes in her dress as she sat between Mr Crookes and Mr Tapp, she was asked if she could mend it as she had done on other occasions; she then held up the dilapidated portion in a good light, gave it one flap and it was instantly as perfect as at first . . .» — el número del vestido remendado de un golpe, según la misma crónica; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«She then appeared tired and said reluctantly that she must go, as the power was failing, and bade farewell in the most affectionate way; the sitters all wished her God speed, and thanked her for the wonderful manifestations she had given.» — y el remate de la escena, con el poder que falla y la despedida afectuosa.
«The aims, objects, and energies of Spiritualists have been far too intimately identified with the business interests and abnormal practices of professional mediums, and as a consequence the cause has had to suffer most grievously for the acts of individuals . . .» — la queja de época contra las médiums profesionales que Owen cita: la causa pagando por los actos de individuos; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«I am not here to cast odium on that class, far from it; my words are in favour of their protection, and the protection of the Cause from the mismanagement manifested in isolated cases .» — y la cautela con que ese mismo texto se cubría; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Other spiritualists agreed and argued that it was essential for mediums to have some secondary occupation, the assumption being that private mediums would be busy with domestic duties.» — según Owen, otros pedían que las médiums tuvieran una ocupación secundaria, dando por hecho que las privadas la tenían en la casa.
«They maintained that individuals were ‘ruined mediumistically and morally by having nothing to do but be mediums.» — el argumento con que lo sostenían: la ruina mediúmnica y moral de quien no hace más que ser médium.
«The ruin of our Cause is the morbidities of these trafficking mediums and the irregular action of their unoccupied minds.» — y el remate de esa misma queja, sobre las mentes desocupadas de las médiums que trafican.
«An interesting offshoot of this argument was that public mediumship looked too much like the priesthood for comfort, and those who balked at Christian orthodoxy abhorred the thought of having to ‘fall down and worship the whole host of adventurers who choose to stump the country under the pretence ofinspiration’.» — la derivación que Owen encuentra en ese debate: la mediumnidad pública se parecía demasiado a un sacerdocio; *ofinspiration* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Mediums like Emma Hardinge Britten argued that ‘if my mediumistic gift is the one most in requisition, it is no less worthy of being exchanged for bread than any other’,» — la defensa del cobro que Britten hacía, citada por Owen: un don que se pide no es menos digno de cambiarse por pan.
«but some spiritualists considered it almost immoral to place a price upon a blessed gift.» — y la posición contraria, que tenía por casi inmoral poner precio a un don bendito.
«They agreed to perform a certain number of seances per month or year in return for a fixed weekly sum, and this stabilised their financial position and placed it on an official and more dignified footing.» — el arreglo que Owen describe como salida: cierto número de sesiones a cambio de una suma fija semanal.
«Miss C. E. Wood was born in 1854 and was the second daughter of one Thomas Wood, a ‘working mechanic’.» — según Owen, Miss C. E. Wood nació en 1854, segunda hija de un mecánico obrero.
«At the age of fourteen she went into service, where she remained until 1873 when she was employed by the Newcastle Society as one of their regular mediums.» — y su trayectoria: sirvienta a los catorce años hasta que en 1873 la contrató la sociedad de Newcastle.
«Many domestic servants were attracted to spiritualism but Miss Wood was introduced to it by her father who was a keen investigator.» — la vía de entrada que documenta en su caso: el padre, investigador entusiasta.
«Thomas Wood may well have been one of those self-taught plebeian enthusiasts who discovered spiritualism via related lectures at the Mechanics’ Institute or Temperance Hall.» — la conjetura que Owen marca como tal sobre el padre y su instrucción autodidacta.
«In this respect Miss Wood, like Florence Cook, would fit the pattern of lower-class female mediums who tended to come from homes where education and self-improvement were favoured.» — el patrón que traza para las médiums de clase baja: hogares donde se apreciaba la educación y la mejora propia.
«The ‘respectable’ status of these young working-class women became important when they were taken up by a spiritualist society where they mixed with their social betters and were expected to conduct themselves with grace and decorum.» — y por qué importaba la respetabilidad: al entrar en una sociedad espiritista alternaban con sus superiores sociales.
«It therefore says something for Miss Wood’s social acceptability, as well as her remarkable powers, that within a year of her initial contact with spiritualism she was employed by the Newcastle Society for ‘a trifling remuneration’ and remained with them for three years.» — lo que Owen deduce de su contratación rápida por una remuneración insignificante.
«is known of Annie Fairlamb’s background, but she was a year younger than Miss Wood and was also a second daughter.» — el muro documental que declara sobre Annie Fairlamb y lo poco que puede fijar de ella; el *Less* inicial queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«By the time of her marriage in 1878, Annie’s father, Mark Fairlamb, was dead, but it is unclear whether she was left to fend for herself at an early age.» — y la duda que deja abierta sobre si quedó sola pronto.
«It seems that at first Miss Wood was the most skilled of the two and that Annie learned a great deal from her friend, but later they shared the most prestigious and financially rewarding seances between them.» — la relación entre las dos, con el *it seems* que Owen conserva: Wood más diestra al principio, y después las sesiones repartidas.
«Both young women had a small company of favourite spirits who materialised at most of their seances.» — el elenco fijo de espíritus que ambas manejaban.
«Sitters consistently reported seeing the faces and hands of these different spirits at close quarters and were satisfied that they were quite distinct from each other as well as suitably male or female.» — y lo que los asistentes declaraban, según Owen: caras y manos distintas entre sí y con sexo reconocible.
«Two prominent psychical researchers, Frederic Myers and Edmund Gurney, experienced a dematerialisation at the end of one of Miss Wood’s seances in Newcastle.» — según Owen, Frederic Myers y Edmund Gurney presenciaron una desmaterialización en una sesión de Miss Wood en Newcastle.
«They recorded how ‘Pocky’ (‘Pocha’) stationed herself in front of the cabinet, ‘then dematerialises herself - sinking away into a slight white mark on the ground in about half a minute. This mark soon disappears.’» — y lo que ambos anotaron: el espíritu hundiéndose en media marca blanca sobre el suelo; el guion de *demater-ialises* es del corte de renglón.
«These manifestations were produced with such consummate skill that at times even non-believers were at a loss to explain it.» — la pericia que Owen les reconoce: a veces ni los incrédulos sabían explicarlo; el guion de *non-believers* es del corte de renglón.
«Their performances were sufficiently credible and impressive to earn Miss Wood and Annie Fairlamb invitations to London and Cambridge where they were asked into the homes of wealthy spiritualists and took part in experiments with psychical researchers.» — y a dónde las llevó esa pericia: invitaciones a Londres y Cambridge y experimentos con investigadores psíquicos; el guion de *suffici-ently* es del corte de renglón.
«Considerable expertise, novelty, and variety were the hallmarks of seances given by these young professionals, and they knew how to engage and maintain the attention and loyalty of their audience.» — los tres rasgos que Owen tiene por marca de esas profesionales: pericia, novedad y variedad.
«The child sprites, ‘Pocha’ and ‘Cissie’, were endearing and playful, teasing and mischievous, their popularity echoing that of the early Victorian child performers in the theatre.» — el paralelo que traza entre los espíritus niños y los actores infantiles del teatro victoriano temprano.
«But after lighthearted antics the mediums could introduce high emotion by materialising the spirit of a dead relative of one of the sitters, an incident that never failed to produce a mixture of genuine grief and joy.» — el giro emocional que seguía a la broma: el pariente muerto materializado, con su mezcla de duelo y alegría.
«These spirits, although often appearing identical to unsympathetic observers, were claimed with alacrity by the bereaved.» — y el desacuerdo que Owen consigna sin arbitrar: idénticos entre sí para el observador hostil, reconocidos al instante por el deudo.
«It was this sort of episode that moved critics to explosions of wrath, but materialisation of the deceased was popular amongst believers and provided the emotional high point of many seances.» — las dos reacciones ante ese número: la cólera de los críticos y el punto culminante para los creyentes.
«William Armstrong, a respected official of the Society, noted that in the mid 1870s Annie had given them one hundred and forty-one seances over a sixteen-month period, for which she had received a total of £69.» — la cifra que Owen toma del oficial William Armstrong: ciento cuarenta y una sesiones en dieciséis meses por sesenta y nueve libras.
«This indicated that she was giving the Society roughly two» — y lo que Owen deduce de esa cifra; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que eran unas dos sesiones por semana por algo más de una libra.
«As this figure excluded her lucrative private work, Annie’s income at this point suggests that she and Miss Wood led a reasonably comfortable existence.» — la conclusión que saca sobre el nivel de vida de las dos, marcada con un *suggests*.
«It was certainly a wage far in excess of anything Miss Wood could have commanded as a domestic servant.» — y la comparación que la sostiene: muy por encima de lo que habría ganado sirviendo.
«Even if, at the age of nineteen, she had achieved the status of parlourmaid, she would expect to earn only something like twenty pounds per year, and for that she would work long hours and have little personal freedom.» — la cifra alternativa que da para una doncella de comedor de diecinueve años: unas veinte libras al año y poca libertad.
«But despite their financial gains the friendship and early co-operation of the two young girls disintegrated in the face of increased competitiveness and arguments over money, and an agreement to share the most remunerative seances broke down in 1876.» — la ruptura que fecha en 1876, por competencia y dinero; el guion de *competi-tiveness* es del corte de renglón.
«Miss Wood withdrew temporarily from the Society and was followed in 1877 by Annie, who appeared to be embroiled in a series of grievances with committee members.» — las dos retiradas que siguieron, la de Wood y la de Fairlamb en 1877.
«Amidst allegations and counter-allegations, the Newcastle Society published an account of its financial arrangements with Miss Fairlamb and hinted darkly that James Barr Mellon, whom Annie married in July 1878, was responsible for some of the trouble.» — y la versión de la sociedad de Newcastle, que insinuaba la culpa de James Barr Mellon, con quien Fairlamb se casó en julio de 1878.
«It seemed that Mr Mellon, whilst not a committee member, sought to interfere in the conduct of test seances when security was vital if the results were to be generally accepted.» — el reproche concreto que se le hacía a Mellon: interferir en las sesiones de prueba.
«James Mellon liked to manage everything, disregarded the society’s wishes, but nevertheless happily took ‘the people’s money’.» — y el retrato que de él daba la misma fuente, sin que Owen lo arbitre.
«There is no saying what lay behind James Mellon’s handling of Annie’s affairs, or whether she was exploited by him, but it is quite possible that public mediums felt more secure with a male protector.» — la abstención que Owen declara sobre ese matrimonio y la posibilidad que sí admite: el protector varón como seguridad.
«Davies was struck not only by the medium’s unpleasing demeanour but also by that of her male companion. This man handled the introductions and took the money but it was not clear if he was husband, ‘Papa’, or something more irregular.» — el testimonio de Charles Maurice Davies sobre una sesión de baja estofa y el hombre que cobraba, sin que quedara claro su parentesco; el guion de *introduc-tions* es del corte de renglón.
«The entire episode smacked of a lack of respectability that was not lost on the inquirer and, although reports of this nature were not common, it reinforced the idea that public mediumship was a morally suspect commercial transaction.» — y lo que ese episodio reforzaba, con la salvedad de que no eran informes comunes.
«It was hinted elsewhere that marriage afforded mediums some degree of security and respectability.» — la función que se le insinuaba al matrimonio para una médium: seguridad y respetabilidad.
«Florence Cook married Edward Elgie Corner, a Dalston man and son of family friends, in April 1874; Mary Rosina Showers married the well-connected Edward Nugent James in 1878; and when Miss Agnes Nicholl married the elderly Mr Guppy within two years of her successful launch as a private medium, her close friend could only suppose that she had made the match in order to gain guidance and protection in a ‘self-seeking world’.» — los tres matrimonios con que Owen documenta esa función y la explicación que una amiga daba del último.
«In this respect mediums, particularly those who travelled, were not unlike actresses during the same period. They also viewed a husband as a form of protection both of themselves and their good name.» — el paralelo con las actrices de la época, que veían al marido como protección de su nombre.
«There seems to be no clear-cut relationship between public or private mediumship and marital status, and assessment is complicated by a number of factors.» — la negativa que Owen declara como hallazgo: no hay relación nítida entre estado civil y tipo de mediumnidad.
«However, the evidence seems to indicate that private mediumship was not unduly affected by marital status, and that it was open to the unmarried, married, and widowed.» — lo que sí le parece que indica la evidencia, con su *seems* a cuestas.
«Interestingly, although mediums could slip from the private into the public field, the reverse did not seem to pertain.» — y la asimetría que le llama la atención: se pasaba de lo privado a lo público y no al revés.
«For public mediums, though, whether married or not, there could be no guarantee of a male patron or supporter. They were often, essentially, on their own.» — la situación de la médium pública, según Owen: sin garantía de patrón y esencialmente sola.
«What is more, the majority were not young stars who found a measure of protection and security within a spiritualist society.» — y la corrección de escala que hace: la mayoría no eran estrellas jóvenes protegidas por una sociedad.
«Most were small-time mediums who remained heavily reliant on personal recommendation and their advertisements in the spiritualist press.» — quiénes eran entonces la mayoría: médiums de poca monta que vivían de la recomendación y del anuncio.
«Every week the major spiritualist newspapers carried about a page of such advertisements and, although little is known about the women who featured in them, the fact that their names often continued to appear for several years at a time suggests that some at least were able to keep going through steady local work.» — el indicio que Owen extrae de esos anuncios, marcado como sugerencia: nombres repetidos años seguidos.
«A few, like Madame Llancore, who played the piano entranced and blindfolded whilst controlled by Mozart and Mendelssohn, managed to produce a novel and lucrative form of entertainment which no doubt found favour with middle-class spiritualists.» — el caso de Madame Llancore, que tocaba el piano en trance y con los ojos vendados bajo el control de Mozart y Mendelssohn.
«Miss C. Ross was another who would find engagements on the strength of her ‘delineations of character from photographs or hand-writing. Fee 2/6d\» — y el de Miss C. Ross, que leía el carácter en fotografías y letra por dos chelines y seis peniques; la barra final es del troceo.
«But there were many more who merely fumbled their way through dark seances or attempted rough-and-ready materialisations whilst seated behind suspended blankets.» — el resto del gremio, según Owen: sesiones a tientas y materializaciones improvisadas detrás de mantas colgadas; el guion de *sus-pended* es del corte de renglón.
«Although undoubtedly these women made some sort of living, their existence was much more precarious than that of well-paid public mediums like Miss Wood and Miss Fairlamb.» — y la comparación con que mide esa precariedad.
«Spiritualists often commented that most mediums ‘suffer from brain exhaustion’ if pressed too hard, but that ‘almost all professional sensitives undergo, in the course of time, a gradual but very perceptible diminution of mental and physical vigour’.» — el diagnóstico de época que Owen recoge: agotamiento cerebral y merma gradual del vigor mental y físico.
«The strain of unregulated seances, continual performances, and the consequent drain on stamina led inexorably to a medium’s exhaustion and depletion of her powers.» — y la cadena causal que ella misma traza: sesiones sin regular, actuación continua, agotamiento y merma de poderes.
«Although this could apply to much status mediumship, it was particularly true for the professional.» — el reparto de ese riesgo: tocaba a la mediumnidad de prestigio y sobre todo a la profesional.
«The woman who made her living from mediumship faced,» — la situación de la que vivía de ello; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue hablando de la salud y los dones que se apagan.
«One of the difficulties here was that not all seances, even those of a spiritualist society, were restricted to members only, and in the towns they offered the equivalent of a grand evening’s entertainment for the general populace.» — el problema del público abierto que Owen señala: en las ciudades la sesión era el espectáculo de la noche para cualquiera.
«Whilst this was good business for the society, it offered all kinds ofaggravation for the medium.» — y el reparto desigual de esa apertura: buen negocio para la sociedad, molestias para la médium; *ofaggravation* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«William Armstrong, in defence of Annie Fairlamb’s sudden resignation from the Newcastle Society, stated that during 1 876-7 she had withstood a great deal of insult and annoyance ‘from the alcoholic element’ amongst the general audiences.» — según Owen, William Armstrong defendió la renuncia de Fairlamb alegando los insultos del elemento alcohólico del público; los espacios en la fecha son del troceo.
«This lack of vetting was problematic, and spiritualists consistently emphasised that ‘evil controls’ were the result of ‘a miscellaneous circle of sitters, when the medium’s sensitive nature and passive state receives the combined yet often antagonistic action of the inharmonic mass of minds’.» — la explicación espiritista de los controles malignos que Owen recoge: el público heterogéneo actuando sobre la naturaleza pasiva de la médium; el guion de *spiri-tualists* es del corte de renglón.
«But it was extremely hard for the professional medium, especially one on tour, to know in advance what kind of arrangements had been made for the conduct ofher seances.» — la indefensión práctica de la médium de gira, que no sabía de antemano cómo se habían organizado sus sesiones; *ofher* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«James Burns, also in the area to address temperance meetings and debate spiritualism, was horrified to discover that neither Mr Mellon nor William Armstrong was present, and that she was reliant on local believers to fend off the o» — el episodio de West Auckland en 1879 que Owen usa como muestra, con Burns escandalizado de que la médium quedara sola; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Burns’s indignation knew no bounds and he concluded that ‘Pitmen are not the fierce men they are supposed to be’, although they doubtless feared for their jobs.» — la conclusión de Burns sobre los mineros que asistían, con la reserva que Owen le añade sobre el miedo a perder el empleo.
«This was not an uncommon outcome for a troubled seance, and many mediums became ill or hysterical in their wake.» — el desenlace habitual de una sesión conflictiva, según Owen: enfermedad o histeria de la médium.
«At the third of a series of test seances held at Arthur Balfour’s London home, Miss Wood was in a state of such delusion and distress that it was 6. 15 a.m. before she could be taken back to her lodgings.» — el caso extremo que documenta: Miss Wood en casa de Arthur Balfour, en tal estado que no pudo volver a su alojamiento hasta las seis y cuarto de la mañana.
«She was one of the few professionals who wrote in depth about the personal experience of mediumship, and she understood how a woman at the end of her strength could recant and admit to ‘horrible farce and deception’.» — el valor que Owen le da a esa testigo: una de las pocas profesionales que escribió a fondo sobre la experiencia, y que entendía la retractación por agotamiento.
«Spiritualists believed that a materialisation medium drew on her own energy, and often also that of her sitters, to produce the spirit form.» — la teoría espiritista de la materialización que Owen expone: la energía de la médium y la de los asistentes.
«This was known to be an exhausting process but, as materialisation was usually accomplished in the trance state, these mediums were considered to be operating at a doubly dangerous level.» — y el doble peligro que se le atribuía: agotamiento más trance.
«Materialisation was said to require total ‘mind-passivity’ on the part of the medium, and it was argued that this ‘condition of helplessness’ and ‘loss of self-control’ was fraught with attendant hazards.» — la pasividad mental total que se exigía y los riesgos que se le adjudicaban, en las palabras de las fuentes.
«Not the least of these was a medium’s exposure to unsavoury spirit forces. At mixed gatherings with large, uncensored audiences she could attract the most unsuitable energy, some of which went into the materialisation process with lamentable results.» — el riesgo principal que se temía: energías impropias del público mezcladas en la materialización.
«Although some supporters might still stand by her, a public medium’s fall from grace robbed her of her livelihood and left her open to censure even from within her own movement.» — el costo de una caída en desgracia, según Owen: el sustento perdido y la censura de los propios.
«Mrs Mould, Miss Wood’s admirer and supporter and a respectable Newcastle spiritualist, allowed herself considerable frankness when she wrote, ‘I must define Miss Wood to be determined and inflexible, denoting one well able to plunge through what has been dived into’, although ‘thoroughly honest, so being thus true to herself.» — el retrato ambiguo que la señora Mould hizo de Miss Wood, que Owen consigna sin resolver: inflexible y a la vez honesta del todo.
«Neither was Mrs Mould afraid to admit that her circle had found some of the seances difficult to manage, and this was perhaps one of the reasons for moving them temporarily from the society rooms to her own home.» — y la admisión de que las sesiones eran difíciles de manejar, con la conjetura de Owen sobre el traslado a su casa.
«she respected, and great sternness with her enemies - qualities which in a man might have been described as strength of character.» — el contraste de género que Owen introduce: rasgos que en un hombre se habrían llamado fuerza de carácter; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«This young woman seemed to lack the playful coquettishness of a Florence Cook and was no doubt a force to be reckoned with when put to the test.» — la comparación con Florence Cook: sin su coquetería juguetona y con carácter propio.
«It is quite possible that her spirit controls sometimes resembled a Miss Wood without the restraining influences of drawing-room etiquette or social aspirations.» — la hipótesis que Owen arriesga marcándola como posible: los controles de Miss Wood como ella misma sin los frenos del salón.
«At all events, Mrs Mould was happy to leave the matter with a remark to the effect that it was necessary to have the shadows in order to relieve the light, a sentiment shared by many spiritualists and a comment that had already been made in relation to Florence Cook.» — y la fórmula con que la señora Mould dejaba el asunto: hacen falta sombras para realzar la luz.
«In the summer of 1877 she was discovered impersonating the spirit ‘Pocka’ at a Blackburn seance, and then either spoke to, or sold her story to, the Blackburn Times.» — la exposición de Miss Wood en el verano de 1877, con la duda que Owen deja abierta sobre si habló o vendió su historia al periódico.
«If Miss Wood will sell herself to the degrading manipulations of newspaper reporters, that they may, through her disgrace, earn a small pittance by writing special reports of their ignoble triumphs, she must be content with the wages of such conduct.» — la reacción del Medium and Daybreak de Burns, citada por Owen.
«But there appeared to be more behind this explosion than one exposure and a newspaper account.» — y la sospecha que Owen deja anotada: detrás de esa cólera había más que una exposición.
«The Medium and Daybreak warned that ‘the power of the physical medium only sustains itself for a certain length of time’, and that such exhaustion laid a practitioner open to evil powers.» — la advertencia del mismo periódico sobre la duración limitada del poder mediúmnico.
«Drink, she declared, was often to be found at the bottom of the trouble, and it was her experience that intemperance had the direst consequences for a medium’s powers.» — y la causa que la señora Burns ponía en el fondo del problema: la bebida.
«Temperance was a favourite cause of many spiritualists and none were more devoted to it than the Burns’s. They believed that drinking was a great evil in general but especially so for spiritualists, and warned against the practice of offering a medium a little ‘hospitality’ prior to a seance.» — según Owen, la templanza era causa favorita de los espiritistas y de nadie más que de los Burns, que prevenían contra la hospitalidad ofrecida antes de una sesión.
«This was the road to ruin: ‘It perverts all the magnetic sphere, turning the wholesome emanations of the system into poison, and laying the drinker open to evil spirits, besides degrading his own spirit in its operation through the body.’» — el mecanismo con que lo explicaban: la esfera magnética pervertida y las emanaciones vueltas veneno.
«In later life Florence Cook recalled how well-meaning hostesses had ‘pressfed] stimulants on her’ and, thinking it might help the phenomena, that she had been tempted to partake.» — según Owen, Florence Cook recordaba de vieja las anfitrionas que le ofrecían estimulantes; el corchete de *pressfed]* es del troceo.
«It does you no real good. I do not take it now.» — y el juicio que la propia Cook hacía sobre ello con la perspectiva de los años.
«But it appears that many mediums did drink and some became alcoholics. It was rumoured as early as 1867 that Kate Fox had begun to drink heavily, and after her husband’s death in 1881 she deteriorated rapidly.» — el declive de Kate Fox que Owen documenta, consignando como rumor la fecha temprana.
«In England her reputation was discredited, and in New York she was arrested for drunkenness and idleness and her children were taken away.» — y hasta dónde llegó: detenida en Nueva York por ebriedad y ociosidad, con los hijos retirados.
«Her sister, Margaret, was suffering a similar decline and both women were poverty-stricken when they rocked the spiritualist world with th» — el paralelo con la hermana Margaret, las dos en la miseria; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«James Burns, true to form, thundered: Here we have a wonderful twofold spiritual spectacle; we have a woman giving spiritual manifestations to others, while within herself she is spiritually lost and misdirected.» — la reacción de Burns ante ese caso, citada por Owen: el doble espectáculo de quien da manifestaciones y está perdida por dentro.
«Under such circumstances, and with drunkenness, sensuality and moral abasement of all kinds added, is it any wonder that this kind of thing has covered the cause with scandals and left a heap of festering corpses along the course of these 45 years?» — y el remate de esa misma diatriba, con el montón de cadáveres en pudrición al cabo de cuarenta y cinco años.
«Drink might have provided temporary escape from the problem of declining powers and popularity.» — la lectura que Owen ofrece de la bebida, en modo condicional: escape temporal ante el declive de poderes y de fama.
«The pressures on mediums were enormous. In order to retain a profitable or influential following it was essential to keep up a high standard of impressive manifestations, and this involved risk and innovation.» — la presión que Owen describe: mantener el nivel de manifestaciones exigía riesgo e innovación.
«At the same time there were plenty of critics eager to expose a medium in fraud, as well as» — y los dos frentes de esa presión: los críticos y la rivalidad entre médiums; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«This became particularly apparent at the beginning of the 1870s when the arrival of fresh young mediums on the scene threatened to displace the older women.» — cuándo se hizo visible ese conflicto, según Owen: al comienzo de los años setenta.
«It was no secret that Mrs Guppy could be unscrupulous in dealing with her opposition.» — el juicio que Owen recoge sobre los métodos de la señora Guppy con sus rivales.
«Although she had actively helped Florence Cook’s old male associates, Herne and Williams, Agnes Guppy was bitterly jealous of Florence and of the American materialisation medium, Mrs Nelson Holmes.» — y el reparto de sus favores y sus celos, según Owen.
«Of the many fluctuations to which spiritualistic society has been exposed of late is a very prominent irruption of young lady mediums.» — el testimonio de época con que Owen documenta el relevo generacional: la irrupción de médiums jovencitas.
«The time seems to have gone by for portly matrons to be wafted aerially from the northern suburbs to the W. C. [Mrs Guppy’s famous supposed levitation], or, elderly spinsters to exhibit spirit drawings which gave one the idea of a water-colour palette having been overturned, and the resulting ‘mess’ sat upon for the purposes of concealment . . .» — y la burla que ese mismo cronista hacía de las matronas levitantes y de las solteronas dibujantes; el corchete es aclaración de Owen y los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«described how William Volckman, a respected spiritualist who was known to the Dalston Association, had taken hold of ‘Katie’s’ proffered hand, ‘rose up, grasped her round the waist with both arms, and tried to throw her down with his feet’.» — el asalto de William Volckman al espíritu Katie King tal como Owen lo toma de la crónica; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«A scuffle ensued during which the gas light was extinguished, Mr G. R. Tapp and Edward Elgie Corner got hold of Volckman with enough force to remove part of his whiskers, and Mr Luxmoore got ‘Katie’ back to the cabinet.» — la refriega que siguió, con las patillas arrancadas y el espíritu devuelto al gabinete.
«The villain was hustled upstairs and five minutes later the cabinet was opened to find Florence greatly distressed but still tied with the original securing tape.» — y el estado en que hallaron a la médium: angustiada y todavía atada con la cinta original.
«The incident severely shook the young medium who was ‘very ill and nervous’ in its aftermath, and was indicative of the barely concealed tensions and fractures that existed within spiritualist circles.» — lo que Owen lee en ese incidente: las tensiones apenas disimuladas dentro de los círculos espiritistas.
«The Spiritualist, whose editor, it will be remembered, was assisted financially by Florence’s patron, Charles Blackburn, noted wryly that Volckman was a friend of Mr and Mrs Guppy. After the death of Mr Guppy his widow became Mrs Volckman .» — el conflicto de interés que Owen recuerda al citar al Spiritualist y el desenlace matrimonial que ese periódico anotaba con sorna; el guion de *Spirit-ualist* es del corte de renglón y el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Forcible attempts at exposure were anathema to spiritualists, but fraud was the problem that haunted their world.» — la tensión que Owen enuncia: el asalto era anatema y el fraude era el fantasma de la casa.
«Believers agonised over it, mediums sought to give convincing proofs of their veracity, researchers tried to establish strict scientific controls, and detractors were interested only in the prospect of debunking.» — los cuatro modos de encarar ese fantasma que distingue, según quién lo mirara.
«In spite of middle-class assumptions to the contrary, fraud was a factor of private as well as public mediumship.» — y la corrección que hace al supuesto de clase: el fraude tocaba lo privado tanto como lo público.
«Frank Podmore, the psychical researcher and historian of nineteenth-century spiritualism, in pondering the apparent lack of motive for fraudulent private mediumship, found it hard to believe that enhanced social prestige or pleasure in deceiving a gullible audience could be an adequate or permanent return for the ‘unutterable monotony of dark seances continued through half a lifetime ’.» — el argumento de Frank Podmore sobre la falta de motivo en el fraude privado, citado por Owen; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«Even a truly domestic medium like Georgiana Houghton, a middle-aged spinster who lived a sequestered life with her elderly parents, experienced an astonishing change in her life when she took up spiritualism and discovered that she could make ‘spirit drawings’.» — el contraargumento que Owen ofrece con el caso de Georgiana Houghton, cuya vida cambió del todo al descubrir los dibujos espíritas.
«These mediums, even when they gave seances only to the intimate few, became stars in their own firmament, and this (quite apart from material advantage) was often sufficient motivation to keep them sitting in dark seances for the next hundred years.» — el motivo que ella propone frente al de Podmore: ser estrella en el propio firmamento bastaba, al margen del provecho material.
«Those mediums who became celebrated, however, found themselves the subject of constant scrutiny and conflicting testimony, and were correspondingly forced into accepting an ever-increasing battery of tests and restrictions.» — y el precio de la celebridad: escrutinio constante y una batería creciente de pruebas.
«Private mediums working only in their home circles escaped lightly in this respect, but well-known private mediums and the professionals had to agree to ‘test conditions’ if they wanted to preserve their reputations.» — el reparto de ese precio, según Owen: las de círculo doméstico salían bien libradas.
«In an 1873 report entitled ‘Spirit Forms’, the Spiritualist explained that an ‘elaborate system of testing’ had been developed which would protect mediums from ‘the odium of being supposed to do the manifestations themselves’, and armed with this rationale sitters began to search mediums prior to the seance and to bind them securely once they were in the cabinet.» — la justificación con que se instauraron los registros y las ataduras, publicada por el Spiritualist en 1873.
«On one occasion they took Florence up to her bedroom, removed her clothes and searched them, then sent her into the seance with only a dark grey cloak covering her underclothes.» — el registro concreto que documenta sobre Florence Cook, hecho por la señora y la señorita Corner.
«It was later discovered that cotton thread was better than rope or tape because it could not be slipped or manipulated and the slightest movement would snap it.» — y el refinamiento técnico que siguió: el hilo de algodón, que se rompe al menor movimiento.
«The point here is not that mediums managed to produce their materialisations in spite of the tests, for there is still argument about whether the controls were foolproof, but that such tests imposed a considerable strain on these young women.» — el desplazamiento con que Owen deja abierta la disputa sobre los controles y se queda con la tensión que imponían.
«Mediums complained that many of the tests (and researchers) destroyed the harmonious conditions necessary for good spirit manifestations; researchers noted that in their presence the phenomena were often weak or failed altogether.» — las dos quejas enfrentadas que consigna sin arbitrar: las pruebas rompían la armonía, y ante los investigadores los fenómenos fallaban.
«Believers and non-believers battled it out, each able to produce favourable reports. The medium was caught in the middle trying to please her sitters and hang on to her reputation in the process.» — y dónde quedaba la médium en esa batalla de informes: en medio, entre agradar y conservar la fama.
«Where materialisation was concerned, the ultimate test would have been the appearance of the medium and spirit together.» — la prueba definitiva que nunca se hacía, según Owen: médium y espíritu a la vista al mismo tiempo.
«But spiritualists believed such a test to be not only difficult but also dangerous.» — y la objeción con que se evitaba: difícil y peligrosa.
«The use of the cabinet was rationalised on the grounds that the medium must be in conditions of darkness in order to produce the materialisation, and light was thought to be inimical to the phenomena as well as possibly injurious to the entranced medium.» — la justificación del gabinete que Owen expone: la oscuridad necesaria y la luz dañina para la médium en trance.
«Despite the fact that the most famous spirits became sufficiently used to light to move freely outside the cabinet, it was still the rule that the medium must remain in darkness.» — y la asimetría que señala en esa regla: los espíritus se acostumbraban a la luz y la médium seguía a oscuras.
«Therefore, although ‘Katie King’ allowed herself to be photographed and stood in the full glare of the light, the entranced medium lay inside the cabinet with her face muffled in a shawl.» — el caso extremo de esa asimetría: Katie King fotografiada a plena luz y Florence Cook con la cara tapada dentro del gabinete.
«Given all the difficulties of obtaining proof of spirit authenticity, and the inhibiting rules of conduct which pertained for the majority of sitters during a seance, it is scarcely surprising that suspicious individuals resorted to the undignified procedure of ‘spirit grabbing’.» — de dónde salía el agarre de espíritus, según Owen: de la imposibilidad de probar y de las reglas que ataban al asistente.
«Nearly all major mediums of the period were detected in fraud during the course of their careers, and the 1873 seizure of ‘Katie King’ by Mr Volckman was fairly typical.» — la generalidad que enuncia: casi todas las médiums importantes fueron sorprendidas en fraude alguna vez.
«However, when Miss Wood’s spirit form was seized during a seance at Blackburn she was less lucky than ‘Katie’ had been.» — y el contraste de suerte entre Cook y Wood al ser agarradas.
«Miss Wood, speaking in the voice of the child spirit, ‘Pocha’, said that she had been controlled by an evil spirit who ‘had all but stripped her naked’ and sent her out into the circle.» — la explicación que dio Miss Wood, hablando con la voz del espíritu niño: un espíritu maligno la había desnudado y echado al círculo.
«Despite the fact that Burns already considered Miss Wood to be on the slippery slope to ruin, the Medium and Daybreak stated its position on the exposure as follows: the medium was adversely affected by the derogatory surroundings, conditions were weakened because the seance was led ‘by committee’ rather than by one good spiritualist, and in her unconscious state the medium was possessed by the ‘perverted actions’ of her controls and thus reduced to the ‘disgraceful position’ in which she was found.» — la posición del Medium and Daybreak ante esa exposición, con sus tres razones, pese al juicio previo de Burns sobre la médium.
«Burns openly criticised her decision to liaise with newspaper reporters, but excused her apparent fraud.» — el reparto de reproches en Burns, que Owen consigna sin armonizar: la prensa sí, el fraude no.
«Within two years she was again giving regular seances for the Newcastle Society and had recovered her composure and powers sufficiently by the beginning of the 1880s to win increasing praise in the spiritualist press.» — y la recuperación de Miss Wood en dos años, con elogios crecientes al comenzar los ochenta.
«Therefore, when a spiritualist wrote to Light in 1882 stating that ‘Pocha’ had been seized at a seance in his own home and found to be Miss Wood on» — la segunda exposición de 1882 y la reacción del periódico Light: cartas en su defensa; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Once again evil spirits were the favourite explanation.» — la explicación preferida que se repetía, según Owen: los espíritus malignos.
«It was this refusal on the part of many spiritualists to accept what seemed to be clear cases of fraud that baffled and infuriated many critics, although some believers and mediums were prepared to talk openly and sensibly about the problem.» — y la salvedad con que acota esa negativa: algunos creyentes sí hablaban del problema con franqueza.
«Whether by accident or design, however, his married daughter approached the curtains, behind which Mary Rosina’s ‘Florence Maple’ was in the process ofexhibiting her face, and tried to open them.» — el episodio de Mary Rosina Showers, con la duda sobre si fue accidente o cálculo dejada abierta; *ofexhibiting* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«A public discussion of the pros and cons of Miss Wood’s exposure was one thing, but when a respectable, middle-class private medium was caught out, it raised additional social difficulties.» — la diferencia de trato que Owen mide según la clase de la médium sorprendida.
«An enraged Mrs Showers stated that the seance ended with her daughter rushing from the cabinet shrieking, “‘What is it? Where am I?”’» — según Owen, la señora Showers contaba así el final de la sesión en que su hija fue descubierta.
«I could hardly recognise,’ she continued, ‘in the frantic creature who had to be held down by Serjeant Cox and myself on the floor, and resembling more a wild animal than a human being, the dimpled smiling girl who had gone into the cabinet a short time before.’» — y el contraste con que la madre describía a su hija, entre la criatura frenética y la muchacha sonriente que había entrado al gabinete.
«The scene finished with the medium screaming, Edward Cox on his knees trying to ‘soothe and mesmerise her’, and Mrs Cox indignantly exclaiming, “‘He has no mesmeric power, none whatever. Make him get up. Do make him get up”.’» — el remate de la escena, con la señora Cox negándole a su marido todo poder mesmérico.
«The medium was subsequently confined to her bed, in some pain from the ‘shock to the nervous system ’.» — y el estado en que quedó la médium, según la misma fuente; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«In the aftermath of this debacle, and in a rare explicit statement of class feeling, Mrs Showers exclaimed that it was unthinkable ‘to attribute imposture to people in our position of life: people who . . . had but one object, viz., the advancement of truth.’» — la declaración de clase que Owen califica de rara por explícita: impensable atribuir impostura a gente de esa posición; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«She put forward the familiar argument that refined persons could have no possible motive or inclination for fraud.» — el argumento conocido con que se defendía, según Owen; el guion de *inclina-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«It was only after Burns’s Medium and Daybreak published Cox’s letter that Harrison finally allowed an amended version of the original account to appear in his paper.» — el orden en que salió el caso a la luz: Harrison publicó solo después de que Burns adelantara la carta de Cox.
«In his own defence Harrison stated: ‘I have no interest in defending Miss Showers, but am simply scrupulously careful about the publication of ex parte statements, injurious to personal character, not quite conclusive in themselves, and negatived [sic] to a great extent by the previous experience of other witnesses .’» — la defensa que Harrison dio de su silencio, con el *sic* que la fuente ya trae; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«When he did publish on the subject he was careful to include Mrs Showers’ account, the testimony of Mr Dunphy, a barrister, supporting Mary Rosina, and Cox’s subsequent diplomatic statement that he was satisfied that the medium had acted whilst in a state of trance.» — y cómo equilibró la publicación: la versión de la madre, el testimonio de un abogado y la salida diplomática de Cox por el trance.
«Later, however, when William Crookes also discovered that Mary Rosina was committing flagrant fraud, he too chose not to make a public statement.» — según Owen, Crookes también descubrió el fraude y también calló.
«Crookes wrote to his friend, Daniel Dunglas Home, saying that he had persuaded Miss Showers ‘to give up these tricks, I promising not to bring about a public exposure but only to warn my private friends. Do not therefore say anything about this.’» — la carta de Crookes a Daniel Dunglas Home en que pacta el silencio, citada por Owen.
«Crookes’s decision to protect Miss Showers was undoubtedly tied up with the embarrassment that such an expose would cause her friends and family and a disinclination to wash a great deal of dirty linen in public.» — la explicación que Owen da de ese silencio: el bochorno para la familia y el reparo a lavar los trapos en público; el guion de *embarrass-ment* es del corte de renglón.
«Clearly there were others in the Crookes circle who were aware of her guilt and yet also remained silent. Mary Rosina was treated with kid gloves.» — y hasta dónde llegó el encubrimiento, según ella: otros del círculo también callaron.
«The scandal was hushed up, and reputations and honour were saved.» — el resultado que Owen resume del episodio.
«Interested parties managed to keep the Showers affair out of the public eye, but the spiritualist world was distressed by an endless series of scandals and exposures during the 1870s and 1880s.» — y el marco en que lo inscribe: una serie interminable de escándalos en los años setenta y ochenta.
«Both the Holmes’s and Florence Corner (nee Cook) were caught out in much-publicised fraud during this period, Florence at a London test seance in 1880 when two young men down from Oxford seized her new spirit control, the twelve-year-old ‘Marie’ and discovered it to be the medium herself.» — la exposición de Florence Cook en 1880, cuando dos estudiantes de Oxford agarraron a su nuevo control y hallaron a la propia médium.
«In the wake of each successive exposure and scandal came humiliation and ridicule for spiritualists.» — lo que seguía a cada escándalo, según Owen: humillación y burla.
«Believers could only reiterate their explanations of evil spirits and the like, and retire to lick their wounds.» — y la única respuesta que les quedaba: repetir la explicación de los espíritus malignos.
«Every debacle brought tension and division within spiritualist circles, especially in London where influential spiritualists and mediums all knew each other.» — el efecto interno de cada debacle, agravado en el Londres donde todos se conocían.
«Rival factions swiftly developed and quarrels exploded publicly via acrimonious debate in the spiritualist press.» — y la forma que tomaba: facciones rivales y disputas en la prensa espiritista.
«The golden age of spiritualism had its low points and casualties as well as wonders and successes.» — el balance con que Owen cierra el capítulo tercero: la edad de oro tuvo bajas además de maravillas.
«The enjoyment and excitement of top-class mediumship was offset by its stresses and dangers, and spiritualism’s supporters did not escape from their share of injurious backlash.» — y el reparto de ese costo, que alcanzaba también a los sostenedores del movimiento.
«It is hard to imagine that ‘Katie King’s’ antics of the mid-i870s, those of the ‘breeches parts’ involving male spirits, or the gambols of child sprites would have satisfied the more urbane tastes of even twenty years hence.» — el desfase de gusto que Owen apunta: aquellas travesuras no habrían satisfecho a un público veinte años posterior; *mid-i870s* es errata del troceo.
«As it was, the height of the art of materialisation coincided with the beginning of the flowering of the English theatre and the increasing availability of good female roles.» — la coincidencia que señala entre el apogeo de la materialización y el florecimiento del teatro inglés con papeles femeninos.
«Possibly some of those younger sisters who might earlier have been drawn to mediumship found in bona fide acting careers a more evident promise of excitement, social advancement, and release from the mundane.» — y la hipótesis que de ahí saca, marcada con un *possibly*: la carrera de actriz como salida alternativa.
«Certainly spiritualist interests had begun to change by then, the major concern being with the ‘psychological phenomena’ of thought transference and clairvoyance.» — el cambio de interés que documenta: de lo físico a los fenómenos psicológicos de transferencia del pensamiento y clarividencia; el guion de *transfer-ence* es del corte de renglón.
«This emphasis on more sophisticated mental phenomena, and the fading of those beguiling and youthful charms, combined to send some of the most lauded and famous mediums into decline.» — las dos causas que combina para explicar el declive de las estrellas.
«Changing personal circumstances precipitated some into the public world of commercial mediumship where they made as much of a living as they could.» — y a dónde fueron a parar algunas: al mundo comercial de la mediumnidad pública.
«Elizabeth d’Esperance was one example of a private medium who was thrust into the public arena where she struggled to make a living after her husband’s death.» — el caso con que lo documenta: Elizabeth d'Esperance, empujada a lo público al enviudar.
«Charles Blackburn’s affections to inherit a great deal of money at his death. Florence, whose early mediumship ultimately became one of the cornerstones of spiritualist faith, received nothing.» — el desenlace patrimonial que Owen consigna: la hermana heredó y Florence Cook, cuya mediumnidad fue piedra angular de la fe espiritista, no recibió nada; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«But the cut and thrust of this world, with its meteoric rises and sad demises, bore little resemblance to the dramas being played out in spiritualist homes throughout the country.» — el contraste con que abre el paso al capítulo siguiente: el mundo público frente a los dramas de las casas.
«These were somewhat different in scale and variety from the triumphs and disasters of the more public spiritualist stage, yet the stakes could be just as high.» — y el aviso de que la escala cambia y lo que está en juego no; el guion de *differ-ent* es del corte de renglón.
«The tempestuous thrills and spills of public spiritualist life were more than offset for believers by the high tone and measured step of family seances.» — abre el capítulo cuarto con el contrapeso doméstico del espiritismo público.
«These small and intimate circles were considered to be the very best for spiritualist practice, and they represented the solidity and continuity that was lacking amongst the more ephemeral ranks of the infamous and renowned.» — el valor que se le daba al círculo íntimo: solidez y continuidad frente a lo efímero de la fama.
«Emphasis on the inherent morality of domestic mediumship became especially important at times when believers suffered attack and ridicule, but it expressed only what had been upheld from the early days when a dearth of public mediums had made private circles an absolute necessity.» — cuándo se subrayaba esa moralidad doméstica y de dónde venía, según Owen: de la escasez de médiums públicas en los primeros tiempos; el guion de *suf-fered* es del corte de renglón.
«Leading spiritualists had always emphasised the importance of the domestic base as the backbone of the movement, and the home circle was revered as the focus for spiritual values and family harmony.» — el lugar que los dirigentes le daban al círculo doméstico: espina dorsal del movimiento.
«Publicists like James Burns constantly reiterated the value of domestic mediumship, noting that the strength of the movement was in ‘its quiet development’ in homes throughout the land .» — y la fórmula de Burns que Owen cita: la fuerza del movimiento estaba en su desarrollo callado; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Spiritualism is essentially a domestic institution . . . Spiritual manifestations have been most successfully evolved in select companies, more particularly in the family circle, or where there is a kinship of spiritual development similar to true family affinity.» — el editorial que Owen toma por típico de esa doctrina: el espiritismo como institución doméstica; el guion de *mani-festations* es del corte de renglón.
«Mediums have the greatest degree of power, the phenomena are of the most unmistakable description, and communications are purest, when presented in select and harmonious gatherings of which a well-ordered family is a type .» — y el remate de ese editorial, con la familia bien ordenada como modelo del círculo; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«It also meant that, as the embodiment of all that was good and true, family mediumship was thought to be proof against the perpetration of fraud.» — la consecuencia que Owen extrae de esa doctrina: la mediumnidad familiar se tenía por inmune al fraude.
«It could hardly be credited that loved and» — el supuesto que la sostenía; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue hacia el caso de los Theobald.
«trusted family members might deceive one another, and it is important to bear this in mind when considering the experiences of the Theobalds.» — el supuesto que sostenía la confianza en el círculo familiar, y la advertencia con que Owen lo pone en suspenso; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«The following examination of spiritualist development within the middle-class Theobald family is largely based on the published writings of two of its members.» — la base documental que declara para el capítulo: los escritos publicados de dos miembros de la familia.
«We cannot know the extent to which family fictions, half-truths, or fantasies are woven into the design of their narratives, but if or where such mythologies occur they perhaps speak as plainly to overall intent as the most scrupulously documented presentation.» — y la reserva de método que le pone, con el giro que la convierte en dato: la mitología familiar habla de la intención tan claramente como el documento; el guion de *presenta-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«The events as related by the Theobalds are therefore treated on their terms, but the analysis of them centres upon the subversion of patriarchal authority and class-based attitudes which they so clearly imply.» — el reparto que hace entre relato y análisis: los hechos en los términos de ellos, la lectura sobre la subversión de la autoridad patriarcal.
«The Theobald family suggests a marked alternative to the stereotypical Victorian paterfamilias and powerless underlings.» — lo que el caso sugiere, según Owen: una alternativa marcada al estereotipo del paterfamilias victoriano.
«It points, if not to an alternative family model (for much here was the middle-class norm), then certainly to a significant degree of difference from supposedly conventional parent-child and gender relations.» — y el paréntesis con que acota esa alternativa: en mucho seguían la norma de la clase media.
«Equally, the Theobalds’ moral struggle with their own class hostility and prejudice, and the extraordinary denouement of this episode, highlight the fear and antagonism in» — el segundo eje del capítulo: el forcejeo moral de los Theobald con su propio prejuicio de clase; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Morell Theobald was a widely read, cultivated man, who was an active member of a London literary society and respected partner in the family firm in the City.» — según Owen, Morell Theobald era hombre leído, socio respetado de la firma familiar en la City.
«He was level-headed and discerning, and during the early years of the family circle he played the part of sceptic in direct contrast to the enthusiasm of his wife and sister.» — y el papel que hizo en los primeros años del círculo: el escéptico frente al entusiasmo de su mujer y su hermana.
«The family lived an orderly, respectable, middle-class existence, depending on three downstairs servants, a cook, and a governess for the smooth running of the household.» — la casa que Owen describe, con tres sirvientas, cocinera e institutriz.
«They were Nonconformists from a strict Congregationalist background (their grandfather and uncle had been ministers), they attended chapel every Sunday, and held family prayers attended by the servants.» — y el fondo religioso: inconformistas congregacionalistas estrictos, con rezo familiar al que asistía el servicio; el troceo parte la palabra en el salto de renglón como *Non-conformists* y el volumen usa las dos grafías, con guion en la plana 117 y sin él en la 33.
«Florence Theobald, known affectionately as Aunt Fanny, seemed not to have a permanent home of her own.» — la situación de Florence Theobald, la tía Fanny, sin casa propia permanente.
«Her twice-widowed father did not die until 1867 and it is highly likely that until that time she thought of his home as her own.» — la inferencia que Owen marca como muy probable sobre dónde tenía su casa hasta 1867.
«There appeared to be no shortage of money, although when she was working on her lengthy Homes and Work in the Future Life she made an appeal to fellow spiritualists for help with the publication costs.» — el dato económico con su contraejemplo dentro: sin apuros, y aun así pidiendo ayuda para costear su libro.
«In most respects, then, this was a conventional middle-class family who revered piety, decency, and hard work, but one in which there was also a great deal of warmth and genuine affection.» — el retrato de conjunto que Owen hace de la familia, convencional y a la vez cálida.
«Indeed, despite her delicate health and tendency to recline on couches, Florence Theobald was a spirited woman with a sense of humour.» — y el retrato de la tía Fanny, con salud delicada y carácter animoso.
«Morell was clearly family-centred but did not play the Victorian patriarch. It was a home where children could be active and noisy, where there was a plenty of laughter, and where women might pursue their own interests without undue interference.» — el punto que a Owen le importa de esa casa: el padre no hacía de patriarca y las mujeres seguían sus intereses sin estorbo; el guion de *family-centred* es del corte de renglón.
«The family’s spiritual heritage was further enriched by a much earlier connection with the Camisards, a group of French millenarians who had fled their mother country in the eighteenth century.» — la genealogía espiritual que la familia reclamaba: los camisards, milenaristas franceses huidos en el siglo XVIII.
«The Theobalds claimed descent from this visionary French sect, and this allied them with the likes of Ann Lee who had been a follower of Jane and James Wardley, both Camisards.» — y con quién los emparentaba esa reclamación, según Owen: con Ann Lee, seguidora de los Wardley.
«Florence, in particular, liked to claim a family kinship to things spiritual, and thought it both natural and suitable that they should all become practising spiritualists.» — el uso que Florence Theobald daba a ese parentesco, según Owen.
«An early ‘spinal weakness’ had necessitated a withdrawal from the more robust pleasures of childhood, and she had remained secluded at home with a governess or convalescent at the seaside.» — la enfermedad que le marcó la infancia: una debilidad espinal que la apartó de los juegos.
«Her illness coincided with a phase during which diagnoses of ‘hysterical affections of the spine’ were much in vogue and spas and resorts were filled with young ladies in Bath chairs .» — y la moda diagnóstica con que Owen la sitúa: las afecciones histéricas de la espina; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«There is no way of knowing if Florence’s illness was a real spinal weakness, or if she was merely a sickly child whom doctors diagnosed in accordance with the current fashion, but the result was that she spent a lonely girlhood in a home presided over by earnest but puritanical parents.» — la abstención que Owen declara sobre el diagnóstico y el hecho que sí le importa: una infancia solitaria.
«Florence Theobald felt strongly that the circumstances of her life were an important contributory factor to her later spiritualist beliefs, and that her ill health had prepared her for a finer and more religious existence.» — cómo leía la propia Florence Theobald esa infancia: preparación para una existencia más religiosa.
«A female spirit who later communicated with Florence ascribed her own easy passage to the spirit world to the readiness of a soul ‘ripened by the many weary hours of illness that had elapsed before I passed away’.» — y el eco de esa doctrina en un mensaje espírita que ella recibió: el alma madurada por horas de enfermedad.
«It was her doctor and family friend, James John Garth Wilkinson, who first introduced her to spiritualism during the 1850s.» — quién la introdujo al espiritismo, según Owen: su médico y amigo James John Garth Wilkinson.
«Wilkinson was, like Robert Theobald, a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a distinguished homeopathic physician.» — las credenciales de Wilkinson: miembro del Royal College of Surgeons y homeópata distinguido.
«He had a flourishing practice in Wimpole Street, was intimate with Carlyle, Dickens, and Tennyson, and moved in the London intellectual and literary circle that was acquainted with the ideas of Mesmer and Swedenborg.» — y el círculo en que se movía, entre Carlyle, Dickens y Tennyson, familiarizado con Mesmer y Swedenborg; el guion de *flour-ishing* es del corte de renglón.
«His brother and sister-in-law had become confirmed spiritualists following the death of a beloved child and he subsequently became a believer, as did their mutual friends, William and Mary Howitt.» — la cadena de conversiones que Owen traza a partir de la muerte de un niño.
«The Howitts were neighbours of the Theobalds at Highgate and through them the family experienced some of their earliest seances.» — y el vecindario que la explica: los Howitt en Highgate.
«Florence adapted quickly to seance procedure but the rest of the family were initially repelled by the idea of spirits communicating through articles of dining-room furniture.» — el reparto de reacciones dentro de la familia ante los muebles del comedor que hablan.
«Morell kept his distance for some time but his wife became increasingly enthusiastic when it became apparent that the spirits would rap in their own home an» — la conversión de la señora Theobald y la distancia que su marido mantuvo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Morell Theobald remarked many years later that mediumship must come spontaneously, ‘or in obedience to an irresistible control; and in that case let it select you rather than that you should eagerly grasp after it’.» — la doctrina que Morell Theobald formuló años después: que el don te elija a ti y no tú a él.
«Florence, however, certainly prayed that she might develop personal powers.» — el contraste inmediato que Owen señala: Florence Theobald sí rezaba por obtener el don.
«The spirits apparently promised her the gift as early as 1858 but years of anxious waiting were to pass before it finally appeared in 1863.» — las dos fechas de esa espera, con el *apparently* que Owen conserva sobre la promesa.
«She was overwhelmed at having been singled out, but was also sensible enough to recognise that she could be deluding herself.» — la reserva que la propia Florence se ponía: podía estar engañándose.
«During these years of illness, and consequent exile from my home circle (it being necessary to live on the South Coast of England), this great blessing was granted me.» — y cómo ella misma fechaba el don, en años de enfermedad y de exilio de su casa.
«and they responded by assuring her that ‘if I always prayerfully and passively took what would come, I should soon receive full assurance that this power was entirely distinct from my own personality. And this proved quite true.’» — la garantía que los espíritus le dieron a Florence Theobald sobre la ajenidad del poder; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Proof, as far as Florence was concerned, lay in the» — dónde ponía ella la prueba; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que las oraciones aparecían bajo su mano al margen de lo que esperaba.
«Having assured herself that she was truly a developing medium, Florence accepted her gift with profound thankfulness.» — según Owen, una vez segura, Florence Theobald aceptó el don con gratitud profunda.
«Nevertheless, she was still cautious enough to offer up a prayer that ‘Rather than be deceived in the slightest degree, let me even lose the use ot the hand that holds the pen.» — y la cautela que conservó, en la oración con que pedía perder la mano antes que ser engañada; *ot* es errata del troceo por *of*.
«Florence was convinced that she was indeed communing with the spirits ot the dead, but continued to emphasise the need for prayer and discrimination.» — la convicción y su freno, que Owen consigna juntos; *ot* es errata del troceo por *of*.
«‘Accept all that is given you by the spirit-guides, but, before acting upon it, pray, - to be enabled to distinguish between the good, and the not good.’» — la regla sencilla que ella se dio: aceptar todo y rezar antes de obrar, para distinguir lo bueno de lo que no lo es.
«‘Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.’» — y el texto bíblico con que la respaldaba, sobre probar a los espíritus.
«She quickly learned to detect changes in the script as different entities took charge of the pen.» — la destreza práctica que adquirió: reconocer el cambio de letra según la entidad.
«If this happened she immediately put down her pen, ignoring the familiar symptoms of pressure across her chest which occurred when a spirit was desperate to ‘come through’.» — y lo que hacía entonces, aun a costa de la presión en el pecho que sentía cuando un espíritu insistía.
«Only once did Florence have a really unpleasant experience with a spirit and that was when she overtaxed her powers on behalf of a friend.» — el único episodio realmente malo que Owen le registra, por forzar sus fuerzas por una amiga.
«The result was ‘painful in the highest degree’.» — y cómo lo calificaba ella misma.
«this incident but it is likely that the message held some shocking or indecent import.» — la conjetura que Owen hace sobre el contenido de aquel mensaje, marcada como probable; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«It was well known that passive writers could be plagued by such difficulties, and experienced spiritualists cautioned against sitting alone or for too long.» — el riesgo conocido de la escritura pasiva y la precaución que se recomendaba.
«Florence found that the spirits generally knew when she was too depleted to undertake undue exertion, and many of their earliest messages concerned her health.» — según Owen, los espíritus sabían cuándo Florence Theobald estaba agotada, y sus primeros mensajes trataban de su salud.
«On one occasion she ignored their advice and made the long journey to her brother’s home, only to fall seriously ill upon arrival.» — el episodio en que desoyó ese consejo y enfermó al llegar.
«She also recognised that her mediumship could be a two-edged sword, giving invaluable solace but at the same time depleting her resources.» — la doble cara que ella misma le reconocía al don: consuelo y desgaste; el guion de *deplet-ing* es del corte de renglón.
«Nonetheless, the rapport she established with her spirit-guides became a life-line and outweighed any detrimental effects. They became her friends, confidants, and guardians.» — y el saldo que hacía: los guías espirituales como amigos, confidentes y guardianes.
«Her dead grandfather, Stephen Morel!, urged her to take care of her delicate health when necessary, and gave her courage when depression threatened:» — el guía principal que Owen nombra: el abuelo muerto Stephen Morell, con el signo de admiración que el troceo pone por la ele final.
«It is not fear only which is destructive and hurtful, but, with a too full development of spirit mediumship in a weak body, the very life springs must snap before their time.» — y la advertencia que ese abuelo le daba sobre desarrollar demasiado el don en un cuerpo débil.
«He never lost his scepticism for passive writing, and ‘was at first disposed to think that all forms of mediumship could be explained by a subservient and plastic imagination’.» — según Owen, Morell Theobald nunca dejó de dudar de la escritura pasiva y la explicaba por una imaginación plástica.
«He frankly avowed that ‘If I had never received more convincing proofs of spirit action than this kind of mediumship supplies, my belief would have continued hesitating, and I should have no public testimony to offer .’» — y hasta dónde llevaba esa duda, en sus propias palabras; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«Florence’s conviction and enthusiasm were catching, and soon Morell and his wife were also experimenting with passive writing.» — el contagio que Owen documenta pese a esa duda.
«occasion a small table walked out of the dining room, continued upstairs, and went into the drawing room where ‘it settled down, and would not stir another inch ’.» — uno de los fenómenos tempranos que la familia registró: la mesita que sube sola al salón y no se mueve más; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Slowly the family began to grope its way forward, developing a pattern of regular sittings and establishing a formal beginning and end to their seances.» — cómo se fue formalizando la práctica de la familia; el guion de *begin-ning* es del corte de renglón.
«Prayer formed an important part of the ritual and from the start the family conceived of their activity in religious and moral terms.» — el marco en que la familia entendía lo que hacía, según Owen: religioso y moral desde el principio.
«They resolutely refused to engage in a dialogue with any suspicious entities, had no truck with spirits who announced themselves as Queen Elizabeth I or Napoleon, and exercised their own judgement over communications.» — y el criterio de discriminación que aplicaban, con la burla implícita a los espíritus de nombre ilustre.
«Do not believe everything you are told, for though the great unseen world contains many a wise and discerning spirit, it also has in it the accumulation ofhuman folly, vanity, and error; and this lies nearer to the surface than that which is wise and good.» — el consejo de Morell Theobald que Owen cita: el mundo invisible acumula también la locura y el error humanos, y eso queda más cerca de la superficie; *ofhuman* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«It became a part oftheir religious code and way of life.» — el lugar que la práctica llegó a ocupar en la casa: código religioso y modo de vida; *oftheir* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«If the visiting spirits had been unknown entities it is unlikely that Morell and his wife would have persevered, but the thought that these messages might really originate from their children was sufficient motivation for continuing with the seances.» — el motivo que Owen pone en el centro de esa perseverancia: la posibilidad de que los mensajes vinieran de sus hijos muertos.
«They knew that Mrs Theobald was ‘more believing in our power of mesmerism’, and they gently chided ‘Pa’ for his scepticism .» — y el reparto de crédito que los propios espíritus hacían entre los padres; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Morell Theobald was to record later that these early stumblings formed the foundations of a strong and mature family belief.» — según Owen, Morell Theobald tenía aquellos tropiezos por cimiento de la creencia madura.
«Messages that had begun with childlike greetings and simple prattlings developed into closely reasoned accounts of the spirit world and the nature of the universe.» — la evolución de los mensajes que documenta: del balbuceo infantil a la cosmología razonada.
«What often appeared to critics as disparate and absurd generalisations or trivial common-places were regarded by the family involved in a continuing dialogue with the spirit world as important and relevant aspects of a developing relationship.» — el desacuerdo que Owen consigna sin arbitrar: banalidad para el crítico, relación viva para la familia.
«Odd though it may have seemed to outside observers, the knowledge that a young relative was smilingly offering a bouquet of roses, or attempting the continuation of a topic raised a month ago, had real meaning for the family sitting in seance two or three times a week.» — y lo que esos detalles significaban para quien se sentaba dos o tres veces por semana.
«They treated these spirits as they would an earthly friend.» — el trato que les daban, según Owen: el de un amigo terrenal.
«The leader of the spirit children was Louisa, the Theobalds’ first still-born child, and she assumed responsibility for communication.» — quién encabezaba a los espíritus niños: Louisa, la primera hija nacida muerta.
«Her message throughout the years remained constant: no germ of life was ever lost; it was merely transporte» — el mensaje constante de Louisa a lo largo de los años; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«We are all connected together by a bright cord of light, and we are told it is God’s love.» — la imagen con que esos espíritus describían el lazo familiar: un cordón brillante de luz.
«All of you are more or less mediums, because you are all in such strong sympathy with the unseen and the spiritual.» — y la mediumnidad repartida entre todos los miembros de la casa, según esos mismos mensajes.
«Critics complained that, despite all the verbiage that issued forth during seances, the ‘spirits’ were never willing or able to throw new light on occult processes.» — la objeción de los críticos que Owen recoge: los espíritus nunca aportaban luz nueva sobre los procesos ocultos.
«This supported the argument that ‘mediumistic’ phenomena were the product of the unconscious mind, 25 but spiritualists countered with the view that the medium was merely a vessel and could use only an indigenous vocabulary.» — y la réplica espiritista que consigna al lado sin arbitrar: la médium como vaso limitado a su propio vocabulario; el 25 es la llamada a nota.
«Through Louisa the Theobalds learned, to their great joy, that their babies were safe and continued to grow and develop in the spirit land.» — lo que la familia aprendía por Louisa sobre sus hijos muertos.
«Louisa explained that they went to school in the usual way, acquired wisdom and learning, and became useful members of their community.» — y el detalle de esa vida ultraterrena: escuela, aprendizaje y utilidad social.
«She and a second daughter, only referred to as ‘N’, constantly reassured the family that death was simply a veil that hid the reality of continued existence, and reiterated that they were united across the divide.» — la doctrina que repetían las dos hijas espíritas: la muerte como velo y la familia unida a través de él.
«When baby Perceval died in 1870 at the age of six-and-a-half months, the spirit children were anxious to emphasise the suffering that convulsive ‘tubercles of the brain’ had caused him and the improvement» — el caso del bebé Perceval, muerto en 1870; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Mama and Papa were instructed to ‘yield passively but entirely, and the power and great inestimable comfort will then be theirs’:» — la instrucción que los espíritus daban a los padres: ceder pasiva y enteramente.
«Let them not reproach themselves for neglecting any means for dear little Perceval.» — y el consuelo concreto que les ofrecían contra el reproche de sí mismos.
«So is their present sorrow indeed dealt in mercy, and to save them future grief.» — la fórmula con que ese mensaje convertía el dolor presente en misericordia.
«The spirits recognised that, in their grief, parents would blame themselves for deaths which nothing could have prevented, and a positive attempt to assuage unnecessary guilt was an important aspect of their support.» — la función que Owen le adjudica a esos mensajes: aliviar una culpa innecesaria.
«‘N’ was at pains to reassure Morell and his wife that her death had not resulted from ‘taking cold, the day I went on my pony’, but that the disease had been gaining ground from infancy.» — el caso de la hija llamada N, que negaba el resfriado del día del poni como causa de su muerte.
«On the contrary, ‘the gentle training of a pious beloved mother, did far more for me than any direct lecturing would have done’.» — y el elogio que esa misma hija hacía de la crianza materna.
«My room became, to my earthly vision, invested in a cloud as of the purest downy appearance, which gradually gave place to ineffable brightness.» — la descripción de la muerte que uno de esos mensajes ofrecía, con la nube que da paso a un resplandor inefable.
«He was gazing at me; his hair was flowing, showered over with brilliant gems of star-like form and wonderful radiance .» — y la figura que aparecía en esa visión; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«I was gathered to His arms and slept in Jesus .» — el final del relato de muerte que una hija espíritu daba a los Theobald; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«When this child awoke, she found herself in beautiful gardens surrounded by spirit forms and many of her favourite animals.» — y el despertar que describía: jardines hermosos con formas espirituales y sus animales; el guion de *surroun-ded* es del corte de renglón.
«So realistic were these experiences for her that she was not ‘absolutely conscious’ that she had passed the gates of death.» — el detalle que Owen retiene: la niña no era del todo consciente de haber muerto.
«‘N’s’ account was typical of other youthful revelations of the first heaven of the young in which the shimmering figure of Jesus moved across a landscape markedly similar to a formal English garden.» — el patrón que Owen encuentra en esas revelaciones infantiles: un cielo con forma de jardín inglés.
«The pleasures of a spirit pony, and endless summer days in which to ride him, reflected a conviction that heaven was like nothing so much as an England made perfect.» — y la fórmula con que lo resume: el cielo como una Inglaterra perfeccionada.
«Whilst a literal and material interpretation of the spirit world was a feature of many communications, not only those of children, there was another ‘higher wisdom’ that emanated from more advanced spirits.» — los dos registros que distingue en los mensajes: el literal y material, y la sabiduría superior de los espíritus avanzados.
«This invoked the Swedenborgian concept of spiritual spheres and a hierarchy of spirit entities.» — de dónde venía ese segundo registro, según Owen: las esferas y la jerarquía swedenborgianas.
«However, when they received messages from their children they seemed happy to assume that these would be couched in childlike language, and that it w» — y el acomodo que hacía la familia entre los dos registros; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Morell Theobald’s scepticism eroded, the women’s mediumship improved, and other family members in spirit began to connect with their living relatives.» — los tres movimientos con que Owen resume esa etapa de la familia.
«When Robert Theobald, senior, died in 1867, he joined his first wife and together they watched over the growing family of spirit children.» — la incorporación del abuelo Robert Theobald al elenco de espíritus en 1867.
«Grandmother Theobald was a particularly wise and loved member of the spirit community and her messages of good-will and affection were always gratefully received by Florence and Morell.» — y el lugar de la abuela Theobald en esa comunidad, según Owen.
«Florence was also thrilled to contact ‘the lovely Margaret’, fiancee to Uncle Stephen Morell.» — el contacto que más emocionó a Florence Theobald: la prometida del tío Stephen Morell.
«In an emotional message she informed Florence that she was reunited in spirit with her youthful lover, her ‘beloved Stephen, who has been ever, ever present with me’.» — y el mensaje de reunión póstuma que esa figura le dio.
«The Theobald household now became a hotbed of spiritualist activity and on special occasions bursts of raps would break out spontaneously.» — el estado de la casa que Owen describe en esos años: un hervidero espiritista.
«On Mrs Theobald’s birthday the spirit children would indicate ‘love to Mama’ via the furniture. The table and footstools responded, and the floor resounded in sympathetic knockings.» — la escena de cumpleaños con los muebles respondiendo, tal como la familia la registraba.
«As Morell recorded, ‘Verily it was a merry household.’ 30» — y el juicio de Morell Theobald sobre aquella casa; el 30 es la llamada a nota.
«Despite the fact that Morell Theobald emphasised the good moral effect of the seances, there was little indication that they were used to promote gloomy ethical discussion of the duties of life.» — el matiz que Owen introduce: el efecto moral que él subrayaba no se traducía en discusión lúgubre de deberes.
«The underlying import was religious but this did not mean that they had to be sombre affairs.» — y el deslinde entre lo religioso y lo sombrío.
«The family were by this time sitting in seance several times a week and a special Sunday session was attended by the servants who stood respectfully at one side of the room.» — la frecuencia de las sesiones y el lugar que en ellas ocupaba el servicio, de pie a un lado de la sala.
«The harmony of the family circle, and the nature of its communications, was indicated by the fact that the four children were usually present.» — lo que Owen lee en la presencia habitual de los cuatro hijos vivos.
«In the late 1860s Ernest, Teddy, Frankie, and Nellie were all under the age of twelve, but they took the seances completely in their stride and played an active part in them.» — las edades de esos cuatro hijos a fines de los años sesenta y su papel activo.
«Although all four children sat in seance with the family, the spirits were especially attached to Ernest.» — y el favorito de los espíritus entre ellos, según Owen.
«Ernest and Frankie, receiving instruction in preparation for boarding school, wanted to know if spirit children had to learn Latin and whether they could help with lessons.» — las preguntas que los niños hacían a sus hermanos espíritus, sobre el latín y los deberes.
«They asked if there were dahlias in heaven, whether Horace had wings, and request» — y el resto de ese interrogatorio infantil; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Shortly after this, Ernest fell seriously ill with scarlet fever and, though homeopathic treatment was begun immediately, the situation looked grave.» — la escarlatina de Ernest y el tratamiento homeopático inmediato.
«At this juncture Florence received a stream of messages from the spirit children avowing their love for the sick child and informing Ernest that he must pray to Jesus, the ‘lord, the good shepherd, the good Physician ’.» — los mensajes que Florence Theobald recibió durante esa enfermedad; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«There was, they said, a high entity who was taking care of Ernest, someone with a name like Harneman.» — y la entidad que decían encargada del niño, con el nombre tal como llegó.
«Florence recognised this as an attempt at Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, a powerful spirit who was able to facilitate self-healing.» — la identificación que Florence Theobald hizo de ese nombre: Hahnemann, fundador de la homeopatía.
«That night, Morell Theobald and his wife woke to see a faint halo of light hovering over Ernest’s bed.» — el halo de luz que los padres dijeron ver sobre la cama del niño.
«From that moment Ernest began his recovery, but it became clear that the illness had wrought some kind of inner transformation.» — y la transformación interior que la familia leyó en su recuperación.
«The transformative function of illness has a long history and was as immediately recognisable to Victorian novel readers as it was to spiritualists.» — el marco cultural con que Owen sitúa esa lectura: la enfermedad transformadora era ya lugar común de la novela victoriana; el guion de *spirit-ualists* es del corte de renglón.
«Spiritualists understood illness in terms of preparation for mediumistic powers, and this was the aspect stressed by Florence in relation to her own invalidism.» — la versión espiritista de ese lugar común: la enfermedad como preparación del don.
«She was undoubtedly an important factor in encouraging her young nephew in his belief that he was to become a medium, and he now also began to show signs of susceptibility to trance.» — el papel que Owen le adjudica a la tía en la vocación del sobrino.
«Suddenly the child started up, and fixed his eyes upon the dark corner of the room, by the piano.» — el relato de Florence Theobald sobre la primera visión de uno de los niños, junto al piano.
«Is it a male or a female spirit?’ I asked. ‘How is it dressed?’ ‘All in white’, he answered.» — y el interrogatorio con que ella misma probaba al niño durante esa visión.
«At this point they heard footsteps running from the other end of the house and Ernest burst into the room.» — la entrada de Ernest en escena, según el mismo relato.
«Florence was quite sure that he could not have heard their conversation but as soon as he entered the room he became transfixed.» — la seguridad con que la tía negaba que el niño hubiera oído la conversación.
«Ffe gazed intently at the dark little corner by the piano, and then exclaimed that he could see a spirit dressed in purple and white who was pouring flowers all over the Christmas tree.» — y la coincidencia entre las dos visiones que la familia tuvo por prueba; *Ffe* es errata del troceo por *He*.
«It was well known that a harmonious circle was far more than the sum of its parts, and that the greater the power the faster all members developed.» — la doctrina del círculo que Owen expone: el conjunto vale más que la suma de las partes.
«the entire family could now testify to Ernest’s powers which came to include trance mediumship.» — el estado en que quedaba la familia respecto de los dones de Ernest; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de renglón.
«Schoolboy pranks aside, it is conceivable that these children saw spirits because it was what they both expected and desired.» — la explicación que Owen ofrece como concebible, sin cerrar el caso: veían lo que esperaban y deseaban ver.
«Non-believers who accept the possibility that the boys truly believed that they ‘saw’ can also point to sibling rivalry as the mechanism for one acquiring powers so quickly after the other.» — y la segunda explicación que consigna, la rivalidad entre hermanos, atribuida a los no creyentes.
«Certainly Kate Cook lost no time in discovering the trance state when her older sister began to make a name for herself.» — el paralelo con que la apoya: Kate Cook descubriendo el trance en cuanto su hermana se hizo un nombre.
«The Theobalds had no trouble in accepting the fact of Ernest’s mediumship or the waves of new phenomena that ran like wild fire through their home.» — la facilidad con que la familia aceptó esos dones, según Owen.
«As might be expected, it was the spirit children who communicated most frequently by this means, and the family rapidly learned to distinguish at a glance which of the sprites was writing.» — la escritura directa y el reconocimiento de cada letra por la familia.
«Louisa’s hand was so minute that it required a magnifying glass to read it, although the script itself was even and perfectly formed, but others were large extrovert scrawls.» — el detalle de esas letras: la de Louisa minúscula y perfecta, otras garabatos grandes.
«The direct writing was accomplished with incredible speed, it did away with the much slower passive writing, and enabled all sitters to enjoy spontaneous and immediate communication with the spirits.» — la ventaja técnica que Owen le adjudica a la escritura directa sobre la pasiva.
«Morell Theobald was particularly proud of these new manifestations and they put to rest any lingering doubts that he might have entertained.» — y el efecto sobre las dudas del padre; el guion de *mani-festations* es del corte de renglón.
«For him, they were the final and convincing proof of the validity of spirit action.» — lo que esas manifestaciones fueron para él, según Owen: la prueba final.
«All this was happening during the exciting years of 1869 to 1873, but the peak of this phase of the Theobalds’ spiritualism occurred in 1871 when the family finally attained the direct voice.» — las fechas de esa etapa y su cumbre en 1871 con la voz directa.
«Their good friends and neighbours, the Everitts, often attended seances with them in the early days and were able to offer advice and guidance.» — quiénes ayudaron en esa etapa: los vecinos Everitt.
«Their seances always began with a prayer and were serious in intent, and Mrs Everitt was gifted enough to facilitate both direct writing and the direct voice.» — y los dones que Owen le atribuye a la señora Everitt: escritura y voz directas.
«Under Mrs Everitt’s inspiration the family were ultimately permitted to hear the voices of the spirit children, not uttered through the medium’s mouth but manifesting themselves independently throughout the room.» — el rasgo que definía la voz directa: sonaba en la sala y no por la boca de la médium.
«We were almost startled by a piercing child-voice, one evidently delighted to speak for the first time.» — el recuerdo de Morell Theobald de la primera vez que oyeron esa voz, en 1871.
«Our parental hearts were welling over with joy, but they were not filled to the full.» — y la gradación con que él contaba aquel gozo.
«Three more little voices one after another delightedly told us, ‘I’m here’.» — las tres voces que siguieron, según el mismo relato.
«We had quite a long chat with little Percy about the secret they had kept so well, viz., their learning to talk !» — y el secreto que los espíritus niños decían haber guardado: que estaban aprendiendo a hablar; el espacio antes del signo es del troceo.
«Those with ‘sight’ could see and describe for the rest. This was the acme of the first phase of the Theobalds’ development, and they felt truly blessed.» — el reparto de funciones dentro del círculo y la cumbre de esa primera etapa.
«The Theobalds had progressed from Florence’s initial and solitary excursions, through the phase when Morell and his wife struggled with passive writing, to Ernest’s mediumship and Mrs Eventt’s establishment of direct speech.» — las cuatro etapas en que Owen ordena ese desarrollo; *Eventt* es errata del troceo por *Everitt*.
«This was an almost perfect example of the way in which psychic power grew and developed within a circle, and Morell Theobald emphasised the trusting and harmonious relationships that had made possible such extraordinary progress.» — y lo que el caso ejemplifica, según Owen y según el propio Morell Theobald.
«Once convinced, he wholeheartedly accepted the mediums and their phenomena, although he always referred to his place within the circle as one of discerning acceptance.» — la fórmula con que él describía su propio lugar: aceptación discerniente; el guion de *wholeheart-edly* es del corte de renglón.
«The fact that the greatest power lay with three women and a child, essentially turning traditional familial roles upside down, seemed not to deter him for an instant.» — la inversión de papeles familiares que Owen subraya: el poder en tres mujeres y un niño.
«The importance of women and youthful mediumship was an accepted tenet of modern spiritualism and was no immediate threat to his ultimate authority.» — y el límite que le pone a esa inversión: no amenazaba su autoridad última.
«There was no question that the children’s upbringing should be materially altered by their participation in family seances.» — lo que no cambió con las sesiones: la crianza de los hijos.
«Undoubtedly this decision also reflected a strong desire to retain firm parental control over their children’s spiritual life and their unwillingness to have them dabble in deep waters outside the safety of the home circle.» — la lectura que Owen hace de esa decisión: control parental sobre la vida espiritual de los hijos.
«Morell considered that this had special moral significance and was therefore to be recommended:» — y el valor moral que el padre le daba a la práctica familiar.
«I attribute much of their spiritual training and the high Tnoral character which each of them have developed to the communion with these loved ones - unseen, but ever near.» — en sus propias palabras, la formación moral que atribuía al trato con los seres queridos invisibles; *Tnoral* es errata del troceo por *moral*.
«Because he never seriously entertained the possibility that any member of his family might seek to impersonate a spirit, or dupe the other sitters» — el supuesto que sostenía su confianza; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Morell Theobald could accept the communications at face value.» — y la consecuencia de ese supuesto, según Owen; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«The fact that so many of the dialogues centred around family matters or religious questions and took place between the living and dead family members made it even easier to assume their moral worth.» — lo que facilitaba esa aceptación: los diálogos eran de familia y de religión.
«These were often responses to direct questions put by sitters but the spirits also took it upon themselves to offer unsolicited advice.» — el reparto entre respuesta y consejo no pedido en esos mensajes.
«Louisa, the eldest spirit child, was particularly interested in her father’s religious development and counselled him to keep faith with the beliefs of his boyhood.» — el consejo que la hija espíritu daba al padre sobre su fe de infancia.
«Although this made Morell uneasy, probably because his Non-conformism was of a far less puritanical variety than that of his parents, he accepted Louisa’s concern.» — y la incomodidad que le causaba, con la explicación que Owen marca como probable.
«Morell concluded that spiritualism strengthened and complemented the Christian faith, that it was ‘a re-affirmation, with added emphasis, of Christian laws and facts’, and that it came to confront doubt and the negations of science.» — la conclusión religiosa de Morell Theobald: el espiritismo como reafirmación de la fe cristiana frente a la duda y a la ciencia; el guion de *spirit-ualism* es del corte de renglón.
«Florence Theobald was anxious to press the claims of spiritualism as an important complement to Christianity and wrote two books dedicated to this end during the 1880s.» — y la misma tesis en Florence Theobald, con dos libros escritos en los años ochenta.
«Morell Theobald shared this view, considering that spiritualism ‘simply enlarges the atmosphere in which the mind and spirit ranges and gives vividness and actuality to the supernatural plane of life, in which all religion must find its abiding home’.» — la fórmula con que él lo enunciaba: el espiritismo solo ensancha la atmósfera en que se mueve el espíritu.
«It is not quite enough to say that plebeian spiritualism followed in the tradition of Robert Owen’s hostility to» — la corrección que Owen hace a una lectura demasiado simple del espiritismo plebeyo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Owen’s conception of spiritualism as preparing ‘the world for universal peace’ and infusing ‘into all the spirit of charity, forbearance and love’ had a resonance for many believers of all classes .» — la concepción de Robert Owen que sí resonaba en todas las clases, según ella; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The apparently irreconcilable positions of ‘Christian’ and ‘secularist’ were not as oppositional or as clearly delineated as the names might suggest.» — y el deslinde que Owen deshace entre cristiano y secularista; el guion de *deline-ated* es del corte de renglón.
«Owen’s spirit of charity was identified by Florence Theobald as the essential test of Christianity, as she made clear when a moralising cousin tried to warn her against consorting with the devil:» — el uso que Florence Theobald hacía del espíritu de caridad frente a una prima moralizante.
«By ‘Christians’ I mean not merely those who take that name, whilst they lack the one great test of their right to use it, which is the spirit of charity, but those who following in His steps prove themselves to be Christ-like ...» — la definición de cristiano que ella oponía a su prima; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«But let me suggest one text, ‘Judge not that ye be not judged’, (original emphasis )» — y el texto con que cerraba la carta, con la nota de énfasis original que Owen conserva.
«Florence Theobald laughed at, but was suspicious of, the attempts of the church to erect monumental ‘frighteners’ as ‘ecclesiastical scarecrows, or instruments of church discipline’.» — el juicio de Florence Theobald sobre los espantajos eclesiásticos, entre la risa y la sospecha.
«believed that their role was to infuse new life and meaning into a religion sapped of all value and vitality and they looked back to the early primitive church, with its ‘great works’, prophesying, and speaking in tongues, with longing.» — el papel que los espiritistas cristianos se atribuían, según Owen, y el modelo al que miraban: la iglesia primitiva con sus obras y su glosolalia; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Far from upholding the value of theology and orthodoxy, Christian spiritualists were often exactly those who rejected out of hand the wasteland of dogma and empty ritual that represented the state of their church.» — y la corrección que hace a quien los suponga ortodoxos: eran los que rechazaban de plano el dogma y el rito vacío.
«Family seances were used to clarify many of the adults’ finer theological difficulties, and the spirits who came to the fore as helpers and guides were often old and revered friends or acquaintances from a religious background.» — el uso teológico de las sesiones familiares y el perfil de los espíritus que hacían de guías; el guion de *theologi-cal* es del corte de renglón.
«Morell Theobald, seeking answers to his doubts about the resurrection, was told that this should be more loosely interpreted to mean the ‘continuous process of spiritual life’.» — la respuesta que los espíritus dieron a Morell Theobald sobre la resurrección.
«He explained that ‘the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, coming in strong force, is intended to bring about the second appearance of Christ’, but warned that this would be a spiritual, not a bodily, presence .» — y la que dieron a Florence Theobald sobre la segunda venida, con la advertencia de que sería presencia espiritual y no corporal; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Florence also probed the problematic concept of the virgin birth and was given an explanation in which Mary was described as a uniquely qualified medium, a channel through which the Spirit Christ was given corporeal existence:» — la explicación espírita del nacimiento virginal que Owen recoge: María como médium singularmente calificada.
«No; there was no human father.» — el pasaje de ese mensaje que niega el padre humano.
«I can explain to you this, in time, by impression.» — y el aplazamiento con que el mismo comunicante despachaba la explicación.
«Thus, there were no adverse conditions, which in any other nature, would have counteracted the miraculous power brought easily and purely to bear on her .» — el remate de esa doctrina: ninguna condición adversa contrarrestaba el poder milagroso en ella; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«It is interesting that messages celebrating the feminine principle were most often received by the women of the family.» — el reparto que a Owen le llama la atención: los mensajes que celebran el principio femenino llegaban a las mujeres de la casa.
«Initially, all spiritualists had accepted the principle of a material life on earth followed by the spirit’s sojourn in the Summerland (the closest equivalent to heaven), or, for those of a more esoteric bent, travelling up through the seven spiritual spheres.» — la escatología común del espiritismo, con la Summerland y las siete esferas para los de gusto más esotérico.
«A minority of English spiritualists, however, came to favour the idea of reincarnation whereby the spiritual essence was continuously incarnated in human form until finally perfected and released from the wheel of karma.» — la minoría que se apartó de esa escatología por la reencarnación.
«This doctrine was developed by Allan Kardec whose Le Livre des Esprits (1856) took a radically different view of spiritual evolution from that prevalent in Britain and America, and his breakaway spiritists were the source of much discussion and dissent.» — y a quién se la atribuye Owen: a Allan Kardec y su Livre des Esprits de 1856, con sus espiritistas escindidos.
«In England they were denounced most forcibly by William Howitt, who considered the doctrine of such wandering souls pitiable and repellent, but there was nonetheless a strong current of interest in the tenets of Eastern religion.» — la condena de William Howitt a las almas errantes y la corriente de interés por la religión oriental que aun así corría.
«This was most clearly reflected in the popular spiritualist press, and both Human Nature and Medium and Daybreak carried lengthy articles on this and related subjects.» — dónde se veía esa corriente, según Owen: en la prensa espiritista popular.
«Where Morell Theobald drew an almost complete blank, however, was in response to his questions about the validity of reincarnation.» — el silencio que Morell Theobald encontró al preguntar por la reencarnación.
«Morell Theobald tried many times to engage in a dialogue on the subject with his spirit guides, and there were even believers of conservative and immaculate reputation like the Reverend Stainton Moses who were persuaded that it was possible for reincarnation to operate as a last chance for low, lost souls, or as a vehicle for high spirits to return to earth with a great mission.» — y quién sí la admitía dentro del campo conservador, según Owen: el reverendo Stainton Moses, como última oportunidad de las almas bajas.
«Florence Theobald was warned that a person who ‘makes no profession of any religion may be nearer to all that is high, and lovely, and of good repute than one who shuts himself up in his own so-called religious duties, and tries to ignore, but in truth, neglects, the business of life, which is (as much) his real duty’.» — el mensaje que recibió Florence Theobald contra el encierro en los deberes religiosos.
«The communicant stated firmly that ‘a material world has to be dealt with’.» — la doctrina mundana de esos mensajes: hay que habérselas con un mundo material.
«The spirits encouraged each individual to face the world squarely and enjoy its pleasures whilst also attending to spiritual needs.» — y el equilibrio que recomendaban entre el goce del mundo y la atención a lo espiritual.
«Life was a necessary preparation for entrance to the spirit realms, and although death was not to be feared it was also not to be prematurely welcomed.» — la posición sobre la muerte que Owen les atribuye: ni temida ni buscada antes de tiempo.
«Death was regarded as simply a state through which each of us must pass on the journey from this world to the next, and some spiritualists considered that removing the dread of death was spiritualism’s greatest gift.» — y el don mayor que algunos espiritistas le reconocían al movimiento: quitar el pavor de la muerte.
«A belief in the naturalness of death and a certainty of the soul’s survival was a source of inestimable comfort to all adherents, but especially to the bereaved.» — el consuelo que Owen documenta, sobre todo entre los deudos.
«Morell Theobald added that spiritualism usually entered ‘through the dark door of sorrow, as the Comforter’, but then remained and developed to enrich every aspect of family life.» — la fórmula de Morell Theobald sobre la puerta oscura del dolor por la que entra el espiritismo.
«Morell Theobald came to believe that spiritualists should be active in promoting strict test seances within their own organisations, and was involved in the 1883 London sessions with Miss Wood.» — la posición de Morell Theobald sobre las sesiones de prueba y su participación en las de 1883 con Miss Wood.
«During the course of all this activity, and also no doubt through his friendship with the Everitts who knew many leading mediums, Morell Theobald began to move in the best London spiritualist circles.» — y el ascenso social espiritista que Owen le adjudica.
«It was a time of expansion in the social life of the parents which helped to compensate for the gaps left by the boys’ departure and the subsequent loss of psychic energy at home.» — la compensación que ese ascenso traía para la casa vacía de hijos y de energía psíquica.
«But during this burst of activity, despite the fact that the women sat on major and influential committees and Florence continued to write her books, it appears that the Theobalds continued to regard the real female sphere of influence as domestic.» — el límite que Owen encuentra en esa apertura, marcado con un *it appears*: la esfera femenina seguía siendo la doméstica.
«Theirs was ultimately a discreet and private function, and it was Morell who essentially became the public figure.» — y el reparto final de papeles: ellas en lo discreto, él como figura pública.
«By the beginning of the 1880s the Theobalds were respected figures of the spiritualist community, but their home circle, the women’s arena, remained a mere shadow of its former glory.» — el contraste que fecha a comienzos de los ochenta: respetados fuera, apagados en casa.
«The eldest son was now in his early twenties and there was no indication that the boys’ mediumistic gifts had survived their school careers.» — el destino de los dones de los hijos varones, según Owen.
«Nellie, who had remained at home and received her education there, was now in her mid-teens but showed no sign ofjoining her mother and aunt as a developing medium. It seemed highly l» — el pronóstico que la familia se hacía sobre sus poderes tras el paso de la hija por la adolescencia; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana y *ofjoining* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Everything that happened subsequently emanated from a different, and initially unwelcome, source.» — el giro que Owen anuncia en la historia de los Theobald: la fuente nueva y al principio indeseada.
«Mary recounted how she had been scolded for her ‘fancies’ and ‘whipped as a young witch’, quickly learning to maintain an absolute silence in the matter.» — según Owen, la sirvienta Mary contaba haber sido azotada de niña como brujita por sus visiones.
«It was only when Mary read the Theobalds’ newspaper advertisement that she realised that the park was in fact a London street.» — y el detalle con que la familia leía su llegada como providencial.
«Morell Theobald’s automatic writing had been preparing him for the fact that a new medium was developing in their midst, but he and his wife were shocked and astounded when Mary announced in 1882 that she could see spirits.» — la fecha del anuncio de Mary y el desconcierto de los patrones pese a los avisos previos.
«Nevertheless, they were confused by the appearance of such valued gifts in a social inferior and at a loss as to how best to proceed.» — el problema de clase que ese don les planteaba, según Owen.
«The Theobalds did not know that, during this period when every middle-class home was run with servant labour, it was not a rarity to find good mediums amongst the underlings.» — y el dato que ellos ignoraban: no era raro hallar buenas médiums entre el servicio.
«They consulted the spirits who advised that the new medium wanted considerable guidance but should not be allowed to sit with the family lest the ‘duties of life’ suffer.» — el consejo que los espíritus dieron sobre la nueva médium y los deberes de la vida.
«Mary’s duty in life was to work hard and keep to her place below stairs, but the family also knew that one so gifted should be encouraged to develop and that her presence might revitalise their circle.» — la contradicción en que la familia quedaba entre el lugar de la sirvienta y el don de la médium.
«After much agonised discussion it was decided that Mary would maintain her status as a servant, continuing to live in her basement rooms, whilst attending seances upstairs with the family.» — la solución de compromiso que adoptaron: sirvienta abajo, médium arriba.
«This immediately set her apart from the other servants, who never actively participated in seances and kept a respectful distance at the Sunday sitti» — y el efecto sobre el resto del servicio; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Mary was scrutinised at seances and her behaviour in the house was closely observed.» — la vigilancia a que la sometieron, según Owen.
«The family were reluctant to accept her socially and were suspicious of her motives, but she succeeded in passing every test.» — la resistencia social y la sospecha, y el hecho de que Mary pasó todas las pruebas.
«Matters finally reached a crisis in 1883 when the entire staff, some of whom had been with the family for many years, gave notice.» — la crisis de 1883 con la renuncia de todo el servicio.
«But by this time the Theobalds had accepted and learned to like Mary, they supported her against the servants, and recognised that they must now make alternative arrangements.» — y de qué lado se pusieron los Theobald en esa crisis.
«There would be no more living-in servants, no risk to the harmonious circle that had once again become the centre of the Theobalds’ lives.» — la decisión que tomaron: nunca más servicio interno, para no arriesgar el círculo.
«It was apparently owing to these mysterious ‘other circumstances’ that Mary now moved up from the basement to share Nellie’s room, and the two women became bosom friends .» — el ascenso de Mary del sótano al cuarto de la hija, con el *apparently* que Owen conserva sobre las circunstancias nunca reveladas; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Mary’s transformation from paid servant to trusted family friend was complete, and in telling this story Morell begged the indulgence of his readers:» — la transformación que Owen registra y la petición de indulgencia con que el padre la contaba.
«Please now, therefore, to look upon Mary as we did - no longer as a mere servant, but as a friend, tried and trusted; my daughter’s inseparable companion, with conditions in the house for investigation almost perfect; all being sensitives and all interested.» — el ruego de Morell Theobald a sus lectores, con la lista de condiciones que él tenía por casi perfectas para investigar.
«This social difficulty has, I know, distressed some of our friends; not more so, I think, than it has ourselves.» — y la dificultad social que él mismo reconocía, propia y de sus amigos.
«It is not easy to accept spiritual phenomena on its own terms, but an earnest student will prefer this to abandoning a research of such interest and importance .» — el argumento con que la justificaba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Doubtless Spiritualism comes somewhat as a leveller of social distinctions, and although we are slow to learn such a lesson, I am not sure it is not one very needful for an age which is so much fettered by the ‘sickly forms’ and ‘social wrongs’ by which classes and castes are hedged in.» — y la tesis que de ahí sacaba, con doble negación incluida: el espiritismo como nivelador de distinciones sociales.
«This was a courageous stand for the Theobalds to take, and one which undoubtedly caused them a certain amount of social ostracism.» — el juicio de Owen sobre esa posición y su costo social.
«The acceptance of Mary as an equal, and of spiritualism ‘as a leveller of social distinctions’, did not come easily and was not welcomed by their friends.» — y la dificultad con que llegó esa aceptación.
«Nellie, however, seemed to have no problem in accepting a servant as her friend and confidant.» — el contraste que Owen señala en la hija de la casa.
«With Mary at her side, she had become a young woman of some importance and personal facility.» — lo que Nellie Theobald ganaba en esa alianza, según Owen.
«If conscious fraud was a factor in the phase of spirit activity that was about to begin, Nellie Theobald’s increased role and her belated elevation to mediumship (the ultimate badge of merit in the family) might have been motive enough.» — la hipótesis de fraude que Owen plantea en condicional y el motivo que le encuentra.
«There is nothing to indicate that Mary and Nellie were any more responsible for a carefully planned campaign of spirit manifestations than the other family members, but they were certainly in a prime position to carry out acts of deliberate fraud.» — y el reparto exacto de esa hipótesis: sin indicio contra ellas, y en posición inmejorable para el fraude.
«The house had been rid of potential enemies and the two women thus had control of the housekeeping. This gave them the ability to operate unobserved.» — las condiciones materiales que Owen enumera: sin servicio hostil y con el gobierno de la casa en sus manos.
«Nellie was also the ideal accomplice. She had access to many family secrets and her loyalty was beyond question.» — y la cómplice ideal que la hija sería, según ese razonamiento.
«These factors can all be construed as essential components in the production of the wonders that were to come.» — la fórmula con que cierra la hipótesis sin afirmarla: factores que pueden interpretarse como componentes.
«Towards the end of 1883 Mary reported that she was coming down in the early morning to find the fires already lit, and that it was the spirits who were responsible for this unexpected help» — el primer fenómeno de esa etapa: los fuegos encendidos de madrugada por los espíritus.
«During family seances the spirits chided Morell Theobald for his lack of faith and told him that it was impossible to perform the delicate operation of materialising fire with anyone present.» — la condición que los espíritus ponían para encender el fuego y el reproche que le hacían al padre.
«He must simply accept the phenomenon on its own terms.» — y lo que se le pedía a cambio: aceptar el fenómeno en sus propios términos.
«Avid spiritualists though they were, Mr and Mrs Theobald were troubled by this latest burst of spirit attention.» — la inquietud que aun así les quedaba, según Owen.
«Much of the writing came from the spirit children, and the Theobalds, as always, found this very difficult to resist.» — el resorte que Owen ve funcionar otra vez: la escritura venía de los hijos muertos.
«As they began to respond to the warmth of the missives, the spirits rewarded them with a renewed wave of direct writing during seances, and finally the family were treated to bursts of writing all over the dining-room ceiling.» — el escalamiento de los fenómenos hasta la escritura en el techo del comedor.
«The house became a veritable whirlwind of spirit activity.» — el estado de la casa que Owen resume en esa frase.
«Slowly but surely the Theobalds accepted, believed, and then became reliant upon the production of this latest evidence that their dead children continued to live and to love them.» — los tres tiempos de esa dependencia: aceptar, creer y depender.
«They forgot, or no longer thought it necessary to consider, that there might be more than one set of household keys, or that somebody close to the family would know which books Morell was likely to pick from his library shelf.» — y lo que dejaron de considerar, según Owen: las segundas llaves y el conocimiento doméstico de los hábitos del padre.
«Most of all, they still refused to accept that a family member could be guilty of perpetrating such a monstrous hoax.» — la negativa de fondo que sostenía todo el edificio.
«In the Theobalds’ eyes, the close relationship between Mary and their daughter could only point to the innocence of both.» — y la inversión que Owen señala: la amistad entre las dos se leía como prueba de inocencia.
«By 1884 the family were experimenting with a cabinet, and as the year passed they were thrille» — el paso siguiente en 1884, con el gabinete; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«A high spirit announced himself by first asking me to lead the circle in prayer for the outpouring of the healing power.» — el episodio de curación que Morell Theobald consignó en su diario.
«He said his province was to attend healers, and for a time he would assist F. who had from his birth been destined to use this gift.» — y lo que ese espíritu declaró sobre su oficio y sobre el don del llamado F.
«But while staying at Haslemere in the following August, I have recorded in my diary six remarkable cases of healing under his hands; two of which had been given over by the doctors, and one woman seemed to be really at death’s door .» — las seis curaciones que el mismo diario registra, dos de ellas desahuciadas por los médicos; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Like many spiritualists the Theobalds favoured homeopathy and non-drug-based medications, but they also consulted spirits and mediums who specialised in health and healing.» — las preferencias terapéuticas de la familia, según Owen; el troceo parte *non-drug-based* en el salto de renglón y `span()` lo unía como *nondrug-based*: la lectura restituida es la del guion.
«Morell thought highly of the gifted Miss Godfrey and Florence sought help from the French healer, the ‘Zouave’ Jacob.» — y los curadores concretos a que acudían.
«The Theobalds regarded healing as one of the most important constituents of Christ’s ministry, and readily accepted spirit messages which spoke of Jesus as the foremost healer, the ‘great Physician’, who ‘says to all the world - come and be healed’.» — el lugar que la curación ocupaba en su cristianismo, con Jesús como gran médico.
«But 1884 was not all harmonious accord.» — el giro con que Owen introduce la disidencia dentro de la familia.
«Ernest, now in his twenties and possibly also married, announced that he could no longer accept the genuineness of Mary’s mediumship and accused her of fraud and deception.» — la acusación de fraude que el hijo mayor lanzó contra la sirvienta médium.
«This unsettling departure shattered the unity of the family circle and, for the first time, the Theobalds had some trouble with disturbing spirit presences.» — y el efecto de esa ruptura sobre el círculo y sobre los espíritus.
«son’s scepticism and, given the extraordinary circumstances of Mary’s mediumship, thought it perfectly natural.» — la benevolencia con que el padre trató el escepticismo del hijo; el arranque —*Morell, however, took a lenient view of his*— queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«He was also convinced that Ernest’s opposition arose from no personal grudge, no doubt a reference to his son’s earlier prominence as a child medium.» — y la lectura que Owen hace de esa benevolencia: alusión al pasado del hijo como médium niño.
«His understanding, together with ‘the amiable tact of our gentle guides’, finally succeeded in disarming the young man’s hostility and the circle recovered without sustaining any lasting damage.» — cómo se cerró el conflicto, según el relato de la familia.
«Unfortunately, though, this was not the last of the problems involving Mary.» — y el anuncio de lo que viene, con que Owen cierra el tramo.
«Like many educated and sincere believers, he had indicated his support for objective research by joining the SPR when it formed in 1882.» — según Owen, Morell Theobald se afilió a la Society for Psychical Research al fundarse, en 1882.
«The first president of the society, Henry Sidgwick, and his wife had been invited to the Theobald home for Sunday lunch, and on that occasion Morell’s records were examined and discussed.» — el trato que la familia tenía con Henry Sidgwick, primer presidente de la sociedad.
«Morell sat on the first council and by 1884 had been elected as the official auditor.» — y los cargos que él ocupó en ella hasta 1884.
«The Society was led by a small group of highly educated intellectuals, some of whom had been at Cambridge together.» — quiénes dirigían la SPR, según Owen: un grupo pequeño de intelectuales, varios compañeros de Cambridge.
«Morell was acquainted with the leading lights, and agreed to an investigation of the phenomena in his home.» — y por qué aceptó la investigación en su casa.
«In the spring of 1884 Frank Podmore, a civil servant and founding member of the Fabian Society, accompanied by Frank S. Hughes of the Physical Phenomena Committee, undertook the examination of Morell’s claims.» — quiénes hicieron esa investigación en la primavera de 1884; el guion de *examina-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«Frank Podmore, however, was in no mood for empathising with the Theobalds’ approach to their spiritualist experiences, having himself become disenchanted some time earlier.» — la disposición con que Podmore llegaba, según Owen: ya desencantado.
«He quickly discovered, as Morell had done before him, that the spirits refused to undertake their household chores in his presence, and he was also unimpressed with the specimens of direct spirit writing.» — lo que Podmore encontró: los espíritus no hacían las tareas domésticas ante él.
«He declared that the miraculous messages which appeared on the ceiling were within reach of a person standing on a chair and using a broomstick with a pencil attached to the end of it, and that the pieces written in an authentic-looking Greek were full of errors.» — y las dos objeciones concretas de Podmore: la silla con la escoba y el lápiz, y el griego lleno de errores.
«Podmore noted that some interesting mistakes in the ‘spirit’ version indicated an imperfect understanding of the subject by its author.» — la inferencia que sacaba de esos errores sobre quién escribía.
«For Podmore it was an open and shut case of fraud and he communicated his findings to Light in the early months of 1885.» — el veredicto de Podmore y dónde lo publicó; el guion de *communi-cated* es del corte de renglón.
«Morell Theobald tried to counter Podmore’s damaging denunciation, and their correspondence ran through six issues of the paper before the editor finally called a halt.» — la réplica de Morell Theobald y las seis entregas que ocupó la polémica; el guion de *correspon-dence* es del corte de renglón.
«In October 1885 the Society’s Journal carried a long letter from Morell asserting that the spirit phenomena still persisted in his home and had been witnessed by Mr Dawson Rogers, the editor of Light and a founder member of the SPR.» — la carta con que él insistía en octubre de 1885 y el testigo que invocaba.
«Many spiritualists had been made uneasy by its heavy-handed approach and no longer automatically regarded its officers as co-workers in the cause of truth.» — el efecto del caso sobre la relación entre espiritistas y la SPR.
«Despite the fact that the Society now pressed for further experiments with Mary, wanting her to take part in a series of test seances, Morell Theobald adamantly refused their requests.» — la negativa firme de Morell Theobald a nuevas pruebas con la sirvienta médium.
«Inwardly he must have been shaken by the notoriety that the case had already afforded, and Mary herself was reluctant to take part on the grounds that she had never directly manifested her psychic powers to anyone out» — las dos razones que Owen le atribuye a esa negativa, una de ellas marcada como conjetura; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«On no account bring Mary forward as she is not fit for that kind of thing, and to make her too public will do her far more harm than good, both in her health and her nervous system .» — y la advertencia que los propios espíritus daban sobre exponer a Mary; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Morell Theobald resigned and became an associate, and was typical of many spiritualists who now perceived the Society as patronising, suspicious of all but its own inner caucus, and utterly destructive in its method.» — el desenlace institucional y el juicio que muchos espiritistas hacían de la SPR, según Owen.
«He concluded that psychical researchers were trying to disprove the spiritualist thesis rather than observe and record phenomena in an» — la conclusión de Morell Theobald sobre la investigación psíquica; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«‘annals and records’ of spiritualism ‘are to be taken not as proofs, but as seeds, which will germinate in their proper soil, but will not take root elsewhere’.» — la fórmula con que él negaba a sus registros valor de prueba: semillas que solo germinan en su suelo; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Furthermore, spiritualism could not be approached merely as an object for study, because ‘Its appeals are to the inner spiritual life, and no response can come where that life is absent .’» — y la condición previa que ponía a todo estudio del espiritismo; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«Not all spiritualists felt that an ‘inner spiritual life’ was a prerequisite for belief, but they were agreed that the cold logic of the scientific mind was inimical to the production of phenomena.» — el desacuerdo interno que Owen consigna y el punto en que sí coincidían.
«Most believers now accepted that the methods of the SPR would never prove anything except that the spirits did not care for them» — la conclusión práctica a la que llegaron los creyentes sobre los métodos de la SPR.
«Morell knew from bitter experience that truth could not emerge ‘as the result of the clash between contending assailants and arguments. Truth is an organic growth.’» — la doctrina de la verdad que Morell Theobald oponía al método del debate.
«They seem to forget that their search should be not only for facts but for laws also, and especially for the laws governing these facts .» — el primero de sus reproches a los investigadores psíquicos; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«They have an irresistible bias towards conjuring, legerdemain, and trickery.» — el segundo reproche: el sesgo irresistible hacia la prestidigitación.
«All testimony to psychic facts from men of character, even among their own members, is suspected or shelved» — el tercero, sobre el testimonio de hombres de carácter descartado o archivado.
«Spiritualists cannot easily co-operate with them unless methods of enquiry are introduced more adapted to the phenomena» — y la condición que ponía para cooperar con ellos.
«much less can we admit into harmoniously constituted circles those antagonistic influences which come in the wake of hostile critics, usually producing discord and ending in failure» — el argumento de la armonía del círculo con que cerraba la puerta a los críticos hostiles.
«The SPR on the other hand, could only wonder at the self-deception and naivety of its spiritualist members.» — la posición contraria, que Owen consigna al lado sin arbitrarla.
«once believers had made up their minds that certain phenomena were the work of spirits, nothing would shift them from that belief.» — y el diagnóstico que desde la SPR se hacía de los creyentes.
«Nor was it only the satisfaction of the religious instinct and the inertia of faith grown habitual which benumbed the spirit of inquiry.» — la ampliación de ese diagnóstico más allá del instinto religioso.
«of clumsy fraud. Hence those who detected trickery of any kind met with scant sympathy.» — el trato que recibía quien detectaba el truco dentro del campo espiritista; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«It was obscurely felt that they were malicious or ignorant persons who had gone out of their way to assail the new Revelation, and to make innocent people uncomfortable and even, perhaps, ridiculous .» — y la figura en que se los convertía: asaltantes maliciosos de la revelación nueva; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«In terms of the Theobald family it no doubt was unthinkable that, after twenty years of intimate and valued spirit communication, all could be explained in terms of wishful thinking and grotesque imposture.» — por qué la explicación del fraude era impensable para los Theobald tras veinte años de trato con sus muertos.
«To have accepted such a possibility would have shattered the unity of a family which predicated its belief on mutual trust, moral imperatives, and total personal integrity.» — y lo que aceptarla habría costado, según Owen: la unidad misma de la familia.
«Doubtless, once Morell had staked his reputation on the genuineness of his family’s experiences, a certain degree of personal vanity did enter into his steadfast refusal to accept Mary’s duplicity or the chance that he might have been shamelessly gulled.» — la parte de vanidad que Owen le concede a esa negativa.
«But to accept this as an explanation of his unshakable faith is to underestimate both the impact of the mediumship of his wife, sister, and children which had brought them so much joy long before Mary entered the scene, and the enrichme» — y el límite que le pone a esa explicación; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«found in spiritualism an answer to religious and emotional needs. The everyday practice of their beliefs led them into unusual and sometimes disturbing reversals of accepted norms of behaviour and social relations, but they accepted these with optimism and courage.» — el balance que Owen hace de la familia: inversiones inquietantes de la norma aceptadas con optimismo; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«The issue of Mary, that intruder from another class nestled in the bosom of the family, is an important one with ramifications that extend beyond the immediate considerations of spiritualism.» — el alcance que le da al caso de la sirvienta médium, más allá del espiritismo.
«But here it can be seen that Mary’s prominence within the closed family unit was truly remarkable because of the subversion of class relations that it represented.» — y en qué consiste esa importancia: la subversión de las relaciones de clase.
«Within the privacy of the home she succeeded in undermining a rigid class structure, just as the Theobald women and children had already asserted their right to complete spiritual ascendancy.» — el paralelo que traza entre las dos subversiones domésticas, la de clase y la de género.
«Ultimately, whether Mary and the other women were genuine, conscious frauds, or self-deluding victims of their own grandiose designs, they succeeded in achieving a degree of autonomy that was unusual in the context of the times.» — la abstención con que Owen cierra el caso: sea cual sea la respuesta sobre el fraude, la autonomía conseguida fue inusual.
«Spiritualist practice placed them in positions of authority within the family and proved both enabling and empowering.» — y lo que la práctica espiritista les dio dentro de la familia.
«Of all aspects of spiritualist phenomena, mediumistic healing was perhaps the most revered by believers and sympathetically attested to by non-spiritualists.» — abre el capítulo quinto con el lugar de la curación mediúmnica, matizado por un *perhaps*.
«Spiritualist healing was a polyglot affair, a mixture of traditional remedies or techniques, the ‘pseudo-sciences’, and spirit intervention.» — los tres ingredientes que le reconoce a esa curación.
«Although spiritualist healers worked in part from a theory of energy transfer between healer and sufferer, the process often looked remarkably like either hypnotism, or therapeutic touch (the laying-on of hands).» — la distancia que Owen mide entre la teoría de la transferencia de energía y lo que se veía hacer.
«The efficacy of what is now often referred to as ‘alternative’ healing is notoriously difficult to quantify, and there is little agreement as to how the various techniques might work.» — la abstención que declara sobre la eficacia de la curación alternativa.
«current medical research on both sides of the Atlantic suggests that it can achieve remarkably positive results .» — y lo único que sí afirma, apoyada en investigación médica actual; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«This is certainly consistent with the experience of many nineteenth-century patients who claimed relief if not cure at the hands of unorthodox practitioners.» — la continuidad que traza con el testimonio de los pacientes decimonónicos, cuidando el matiz entre alivio y cura; el guion de *experi-ence* es del corte de renglón.
«And it is not necessary for us to subscribe to the explanations offered by particular Victorian healers in order to accept that their practices could be associated with be» — el deslinde de método que hace entre aceptar el efecto y suscribir la explicación; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«The ability to heal was respected as one of the highest expressions of psychic power and, as with other forms of mediumship, women proved themselves able practitioners of the healing arts.» — el lugar de la curación entre los poderes psíquicos y el de las mujeres dentro de ella.
«The healing gift was one which could be exercised either privately at home or through a variety of more public outlets.» — los dos ámbitos en que podía ejercerse ese don.
«It might be bestowed upon the most humble adherent and, although some mediums specialised in dealing with the sick, it was not unusual for the ordinary believer to develop ‘the healing touch’.» — y su reparto democrático, según Owen: el toque curativo al alcance del creyente común.
«The underlying principle of spiritualist thinking in relation to health matters was that the ‘best means of promoting the welfare of the immortal spirit is to furnish it with as perfect an instrument as possible for its expression, in the shape of a healthful mortal body ’.» — el principio que ordenaba la higiene espiritista: un cuerpo sano como instrumento del espíritu; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«For this reason believers eschewed the autocratic interference of a medical profession which they claimed understood nothing of the ways of the spirit and sought only to impose control over the powerless body of the patient.» — y la razón que daban para rechazar a la profesión médica: control sobre el cuerpo impotente del paciente.
«In contrast to much of orthodox medicine, spiritualist healing was predicated on the successful interaction between healer and recipient and a commitment to the key factor of holistic care.» — el contraste que Owen traza con la medicina ortodoxa: interacción y cuidado del conjunto.
«Beneath an apparent confusion of healing methods and approaches lay the assumption that the healing exchange involved a flow of vital energy or power, and that this must be directed towards the whole person.» — el supuesto común bajo la confusión de métodos: un flujo de energía vital dirigido a la persona entera; el guion de *assump-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«These were unifying concepts in an eclectic methodology which prided itself on being ‘equally applicable to the cottage or the palace’.» — y el orgullo democrático de esa metodología ecléctica.
«It was a modus operandi which lay ‘within reach of all classes and conditions ’, 4 and which represented an ideal of democratic healing and health for all.» — el ideal que Owen le adjudica: curación democrática y salud para todos; el 4 es la llamada a nota y el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«Perhaps the closest and most important influence upon spiritualist healing was mesmerism.» — la influencia principal que le encuentra, con su *perhaps* a cuestas: el mesmerismo.
«Often referred to as electro-biology or animal magnetism, mesmerism incorporated a practice and philosophy which fed directly into a spiritualist understanding of the material spiritual world.» — los otros nombres del mesmerismo y su aporte a la comprensión espiritista de un mundo espiritual material.
«British mesmerism of the middle decades of the nineteenth century laid stress upon three major classes of phenomena:» — las tres clases de fenómenos en que el mesmerismo británico ponía el acento.
«actual physical effects that were thought to prove the transmission of a force or fluid from the operator to the mesmerised person, or from inanimate substances to the subject; phreno-mesmerism, or phrenology; and community of sensation, including clairvoyance .» — y el detalle de esas tres clases; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«All this, combined with mesmerism’s radical impulse and its association with an earlier occult tradition, directly influenced a spiritualist healing practice which promoted the concept of a healing energy or force, disdained the use of drugs, and was open to all .» — lo que el mesmerismo legó a la curación espiritista, incluida su asociación con una tradición oculta anterior; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Thus, a good healer combined spirit aid with strong personal ‘magnetism’ to reduce disease or pain in a sufferer.» — la definición de buen curador que resulta de esa mezcla.
«Healers were by no means uniform in their conception of spirit action, but most acknowledged a strong debt.» — la variedad de concepciones que Owen consigna sin uniformar.
«Some went into the trance state in order to allow a spirit to work through them; others believed that they operated with spirit guidance and inspiration, and yet another group claimed that the spirits helped in terms of diagnosis.» — las tres modalidades de intervención espírita que distingue.
«A handful of powerful spiritualist healers regarded their ability as a personal gift that was not directly spirit-influenced, and they tended to avoid the term ‘healing medium’.» — y la cuarta posición, la de quienes tenían el don por personal y evitaban llamarse médiums curadoras.
«But all were united in thinking of the healing power as ‘magnetic’, or a type of ‘force’, and the healing process as something shared.» — el punto en que todas coincidían, según Owen.
«The healing relationship invoked a degree ofintimacy unknown in more othodox medical circles and was regarded as disgraceful and repellent by the medical profession.» — la intimidad de la relación curativa y el escándalo que causaba a la profesión médica; *ofintimacy* es unión de palabras del troceo y *othodox* es errata.
«Mesmerism, according to its advocates, acts most intensely on nervous and impressionable females.» — el ataque del Lancet al mesmerismo que Owen cita, empezando por su efecto sobre mujeres nerviosas.
«What father of a family, then, would admit even the shadow of a mesmeriser within his threshold?» — y la pregunta retórica con que ese texto apelaba al padre de familia.
«If the volition of an ill-intentioned person be sufficient to prostrate his victim at his feet, should we not shun such pretenders more than lepers, or the uncleanest ofthe unclean ?» — el remate de esa diatriba, con el mesmerista peor que un leproso; *ofthe* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«This cameo of the professional mesmeriser as a moral leper found its way,» — la continuidad que Owen traza entre ese retrato y la discusión posterior sobre la mediumnidad, con la novela de Henry James por medio; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«However, the very suggestion that spiritualist or mesmeric healing might be efficacious was a ruinous one for professional medicine.» — lo que estaba realmente en juego, según Owen: la sola sugerencia de eficacia era ruinosa para la medicina profesional.
«Alternative healing posed an economic and ideological threat to orthodoxy by ‘disputing its claim to possess exclusive, esoteric knowledge about the nature of disease and health’, and the profession was quick to react .» — la amenaza doble que le atribuye, económica e ideológica; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Dr John Elliotson, the remarkable physician who edited the mesmeric journal, the Zoist, was forced to resign his post at London’s University College after an attack led by the Lancet and amidst bitter and acrimonious debate .» — el caso con que documenta esa reacción: la renuncia forzada de John Elliotson; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The nineteenth-century medical profession defined all lay practitioners as charlatans, and spiritualist healers were no exception.» — la definición con que la profesión médica despachaba a todo practicante lego; el guion de *practi-tioners* es del corte de renglón.
«Spiritualists, on the other hand, emphasised the fact that medicine was a source of private profit and vested interest, and urged that all men and women had some healing ability.» — y la réplica espiritista que Owen consigna al lado: la medicina como lucro privado, y el don curativo repartido entre todos.
«They argued that the major part of allopathic medicine could be dispensed with if only the people received ‘proper instructions in the laws of health, diet, clothing, sanitation etc. . . . Instead of living in crowded dens, slums, and alleys, you should be living in villas and enjoying life in peace and happiness.’» — el argumento higienista con que sostenían esa posición.
«A radical change in living conditions, healers of good will, and magnetism were all that was required to give every man, woman, and child access to their rightful heritage, health.» — y los tres requisitos que ponían para la salud como herencia de todos.
«Professional medicine, with a few notable exceptions, reacted to this unpalatable prospect by indulging in a little thunderous tub thumping whilst seeking to shore up its position by due recourse to the law.» — la reacción que Owen le atribuye a la medicina profesional, con su ironía sobre el estruendo.
«The Lancet cracked down on all practitioners who might be so ‘misconducting themselves’ as to use spirit mediums in their consulting rooms, and watched with satisfaction as an 1878 amendment to the 1858 Medical Act tightened up the legal safeguards against uncertified quacks and what one physician referred to as ‘Spiritualistic humbugs’.» — el recurso legal concreto que documenta: la enmienda de 1878 al Medical Act de 1858.
«Henry Maudsley was typical when, in admitting to an interest in these matters, he asserted that such techniques could be efficacious only in the hands of a qualified medical man.» — la posición de Henry Maudsley que Owen toma por típica: la técnica solo sirve en manos de un médico titulado.
«matched by the bitterness of the spiritualist attack on the blind elitism of monopoly medicine.» — la simetría de las dos hostilidades; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«The restrictive conditions of entry which sought to ensure that the medical profession remained a gentlemen’s club, its refusal to consider treatments and methods which fell outside the bounds of a blinkered theory, the arrogance of its pronouncements, and its mercenary conduct all served to exacerbate heterodoxy’s loathing.» — los cuatro reproches que la heterodoxia hacía a la profesión, según Owen.
«So violent was this antipathy that tirades against the medical profession remain some of the most passionate in spiritualist literature.» — el lugar que esas diatribas ocupan en la literatura espiritista.
«As one woman healer expressed it, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons must be regarded as ‘human parasitic fungoid excrescences . . . not to be tolerated any more than venomous reptiles’.» — la fórmula de una curadora que Owen cita como muestra; el guion de *Sur-geons* es del corte de renglón.
«This set the tone of the battle between the ‘unclean’ and the ‘poisoners’, marking out a terrain which reaffirmed the presence of continuous struggle between the two traditions.» — los dos motes con que Owen resume la batalla; los guiones de *pois-oners* y *contin-uous* son del corte de renglón.
«Medicine’s projected image as the standard-bearer of scientific and benign progress, encapsulating an impervious body of absolute truths, was contested at every point by the health radicals.» — la imagen que la medicina proyectaba de sí y el punto por punto en que los radicales la disputaban.
«Allopathy did not stem from a base of natural healing and herbal medicine, and did everything in its power to relegate those concerns to the lunatic fringes.» — el origen que Owen le niega a la alopatía y el trato que dio a la curación natural.
«Spiritualist healing was essentially a combination of traditional techniques and spirit guidance, and women were important in both domains.» — y el lugar de las mujeres en las dos mitades de la curación espiritista.
«They had been a part of the ‘ancient ways’ which stretched back through wise women and white witches; they were effective mesmerists and excellent mediums.» — la genealogía que se les reconocía, de mujeres sabias y brujas blancas.
«Their emergence in this field was regarded by believers as another rightful ‘portion’ of women’s spiritual inheritance.» — y cómo la leían los creyentes: otra porción legítima de la herencia espiritual femenina.
«James Burns, himself an enthusiastic phrenologist and advocate of natural healing, published a list of London healers in the Medium and Daybreak at the beginning of the 1880s.» — la lista de curadores londinenses que Burns publicó al comenzar los años ochenta.
«Notably, whether by accident or design, his list of twenty was precisely balanced in terms of male and female practitioners.» — y el equilibrio exacto entre hombres y mujeres en esa lista, con la duda sobre si fue casual dejada abierta.
«disproportionate number of healers were in fact women.» — la desproporción que Owen mide a favor de las mujeres entre los curadores; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«This possibly owed something to a general belief in the value of the feminine influence in the sick room, one of those aspects of prescriptive ideology which found ready acceptance within spiritualist culture.» — la explicación que ofrece en modo de posibilidad: la influencia femenina en el cuarto del enfermo.
«Spiritualists found nothing to quarrel about in Emma Hardinge Britten’s assertion that women were most fitted to healing, teaching, and motherhood because these nurturing activities were the ones most likely to fulfil their ‘moon-like love’ and ‘star-like beauty’.» — la fórmula de Britten sobre los oficios propios de la mujer, que nadie discutía en el campo espiritista.
«The vital difference with respect to spiritualist attitudes towards care of the sick lay in the fact that women were not cast in the role of ministering angels, but healers with the responsibility for cure: ‘As a physician . . . woman is especially fitted to shine.’» — la diferencia que a Owen le importa: no ángeles asistentes sino curadoras con responsabilidad de cura.
«Women possessed transformative power which, in the healing context, far outstripped the notion of ‘female influence’, and this helped to produce a burst of woman-centred healing activity.» — y el poder transformador que ese lugar les daba, más allá de la mera influencia.
«Therefore, although almost half of the women mediums who were circulating in London during the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s listed the ability to heal or diagnose amongst their skills, the precise nature of their healing activity remains obscure.» — el muro documental que Owen declara: casi la mitad anunciaba curar o diagnosticar, y no se sabe bien qué hacían.
«Public healing mediums came mainly from the upper-working and lower-middle classes and had neither the time, inclination, nor resources to publish their experiences.» — la razón de ese muro: las curadoras públicas no tenían tiempo ni recursos para publicar.
«Professional healers also had their faithful clientele but these patients avoided exposing themselves to general scrutiny by publishing personal details, contenting themselves instead with glowing recommendations in the spiritualist press.» — y la segunda razón: los pacientes tampoco publicaban sus detalles.
«Fortunately, some professional healers gave public displays and held open clinics which were reported, and newspaper coverage together with advertisements provide major clues as to the social class, method, commitment to democratic principles, and popularity of these women.» — las fuentes con que Owen sortea ese muro: clínicas abiertas, prensa y anuncios.
«Nevertheless, it remains the case that the most valuable information often came from the handful of American and British middle-class professional healers who lectured on the spiritualist circuit and published pamphlets and books.» — y el sesgo que reconoce en su propia base documental: unas pocas curadoras de clase media que publicaron.
«A certain degree of reserve also marked the private healing world. Private healing mediums worked solely within the confines of their home or small circle and commented vividly but fleetingly on their successes.» — la reserva que también encuentra en el mundo de la curación privada.
«Some, like the Theobald family, encouraged the development of the healing gift amongst family members, and certainly consulted spiritualist healers, but remained reticent on the subject of major illness or anything resembling mental disorder.» — el silencio selectivo que documenta en familias como los Theobald: nada sobre enfermedad grave ni sobre trastorno mental.
«There was something particularly private and sensitive about the treatment of family disability or illness which many commentators, even those prepared to give full accounts of seance activities, were unwilling to breach.» — y el umbral de intimidad que ni los más locuaces cruzaban; el guion de *particu-larly* es del corte de renglón.
«It would have involved an unacceptable degree of personal or familial revelation.» — la razón que Owen le da a ese umbral.
«Middle-class men and women were not accustomed to public discussion of bodily malfunction and chose instead to touch upon such episodes in the briefest of terms.» — y la costumbre de clase que lo sostenía.
«James Burns, despite his active help in promoting professional healing careers, took his usual line when» — la posición de Burns sobre la curación profesional; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«His greatest praise was for the quality and purity of private mediumship.» — y a quién reservaba su mayor elogio.
«Professionals, he wrote, often showed a marked reluctance ‘to turn away business, and add to the emoluments and fame of a jealous rival; thus the Healing power is sometimes brought into discredit ’.» — el reproche que hacía a las profesionales, en sus propias palabras; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«It was essential that he was seen to retain an independent stance in his editorial capacity if he was to escape accusations of self-interest:» — la posición que Burns debía guardar como editor, según Owen.
«Healers and other practitioners in connection with Spiritualism have repeatedly held out inducements to us to send them patients or customers, by offering us a percentage on such cases.» — el ofrecimiento que Burns declaraba haber recibido de curadores y practicantes.
«This we have at all times steadfastly refused.» — y su respuesta declarada a esos ofrecimientos.
«We cannot traffic in such matters.» — la fórmula con que Burns cerraba el asunto.
«When we advise inquirers, it is for their good alone, and not to benefit any healer, medium, or ourselves.» — y el criterio que decía seguir al aconsejar a los que preguntaban.
«There was, as Burns’s disclaimer suggests, competition between professional healers, although he was fair enough to acknowledge that genuine altruism was the common policy.» — lo que ese descargo deja ver, según Owen, y el reconocimiento que Burns hacía del altruismo general; el guion de *profes-sional* es del corte de renglón.
«Burns also made sure that reports, testimonials, and advertisements had their fair share of space» — el espacio que Burns daba a los testimonios y anuncios de curación; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«But in general, prices were very much lower, suggesting that only middle-class spiritualists had the more expensive private sessions and home visits.» — la lectura que Owen hace de las tarifas: solo la clase media pagaba sesiones privadas y visitas a domicilio.
«This perhaps says something about the relative status of heterodox medicine, but spiritualist healers nevertheless remained committed to providing good-quality healing for all.» — y el compromiso democrático que aun así les reconoce, con su *perhaps* a cuestas.
«The availability of quality health care, regardless of financial status, was an important tenet of spiritualist healing practice.» — el principio declarado de esa práctica: atención de calidad sin importar la fortuna.
«Only those healers who had a faithful following of more affluent patients could afford to offer regular free sessions.» — y la condición material que hacía posible ese principio.
«Behind the more celebrated healers were many women like Miss Bessie Williams, a gifted clairvoyant diagnostician, who knew what it was to fall on hard times.» — el caso con que Owen muestra la otra cara del oficio: Bessie Williams, diagnosticadora clarividente en apuros.
«During the mid-i870s Bessie found it increasingly difficult to support herself, her widowed sister, and two tiny nieces from her earnings with Dr Mack.» — las cargas que ella sostenía con su sueldo; *mid-i870s* es errata del troceo.
«James Mack, whose real name was McGeary, was an American healer who arrived in London in 1875 and quickly established himself in a practice near Burns’s Spiritual Institution.» — quién era el llamado doctor Mack, según Owen, con su nombre verdadero.
«He was essentially a mesmerist but used female clairvoyant diagnosticians to help him in his work.» — y el arreglo de trabajo que montaba con diagnosticadoras clarividentes.
«Bessie Williams’s participation involved her ability to ‘see’ into the body of a patient, which she could do ‘as though they were made of glass’, and thereby» — en qué consistía la aportación de Bessie Williams, en las palabras de la fuente; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Many such mediums suffered from the mental and physical depletion caused by constant use of their gifts, but there was a further hazard known as ‘taking on the condition’ of the sick person.» — los dos riesgos del oficio que Owen distingue, incluido el de contraer el mal del paciente.
«Her plight, however, underlined the precariousness of a healing career which relied solely upon mediumship, and her story was probably not unique.» — lo que el caso de Bessie Williams subraya, con la conjetura de que no fue único.
«Only eight of the fifteen actually classified themselves as mediums.» — el censo que Owen hace de quince curadoras y cuántas se declaraban médiums.
«A clairvoyant healing medium would be expected to understand or ‘see’ intuitively the nature of a medical problem and to possess the power to heal; a diagnostician would operate in conjunction with a healer.» — la diferencia de oficio entre la médium curadora clarividente y la diagnosticadora.
«Colour healing was a relative rarity, although clairvoyants were aware of the different coloured ‘auras’ that surrounded the body.» — la rareza de la curación por color y el conocimiento general de las auras.
«Spiritualists believed that these auras were caused by the magnetism given off by the body, and colour healers worked on the principle that the aura took on a specific colour according to the relative physical and emotional health of the individual.» — la teoría del aura que Owen expone: magnetismo del cuerpo y color según el estado de salud.
«A colour healer understood the relationship between colour and disease and was able to direct curative magnetism as required.» — y en qué consistía el oficio de la curadora por color.
«She was able to diagnose and heal, and her services were in high demand.» — el doble don que Owen atribuye a la señora Olive y la demanda que tenía.
«However, against the urgings of her friends and patients, she refused to accept payment and was thus classed as a private medium.» — y la negativa a cobrar que la clasificaba como médium privada.
«Like some of the other best-known women healers, age and marriage had no effect on her popularity.» — el rasgo que comparte con otras curadoras célebres: ni la edad ni el matrimonio le restaban público.
«Even non-spiritualists admired her, and this was all the more remarkable because she was a full trance medium who conducted her healing sessions under spirit control.» — y lo que a Owen le parece más notable de su fama: trabajaba en trance pleno.
«When Mrs Olive prescribed remedies, made mesmeric passes, or used physical manipulation during a seance she did so at the behest of the spirit world.» — según Owen, todo lo que la señora Olive hacía en sesión lo hacía por mandato del mundo espiritual.
«It was the spirit who healed through her. She was the medium for ‘Dr Forbes’s’ cures.» — el reparto de la agencia curativa que ella declaraba: el espíritu curaba por su medio.
«‘Dr Forbes’ claimed to be the spirit of an illustrious medical man who had died in the early 1860s.» — quién decía ser ese espíritu, según Owen.
«From his new vantage point in the spiritual spheres he was able to see the error of some of his allopathic ways, and now combined his new-found wisdom with what was useful from his conventional training.» — y la conversión póstuma que el mismo espíritu reclamaba respecto de su alopatía.
«The fragments of personal history revealed by this entity supported his claimed identification with Sir John Forbes, an eminent and enlightened practitioner who had been physician to the Prince Consort and the Queen’s Flousehold, and who had died in 1861.» — la identificación que esos fragmentos apoyaban: sir John Forbes, médico del príncipe consorte, muerto en 1861; *Flousehold* es errata del troceo.
«It is impossible to say how much Mrs Olive may have known about this man’s career, but his court position, authorship, and publication of the British and Foreign Medicial Review would have brought him to the attention of anyone with an interest in medicine.» — la abstención de Owen sobre lo que la médium supiera y el dato que sí establece: Forbes era conocido de cualquiera con interés en medicina; *Medicial* es errata del troceo.
«Furthermore, as a spirit, he now roundly attacked vaccination, a procedure he had both supported and practised during his lifetime.» — la contradicción que Owen consigna sin resolver entre el médico vivo y el espíritu.
«When Florence Marryat consulted the medium on a delicate matter, ‘Dr Forbes’ whispered the name of her condition and what she must do about it.» — el caso de Florence Marryat consultando a ese espíritu por un asunto delicado.
«When Miss Marryat showed this slip of paper to her orthodox practitioner he was highly offended that she had sought a second opinion but acknowledged the value of the remedy.» — y la reacción del médico ortodoxo, ofendido y a la vez conforme con el remedio.
«So synonymous did the two become that many referred to a consultation with ‘Dr Forbes’ rather than a visit to Mrs Olive.» — hasta qué punto médium y espíritu se volvieron intercambiables para la clientela.
«visit was unnecessary, as Mrs Olive was capable of ‘distant healing’. On one occasion, ‘Mesmer’ was invoked to heal a sitter’s nephew in Australia, and ‘Dr Forbes’ was often able to offer help and relief to patients who were unable to see the medium regularly.» — la curación a distancia que se le atribuía, con el sobrino en Australia como caso; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«One major advantage of spiritual healing over more orthodox methods was that it was a humane and painless form of therapy.» — la ventaja que Owen le reconoce a la curación espiritual sobre la ortodoxa: humana y sin dolor.
«Mrs Olive was renowned for her success in curing tumours, and one of her patients urged» — la fama de la señora Olive con los tumores; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«I was a great sufferer for some months, and under the care of an experienced surgeon, but finding myself no better, and the remedies worse than the disease,» — el testimonio de un paciente suyo, que empieza por el fracaso del cirujano.
«I was advised by a friend to consult ‘Dr Forbes’, Mrs Olive’s medical control, which I did, and feeling very greatly relieved after my first visit, I continued to attend daily for some weeks, during which time the tumour was entirely absorbed, my nervous system regained its vitality, and I am now completely cured, and able for any ordinary exertion.» — y el relato completo de esa cura, tal como la fuente lo imprime.
«I may add, that to prevent relapse my kind spirit-doctor magnetises me daily, though I am removed to a considerable distance from his medium .» — el remate del testimonio, con el magnetismo a distancia como profilaxis; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Judging from the many similar reports which appeared in the spiritualist press, Mrs Olive’s success rate was extremely high.» — la inferencia que Owen saca de la prensa espiritista, declarando la base del juicio.
«Although over halfof the professional women healers who advertised in spiritualist circles promoted themselves as healing mediums, this did not rule out their use of techniques like mesmerism.» — la mezcla de métodos que documenta entre las curadoras profesionales; *halfof* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Conversely, although mesmerists used a method which could be learnt and which did not rely upon possession of a mediumistic gift, they were often happy to call upon the good offices of guiding spirits.» — y la mezcla en sentido inverso: mesmeristas que recurrían a espíritus guías.
«Mrs Rolls, a professional mesmerist, told Georgiana Houghton that she was permitted to request the help of Mesmer himself in dealing with very difficult cases.» — el caso de la señora Rolls, que decía poder pedir ayuda al propio Mesmer.
«There were also occasions when he would come to her without being asked, and Mrs Rolls was once moved to comment on the length of time that had elapsed since his last visit:» — y las visitas no solicitadas de ese mismo espíritu.
«It was during the Crimean War, and he explained to her that he and all his band had been so fully engaged on all the fields of battle that everything else seemed to shrink into nothingness, so entirely had they been engrossed in calming the poor slain victims, whose thread of life having been so suddenly snapped, they arose with their spiritual bodies, without an idea that they were not still in mortal form .» — la explicación que el espíritu de Mesmer dio a la señora Rolls por su ausencia: los muertos de Crimea, alzados en cuerpo espiritual sin saberse muertos; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«and only by dint of much mesmeric soothing could they be brought to realise their true state .» — y el remedio que ese mismo relato proponía para ellos; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Mrs Rolls was not unusual in combining a talent for mesmeric healing with claims of direct intervention from the spirit world, and this might have been a tactical move with an eye to her growing spiritualist clientele.» — la combinación de mesmerismo y espíritus que Owen tiene por común, con la hipótesis táctica que añade en condicional.
«Other mesmerists, however, preferred to leave the spirits out of it and stressed instead the scientific and intellectual aspects of their method.» — la posición contraria dentro del mismo oficio, que consigna al lado.
«Mrs Howell, who lived in Batoum Gardens, Hammersmith, was a healer of many years’ standing who liked to go deeply into the individual merits of different mesmeric techniques with her patients.» — el caso de la señora Howell, que discutía las técnicas con sus pacientes.
«This was appreciated as a demystifying and levelling aspect of her practice .» — y el valor que se le daba a esa franqueza: desmitificadora y niveladora; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«There was no mention of spirit entities, but her treatment was soothing and curative and she was noted for her gentleness and pleasing manners.» — lo que su práctica no incluía y lo que sí, según Owen.
«As with Mrs Olive, however, age and marital status had no bearing on their popularity.» — el rasgo común que Owen encuentra en estas curadoras.
«What mattered was the ‘rightness’ of the healer and efficacy of the treatment.» — y el criterio que sí pesaba en la clientela.
«Spiritualists chose a healer in much the same way as therapists are sought today.» — la comparación con que Owen acerca aquella elección a la de hoy.
«Mrs Woodforde’s concern extended to her support for a mission recently established in Poplar, a London area marked by extreme poverty, for ‘friendless and fallen women’.» — la obra social de la señora Woodforde en Poplar, según Owen.
«Miss Godfrey was held in high regard by men and women alike and she had a lengthy healing career.» — el prestigio y la duración de la carrera de Miss Godfrey.
«Morell Theobald consulted her in the early 1870s and, despite an accident involving an omnibus in 1881, she continued her work well into the 1880s.» — y los dos datos que la fechan: la consulta de Morell Theobald y el accidente de ómnibus de 1881.
«Miss Godfrey treated ‘ladies suffering from weakness, misplacement, or prolapsus’ without recourse to medication of any kind, but there was little other indication of how these women operated.» — lo que trataba y el muro documental que Owen declara sobre su método; los guiones de *weak-ness* y *operat-ed* son del corte de renglón.
«Their reputations rested on the ability to provide relief from gynaecological difficulties which often resulted from numerous pregnancies and inadequate post-natal care, but they also offered the consolation of being female.» — en qué se apoyaba su fama, según Owen: alivio ginecológico y el consuelo de ser mujeres; el guion de *pregnan-cies* es del corte de renglón.
«The idea that women were best fitted to serve female medical needs had general support amongst spiritualists.» — la idea que tenía apoyo general en el campo espiritista.
«One of the most influential, Mary S. Gove Nichols, an American who had lived in England since the 1860s, held that her special mission in life was to ameliorate women’s suffering and that this could best be accomplished by restoring them to health.» — la misión que Mary S. Gove Nichols se atribuía, según Owen.
«Although the Society was proposing a branch of orthodox ‘female medicine’ practised by women, it reflected the popularity of woman-centred treatment.» — el deslinde que Owen hace entre la medicina femenina ortodoxa y el tratamiento centrado en la mujer.
«Alternative healers were already providing their patients with this service and consequently gained a grateful and devoted following.» — y la ventaja de anterioridad que le reconoce a la curación alternativa.
«It is difficult to tell whether women’s specialists, under the guise of healing, were offering their patients contraception or abortion.» — la abstención que declara sobre la anticoncepción y el aborto en esas consultas.
«Given spiritualists’ high regard for ‘every germ of life’ it is most unlikely that abortion was practised by any reputable woman healer.» — y lo único que se atreve a afirmar, como muy improbable, apoyándose en la doctrina espiritista del germen de vida.
«The rejection of sexual ignorance and shame was a familiar theme on the plebeian lecture circuit where male as well as female speakers emphasised the need for enlightened education in the home.» — el tema recurrente del circuito plebeyo de conferencias: contra la ignorancia y la vergüenza sexuales; el guion de *enlight-ened* es del corte de renglón.
«It was argued that parental responsibility extended to teaching children ‘the proper use and functions of the organs of the body’ so that the business of procreation lost its terrors.» — el deber que se atribuía a los padres en esa educación.
«But it is also possible that the obverse was implied in statements like: ‘Every person on arriving at years of discretion should possess the knowledge of bringing [children] into the world.’» — y el reverso que Owen sugiere en modo de posibilidad, con el corchete aclaratorio de la fuente.
«This was perhaps a delicate hint at knowledge which would also permit the prevention of unwanted pregnancies.» — la insinuación que ella lee ahí, marcada con un *perhaps*: el saber que también permite evitar embarazos.
«The spiritualist press, which carried advertisements for a large number of books on general health matters, included Robert Dale Owen’s Moral Physiology amongst its recommended titles.» — el título que la prensa espiritista recomendaba y que apunta en esa dirección.
«Mary S. Gove Nichols and her husband, for all their enlightened views on the dissemination of sexual knowledge and experience of American communitarian living, expressed the view that sexual intercourse should take place only for the purposes of procreation.» — el límite que Owen encuentra en los Nichols pese a sus ideas avanzadas sobre el saber sexual.
«Lottie Fowler, whose real name was Charlotte Connolly, was a remarkably good clairvoyant medium and medical diagnostician.» — quién era Lottie Fowler, con su nombre verdadero.
«Florence Marryat knew Lottie Fowler during her palmy days when she had lodged in Conduit Street, and claimed that she had been consulted by the court about the health of the Prince of Wales.» — y lo que Florence Marryat contaba de ella, incluida la consulta de la corte sobre el príncipe de Gales.
«At the height of her success the medium maintained a fashionable London practice and had a wealthy following, but by the beginning of the 1890s this had faded away and she was forced to return to America.» — el arco de esa carrera hasta el regreso forzado a los Estados Unidos.
«Her health had been wrecked by overwork and she was finally committed to a mental asylum.» — y su final, según Owen: la salud rota por el exceso de trabajo y el encierro en un manicomio.
«It was a sad finale for a gifted woman who had introduced individuals like Stainton Moses to spiritualism, and whose work was still remembered with praise in the decade of her demise.» — el balance que hace de esa vida, con Stainton Moses entre sus conversos.
«The comparative ease with which mediums and healers slipped out of the limelight once their powers deserted them testified, yet again, to the fragility of careers based solely upon the possession of psychic gifts.» — la fragilidad estructural que ese caso vuelve a mostrar, según Owen.
«The women who survived best in the healing world were those who had a broad-based appeal which extended beyond spiritualist circles, and who were less concerned with the vagaries of the spirit world.» — quiénes duraban más en el oficio de curar, según Owen: las de atractivo amplio y menos pendientes de los espíritus.
«These were healers who were committed to holistic health care but who had a thorough mastery of a particular technique like mesmerism or hydropathy.» — y el perfil técnico de esas curadoras.
«They were also women who, although by no means wealthy, were not concerned with the day-to-day struggle for economic survival.» — la condición económica que Owen les reconoce, sin llamarlas ricas.
«It was not, however, simply a matter of class (Mary Nichols, for example, came from a poor, rural family) but often of unorthodox or radical backgrounds.» — la corrección que hace a una lectura de clase, con el contraejemplo entre paréntesis.
«Useful contacts, like-minded husbands, and the ready availability of household servants, combined with energy and ability, facilitated the running of marriages, homes, businesses, and careers.» — los recursos concretos que hacían posible esa carrera doble, incluido el servicio doméstico.
«At times it was a struggle, but these women had the resources with which to operate well-organised practices, write and publicise, and move into related areas of interest.» — y el margen que esos recursos les daban.
«Maurice Davies made his way to James Burns’s Spiritual Institution to witness the ‘mesmeric seance’ of a Miss Chandos .» — la escena con que Owen presenta a Chandos Leigh Hunt: su debut en la institución de Burns; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Burns had decided, no doubt to encourage a good audience, that admission should be free of charge.» — y la entrada gratuita con que Burns aseguraba público.
«Davies arrived a little late to find the small first-floor room where public meetings were conducted packed with ‘psychological folks’, and had great difficulty edging his way to an empty seat.» — el lleno que el cronista Davies encontró en la sala.
«Burns was already on the platform discussing the current revival of mesmerism and its great efficacy as a healing agent.» — y lo que Burns exponía desde la tarima: el renacer del mesmerismo como agente curativo.
«I did not listen very carefully, I fear, for I was nervously looking about for Miss Chandos.» — la confesión del cronista sobre su propia atención.
«Nervously, I say, because lady mediums and mesmerisers are so apt to run to eighteen stone, or be old and frumpish, that I had terrible fears lest I should be scared when I met Miss Chandos in the flesh.» — y el prejuicio con que ese mismo cronista llegaba a la sesión, que Owen reproduce sin comentar.
«I was very agreeably surprised, however, for when Mr Burns resumed -not his chair but his table, since he sat on that article of furniture, a very pretty young lady indeed, of not more than eighteen or twenty years of age, took his place, and, in a few well-chosen words, said this was her first appearance as a public mesmerist, and claimed indulgence should any failure in the phenomena result .» — la aparición de Chandos según ese cronista, con la petición de indulgencia por ser su primera vez; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«His description and comments make it fairly clear that this was an entertainment directed towards plebeian spiritualists.» — la lectura de clase que Owen hace de esa velada.
«Davies, who had become bored by the inanity of the evening’s events, remarked sadly that he had ‘failed to gather from the perambulating youth and maidens’ any sign of ‘the revival alluded to by Mr Burns at the outset; and there was not the remotest connection with the healing art.» — el aburrimiento del cronista y su reproche: nada del renacer anunciado ni conexión con el arte de curar.
«In fact, nobody seemed suffering from anything except heat.’» — y la salida irónica con que cerraba esa crónica.
«She told him that these were only the lowest manifestations of a power which had far higher application, and that she felt it was slightly sacrilegious to use mesmerism ‘for playing tricks and gratifying curiosity’.» — la defensa que Chandos le hizo después en privado: aquello era la manifestación más baja de un poder mayor.
«He concluded that she was sincere and that he himself was far from blameless:» — y la conclusión a que llegó el cronista sobre ella y sobre sí mismo.
«It was really pure entertainment but one which served many purposes.» — el juicio de Owen sobre la velada: entretenimiento puro que servía a varios fines.
«Burns had taken the opportunity to speak seriously about mesmeric healing, and Chandos had shown herself to be mistress of the power.» — y los dos fines que enumera.
«Chandos had entered the public world of spiritualism on the crest of the wave which carried other young mediums to fame, and with Burns’s help and guidance was about to exploit the effects of good publicity.» — el momento en que Chandos entró en escena, con la ola de las médiums jóvenes.
«According to her own, possibly mythologised, account, Chandos’s early life had been blighted by illness and she was considered a hopeless invalid by the time she reached twenty.» — el relato de su propia infancia enferma, que Owen marca como posiblemente mitificado.
«Her physician had advised a series of difficult operations and she was trying to decide what to do about this when she met Joseph Wallace.» — y el momento en que aparece Joseph Wallace en ese relato.
«against the consumption of fermented products and put his patients on a strict diet which eradicated alcohol, bread, meat, and most animal products.» — el régimen que Wallace imponía a sus pacientes; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana y el guion de *prod-ucts* es del corte de renglón.
«The diet was augmented with his patented vegetable remedies .» — y los remedios vegetales patentados con que lo completaba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Joseph Wallace impressed Chandos with his theories and understanding of organic and functional disease, and she became his patient.» — cómo Chandos pasó de escuchar a Wallace a ser su paciente.
«She was treated according to his usual methods and was slowly restored to health. Her experience convinced her of the value of alternative medicine, and she finally became his pupil.» — y de paciente a discípula, según Owen.
«When her father died she moved from the suburbs to London, and it was here that she began her healing work.» — el momento en que empieza su práctica en Londres.
«It is possible that a healing career represented a viable alternative to penury in the face of her father’s death, but the strength of her commitment (and the fact that Wallace usually charged one hundred guineas for individual training) indicate that money was not the primary motive.» — la hipótesis económica que Owen plantea y descarta con dos datos, uno de ellos las cien guineas que costaba la instrucción.
«indicate that money was not the primary motive. She had a vocation.» — y la conclusión que saca sobre el motivo de Chandos; el arranque de la frase queda del otro lado del cambio de renglón.
«Although in later life she chose to forget her early success as a stage mesmerist, we must surmise that Joseph Wallace was not her only teacher during this period.» — el olvido posterior de su etapa de escenario y la inferencia que Owen declara como tal sobre sus maestros.
«The fact that she was able to put her subjects into complete trance, which was not a common feature of healing mesmerism, suggested that she had taken lessons with a professional performer.» — el indicio técnico en que apoya esa inferencia: el trance completo no era propio del mesmerismo curativo.
«This may well have been Dr Moses Rigg, a public magnetiser who accepted private pupils, for Chandos was familiar with his private letters of instruction.» — el nombre que propone en modo de probabilidad para ese maestro.
«The explanation and advice were clearly written by an adept in what we would now call hypnotism, although couched in the language of phreno-mesmensm, and follow almost to the letter Davies’ description ofher own stage performance .» — y la coincidencia entre esas instrucciones y la crónica de Davies; *phreno-mesmensm* y *ofher* son del troceo y el espacio antes del punto también.
«Although she had mastered the art of stage hypnotism, it was only the means to an end.» — el lugar que el hipnotismo de escenario ocupaba en su carrera, según Owen.
«She started to travel the lecture circuit? particularly favouring Mechanics’ Institutes for their serious but enthusiastic audiences, building up a reputation as an intelligent and gifted health reformer.» — el circuito que recorrió y la reputación que se hizo; el signo de interrogación es basura del troceo por una coma.
«My tame as a healer and medical practitioner soon became widely known, and unintentionally I brought down upon myself an amount of physical and mental labour impossible to perform.» — el testimonio de la propia Chandos sobre la carga que su fama le trajo; *tame* es errata del troceo por *fame*.
«The clergy, district visitors, benevolent ladies and others were also clamorous in their demands for the poor of their parishes, and those under their charge.» — y de dónde venía parte de esa demanda, según ella misma.
«I must either give up this work altogether, or devote the whole of my time and attention to it, and nothing else. I chose the latter course.» — la disyuntiva que Chandos declaraba haber resuelto por la dedicación entera.
«Chandos set up her London practice and took on an attendant to help her with the administration.» — la organización de su consulta londinense.
«She recognised the need for reliable assistants who possessed healing qualities and liked to employ a well-informed clairvoyant diagnostician.» — y el personal que buscaba, incluida una diagnosticadora clarividente bien informada; el guion de *well-informed* es del corte de renglón.
«Her auxiliary staff were trained in the use of magnetised liquids, bandages, and flannels which could be used in her absence, and helped maintain detailed and accurate notes on every patient.» — la formación de ese personal auxiliar y el registro de cada paciente.
«Chandos evolved into a truly holistic healer who used herbal remedies, dietary control, hydropathy, physical manipulation, and mesmerism in her practice.» — el repertorio completo de su práctica, según Owen.
«She offered home consultations, courses of postal treatment for those outside central London, and ran her free clinics.» — los tres servicios que ofrecía, incluidas las clínicas gratuitas.
«By the end of 1876 she had also begun to take private pupils for instruction in mesmerism and healing, and possibly also in the use of Wallace vegetable potions.» — y la enseñanza privada que añadió a fines de 1876, con la conjetura sobre las pociones de Wallace.
«It is quite possible that Chandos, who had been trained in Wallace’s method, took over some of his patients and continued treating them.» — la posibilidad que Owen deja anotada sobre la herencia de la clientela de Wallace.
«into two classes, organic and inorganic, she explained that organic magnetism was confined solely to the animal and vegetable kingdom.» — la división del magnetismo que Chandos Leigh Hunt hacía; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«The science of organic magnetism, or mesmerism, was ‘the knowledge of the ways and means by which the magnetic fluid is intentionally or unintentionally directed or projected to any given spot, and caused to permeate, and consequently affect, organic or inorganic matter’.» — y la definición que daba del magnetismo orgánico, citada por Owen.
«Organic magnetism was an emanation, vapour, or aura that flowed from a body or plant and which a trained operator could harness in order to produce a series of effects.» — qué era esa emanación, según la misma doctrina.
«Those who could intuitively detect the magnetic aura were called sensitives (or, in spiritualist terms, mediums), but it was also possible to learn how to manipulate the emanation and render it subservient to the human will.» — la equivalencia entre sensitivo y médium que Owen anota, y la parte aprendida del oficio.
«It could be used to stimulate or soothe, and to produce refreshing sleep and insensibility to pain, as well as in the cure of disease and promotion of spiritual growth .» — los usos que se le atribuían al magnetismo; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Chandos Leigh Hunt emphasised that this was a powerful force and one which necessitated a worthy operator.» — la condición moral que ella ponía al operador.
«An experienced operator could stare at one spot for up to an hour without blinking, all the while concentrating her will-power on the internal self.» — el ejercicio de disciplina que describía para el operador experimentado.
«Chandos, unlike the majority of healers, lay great stress on what she called the ‘magnetic Will’ and her ability to subdue the will of others.» — lo que la distinguía de las demás curadoras, según Owen: la voluntad magnética y el sometimiento de la ajena.
«Your hands can be filled with it, and, by concentrating your thoughts on your hands, you can feel it permeating them, accompanied by a peculiar sensation of warmth, which will in time be unmistakable to you .» — la instrucción práctica que daba a sus alumnos sobre las manos llenas de fluido; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The palms of the hands were positive and had a direct magnetising effect; the backs of the hands were negative and had a demagnetising effect.» — la polaridad de las manos en esa técnica.
«Thus any particular pass could be reversed by turning the hands over and moving them in a contrary direction.» — y la consecuencia práctica: todo pase se revertía volteando las manos.
«The most general were the longitudinal (lengthways over the body) and transverse (across the body, shoulder to shoulder).» — los dos pases más generales que Owen describe.
«Curative passes followed this pattern but were only used in healing and were distinguished by the practice of shaking the hands after each pass in order to rid the operator of any diseased magnetism that she might have drawn towards herself.» — el rasgo que distinguía el pase curativo: sacudir las manos para desprenderse del magnetismo enfermo.
«Strictly speaking, mesmeric passes did not actually touch the body but moved just above it.» — la regla del pase mesmérico, dicha en sentido estricto.
«In practice, however, most mesmeric healers combined some degree of physical contact with their curative passes.» — y lo que Owen documenta que ocurría en la práctica.
«Chandos, for example, found that a bad headache could be dispelled by placing one hand on the patient’s bare instep, the other at the heel, and continually drawing down the foot with both hands.» — el procedimiento concreto que Chandos usaba contra el dolor de cabeza.
«She believed that this was beneficial for the majority of patients, and instructed her pupils» — lo que ella pensaba de ese contacto físico; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Now this ‘Form’ will occupy about an hour, but although I have laid down a time, you must use your discretion in varying it with every patient, as the case demands .» — la instrucción sobre la duración de la sesión, con el margen de discreción que dejaba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Her description of a typical consulting hour gives us some idea of what a healing session looked like. It was a decidedly intimate procedure, one which may well have been conducted with a semi-naked patient, and involved concentrated individual attention.» — cómo era una sesión, según Owen, con la conjetura sobre el paciente semidesnudo marcada como tal.
«For those who felt comfortable with the healer and the technique, it was probably a pleasant and soothing experience.» — y el juicio que arriesga sobre la experiencia, con su *probably* a cuestas; el guion de *comfort-able* es del corte de renglón.
«There was no threat of painful physical treatment, and no sudden attack upon the person of the sufferer by an alien dignitary bristling with instruments.» — el contraste con la medicina ortodoxa, con su ironía sobre el dignatario erizado de instrumentos.
«If it also worked in alleviating a variety of ills, it is little wonder that Chandos had more patients than she could possibly cope with and inquiries long after she had ceased to advertise her services.» — y la explicación condicional que da del éxito de Chandos.
«It was not usual for a healer to entrance a patient completely but Chandos made use of her ability» — el uso poco común que ella hacía del trance completo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«But whether we evoke the concept of magnetic will or subconscious mind, the success of Chandos’s career presumably attests to her results.» — la abstención con que Owen deja sin arbitrar la explicación del efecto y se queda con el resultado.
«Chandos Leigh Hunt, in common with all natural healers, regarded childbirth as a normal and positive event, but she also held strong views» — la posición de Chandos sobre el parto; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«This, she argued, was in accordance with the best laws of nature:» — el argumento con que la sostenía.
«Your Subject may call out loudly as the operation goes on, but this only indicates that she is assisting the involuntary efforts» — la instrucción que daba sobre el grito de la parturienta; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Such outward expression of violent effort should be rather encouraged, as it undoubtedly assists the work .» — y el remate de esa instrucción, que animaba el esfuerzo en voz alta; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Chandos’s attitude has a remarkably modern ring, especially as it was coupled with the view that those in attendance should be experienced but above all kind and unbigoted.» — el juicio de Owen sobre esa posición y lo que la acompañaba.
«As a woman who ultimately bore seven children of her own, she was in a position to know.» — y el dato biográfico con que Owen la respalda: siete hijos propios.
«By 1877 Chandos’s career had reached a peak and she was working to maximum capacity on a number of fronts.» — la fecha del apogeo de esa carrera.
«She was simultaneously carrying out speaking engagements, offering demonstrations of mesmerism, holding together her healing practice, and writing.» — los cuatro frentes que llevaba a la vez; el guion de *mesmer-ism* es del corte de renglón.
«The previous year she had published not only her mesmeric Treatise but also another book, entitled Vaccination Brought Home to the People.» — los dos libros que había publicado el año anterior.
«This second book represented a major thrust of her public work, and one which took her way beyond London spiritualist and alternative» — el alcance que Owen le da al libro sobre la vacunación; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«They were joined in this by spiritualists who were vigorously opposed to vaccination on health grounds and perceived it as part of the battle for control of the nation’s health:» — cómo se sumaron los espiritistas a la campaña antivacunación, según Owen.
«We do not say that parents who desire to have their children vaccinated should be prevented from doing so, but we maintain that to force every child to undergo the operation is to create a cruel wrong and unjust law’.» — la posición espiritista que Owen cita, cuidando de distinguir entre permitir y obligar.
«Like other natural healers, Chandos maintained that the introduction of foreign ‘pus and disease into the organism’ placed the body’s delicate immune system in imbalance.» — el argumento fisiológico de Chandos contra la vacuna.
«Vaccination blocked a safety valve and introduced poison into the cleansed system of all those who lived abstemiously - that is, those who practised temperance and vegetarianism.» — y el argumento complementario, dirigido a quienes vivían con abstinencia.
«felt singled out for vengeance by medical orthodoxy, and maintained that vaccination was ‘secretly and perpetually undermining and obliterating the» — el juicio de Chandos sobre lo que la vacuna hacía a la nación; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana y el guion de *obliter-ating* es del corte de renglón; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Chandos, along with other spiritualist colleagues on the lecture circuit, argued that the vaccination proposals represented an unholy alliance between the medical lobby and the state.» — la alianza que denunciaba entre el gremio médico y el Estado.
«Compulsory vaccination strengthened the hand of the medical monopoly and fell most harshly on the poor who were unable to resist.» — y el reparto de clase que Owen subraya en ese argumento.
«Above all, Chandos was convinced that the people had a right to choose, something that was denied them because of the ‘dogmatic and tyrannical way in which the vaccination business is conducted’.» — el derecho que ella ponía por encima de todo: el de elegir.
«The law dictated that children must be treated, even though some had suffered or perished as a result,» — el hecho que invocaba contra la ley obligatoria.
«The wealthy could bribe their way out, those who could afford it might join the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination and Mutual Protection Society, but the poor were powerless.» — las tres salidas desiguales que documenta según la fortuna.
«This, the ugly side of state paternalism, was what upset her most.» — y lo que más la indignaba, según Owen: el lado feo del paternalismo estatal.
«The ‘drunken sailor’ was one of her favourite adversaries and at one of her lectures she described how, by luring him into the body of a child medium, she invariably managed to dispatch him:» — el número del marinero borracho con que Chandos ilustraba su cura de la dipsomanía.
«For a few seconds a natural sweet smile played upon the lips of the medium . . .» — el arranque del relato de esa escena, tal como ella la contaba; los puntos suspensivos son del corte que hace la fuente.
«But a change came over her, which again taught us how the spirit existing in man moulds or mars the lineaments of the face and the attitude of the limbs.» — la lección fisiognómica que ella sacaba del cambio de la médium.
«The drunken sailor had taken possession. A coarse laugh burst from her unsullied lips.» — y la posesión misma, con el contraste entre la risa grosera y los labios sin mancha.
«Bumping the tumbler down upon the table, he said, ‘My stars and stripes! but that’s queer stuff ’.» — el remate de la escena, con el antídoto bebido por engaño; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«The antidote (no doubt named as a Wallace remedy) took effect, the sailor was cured, and was reunited in the spirit world with his dear old mother.» — el desenlace de la cura y el paréntesis con que Owen apunta el interés comercial.
«‘Moderate drinking means moderate evil, and the soft sophistical phrase is but an excuse for perpetuating a little of the devil in man, to deprave the senses with.’» — la doctrina de Chandos contra el beber moderado.
«She was not afraid of public speaking, had a great talent for it, and took full responsibility for her words.» — el retrato que Owen hace de ella como oradora.
«In general she was a severe critic of anything that could be construed as sensual or wasteful indolence, and her lectures presented rather stern moral imperatives.» — y el tono moral de sus conferencias.
«There was (as there still is amongst health radicals) a strong streak of puritanism in Chandos’s approach to life and health.» — la veta puritana que le encuentra, con el paréntesis que la extiende hasta el presente.
«Her determination to pursue the ‘onward and upward course’, setting a fine example and ‘same healthy stimulus to others’, typified her view of her healing mission.» — la misión curativa como ejemplo, en las palabras de Chandos; *same* es errata del troceo por *some*.
«She fervently believed that a good healer must ‘observe the strictest laws of morality’, forgo all extreme indulgences, and obtain complete mastery over the self in order to carry out the sacred trust of healing work.» — las tres exigencias que ponía al buen curador.
«It was also essential in order to combat, by personal example, the scandal-mongenng opponents of mesmerism.» — y la razón táctica que añadía: desmentir con el ejemplo a los escandalizados; *mongenng* es errata del troceo por *mongering*.
«But it went deeper than a call for personal salvation, however altruistic. Chandos had a vision of a new world, one in which cruelty, sickness, and suffering were eliminated.» — el alcance mayor que Owen le reconoce a ese programa.
«Like many spiritualists, she thought in terms of a chain of cause and effect.» — la forma de razonar que le atribuye, común entre espiritistas.
«Chandos believed that she must work for the purity of body, heart, and mind in herself and others in an attempt to make the world a better place.» — y el fin último de esa cadena, según ella.
«She was threatened with prosecution under the Medical Amendment Act, on the grounds that she was receiving payment from her healing work.» — la amenaza legal que pesó sobre ella por cobrar.
«After a honeymoon in Pans the couple set up home in Peckham Rye, and almost immediately Chandos disappeared from public view.» — el matrimonio y la desaparición pública que le siguió; *Pans* es errata del troceo por *Paris*.
«She remained out of sight, although not inactive, for the next three years.» — los tres años de retiro que Owen documenta.
«Her absence from public life was sadly noted but readily excused on the grounds of ‘domestic engagements’, no doubt a polite euphemism for pregnancy.» — la excusa con que se explicaba esa ausencia y la lectura que Owen hace de ella.
«Chandos was now based at home but still ready to work and contribute to the family income.» — el arreglo doméstico de esos años.
«She began to take in vegetarian lodgers, and turned her hand to the writing of fiction.» — y las dos actividades con que lo llenó.
«By 1879 she had completed her novel, Visibility Invisible and Invisibility Visible , a somewhat tortuous tale which dwelt upon the horrors of drink, the elevating qualities of spiritualism, and the joys of enduring love.» — la novela que terminó en 1879 y sus tres asuntos; el espacio antes de la coma es del troceo.
«The character sketches of Mr Cinderman, a Scot who ran a spiritualist bookshop, and a tall and lovely young woman who was an expert in magnetic healing, were based on individuals not a million miles from home.» — los personajes de esa novela y la ironía con que Owen apunta su modelo.
«James Burns began to serialise the story in the Medium and Daybreak and many spiritualists, particularly those liv» — la publicación por entregas en el periódico de Burns; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«When Chandos resumed her teaching and public lecturing in 1881, Burns heralded it as the return to her ‘rightful work’.» — el regreso de Chandos en 1881 y el saludo de Burns.
«As usual, Burns publicised and praised the proceedings and printed a full review of the subject content.» — el papel habitual de Burns como publicista de esas actividades.
«They were involved in setting up the business that was to issue the tracts and medicines used in the ‘Wallace system’ of dietary reform.» — el negocio conjunto del matrimonio Wallace en torno a su sistema de reforma dietética.
«By the early 1880s Chandos and her husband were running what was described as a large warehouse which operated from Oxford Mansion, Oxford Circus.» — el almacén que llevaban al comenzar los años ochenta.
«This proved to be ‘a great centre of attraction for London sanitarians’ and was probably the equivalent in health reform circles of Burns’s Spiritual Institution.» — y el paralelo que Owen traza con la institución de Burns, marcado con un *probably*.
«She stated that she had returned to active service in the health world» — lo que Chandos declaraba de ese regreso; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«It was her desire to administer ‘health to the suffering’, she maintained, that had prompted the collaboration with her husband and decided them to register and sell the Wallace medicines.» — el motivo que ella daba para el negocio de las medicinas.
«Theosophy combined socialist and feminist ideals with a sophisticated esoteric philosophy and, given Chandos’s intellectual and political orientation, it is not surprising to find her moving in that direction.» — cómo caracteriza Owen a la teosofía y por qué le parece natural el giro de Chandos hacia ella.
«In this connection it is interesting that the Nichols’s had moved to Bloomsbury in order to be close to the British Museum, and it seems likely that a close inner circle of London healers pursued their concerns to a considerable level of scholarly attainment.» — el indicio erudito que Owen anota en ese círculo de curadores londinenses, marcado con un *seems likely*.
«By 1899 Chandos was sufficiently well known and respected in her work as a health radical to warrant a short biography in the Independent Labour Party’s Annual.» — el reconocimiento político que Chandos había alcanzado en 1899, según Owen.
«Her inclusion was justified on the grounds that her work in the dietary reform movement, combined with a belief in the need for the common ownership of land and its products, earned her a place amongst economic and political reformers.» — y la razón que ese anuario daba para incluirla entre los reformadores.
«She was cited as believing in ‘the physical regeneration of mankind by pure food and right living’ and in the ‘full mental, physical, and social development - and rational dress - for women’.» — las dos creencias que ese anuario le atribuía, con el vestido racional incluido.
«Unaffected, capable and energetic, she combines an incisive logic with winsomeness and enthusiasm.» — el retrato personal que esa misma entrada le hacía; los guiones de *Unaffec-ted* y *win-someness* son del corte de renglón.
«Spiritual healing was essentially a gentle way, unmarred by barbarism or coercion.» — el rasgo que Owen le reconoce a la curación espiritual frente a la medicina de su tiempo.
«It was concerned that ‘the people’ should have a choice in health matters, strove to serve the interests of men and women of every class, and, as a practice, was open to all.» — los tres compromisos que le adjudica a esa tradición.
«At the same time, emphasis on individual responsibility for physical and emotional well-being was accompanied by an awareness that only a substantial change in living conditions could effect a major improvement in the nation’s health.» — y el equilibrio entre responsabilidad individual y condiciones de vida que encuentra en ella.
«Undoubtedly democratic healing, the alternative tradition, and its practitioners represented a threat to orthodox medicine.» — la amenaza que esa tradición representaba para la medicina ortodoxa.
«One of the ironies of this period in medical history is that educated middle-class women were fighting to gain entry to a profession which sought to denigrate a healing tradition in which women were already active.» — la ironía que Owen señala en la historia médica del periodo: la lucha por entrar a una profesión que denigraba la tradición donde ya estaban.
«Furthermore, in order to gain acceptance and recognition within this male-dominated world, aspiring women doctors threw themselves into the business of acquiring its ethics, tenets, and persona.» — y el precio que las aspirantes a médicas pagaban por esa entrada.
«The image of the formidable ‘lady doctor’ which still resonates in some memories perhaps marks a limited triumph for the final reluctant admission of women to the hallowed halls of medical learning .» — la figura que quedó de ahí, con su triunfo calificado de limitado; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The first generations of women who entered the medical profession were invariably middle class.» — la clase de las primeras médicas tituladas, según Owen.
«A heterodox healing practice, on the other hand, was open to the working class and to working-class women in a way that has never been true of professional med» — y el contraste que la sostiene: la práctica heterodoxa sí estaba abierta a la clase trabajadora; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Medical concern with spiritualism was not limited to the activities of spiritualist healers.» — abre el capítulo sexto ampliando el frente médico más allá de las curadoras.
«Professional medicine took an early interest in spiritualism and many physicians were unimpressed by what they saw.» — el interés temprano de la medicina profesional y el juicio que se formó.
«They were deeply critical of spiritualist phenomena and of those men and women who could believe that such tawdry tricks proved the existence of an ethereal world.» — los dos blancos de esa crítica: los fenómenos y quienes los creían.
«What is more, the new specialists in insanity were swift to categorise a belief in spiritualism as symptomatic of a diseased mind.» — el paso que dieron los especialistas en locura, según Owen.
«These experts in the field of lunacy were troubled by what they perceived as an association between the mediumistic trance and an entire range of pathological conditions.» — lo que les inquietaba del trance mediúmnico.
«In particular, they regarded with distaste and suspicion the close involvement of women in spiritualist practice, likening female mediumship to hysteria - a condition which had unsavoury sexual and expressive connotations.» — y el foco de esa inquietud: la mediumnidad femenina asimilada a la histeria, con sus connotaciones sexuales.
«But this was not simply a matter of wicked male physicians vers» — la corrección que Owen hace de inmediato a una lectura de villanos y víctimas; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«A desire for respectability and status ensured a jealous control of standards and personnel, and this was reinforced by the 1858 Medical Reform Bill.» — el control de acceso que la profesión médica se dio, reforzado por la ley de 1858.
«Medicine now increasingly sought to present itself as a forward-thinking and relevant scientific discipline whose modernity was illustrated by its ability to engage with the disputed topics of the day.» — la imagen que la medicina buscaba proyectar de sí, según Owen.
«Most importantly, it represented the ascendancy of science over faith and a belief in evolutionary progress.» — y lo que esa imagen representaba: el ascendiente de la ciencia sobre la fe.
«Many of the leading members of the medical fraternity espoused a beneficent materialism in which religious faith was replaced by faith in science as the instrument of humanitarian progress.» — el materialismo benéfico que Owen atribuye a la cúpula médica.
«Implicit in this attitude was the familiar scientific certainty that the intellectual faculties were capable of plumbing the mysteries of the universe, and that this would lead inexorably to a betterment of the social good.» — y la certeza implícita en esa actitud.
«Where these assumptions were combined with a medical discipline in which the physician was both the arbiter of what constituted a healthy mind and the instigator of a cure when he diagnosed disease, medicine became a powerful weapon in the armoury of Truth.» — el resultado que Owen describe cuando esos supuestos se juntan con el poder de diagnosticar.
«The basic structure of nineteenth-century lunacy law had been completed in 1845, and the medical profession had already won its struggle to appropriate and control the business of insanity.» — la fecha en que se cierra la estructura legal de la locura y la victoria que ya tenía la profesión.
«Physicians adopted the so-called ‘moral treatment’ made famous by the Quakers’ York Retreat, which emphasised calm and kindly non-medical care, but combined it with a medical theory that insisted on the importance of physical causation in mental illness.» — la mezcla que hicieron entre el tratamiento moral cuáquero y la causación física.
«The medical profession represented the authority of a skilled physician as indispensable to the treatment of insanity, and discouraged lay personnel.» — y el efecto de esa mezcla sobre el personal lego.
«It now remained for the alienists to establish their» — la tarea que quedaba a los alienistas; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue hablando de su credibilidad y de dos revistas especializadas.
«As they fought for recognition and status, alienists became increasingly hostile to any theory of causation which disregarded the basic principles of scientific naturalism.» — la hostilidad que esa lucha por el estatus les daba a los alienistas.
«They argued that disease of the brain or nervous system, the physical organs of the mind, lay behind attacks of insanity, and that it was the alienist’s task to re-establish healthy functioning by first addressing the physical problem.» — la doctrina de la causación física con que se legitimaban.
«This secured the principle of medical intervention in the treatment of insanity, and was complemented by the physician’s assertion of responsibility for the behavioural recovery of the patient.» — y lo que esa doctrina aseguraba en la práctica.
«By the middle of the century the alienist had established himself as the essential arbiter of normative human behaviour, with ultimate control over diagnosis, treatment, and concept of» — el lugar que el alienista ocupaba a mediados de siglo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«But however much the alienist argued that insanity was caused by organic lesions of the brain, his efficacy and reputation were bound up with the restoration of behavioural norms.» — la contradicción que Owen señala entre la teoría orgánica y la práctica del alienista.
«Mental science identified contemporary notions of socially acceptable behaviour with the concept of normalcy, but represented this norm as scientific fact.» — la operación que le atribuye a la ciencia mental: presentar como hecho científico la conducta socialmente aceptable.
«In fact, direct treatment of behavioural symptoms often had little to do with science but was bound up with the assertion of the ethical superiority and authority of the physician.» — y lo que en realidad estaba en juego en el tratamiento de la conducta.
«‘It is not as a scientist that homo medicus has authority in the asylum, but as a wise man.» — la fórmula que Owen cita sobre la autoridad del médico en el manicomio: la del sabio y no la del científico.
«Underlying the assumption of the physician’s moral superiority was a» — el supuesto que sostenía esa superioridad moral; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue hablando de la formación del carácter.
«When a physician encountered a case of social deviancy or aberrant behaviour, then, a number of preconceived notions came to mind.» — lo que traía el médico consigo al encontrarse con una conducta desviada.
«Foremost amongst these was the equation of unorthodox views and behaviour with insanity, combined with a degree of moral repugnance for the crooked and fallen.» — y la primera de esas nociones: la heterodoxia igualada a la locura.
«During the 1850s and 1860s the medical journals carried a wide variety of articles on spiritualism by British and European physicians, but by the early 1860s alienists were already suggesting that it was ‘a direct and efficient cause of insanity’ and ‘ought to have a place among the causes of mental malady’.» — la fecha en que los alienistas empiezan a hacer del espiritismo causa de locura; el guion de *physi-cians* es del corte de renglón.
«As spiritualism became more widespread and increasingly popularised, medical attitudes hardened.» — la correlación que Owen traza entre difusión del espiritismo y endurecimiento médico.
«Journals like the Lancet and the British Medical Journal adopted a critical stance in relation to spiritualist practice, and strongly disapproved of scientists like Alfred Russel Wallace and William Crookes who expressed an interest in or sympathy for spiritualism.» — las dos revistas que llevaron esa crítica y los dos científicos que reprobaban.
«Nevertheless, the profession was anxious to defend the validity of objective medical concern, and the British Medical Journal ran its first leader on spiritualism on the grounds that ‘any of our medical brethren may be unexpectedly called upon to argue a weak-minded patient out of the follies of Spiritualism’, and must thus be well informed.» — la razón con que el British Medical Journal justificaba ocuparse del asunto.
«At the same time the journal was emphasising that ‘Hysteria, in some one or other of its Protean forms, is doubtless the disease which more than any other furnishes the most abundant crop of fruit to the Spiritualists.’» — y la tesis que sostenía a la vez: la histeria como cantera del espiritismo.
«Thoroughly alarmed by the moral implications of a practice which encouraged the ready suspension of the conscious mind and a relaxation of ‘will-power’, the journal considered that its duty lay in recommending that ‘such nefarious practices ought to be put down by the strong arm of the law’.» — el remedio que esa revista proponía: el brazo fuerte de la ley.
«to warn the public pointedly and urgently against the moral and intellectual consequences of allowing the mind to become debauched by the voluntary suspension of common sense.» — el deber que la revista se atribuía ante el público; el verbatim empieza después de un asterisco del troceo.
«When men and women surrender the privilege, and abrogate the duty, of shaping their beliefs according to the evidence of senses trained and instructed by experience, they place themselves in a position of danger to sanity, which no intelligent being, however confident in his strength of intellect, should risk .» — y el argumento epistemológico con que lo sostenía; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«. . . we think the nuisance and peril of such [mediumistic] exhibitions ought to be vigorously and summarily removed.» — el remate de ese editorial, con el corchete aclaratorio y los puntos suspensivos del corte de la fuente.
«Spiritualists, of course, had long argued that their beliefs were shaped precisely according to the evidence of their senses, and as ‘instructed by experience’. The problem lay in agreeing on what constituted sound empirical evidence.» — la réplica espiritista que Owen consigna al lado y el punto en que la disputa era irresoluble.
«The Lancet now grudgingly conceded that there might be grounds for further scientific investigation, but remained pessimistic as to its outcome and convinced that the phenomena were, ‘uniformly contemptible’.» — la concesión a regañadientes del Lancet y su desdén simultáneo; los guiones de *out-come* y *contemp-tible* son del corte de renglón.
«The underlying assumption here was that science should engage with spiritualism not in the spirit of open-minded inquiry but to prove once and for all that it was a dangerous delusion.» — el supuesto que Owen lee bajo esa concesión.
«Spiritualism was disreputable, it attracted the weak-headed and hysterical, and it was ultimately beyond the scope of orthodox scientific inquiry, but ‘as a probable factor in the total of insanity’, medicine must confront and conquer the demon that was seeking to work such ‘dire mischief in the minds of the population.» — la posición completa de la prensa médica, con su contradicción dentro: fuera del alcance de la ciencia y sin embargo asunto médico.
«They also considered that hysterical personalities were perfectly capable of conjuring up visions of spirits at will: ‘On this principle can be explained many of the instances of spiritualistic hallucinations which have been detailed by inquirers willing to be deceived .’» — la explicación alternativa que ofrecían y la fórmula sobre los investigadores dispuestos a dejarse engañar; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«Medical psychologists increasingly subscribed to the view that such psychological states were degenerative, and that once conscious control had been lost the individual was in danger of regressing to ever lower levels of function and personality.» — la doctrina degenerativa a que se acogían los psicólogos médicos.
«views, already in vogue by the 1850s, were appearing in textbooks of medical psychology well into the 1890s and continued to survive into the twentieth century.» — la duración de esas doctrinas en los manuales; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«The association of spiritualism with the trance state (the active ‘dethronement of will’), and its supposed links with hysteria, were more than enough to damn spiritualist practice in medical eyes.» — las dos asociaciones que bastaban para condenar el espiritismo a ojos médicos.
«As if this was not enough, spiritualism was also readily classifiable as religious delusion. Religious mania was a clearly established category of insanity and was viewed as the special preserve ofwomen and clergymen.» — la tercera vía de clasificación: la manía religiosa, coto de mujeres y clérigos; *ofwomen* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«It was often typified by the fact that the sufferer was perfectly rational in all respects except the one, and for this reason patients were diagnosed within the broad category of monomania.» — el rasgo típico de esa categoría y el diagnóstico de monomanía que traía.
«Undoubtedly, there have always been those who have fallen prey to genuine religious obsession.» — la concesión que Owen hace antes de la crítica.
«The line between states of inspiration and actual mania is perhaps a fine one, and this has traditionally been an issue for religious communities.» — y hasta dónde llega esa concesión, con su *perhaps* a cuestas.
«The nineteenth-century proliferation of ‘manias’ was indicative of the ease with which the profession could create mental illness when confronted with behaviour which it considered unacceptable.» — lo que la proliferación de manías indica, según Owen: la facilidad para crear enfermedad mental.
«Ultimately, conformity to the social norms was taken to be the criterion of a healthy mind.» — el criterio último de salud mental que encuentra en esa práctica.
«From a practical point ofview, anyone may be permitted to be as eccentric as he pleases, to go as much as he likes off the customary track of thinking, and doing, so long as his deviations do not compromise social order, (my emphasis)» — la fórmula de época que cita para probarlo, con el énfasis que ella misma declara suyo; *ofview* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«the physician took it upon himself ‘not to seek out what is true , but to pronounce on what is appropriate ’» — y el desplazamiento de tarea que resume: de lo verdadero a lo apropiado; los espacios antes de la coma y del cierre de comillas son del troceo.
«Maudsley pressed the case for physical causation, assumed a link between depravity and insanity, and maintained the superiority of science in dealing with disease and delusion.» — las tres posiciones de Henry Maudsley que Owen enumera.
«He was a materialist, bitterly opposed to the power of the church, and considered that science must liberate humankind from the effects of religious tyranny.» — y el programa que las ordenaba: liberar a la humanidad de la tiranía religiosa.
«In the same light he was opposed to spiritualism, which he characterised as ‘the wail of egoism quailing before the prospect of its extinction’, and like most scientists complained that the ‘Spiritualists refuse to submit their marvels to the rigorous and critical examination of sceptics who are competent to test them ’.» — la fórmula con que Maudsley despachaba el espiritismo y la queja que compartía con otros científicos; el espacio antes del cierre de comillas es del troceo.
«But Maudsley also tried to argue the connection between spiritualism and insanity, maintaining not merely a polemical crusade against spiritualists but attempting to ground his position in medical theory.» — el paso de la polémica a la teoría que Owen le reconoce.
«Maudsley was keen to show that both spiritualist mediums and believers were basically unstable, and he argued that spiritualism not only caused derangement but also actually attracted the incipiently insane.» — la tesis doble que sostenía: el espiritismo causa la locura y además la atrae.
«The menacing forces of heredity were at work amongst ‘the lame, the halt, the blind, the warped in intellect, who follow eagerly dark by-paths of belief’; this was the stuff of which spiritualists were made .» — y el argumento hereditario con que la completaba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Maudsley, in common with many nineteenth-century medical men, regarded epileptics as lesser mortals over whom ‘reason has no sway’, and he linked ecstatic religious experience with the clinical condition of epilepsy.» — el vínculo que trazaba entre epilepsia y éxtasis religioso.
«Other physicians had noted the similarities between the epileptic seizure and mediumistic convulsions - the bodily contortions, agitation of the limbs, and wild, disconnected utterances - and on this basis alone it was relatively easy to present a pathological connection .» — las semejanzas observadas que hacían fácil ese vínculo; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Anticipating contemporary anthropological debate, he argued that primitive shamans were epileptics who deliberately chose young sufferers to be their pupils.» — la extensión antropológica que Maudsley daba a su tesis.
«According to Maudsley, spiritual revelation and ‘supernatural powers’ were ‘plainly no more than . . . [the brain’s] natural nervous substrata engaged in disordinate, abnormal, or, so to speak, unnatural function ’.» — y la reducción con que la cerraba, con el corchete aclaratorio y los puntos suspensivos del corte de la fuente.
«The issue here is not whether some ecstatics were epileptic, cataleptic, or unbalanced, but that Maudsley and others like him assumed that ecstatic or seemingly uncontrolled religious experience was to be equated with abnormalcy and sickness.» — el desplazamiento con que Owen deja abierta la cuestión clínica y se queda con el supuesto.
«Any religious experience that involved the suspension of everyday consciousness, including ecstatic communion with the Deity or invisible spirits, was directly reducible to a pathological model.» — el alcance de esa reducción patológica; el guion de *pathologi-cal* es del corte de renglón.
«The American doctor, William Hammond, was certain that the tingling in the limbs and extremes of temperature which spiritualists attributed to the presence of spirits were nothing more than ‘symptoms of nervous derangement . . . precursors of organic disturbance of the brain or spinal cord, leading to a paralysis, epilepsy or mental derangement’.» — la versión estadounidense de esa doctrina en William Hammond.
«As far as he was concerned, the ‘Outpouring of the Spirit of God’ was only another name for disease, hysteria, or insanity, and all were amenable to treatment .» — y la equivalencia con que Hammond la cerraba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Physicians were perfectly accurate in their observation of the physical accompaniments of the mediumistic trance. However, they took the ‘slow and interrupted breathing, turgid neck, and flushed cheeks’ to be evidence of severe mental disturbance.» — lo que Owen le concede a la observación médica y dónde marca el salto.
«Even the ‘large quantity of pale, limpid urine’ often passed after the ‘paroxysm’ was submitted as evidence of disorder .» — el detalle con que ilustra hasta dónde llegaba ese salto; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«This, combined with the pejorative associations that these and similar conditions automatically conjured up in the medical mind, exposed all who had communicated with the unseen world to medical intervention .» — y la consecuencia práctica: quedaban expuestos a la intervención médica; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Foremost amongst these mediumistic communicants, of course, were women, and implicit in medical attitudes was the assumption that it was the female mind that was most likely to be affected by spiritualism.» — quiénes quedaban más expuestos y el supuesto implícito sobre la mente femenina.
«Although they accepted that feminine ‘nervousness’ could be an attribute of both male and female personalities, physicians^were most often thinking of women when they wrote about spiritualism.» — la salvedad teórica que hacían y lo que en la práctica pensaban; el signo tras *physicians* es basura del troceo.
«Like spiritualists themselves, they tended to equate ‘feminine temperament’ and ‘feminine passivity’ with the female of the species.» — el punto en que médicos y espiritistas coincidían, según Owen.
«Unlike spiritualists, however, the medical profession held that the feminine temperament was disturbingly lacking in emotional fortitude.» — y el punto en que se separaban.
«Passivity, the sine qua non of femininity, was viewed by the profession as a serious indictment, and those who possessed it were considered emotionally inadequate.» — la inversión que Owen subraya: la misma pasividad era poder para unos y tara para otros.
«therefore, women, supposedly strong on passivity but deficient in masculine will-power, lacked the vital keystone of emotional health and social desirability.» — la conclusión del razonamiento médico según Owen: a la mujer le faltaba la clave de la salud emocional; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Physicians were inconsistent on the subject of the will. They were happy enough to evoke wilfulness as one of the most common facets of female hysteria, but it became in that discourse a socially undesirable and abnormal symptom.» — la incoherencia que Owen localiza en ese discurso: la voluntad falta y la voluntariosidad sobra.
«The prevailing medical view of the female personality was closely associated with the belief that the vagaries of female biology left women physically vulnerable and emotionally labile, a notion largely reinforced by the emergence of gynaecology as a medical specialism during the 1850s.» — el papel que la ginecología como especialidad tuvo en reforzar esa visión.
«The medico-gynaecological model of female health, which effectively reduced women to a function of their biology, was sufficient to establish the link between sexuality and illness.» — la reducción que ese modelo operaba y el vínculo que dejaba establecido; el guion de *effec-tively* es del corte de renglón.
«One alienist, who made a name for himself by attacking spiritualists, confidently asserted: ‘The community of believers contains a large proportion of weak-minded hysterical women, in whom the seeds of mental disorder, though for a time latent, are only waiting for a new excitement to ripen into maturity.’» — la fórmula de un alienista sobre las semillas latentes del trastorno entre las creyentes.
«Although the ancient causative theory of the ‘wandering uterus’ had been abandoned by the modern medical profession, and increasingly during the nineteenth» — la doctrina uterina que la medicina decía haber abandonado; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que persistía bajo otras formas.
«The heritage of sexual association led many physicians to interpret hysterical symptoms as evidence of depraved sexual practices (masturbation) if the patient was single and of sexual excess if she was married.» — la lectura sexual que se hacía del síntoma histérico según el estado civil de la paciente; el guion de *masturba-tion* es del corte de renglón.
«There were orthodox physicians who regarded hysteria as a real disorder requiring kindly and sympathetic treatment, but the sexual connection contributed to a marked undercurrent of medical suspicion and disdain in relation to hysterical patients which gave the disease a special place in the catalogue of female disorders .» — la salvedad que Owen hace sobre los médicos benignos y la corriente de sospecha que aun así corría; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Hysteria ‘spoke’ female sexuality to the medical man during a period of deep sexual ambivalence, and in direct contradiction of the dominant construction of feminine behavioural norms.» — lo que la histeria decía al médico, según Owen: la sexualidad femenina contra la norma de conducta dominante.
«Maudsley was convinced that ecstatic states were nothing more than what he termed ‘emotional incontinence’, whilst spiritual aspirations were merely heavily disguised venereal passions.» — la reducción con que Maudsley cerraba el asunto: incontinencia emocional y pasiones venéreas disfrazadas.
«Put another way, of course, it meant that ‘hysterics’ refused to toe the behavioural line, or give up their ‘imposture of delusions’, however threatening the inducements to do so.» — la traducción que Owen propone del diagnóstico: las histéricas se negaban a entrar en la línea de conducta.
«When medicine pathologised a belief in spiritualism with terms like ‘psycholepsy’ and ‘mediomania’, it was merely building on the hysterical model.» — los términos con que la medicina patologizó la creencia espiritista, todos sobre el modelo histérico.
«This association of spiritualism with hysteria was sufficient to evoke a paradigm of vicious immorality, and at the same time conveniently hived off such unpleasantness on to one half of the human race.» — la doble ganancia que Owen le ve a esa asociación, con su ironía sobre la comodidad; el guion de *conven-iently* es del corte de renglón.
«It is clear that the assumption was that most ‘sufferers’ would be women.» — el supuesto que Owen declara claro en esa nosología.
«Frederic Marvin, an American physician, observed that ‘The word mediomania, though not actually synonymous with the word utromania, is very closely allied to it in meaning’, and argued that mediomania was one of the most common female nervous disorders .» — la definición de Frederic Marvin y el parentesco que trazaba entre mediomanía y utromanía; los guiones son del corte de renglón y el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«According to Marvin, utromania, a disease typified by a misangled womb (the ‘wandering uterus'), often had the most lamentable consequences.» — y la etiología uterina que Marvin le daba; el apóstrofo recto es del troceo.
«Mediomaniacs were ‘proverbially erotic, egotistical, and religious’, and they evinced the most anti-social of symptoms.» — el retrato de la mediomaníaca que él proponía.
«Furthermore, spiritualism itself was presented as a ruinous and depletive activity, and was thereby placed on a par with onanism and sexual excess.» — y la equivalencia con el onanismo en que ese cuadro desembocaba.
«Its ‘occurrence in the sensitive system of a young girl is dangerous in the extreme’.» — el peligro que esa doctrina veía en la muchacha sensible.
«In short, spiritualism had become the special» — el lugar que el espiritismo acabó ocupando en la nosología médica; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue con la conflación entre mediumnidad y feminidad patológica.
«The fact that some of medicine’s insights were undoubtedly sound (sexuality, for example, does find apparently unrelated outlets) was undermined by the accompanying pejorative assumptions of depravity and disease.» — lo que Owen le concede a la medicina y el supuesto que lo echaba a perder.
«This was sufficient, in the case of spiritualism, for mediums to be constructed as a separate, suspect caste on a par with other debased categories of persons.» — el efecto de esos supuestos sobre las médiums: una casta aparte y sospechosa.
«The medical categorisation of mediums and sensitives was so pervasive that even lay observers made the connection between mediumistic sensitivity, femininity, and degeneracy:» — hasta dónde llegó esa categorización, según Owen: al observador lego.
«Miss Wiggles is a ‘sensitive’. That is a new vocation struck out by the prolific ingenuity of the female mind.» — el retrato satírico de época que cita como muestra.
«Commonplace doctors would simply call her ‘hysterical’; but she calls herself magnetic.» — y la equivalencia que ese mismo texto establecía entre sensitiva e histérica.
«Medicine had, in fact, been remarkably successful in characterising spiritualism as a debased coinage operated by frauds and lunatics.» — el éxito que Owen le reconoce a la medicina en fijar esa imagen.
«came hot on the heels of the wave of new medical interest in women.» — la coincidencia temporal que Owen señala entre el auge del espiritismo y el interés médico por las mujeres; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Concern over the questions of prostitution and venereal disease, female health (and the bearing it had on women’s education and employment), and agitation over the divorce laws and women’s suffrage all sufficed to keep ‘the woman question’ firmly on the medical agenda.» — los asuntos que mantenían la cuestión de la mujer en la agenda médica.
«These issues were raised as legitimate topics for medical discussion and intervention, just as women themselves became the object of new and lucrative medical specialisms.» — y el interés económico que Owen anota en esa agenda.
«When spiritualism appeared on the scene, with its plethora of female mediums and quite different standards of acceptable behaviour, medicine took upon itself the task of interpreting the phenomena and its adherents.» — la tarea que la medicina se atribuyó ante el espiritismo.
«But medicine could not distance itself from current debates, just as it could not pronounce upon trance behaviour in a vacuum.» — y el límite que Owen le pone a esa tarea: no se pronunciaba en el vacío.
«The threat to women mediums was explicit. However, in attacking them the medical profession was striking at the very heart of spiritualist practice - and thus at spiritualism itself.» — lo que estaba en juego en ese ataque, según Owen.
«Although individual adherents often remarked that they stood in grave danger of losing their personal liberty, some treated it more lightly than others.» — el temor a perder la libertad personal y el reparto desigual con que se lo tomaban.
«Once again it was women who were the most vulnerable in this respect. Husbands and relatives were in a powerful position with regard to female kin.» — quiénes quedaban más expuestos ante la ley de locura, según Owen.
«Where single women were concerned, parents and brothers often took a cavalier line, but spouses could represent a real threat.» — y la gradación de esa amenaza según el parentesco.
«Furthermore, prior to the passing of the 1882 Married Women’s Property Act, married women were effectively placed in the same category as criminals, lunatics, and minors - they were held to be legally incompetent and irresponsible.» — la categoría legal en que caía la casada antes de 1882: junto a criminales, lunáticos y menores.
«This meant that a woman who wished to fight or contest her incarceration in an asylum would be unable to do so without her husband’s active support, and she was at an obvious disadvantage if it was the husband who had been instrumental in the committal.» — y el círculo cerrado que eso producía cuando era el marido quien la internaba.
«At least two female spiritualists were to learn this the hard way, but other women had already run into problems at the hand of the lunacy laws.» — el anuncio de los dos casos que el libro va a seguir.
«The Honorary Secretary of the Alleged Lunatic’s Friend Society, giving evidence before the 1859 Select Committee on Lunacy, voiced his concern that women were being wrongly confined as lunatics on the basis of their religious opinions,» — el testimonio de 1859 que Owen usa como antecedente.
«What was at issue was whether it was legal to incarcerate an individual on grounds of religious views.» — el punto de derecho que el caso Nottidge ponía en juego.
«The defence argued that it was necessary in order to save her from the clutches of a pernicious ‘class of persons who entertained certain peculiar notions upon religion’.» — el argumento de la defensa en ese caso.
«He ruled that an individual was free to entertain her or his own religious opinions so long as these did not constitute a threat to that person or others.» — y el fallo del Lord Chief Baron sobre la libertad de opinión religiosa.
«He very much doubted whether, if in this case the plaintiff had been a man, or living under the protection of a husband, the defendants would have dared to have taken the steps they had.» — la observación del mismo juez sobre lo que habría pasado si la demandante hubiera sido un hombre.
«Nothing could have been more clear than this final observation that it was women, and in particular those who lacked a sympathetic husband, who stood in the greatest danger of unwarranted incarceration.» — lo que Owen lee en esa observación.
«Medicine, recognising that the case constituted an attack on its credibility and power, reacted with alarm.» — la reacción de la profesión médica ante el fallo.
«The idea that a person could not be confined unless posing a danger to themselves or others was particularly threatening, ruling out as it did a wide variety of disorders all of which were claimed by the alienist as his own particular province.» — y qué era lo que más la amenazaba de ese criterio.
«Four pamphlets appeared in swift succession, each addressing itself to the question of medico/legal definitions of insanity and revealing an underlying concern with the status of the profession and the problem of legal interference.» — la respuesta impresa que siguió y lo que Owen lee bajo ella.
«The case marked the sensitivity of the profession to attacks on its integrity and autonomy, illustrated the danger to ‘unprotected’ women, and was indicative of the way in which religious views could be presented as a rationale for incarceration when the real reasons often lay elsewhere.» — los tres asuntos que ese caso deja ver, según Owen, incluido el uso de la religión como pretexto.
«public disquiet was not allayed as a series of contested cases came to light during the 1850s and 1860s, some of them involving chancery lunatics.» — la inquietud pública que siguió a esos casos.
«Instead, outraged public opinion fastened itself on what were perceived to be the grasping machinations of physicians and private asylum proprietors.» — y en qué se fijó esa opinión pública: en el interés de médicos y dueños de manicomios.
«The issues were kept vividly alive by novels like Charles Reade’s Hard Cash which dwelt upon sordid motives for committals and furnished realistic details of asylum life taken straight from select committee evidence.» — el papel de la novela en mantener vivo el asunto, con Hard Cash de Charles Reade nutrida de las actas parlamentarias.
«The strength of public opinion can be measured by the fact that three select committee reports were published during 1859 and i860, each addressing itself to the operation of the lunacy laws.» — cómo mide Owen la fuerza de esa opinión: tres informes parlamentarios en dos años; *i860* es errata del troceo por 1860.
«That of August 1859 was specifically concerned with the question of lunatics’ legal rights, their property, and the issue of illegal detention, and arose from two contentious cases of the previous year.» — el contenido del informe de agosto de 1859 y su origen.
«Therefore, although the medical profession had obtained a stranglehold over the province of insanity, the public were critical and suspicious of medical ambitions, the profit motive, and the risk of chicanery between unscrupulous doctors and asylum owners.» — el balance que Owen hace del periodo: dominio médico y desconfianza pública a la vez; el guion de *medi-cal* es del corte de renglón.
«However, for the moment one of the major factors in the Nottidge case (that of using religious opinions as grounds for incarceration) lay dormant.» — el asunto que quedó latente tras el caso Nottidge.
«This was to resurface a decade later within the spiritualist context and amidst renewed struggle.» — y cuándo volvió a salir, según Owen.
«She became the Honorary Secretary of the newly formed Lunacy Law Reform Association in 1872, tried (but failed) to bring a legal action against the Commissioners in Lunacy, and sought the support of the spiritualist press for her crusade.» — los tres movimientos de Louisa Lowe en 1872, con el fracaso judicial dicho entre paréntesis.
«Her case was that spiritualists ran the risk of committal at the hands of a hostile medical profession; that sane individuals, especially women, were being detained in asylums, and that the lunacy laws were in urgent need of reform.» — las tres tesis de su campaña.
«I was myself incarcerated and otherwise restrained as a lunatic for eighteen months, on the sole ground of claiming to be a passive or automatic writer.» — el testimonio propio con que Louisa Lowe encabezaba esa campaña.
«In short, numbers are being daily severed from all usefulness and enjoyment in this life, because they claim communion with a higher.» — y la generalización que hacía de su propio caso.
«instances of sane persons being detained ‘simply because doctors do not understand certain disorderly phases of undeveloped mediumship’, she should report their names to the BNAS.» — la fórmula con que Harrison recogía la denuncia y la vía que le proponía; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«He explained that, ‘We cannot publish serious ex parte statements about such cases’, but nonetheless continued his support for the campaign.» — la cautela editorial de Harrison y el apoyo que aun así mantuvo.
«Mrs Lowe did take her case to the BNAS and subsequently used her position as a committee member to press the Association for an inquiry.» — el uso que Louisa Lowe hizo de su puesto en la asociación.
«The General Purposes Committee was finally instructed to report to the council ‘upon the working and tendency of the Lunacy Laws in relation to Spiritualism’, and to bring individual cases to its notice.» — el encargo que consiguió que se aprobara.
«She was clearly aware of the importance of a show of public interest, and in her capacity as secretary of the Lunacy Law Reform Association was endeavouring to persuade the Committee to hear cases from her records.» — la estrategia pública que Owen le atribuye.
«Despite Harrison’s caution with respect to some of Louisa Lowe’s claims, the Lunacy Law Reform Association did keep records of illegal or disputed incarcerations, and intended to prosecute on behalf of those who were powerless to do so for themselves.» — el trabajo documental de esa asociación, pese a las reservas de Harrison.
«The ease with which families could get around lunacy law safeguards was highlighted by the plight of Miss Julia Wood, one of the cases pursued by the Association.» — el caso de Julia Wood, con que Owen ilustra la facilidad para burlar las garantías legales.
«At this juncture Julia Wood stepped in with an offer of a second sizeable donation; one of her relatives intervened with a signed lunacy order, and Miss Wood was forcibly removed from the community and detained in an asylum.» — el caso de Julia Wood, internada por un pariente cuando iba a hacer una segunda donación.
«The reasons given for her detention were her strange religious views and the fact that she and the other women wore unusual clothing.» — y las razones que se dieron para encerrarla: sus ideas religiosas y su modo de vestir.
«Despite general publicity, questions in the House of Commons, and representations from Mrs Lowe and the Lunacy Law Reform Association, Miss Wood remained incarcerated.» — lo que no bastó para sacarla, según Owen, ni siquiera las preguntas en la Cámara de los Comunes.
«The initial faulty lunacy certificates were quickly amended by a new set of doctors who insisted that the patient was a lunatic; everything was legally in order, and eight years laterjulia Wood was still at Ashwood House, near Dudley.» — cómo se subsanaron los certificados defectuosos y los ocho años que ella siguió encerrada; *laterjulia* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Towards the end of 1876 Forbes Winslow wrote a letter to the London Standard in which he asserted that spiritualism was filling English and American madhouses with lunatics.» — la carta de Forbes Winslow al Standard con que Owen abre ese episodio.
«He stated that there were 10,000 cases of insanity, all directly ascribable to spiritualism, currently being treated in asylums, and indicated that this was the scourge of modern times.» — y la cifra que daba en ella.
«is darkening, by its superstition the human mind, which, under its influence, falls into an abyss of mysticism of an unnaturally unfathomable depth.» — la fórmula con que Winslow describía el efecto del espiritismo sobre la mente; el verbatim empieza después de un asterisco del troceo.
«It is the curse of our age, and one of the principle causes of insanity in England, and especially of that desponding and melancholic type known as ‘religious insanity’, so prevalent in the present century .» — y el remate de esa carta; *principle* por *principal* y el espacio antes del punto son del troceo.
«Unlike Henry Maudsley, who never wrote a book specifically on spiritualism and thus went largely undetected by the lay public, Forbes Winslow was determined to make a highly publicised polemical attack.» — el contraste que Owen traza entre los dos alienistas y sus públicos.
«Although he made absolutely no attempt to present a creditable theoretical argument, spiritualists quite rightly assumed that critics would reproduce his views without concerning themselves about accuracy.» — la ausencia de argumento teórico y el temor razonable de los espiritistas ante su difusión.
«Within days of the letter’s appearance the Spiritualist came out with an editorial denouncing Forbes Winslow’s figures and many other factual errors, and stating that he had simply culled some anecdotes on the matter from an unacknowledged French source .» — la réplica inmediata del Spiritualist y la fuente francesa sin acreditar que le señalaba; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«The Spiritualist stated that it was the medical profession, not spiritualism, which created insanity.» — y la inversión con que ese periódico devolvía la acusación.
«If, instead of saying that ‘Spiritualism is filling English and American madhouses with lunatics’, he had said, ‘The doctors are everywhere confounding the mediumistic temperament with insanity, and filling their houses with undeveloped and unacknowledged mediums, who arc thus gradually driven mad’, he would have been right.» — la reescritura de la frase de Winslow que proponía el Spiritualist; *arc* es errata del troceo por *are*.
«I have myself no doubt that of the 80,000 persons incarcerated in English and Welsh asylums, there are many thousands suffering from misunderstood, disorderly mediumship.» — y la cifra que ese mismo texto oponía a la de Winslow.
«If physicians were intent on arguing that spiritualism either caused insanity or attracted the incipiently insane, believers insisted that mediums could be mistaken as lunatics and driven mad by the medical profession.» — las dos posiciones enfrentadas que Owen consigna sin arbitrar.
«Readers were also urged to attend the large public debate on ‘Spiritualism in connection with lunacy’ which was to take place at Langham Hall, London, with Forbes Winslow as the opening speaker.» — el debate público que se convocó sobre el asunto.
«The results indicated that of more than 23,000 patients, 412 were insane through ‘religious excitement’, and 59 through spiritualism.» — las cifras que arrojó el censo hecho a raíz de la polémica.
«their conclusion was that, on the contrary, spiritualism ‘favours those conditions of mind and body upon which sanity depends’.» — y la conclusión que los espiritistas sacaron de ellas.
«Forbes Winslow, who clearly followed the debate in the spiritualist press, was in no mood to let the matter drop.» — la persistencia de Winslow en la polémica.
«Dr Lyttleton Forbes Winslow is accused of having overstated the number of insane patients in the United States whose malady is alleged to have been caused by ‘Spiritualism’.» — cómo el Lancet planteaba la acusación contra él.
«The assertion was so manifestly preposterous, and evinced so little acquaintance with the subject, that we did not deem it worthwhile to contradict it.» — y con qué desdén el mismo Lancet explicaba su propio silencio previo.
«It is perfectly well known that the insane population of the» — el dato con que el Lancet corregía la cifra; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana, y la frase sigue diciendo que apenas pasa de cuarenta y cinco mil.
«Thus, the Lancet justified its own late appearance in the field, tried to make those spiritualists who had taken the trouble to contest inaccurate and vilifying allegations look foolish, and succeeded in brushing off Forbes Winslow’s falsifications as the effects of innocent enthusiasm.» — las tres cosas que el Lancet consiguió de un golpe, según Owen.
«However, if nothing else, the Forbes Winslow debacle did create a more alert spiritualist community.» — el saldo que le reconoce al episodio.
«Three years after the event, Susan Gay, an educated and active spiritualist who embraced many of the more complex Swedenborgian concepts, thought it necessary to publish a thoughtful and well-reasoned response to Forbes Winslow, whilst others took issue with leading alienists like Dr Hammond.» — la respuesta razonada de Susan Gay tres años después.
«This concerned Forbes Winslow’s attempted incarceration of Georgina Weldon.» — el segundo episodio que Owen liga al mismo alienista.
«Mrs Weldon was something of a spiritualist phenomenon, and a woman of unusual and advanced views.» — la presentación que hace de Georgina Weldon.
«In the mid- 1870s she was familiar to spiritualists as a devoted adherent, accomplished singer and musician, and founder of a small orphanage which she ran from Tavistock House, her London home.» — sus tres papeles públicos a mediados de los años setenta; el guion de *mid-1870s* lleva el espacio del troceo.
«She was then in her late thirties, and had for fifteen years been tied to an unsatisfactory and childless marriage which had been contracted in haste and against the wishes of her family.» — y su situación conyugal, según Owen.
«Realising her mistake, she had thrown herself with great flair and energy into her causes and the musical career forbidden by her parents.» — lo que hizo con ese error, según el relato de Owen.
«Georgina’s devotion to her music and young charges, combined with all the signs of ‘progressive socialism’, were the ostensible reasons for the final break-up of the marriage.» — las razones aparentes de la ruptura, con el *ostensible* que Owen conserva.
«After an amicable discussion and mutual agreement, Mr Weldon left Tavistock House in 1875, and the couple never lived together again.» — la separación de 1875, hecha de común acuerdo.
«Georgina nevertheless was well provided for by Henry Weldon whom she publicly commended for his generosity.» — y el sostén económico que ella misma agradecía en público.
«She received a yearly allowance of £1,000, using the money to maintain her growing establishment, and supplemented her income with the £20-£30 that she received from her concert engagements.» — las cifras de esa asignación y de sus conciertos.
«The spiritualist press applauded her ventures and she also began to receive favourable attention in publications like Vanity Fair and the London Journal.» — la prensa que la respaldaba, espiritista y no espiritista.
«Georgina allowed the children to go barefoot in the house and refused to dress them in the restrictive conventional garb that was expected in polite society.» — la crianza que daba a los huérfanos de su casa.
«She herself favoured ‘rational dress’, had never worn a crinoline, and disliked anything that was uncomfortable:» — y su propio modo de vestir.
«She was an advocate of female suffrage (although never» — su posición ante el sufragio femenino, con el paréntesis que la acota; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Such views and activities were anathema to her well-to-do relatives who, as Georgina later discovered, were kept informed by her husband.» — el efecto de todo eso sobre su familia y el papel del marido como informante.
«If such goings-on had remained private the family might have turned a blind eye. As it was, Georgina had a genius for publicity and kept her causes in the forefront of public attention.» — lo que a Owen le parece decisivo: no la conducta sino su publicidad.
About the work
345 entries — what the apparatus and scholarship say about it«This highly original study looks at the central role played by the women who were mediums, healers, and believers during the golden age of British spiritualism in the late Victorian era.» — solapa delantera del editor, no voz del cuerpo: presenta el libro como estudio del papel central de las mujeres que fueron médiums, curanderas y creyentes en la edad de oro del espiritismo británico.
«The movement, which maintained that women were uniquely qualified to commune with spirits of the dead, offered mediums a new independence and authority that, to a certain extent, could undermine conventional class and gender relations and redefine women’s power in both the home and society.» — la solapa resume la tesis: el movimiento sostenía que las mujeres estaban singularmente capacitadas para comunicarse con los muertos, y eso daba a las médiums una independencia y una autoridad que hasta cierto punto podían socavar las relaciones convencionales de clase y de género.
«The seance, whether treated seriously as a science or regarded as an amusing parlor game, enthralled Victorian society. It invoked a startling world of darkened rooms, locked cabinets, theatrical apparitions, and moving episodes of happiness lost and regained.» — la solapa describe la sesión espiritista como fascinación de la sociedad victoriana, tomada en serio como ciencia o como pasatiempo de salón, y de ahí saca el título del volumen.
«It gave the women spiritualists who led these popular forays into extraordinary realms an influence remarkable for their time, but the personal costs were sometimes high.» — la solapa pone el límite junto al elogio: la influencia era notable para su tiempo, y el costo personal a veces alto.
«Many suffered badly at the hands of the medical and legal establishment.» — y nombra de dónde venía ese costo, según la solapa: del establecimiento médico y del legal.
«Using previously unexamined sources, Alex Owen traces the movement’s links with evangelical Christianity, power structures based on class and gender, women’s emancipation, faith healing, and» — la solapa enumera los hilos que el libro sigue —cristianismo evangélico, estructuras de poder de clase y de género, emancipación femenina, curación por la fe— y declara que trabaja sobre fuentes no examinadas antes; el verbatim se corta ahí porque el troceo intercala un guillemet de OCR antes de *emergent psychiatry*.
«At once scholarly and entertaining, The Darkened Room provides fascinating new insights into women’s places in Victorian society.» — el elogio editorial de la solapa, que califica el volumen de erudito y ameno a la vez.
«It will be important to those in the fields of women’s studies, Victorian history, and the paranormal.» — y los tres públicos a los que la solapa dirige el libro: estudios de la mujer, historia victoriana y lo paranormal.
«The University of Pennsylvania Press THE NEW CULTURAL STUDIES SERIES Joan Dejean, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, and Peter Stallybrass, Editors Alex Owen. The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. 1990.» — la página de serie: el volumen abre THE NEW CULTURAL STUDIES SERIES de la University of Pennsylvania Press, dirigida por Joan Dejean, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg y Peter Stallybrass, y va fechado en 1990.
«Copyright © 1990 by the University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America» — la línea de derechos, que fecha la edición en 1990 y la sitúa impresa en los Estados Unidos.
«Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Pubhcation Data Owen, Alex, 1948-The darkened room / Alex Owen. P cm. Bibliography: p. Includes index.» — la ficha de catalogación de la Library of Congress, que encabeza por la autora y da su año de nacimiento; *Cataloging-in-Pubhcation* y la *P* suelta son del OCR.
«Includes index. ISBN 0-8122-8222-1 — ISBN 0-8122-1306-8 (pbk.)» — los dos ISBN que declara la página de derechos, en tela y en rústica.
«1. Women and spiritualism—England—History— 19th century.» — la primera materia con que la Library of Congress clasifica el volumen: mujeres y espiritismo en Inglaterra, siglo XIX.
«2. England— Religion— 19th century. 3. Women mediums—England History— 19th century. I. Title. BF1275. W65094 1990» — las otras dos materias y la signatura BF1275.W65094 1990.
«CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii List ofAbbreviations ix Introduction: The book, the spirits, and the historian xi 1 Power and Gender: The Spiritualist Context i 2 Victorian Spiritualism and the Spiritualist Woman 18 3 Star Mediumship: Light and Shadows 41 4 At Home with the Theobald Family 75 5 Women Healers in the Spiritualist World 107 6 Medicine, Mediumship and Mania 139 7 Louisa Lowe’s Story 168 8 Spiritualism and the Subversion of Femininity 202 Epilogue 236 Notes 243 Bibliography 290 Index 308» — el índice del volumen: introducción, ocho capítulos, epílogo y aparato; los folios impresos que da aquí son los que sirven para medir la relación plana↔folio, y la *i* del capítulo primero es el 1 leído por el OCR.
«The major research for this book was undertaken in England but much of the writing has taken place in America.» — abre los agradecimientos declarando dónde se hizo cada mitad del trabajo: la investigación en Inglaterra, buena parte de la escritura en los Estados Unidos.
«The Darkened Room began life as my Ph.D thesis for the University of Sussex, and I want first and foremost to thank Eileen Yeo who managed to combine friendship, support, and encouragement with rigorous critical supervision.» — declara el origen del libro: una tesis doctoral de la Universidad de Sussex dirigida por Eileen Yeo.
«I should also like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the care and interest with which my thesis examiners, John F.C. Harrison and Leonore Davidoff, approached their task.» — nombra a los dos examinadores de aquella tesis, John F. C. Harrison y Leonore Davidoff; Davidoff reaparece después como autoridad citada en el cuerpo.
«LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations that appear in the text or footnotes: BMJ BNAS JMS JPMMP JSPR M & D MCPJ PSPR S SPR British Medical Journal British National Association of Spiritualists Journal of Mental Science Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology Journal of the Society for Psychical Research» — la lista de abreviaturas, que el OCR imprime en dos columnas desfasadas —primero todas las siglas y después las expansiones—; da la nómina de las fuentes que el libro más usa, entre ellas el British Medical Journal y la British National Association of Spiritualists.
«My fellow British travellers on the spiritualist highway, Logie Barrow, Perry Williams, and Jill Rubinstein, have contributed generously to my understanding of the spiritualist world.» — los agradecimientos nombran a Logie Barrow entre quienes contribuyeron a su comprensión del mundo espiritista; Barrow es después la autoridad que cita para el espiritismo plebeyo.
«In America, I have been more than fortunate in my lengthy correspondence with Janet Oppenheim, and am indebted to her clarity, knowledge, and readiness to read and comment upon the entire manuscript.» — y a Janet Oppenheim, que leyó el manuscrito entero, según los mismos agradecimientos.
«The research itself has been facilitated by Nick Clark-Lowes and Eleanor O’Keeffe of the Society for Psychical Research, London, and A.H. Wesencraft, Honorary Curator of the Harry Price Library, University of London, who were prepared to give time and energy to tracking down more obscure sources.» — los archivos que sostienen el libro: la Society for Psychical Research y la Harry Price Library.
«The Society for Psychical Research also permitted me to browse unhampered through much of its valuable archive material.» — y el acceso libre a ese archivo que la sociedad le dio.
«The staffs of the British Library and The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine were helpful and accommodating, and I benefited further from the Wellcome’s History of Psychiatry seminars which I attended during 1982-3.» — las otras dos bibliotecas y el seminario de historia de la psiquiatría al que asistió en 1982 y 1983.
«My editors at Virago, Ruthie Petrie and Jane Parkin, have exhibited an unfailing patience and confidence in the book that have helped keep anxiety to a minimum.» — las editoras de Virago que nombra, dato de edición que la portada de esta impresión no trae.
«Carolyn Steedman brought her usual scholarship and flair to bear on the manuscript.» — y Carolyn Steedman entre las lectoras del manuscrito.
«Finally, my thanks and much more go to David Owen who knew me long before I encountered the spiritualists, and who has managed to survive them.» — el agradecimiento final de los agradecimientos.
«Grateful acknowledgement for permission to reproduce the photographs listed below is made to: The University of London Library, The Harry Price Collection: ‘Katie King’; Florence Cook, 1894; ‘Katie King’ with male sitter.» — el primer bloque de créditos de las láminas: la Harry Price Collection.
«From the Two Worlds Portrait Album , Miss -C. E. (Kate) Wood; Annie Fairlamb (Mellon); Bessie Williams.» — el segundo bloque, tomado del Two Worlds Portrait Album; el espacio antes de la coma y el guion suelto son del troceo.
«The British Library: Georgiana Houghton, A male sitter, ‘Alas! for her whose white robe of innocence became a filthy rag’ from Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye (1882) by Miss Houghton; and Louisa Lowe from The Bastilles ofEngland or the Lunacy Laws at Work (1883) by Louisa Lowe.» — el tercer bloque, con las fuentes impresas de las fotografías de Georgiana Houghton y del retrato de Louisa Lowe; *ofEngland* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«The London School of Economics and Political Science Library: Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace from the Labour Annual and Reformers Year Book (i88g).» — el cuarto bloque, con el retrato de Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace; *i88g* es el 1889 leído por el OCR.
«‘Katie King’ with a male sitter, possibly Dr Gully of Malvern» — pie de lámina del encarte: el espíritu Katie King con un asistente varón; el asterisco que sigue en el troceo queda fuera de la cita.
«Miss C.E. (Kate) Wood, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne materialisation star and Iriend of Annie Fairlamb Annie Fairlamb, the working-class materialisation medium from Newcastle» — los dos pies de lámina de la misma plana, con las dos médiums de Newcastle; *Iriend* es errata del troceo por *friend* y el guion de *working-class* lo une el troceo.
«Georgians Houghton photographed with spirit friends and relatives by the London spirit photographer, Mr Hudson. He specialised in taking photographs of the spiritualists which also captured the otherwise unknown and invisible presence of a spirit.» — el pie que explica la fotografía espírita de Hudson; *Georgians* es errata del troceo por *Georgiana*.
«A male sitter with an ‘unclad spirit’.» — el pie más escueto del encarte, sobre un asistente varón con un espíritu sin vestir.
«The theme of debasement, entitled ‘Alas! for her whose white robe of innocence became a filthy rag’.» — el pie de la lámina sobre el tema del envilecimiento, con el título que la fuente le da.
«Bessie Williams, the clairvoyant diagnostician, after she became Mrs Russell-Davies Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace in the 1890s» — los dos pies de la última plana del encarte, con Bessie Williams ya casada y Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace en los años noventa.
«Of the relatively recent literature, Logie Barrow, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebeians, 1850-1910 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986) whilst covering new and vital terrain, makes virtually no mention of women.» — abre las notas con el estado de la cuestión: el libro de Logie Barrow abre terreno nuevo y casi no menciona mujeres.
«Janet Oppenheim’s excellent and scholarly study, The Other World: Spiritualism and psychical research in England, 1850-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), makes some interesting early comments but in general is not concerned with women.» — y el mismo reproche, en términos más suaves, al estudio de Janet Oppenheim.
«R. Laurence Moore, In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), includes a formative and valuable chapter on nineteenth-century American spiritualist women;» — la excepción que reconoce del lado estadounidense, en R. Laurence Moore.
«The arguments for a closer relationship between the disciplines of social anthropology and history have» — la nota metodológica sobre antropología social e historia; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Social scientists who study contemporary spirit possession usually stress either social meanings, in which case they tend not to consider the question of psychological motivation, or invoke a normative psychological (invariably Freudian) model which characterises the possessed behaviour as abnormal.» — el reproche que hace en nota a los científicos sociales de la posesión contemporánea.
«I am relying here on the Foucauldian concept of discourse.» — la deuda con Foucault declarada en nota.
«There is now a large body of feminist social theory which argues that categories like ‘nature’ and ‘natural’ are social and cultural constructions.» — la teoría social feminista en que se apoya para lo natural como construcción.
«There is debate amongst historians as to how far middle-class eflorts to transform working-class patterns of morality were successful and some resist the notion of an unproblematic transmission of middle-class ethics.» — el debate historiográfico que consigna en nota sobre la transmisión de la ética burguesa; *eflorts* es errata del troceo.
«am indebted to Holcombe’s discussion, ibid., and to Lee Holcombe, Wives and Property: Reform of the Married Women’s Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England (Toronto & Buffalo: University ofToronto Press, 1983)» — la fuente de su tratamiento de la ley de propiedad de las casadas; el troceo imprime un asterisco donde la fuente lleva la *I* inicial, y *ofToronto* es unión de palabras.
«For example, the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870, 1874, and 1882, Custody of Infants Acts of (1839), 1873, and 1884; Matrimonial Causes Acts of 1878 and 1895; Act enabling universities to admit women, 1875; Medical Education Act, 1876; Repeal of Contagious Diseases Acts, 1883;» — la lista de reformas legales que da en nota como respaldo del capítulo primero.
«There was also, however, a coterie of upper-class and aristocratic believers (Mane, Countess of Caithness and Duchesse de Pomar, was one of the best known), and during the mid-decades of the century it became fashionable for famous hostesses such as Lady Waldegrave and Lady Hastings to entertain favourite mediums at their salons.» — la salvedad de clase que añade en nota sobre los creyentes aristócratas; *Mane* es errata del troceo por *Marie*.
«See Judith L. Newton, Women, Power and Subversion: Social Strategies in British Fiction 1778-1860 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981), pp. xi-xxi, for a consideration of different definitions of power, and an appraisal of the shift in feminist analyses from women’s oppression to women’s agency.» — la referencia con que sostiene su noción de poder y el giro de la opresión a la agencia.
«I am indebted to Davidoff and Hall’s detailed and subtle analysis of earlier nineteenth-century gender relations, and to their explication of domestic ideology in both theory and practice.» — la deuda declarada con Leonore Davidoff y Catherine Hall para la ideología doméstica.
«However, as Harrison indicates, in practice there was no clear-cut definition, and the crucial issue was the utilisation of the social function of prophesy.» — lo que toma de Harrison sobre la función social de la profecía.
«Pre-millennialists believed that the second coming of Christ would precede the millennium, a thousand-year period of peace and plenty.» — la definición de premilenarismo que da en nota.
«These guidelines were written by the eminent and well-respected spiritualist, Stainton Moses, and were reproduced in many books and periodicals of the period.» — la nota que adjudica a Stainton Moses las guías para principiantes citadas en el cuerpo.
«Mesmer used animal magnetism to treat sick and nervous patients, and found that the application of magnetic plates to the limbs of the sufferer often induced a cathartic or trance-like state.» — la nota que resume la práctica de Mesmer.
«Healing sessions, sometimes referred to as seances, were chaotic affairs, and Mesmer was effectively outlawed by the medical profession.» — y el destino profesional que le adjudica.
«The history of the Rosicrucian tradition is a troubled and complex one, but it seems likely that from about i860 there existed in England several types of Rosicrucian order, each claiming direct descent from the occult Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross.» — la nota sobre las órdenes rosacruces inglesas, con el *seems likely* que la acota; *i860* es errata del troceo por 1860.
«Both Porter and Russell M. and Clare R. Goldfarb, Spiritualism and Nineteenth-Century Letters (London: Associated University Presses, 1978), indicate the extent to which references to spiritualism were ruthlessly excised from contemporary biographies and» — el hallazgo de censura biográfica que recoge en nota; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s letters, however, were too numerous and densely packed with spiritualist talk to be effectively censored - despite the best efforts of her husband and son after her death.» — y la excepción que salva de esa censura.
«the numbers had certainly declined by the 1890s, and many spiritualists were never affiliated to an organisation.» — la reserva que pone en nota a las cifras del movimiento; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de renglón.
«Phrenology asserted that the brain was the sole organ of the mind, and sought to correlate the shape and size of the skull with personality traits.» — la definición de frenología que da en nota.
«It was eagerly seized upon by secularists, feminists, and supporters of social reform during the first half of the nineteenth century, and both mesmerism and phrenology became closely associated with spiritualism.» — y quiénes la adoptaron, según la misma nota.
«An interest in mesmerism and phrenology tended to go hand-in-hand, and both contributed in different ways to an understanding of the nature of the mind - hence the association with popular psychology.» — el vínculo entre las dos y la psicología popular.
«The Psychological Society first met in 1875 and had as its aim the scientific examination of psychology, although, as defined, the field would now seem rather closer to psychical research.» — la nota sobre la Psychological Society y su objeto real.
«Cox’s own views were closer to the ‘animistic’ theories of the mesmerists, and in this he was representative of one section of educated spiritualist opinion.» — la posición doctrinal que adjudica en nota a Edward Cox.
«The 1837 Mormon mission to Britain reached a peak membership of nearly 33,000 by 1851.» — el dato comparativo sobre la misión mormona que da en nota.
«In fact, most spiritualists enthusiastically embraced respectability, whilst an identifiable spiritualist ethic often had the effect of uniting believers across the class divide.» — la objeción que hace en nota a la tesis de las dos culturas espiritistas.
«Barrow implies separate spiritualist cultures, plebeian and ‘respectable’, and seeks to appropriate radicalism to the plebeians.» — cómo resume la tesis de Barrow que objeta.
«There would seem to be some evidence to support his assertion.» — y lo que aun así le concede.
«There was, for example, some spiritualist activity amongst the communist-anarchists of London’s Canning Town.» — el dato que da en apoyo de esa concesión.
«Miss Samuel was a popular spiritualist speaker who later began to advertise herself as a medium.» — la nota que identifica a la conferenciante citada en el capítulo segundo.
«James Burns was a Free Mason and claimed that women’s lodges were already in existence.» — el dato masónico sobre Burns que consigna en nota.
«The argument that women were especially suited for teaching, preaching, and medicine was often adopted by those who supported women’s admission to professional life, and was particularly favoured by spiritualists.» — el argumento profesional que rastrea en nota más allá del espiritismo.
«Many of those who fought for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (passed in the 1860s in an attempt to curtail the spread of venereal disease) became involved in the Social Purity movement.» — la continuidad que traza en nota entre la campaña contra las Contagious Diseases Acts y la pureza social.
«Sheila Jeffreys, ibid., presents the argument that feminist campaigns around sexuality were an attempt ‘to transform male sexual behaviour and protect women from the effects of the exercise of a form of male sexuality damaging to their interests’ (p. 1).» — la tesis de Sheila Jeffreys que recoge en nota.
«Weeks makes the point (p. 164) that Christabel Pankhurst’s pamphlet The Great Scourge (1913) provides a useful indicator of feminist sexual attitudes.» — y lo que toma de Jeffrey Weeks sobre el panfleto de Christabel Pankhurst.
«In general, Vicinus stresses the concern for sexual purity amongst nineteenth-century unmarried middle-class feminists and ‘independent women’.» — lo que toma de Martha Vicinus sobre la pureza sexual de las feministas solteras.
«Victoria Woodhull’s commitment to the free love movement earned her an outrageous reputation.» — la nota sobre la reputación de Victoria Woodhull.
«William Hepworth Dixon, Spiritual Wives, Vols. 1 & 2 (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1868, 4th ed.), is an extensive study of the creeds, movements, and religions which had adopted the Swedenborgian concept of ‘spiritual brides’ or affinities.» — la ficha del libro de Dixon que el capítulo tercero discute.
«The need for the stabilising influence of ritual and control is an important aspect of contemporary spiritualism, and features strongly in spirit possession cults elsewhere.» — la nota que extiende a otros cultos de posesión la necesidad de ritual y control.
«It is interesting that the article protected Florence Cook’s identity, possibly owing to her extreme youth.» — la conjetura sobre el seudónimo de Florence Cook en la prensa.
«Burns’s remarks came in the wake of considerable anti-American feeling following the exposure of fraudulent American mediums in England.» — el contexto antiestadounidense en que sitúa los comentarios de Burns.
«The Everett diaries are held by the Society for Psychical Research, London.» — la localización de una de sus fuentes manuscritas.
«She was well known in spiritualist circles and acquainted with all the best mediums.» — la nota que sitúa a una de sus testigos dentro del mundo espiritista.
«I refer to her throughout as Mary Rosina.» — la convención de nombre que declara para Mary Rosina Showers.
«Florence Marryat was a prolific author and daughter of Captain Marryat, a writer and personal friend of Charles Dickens and Lord Lytton.» — la ficha biográfica de Florence Marryat que da en nota.
«This volume challenges criticism of anthropology as lacking a dynamic perspective by concentrating on the relationship between ecstatic religion and social change.» — lo que toma de la antropología de la religión extática.
«For responses to the Lewis thesis, and in particular his view that possession acts as mystically sanctioned aggression on the part of women towards men, see Peter J. Wilson,» — la tesis de I. M. Lewis y el debate que remite en nota; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Hall (p. 17) cites an undated letter from Florence to Blackburn in which she mentions that Luxmoore was taking her to the Exhibition to be followed by dinner, and had ‘kindly invited Mamma and me to go with him for a run in his yacht’.» — la carta de Florence Cook a su patrón que cita desde Trevor Hall.
«Amongst those spiritualists who claimed to have seen ‘Katie and Florence together were Mr Dunphy, Mr Tapp, Mr Luxmoore (all respectable gentlemen and closely associated with the Dalston Association), Mrs Showers, Mrs Amelia Comer, and Miss (probably Kate) Cook.» — la lista de testigos de la aparición conjunta, con el paréntesis que apunta el conflicto de interés; el apóstrofo de cierre falta en el troceo.
«On one occasion, however, James Burns noted that ‘George’s’ hands were bound in white material and it is possible that this was more common than reports would have us believe.» — el detalle de las manos vendadas del espíritu y la conjetura que Owen añade.
«Frederic Myers wrote to Henry Sidgwick, 8 December 1876: ‘Miss F. is supposed to be somewhat distraite at present on account of an amoureux with whom she often wants to be going out instead of sitting:- but thus small, thus natural, thus transparent, seem to be the workings of the Mediums’ hearts and minds!’» — la carta de Myers a Sidgwick sobre el enamorado de la médium, con su condescendencia incluida.
«She began life as a professional mesmerist.» — un dato de oficio que consigna en nota sobre una de las curadoras.
«Upon reflection she concluded that Miss Nichol had made the marriage solely in order to gain the protection of a husband.» — la conclusión de una amiga sobre el matrimonio de Agnes Nichol, recogida en nota.
«Out of a total of 55 mediums in my immediate study (late 1860s to early 1880s), 19 were private at the beginning of their mediumship and 36 were public.» — el desglose de su muestra de cincuenta y cinco médiums entre privadas y públicas.
«Of the 19 private mediums, 12 were unmarried and 7 married. Of the 36 public mediums, 21 were married and 12 unmarried at the start of their careers.» — y el desglose por estado civil dentro de cada grupo.
«The marital status of three women was unknown owing either to the use of pseudonyms, or in one case because there was no marital designation.» — el hueco que declara en esa cuenta.
«Children under the age of 14 are not included in the figures.» — y el criterio de exclusión que aplicó.
«The male medium, Daniel Dunglas Home, called his book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism (New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1877).» — la nota que da la fuente del título del capítulo tercero.
«She is a wonderful medium, and, what is better, is one who is not afraid to show the dark side any more than the light.» — el elogio de época a una médium que recoge en nota.
«For examples of these mediums, see M & D, 16 November 1877, p. 729; 14 September 1877, p. 591; 15 August 1879, p» — la remisión a los anuncios de prensa que sostienen su censo de médiums; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«Every issue of the major newspapers carried mediums’ advertisements on the back page, but unfortunately the majority of these have proven to be untraceable.» — y el muro documental que declara sobre esos anuncios.
«Frank Podmore disagreed with Crookes’s assertions and concluded that the likeness was ‘unmistakable’.» — el desacuerdo entre Podmore y Crookes sobre el parecido entre médium y espíritu, consignado en nota sin arbitrar.
«Both William and his wife Ellen Crookes claimed to have seen Florence and a materialised spirit together, but these were not test seances and it was uncorroborated testimony.» — y la reserva que Owen pone al testimonio del matrimonio Crookes.
«The report of the seizure was signed by the Earl of Caithness, Lady Caithness, Count El Conde De Medina Pomar, Charles Blackburn, Mrs Corner, Mr Luxmoore, Mr Dunphy, Henry Bielfield, Edward Elgie Corner, G.R. Tapp, and W.H. Harrison, the editor of the Spiritualist.» — los firmantes del informe sobre el asalto de Volckman, entre ellos el patrón y el editor.
«There is controversy over the Volckman incident.» — la controversia que declara en nota sobre ese incidente.
«Mary Rosina Showers’ future husband, Edward Nugent James, suggested that mediums faked the manifestations when their powers failed.» — lo que el futuro marido de Showers sostenía sobre las médiums.
«Medhurst and Goldney argue that Cox must have been referring to the Showers’ admission obtained by Crookes, and dispute Trevor Hall’s attempt ( The Spiritualists, pp. 80-4) to present it as having been written by Florence Cook to Mary Rosina Showers.» — la disputa entre Medhurst y Goldney y Trevor Hall sobre la autoría de una carta, consignada sin resolver.
«Hall makes this argument in order to support his disputed thesis that Florence Cook was fraudulent and Crookes her willing accomplice.» — y el interés que Owen le ve a Hall en esa atribución.
«EricJ. Dingwall in The Critics’ Dilemma suggests that the letter might have been written by Florence Cook to her great friend, the American medium Lottie Fowler.» — la tercera hipótesis sobre la misma carta, la de Dingwall; *EricJ.* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«He would have been reluctant to stir up a hornets nest by exposing a young medium so closely involved with Elorence Cook (whom he had unequivocally espoused).» — la explicación que da del silencio de Crookes; *Elorence* es errata del troceo.
«Having maintained an official silence at this point he presumably found it impossible to denounce Miss Showers when it later became clear that she intended to continue with her mediumship.» — y la consecuencia de ese silencio, marcada con un *presumably*.
«However, the Spiritualist defended the medium.» — la posición del periódico ante esa exposición.
«A clear example of this was the public entertainment but bitter internal antagonism wrought by the spectacle of Susan Fletcher’s trial in 1881.» — el juicio de Susan Fletcher como ejemplo del daño interno de los escándalos.
«Mrs Fletcher was ultimately committed to prison for twelve months, going first to Newgate and then to Westminster, but the damage and rancour remained.» — y la condena que recibió.
«During the 1880s the idea that an unconscious ‘secondary self was responsible for much mediunustic phenomena was being put forward by Frederic Myers, a non-spiritualist member of the Society for Psychical Research.» — la tesis del yo secundario que Myers proponía en los años ochenta; *mediunustic* es errata del troceo.
«Mediumship had also come under scrutiny from certain European psychologists interested in the workings of the unconscious mind.» — y el interés paralelo de la psicología europea.
«Chapter 8 hereafter offers a detailed consideration of the relationship between mediumship, seance phenomena, and the unconscious.» — la remisión interna que Owen hace en esa nota.
«Morell described the handwriting in great detail and also published examples of it in Spirit Workers, Plate 6, pp. 248-9.» — la fuente de las muestras de escritura espírita de los Theobald.
«He disparaged physical phenomena, giving the few French physical mediums no coverage in his periodical La Revue Spirite, but encouraged automatic writing.» — la política editorial de Kardec en su revista, según esta nota.
«Kardec’s views tended to appeal to English spiritualists who found the material emphasis of their native movement crude and unsatisfactory.» — y a qué público inglés atraían sus ideas.
«Madame Blavatsky sought to bring together the core teachings of the great religious and arcane philosophies of the world, and did not hesitate to describe Theosophy as a religion.» — el proyecto teosófico tal como Owen lo resume en nota.
«Spiritualist rancour came to a head over Mrs Eleanor Sidgwick’s denunciation of William Eglinton, the well-known medium and personal friend of the Theobalds.» — el episodio que colmó el rencor espiritista contra la SPR.
«There was an immediate spiritualist outcry followed by suggestions of mass resignation from the SPR.» — y la reacción que provocó.
«Orthodox medicine is slowly taking unconventional healing methods more seriously.» — la observación de actualidad que Owen añade en nota sobre la medicina de su tiempo.
«The British Medical Association published a report on alternative medicine in 1986, and the American government recently awarded the first Federal grant for research into therapeutic touch.» — y los dos hechos con que la apoya.
«The community was important as a rallying point for new ideas and personnel in the health reform world, helped publicise the ideas of the hydropathist Vincent Pnessnitz, and was active in promoting vegetarianism in Britain.» — el papel de una comunidad reformista en la difusión de la hidropatía; *Pnessnitz* es errata del troceo por *Priessnitz*.
«Phrenology was highly regarded by some spiritualist healers, one of whom described the phrenological Professor Fowler as ‘our Fourier’.» — la estima que la frenología tenía entre curadores espiritistas.
«Dr Jonathan Miller has elucidated the radical implications of mesmerism in a paper entitled, ‘An Internal Millennium: British Mesmerism at the end of the Eighteenth Century’, Wellcome Research Seminar» — la fuente en que apoya las implicaciones radicales del mesmerismo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«These sentiments have been swallowed whole and reproduced in some more recent accounts of the phenomenon.» — el reproche que hace en nota a la historiografía reciente por repetir los juicios de época.
«However, in response to developing public awareness of, and some professional interest in, ‘natural’ healing, the medical establishment is having to revise its traditionally hostile stance.» — el cambio que registra en la posición médica actual.
«Even so, there remains an underlying concern with the threat represented by lay practitioners and the possibility of opening the floodgates of ‘quackery’.» — y lo que de esa hostilidad permanece.
«Dr W.A. Hammond used the term ‘Spiritualistic humbugs’, Spiritualism and Allied Causes and Conditions of Nervous Derangement (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1876), pp. 166-7.» — la fuente del mote que el cuerpo cita.
«The same kind of sentiments still pertain within orthodox medicine.» — y la continuidad que Owen afirma hasta su presente.
«There had been earlier rumours that Burns had opposed the establishment of the BN AS because it planned to operate a Central Institution which would directly rival his own.» — el rumor sobre el interés de Burns contra la BNAS, consignado como rumor; el espacio dentro de la sigla es del troceo.
«His Spiritualist Institution represented part of his livelihood and he was clearly vulnerable to this type of allegation.» — y la vulnerabilidad económica que lo hacía verosímil.
«It is possible that she passed off two illegitimate children as her nieces, and lived with her sister as a further means of protecting her reputation.» — la conjetura sobre Bessie Williams y sus sobrinas, marcada como posible.
«James Mack, Healing by Laying-on of Hands, pp. 208 ff, goes into considerable detail about his colour healing method.» — la fuente del método de curación por color.
«Dr Forbes B. Winslow (the eminent alienist) had earlier been interested in the relationship between light, colour, and insanity.» — y el interés previo del alienista Forbes Winslow por la luz y el color.
«Mrs Woodforde, who worked only a few doors away from the BNAS headquarters in Great Russell Street, London, always emphasised the sliding scale in her advertisements.» — la tarifa escalonada que anunciaba una de las curadoras.
«His article on homeopathy managed to win him enemies on both sides.» — el efecto de un artículo sobre homeopatía, según esta nota.
«The society was an attempt at breaking the male medical monopoly, particularly in sensitive areas relating to women, but the argument that female complaints were best treated by women was subsequently fielded in an effort to limit women doctors’ sphere of competence.» — la vuelta que Owen le da al argumento de la medicina femenina: sirvió después para acotar el campo de las médicas.
«It is interesting that Emma Martin, the Owenite feminist, chose to train as an accoucheuse in the 1840s after giving up her lecturing.» — el caso de Emma Martin, feminista owenita hecha partera.
«This combination of female religious heterodoxy, midwifery, and the practice of natural healing has, I suspect, a fascinating history on both sides of the Atlantic.» — y la hipótesis de investigación que Owen deja anotada, marcada con un *I suspect*.
«He began to publish The Herald of Health Almanac in 1875, to which Mary contributed her ‘Letters to my Friends’ and ‘A Heart to Heart Talk with my Friends’.» — las colaboraciones de Mary Gove Nichols en el almanaque de su marido.
«They both wrote extensively, and Mary wrote fiction as well as material relating to health and ‘the clothes question’.» — y el alcance de esa obra escrita.
«It must have been around 1874 when she first appeared at Burns’s Institution.» — la datación conjetural del debut de Chandos Leigh Hunt.
«The date of birth (1854) given in The Labour Annual and Reformers’ Year Book 1899, P165, does not tally with Chandos’s description of herself as a chronic invalid at the age» — la contradicción documental que Owen señala en las fechas de Chandos; *P165* es el *p. 165* del original partido por el salto de renglón y unido por el troceo, el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«She produced Private Instructions and Physianthropy as well as two books on dietary reform.» — los títulos de Chandos que censa en nota.
«Chandos wrote knowledgeably about red, white, and black magic, and referred to Christ as a ‘Red Magician’.» — el saber mágico que Owen le reconoce en nota, con Cristo como mago rojo.
«Logie Barrow, ‘Anti-Establishment Healing’, p. 240, makes the point that Physianthropy was much enthused over in the Spiritual Lyceums, and cites the Lyceum Banner, Vol. 4 (1894)» — la difusión de su sistema en los liceos espiritistas, según Barrow; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«The marriage took place by special licence on Saturday 24 August 1878, and was conducted by the Registrar at Peckham Rye Vestry Hall.» — la fecha exacta del matrimonio de Chandos.
«I have been unable to trace 366 Vegetarian Menus (1885), and Dietetic Advice to the Young and the Old (1885).» — los dos títulos que declara no haber podido localizar.
«The Anti-Compulsory Vaccination and Mutual Protection Society had its headquarters in London and since 1873 had paid over £500 in fines and costs for its members.» — las cifras de la sociedad antivacunación.
«Vegetarian soirees were a fairly common feature of spiritualist social life and would include supper and perhaps a lecture or discussion.» — la vida social vegetariana del espiritismo.
«Kingsford was a feminist, vegetarian, and passionate antivivisectionist who moved swiftly through spiritualism, spiritism, and Theosophy to found the Hermetic Society with Edward Maitland in 1884.» — el itinerario de Anna Kingsford hasta la Hermetic Society en 1884.
«whilst women physicians were dependent for their success on a male medical model, ‘the meaning which the women gave to these views was subtly different’, However, Regina M. Morantz and Sue Zschoche, ‘Professionalism, Feminisn, and Gender Roles: A Comparative Study of Nineteenth Century Therapeutics’, TheJournal of American History, Vol. 67, No. 3 (December 1980), pp. 568-88, in urging a careful differentiation between ‘women physicians’ and ‘feminist physicians’, make the point that women doctors might have differed in their attitude towards patients but their practice of medicine was not substantially different from that of their male colleagues.» — el desacuerdo historiográfico sobre las médicas del siglo XIX que Owen consigna sin arbitrar; *Feminisn* y *TheJournal* son del troceo.
«It should be noted, though, that many women doctors were committed to serving female patients, and of these the medical practice of physicians like Dr Anna Kingsford and Dr Elizabeth Blackwell appears to have been informed by their spiritual sympathies.» — la salvedad que ella misma añade a ese desacuerdo.
«Anna Kingsford undertook a medical training in part to offer informed resistance to medical support for vivisection, and Elizabeth Blackwell was an associate member of the Society for Psychical Research who firmly repudiated the notion that humanity had only a material aspect.» — los dos casos con que la sostiene.
«Regina Morantz and Sue Zschoche have rightly cautioned against adopting a too simplistic model of male oppression in the wake of an enthusiastic feminist onslaught on nineteenth-century medical misogyny.» — la cautela historiográfica que hace suya.
«Oppression was invariably a more subtle process, its weapons embedded in the discourse which constructed both physician and patient.» — y su propia fórmula sobre cómo opera la opresión.
«The Victorian lunacy system has traditionally been represented as one aspect of a growing sense of community responsibility which revealed ‘a new spirit ofhumanity in public life’.» — la lectura tradicional del sistema victoriano de locura que Owen consigna en nota; *ofhumanity* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«The Lunatics Act replaced the old Metropolitan Commissioners with a permanent supervisory body, the Board ofCommissioners in Lunacy, which had wide powers of inspection and included five laymen, three medical representatives, and three legal Commissioners.» — la composición del organismo que la ley de 1845 creó; *ofCommissioners* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Within two years ofthe 1 845 Act 36 ofthe 52 counties had built lunatic asylums and these became the luture training grounds of medical superintendents, via posts as assistant physicians.» — y el ritmo de construcción de manicomios que esa ley produjo; *ofthe* y *luture* son del troceo.
«He is suspicious of medical motives but notes that the strength of their lobby was sufficient to ensure medical dominance within the asylum system and strong representation on the Board of Commissioners.» — la posición de una de sus autoridades sobre el dominio médico del sistema.
«Foucault argues that moral treatment, as it was conceived at the York Retreat, for example, replaced one system of tyranny with another.» — la tesis de Foucault sobre el tratamiento moral que Owen recoge en nota.
«Whilst not denying its humanitarian impulse, he sees the establishment of a rigorous code of required conduct, with the emphasis upon personal responsibility, as repressive and insidious.» — y el matiz con que la presenta, sin negar el impulso humanitario.
«The principle of establishing medical judgment as the sole indicator of insanity was laid down by the 1828 Madhouse Act (Treatment of Insane Persons Act, 9 Geo. IV, c. 41). The Lunatics Act of 1845 (8 & 9 Viet., c. 100) tightened up the procedure and introduced a more detailed form of certification, but the principle remained the same.» — las dos leyes que fijan el principio del juicio médico como único indicador de locura; *Viet.* es errata del troceo por *Vict.*
«In the case of all private patients two lunacy certificates had to be submitted, each by different doctors making separate examinations, before a patient could be admitted to an asylum.» — el requisito de los dos certificados para el paciente privado.
«Pauper patients could be admitted on the signatures of two justices or of the parish overseer, and one medical practitioner.» — y el requisito menor para el paciente pobre.
«Maudsley was familiar with the Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, 1869 and 1871, and picked up its few references to mediumship and insanity.» — la fuente de donde Maudsley tomó sus referencias sobre mediumnidad y locura.
«The debate concerning the mental stability of mediums and shamans still rages, although it has largely been transferred to the arena of social and medical anthropology.» — la vigencia que Owen le reconoce a ese debate en su presente.
«I.M. Lewis disputes the view of the shaman as a sick or conflict-torn personality, arguing that possession is not abnormal and represents a highly-controlled species of behavioural expertise.» — la posición de I. M. Lewis en ese debate.
«She was diagnosed cataleptic, Hammond administered potassium bromide, and she immediately lost her linguistic ability.» — el caso clínico que Hammond reportaba, con el bromuro por medio.
«Maudsley used this to argue that all spiritualists had the nervous, feminine temperament and were thus more prone to mental instability.» — el uso que Maudsley hacía de esos datos.
«Reichenbach, however, ascribed ‘sensitivity’ to a special odic force within the body.» — y la explicación alternativa de Reichenbach por la fuerza ódica.
«In this connection it is noteworthy that recent research at Stanford University, California, has shown that the ability to imagine deeply and vividly is a stable factor in susceptibility to hypnotism (trance).» — la investigación contemporánea que Owen trae en nota sobre imaginación e hipnosis.
«However, today this imaginative factor carries no pejorative or morbid implications. On the contrary, it is seen as a positive and healthy attribute.» — y el cambio de signo que ese factor ha tenido.
«A young physician, Robert Brudenell Carter, was insisting in the 1850s that repression of sexual emotion was a primary cause of hysteria, and that the disease could affect men as well as women.» — la posición de Robert Brudenell Carter sobre la histeria, ya en los años cincuenta.
«It was Freud who further developed the link between hysteria and the sexual, drawing attention to the symbolism of female illness and representing it as a language of sexuality.» — el papel que Owen le da a Freud en el vínculo entre histeria y sexualidad.
«Freud made the connection between sublimated sexuality and religious expression but did not assume depravity or pathological femininity.» — y el deslinde que traza entre Freud y los alienistas victorianos.
«However, the tenacity of his views on libido as the energy which underlay the transformations of the sexual instinct was one of the fundamental causes of his rift with C.G. Jung.» — el punto en que ese apego a la libido rompió con Jung, según esta nota.
«Contemporary research conducted in the Freudian tradition continues to emphasise the sexual aspect of psychotic religious delusions.» — la continuidad de esa tradición hasta la investigación contemporánea.
«One such study of eleven psychotics in Colorado, U.S.A., concluded: ‘The religious preoccupations of psychotics provided them with secondary gains for frustrated primary social and sexual needs’.» — el estudio con que la documenta.
«also makes the point that the disruptive element in American spiritualist behaviour hastened its equation with insanity.» — lo que toma de otra fuente sobre el espiritismo estadounidense y su equiparación con la locura.
«The physician was a Dr Dixon, probably Jacob Dixon who was an experienced homeopath and who practised in London during this period.» — la identificación conjetural de un médico citado en el cuerpo.
«He had earlier edited the Journal of Health, and was the author of several books including Thirty-Two Papers on Homeopathy (London: W. Horsell, 1859).» — y las credenciales de ese homeópata.
«Charles Reade’s, Hard Cash (London: Collins, 1863), was based on an experience ten years earlier when the novelist helped a young man elude and subsequently sue his incarcerators.» — el origen documental de la novela de Reade que el cuerpo cita.
«The formation of the Lunacy Law Reform Association was sometimes given as occurring in 1873 but more often as 1872.» — la divergencia de fechas sobre la fundación de la asociación, consignada sin resolver.
«In 1876 the breakaway Lunacy Law Amendment Society (Association), with an all-male committee, appeared.» — la escisión de 1876 con comité exclusivamente masculino.
«Apparently, male members disliked Mrs Lowe’s brand of spiritualism and the way in which business was conducted.» — y la razón que se le atribuye, con el *apparently* de Owen.
«Mrs Petschler had taken up professional photography after the death of her husband in order to support her young family, and it was alleged that this had outraged the sister who considered that it reflected badly on her.» — otro caso de encierro que Owen documenta en nota, el de la señora Petschler.
«Dr Maury Deas, the asylum superintendent, claimed that the patient had erotic delusions about a neighbouring gentleman, was sufficient for the family to desire the removal of the unfortunate woman.» — el diagnóstico con que se sostuvo ese encierro.
«Although she was not strictly a spiritualist, the intensity of Mrs Petschler’s religious and Swedenborgian views was taken as evidence of her insanity.» — y el papel de sus ideas religiosas en él.
«The statement was typical of Harrison’s restraint in the face ofcontentious issues.» — el juicio de Owen sobre la prudencia editorial de Harrison; *ofcontentious* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«D.D. Home, whilst noting medicine’s incompetent fumblings, also asserted that ‘the subject [spiritualism] is a dangerous one for those mentally afflicted» — la posición doble de Daniel Dunglas Home, con el corchete aclaratorio de Owen; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«The American, Lottie Fowler, was one medium who did end her days in an asylum.» — el desenlace de Lottie Fowler, consignado en nota.
«Georgina commented that, had she been a poor woman totally without financial resources, she ‘should have been quite ruined long ago’.» — lo que Georgina Weldon decía sobre el papel del dinero en su defensa.
«The procedure of disguise adopted by the physicians was not unusual and was undertaken so that the supposed lunatic would talk freely and without suspicion.» — y la práctica del disfraz médico, que Owen declara habitual.
«Georgina herselflater passed a short time in prison for libelling the conductor, Jules Riviere, and in similar fashion emerged a heroine!» — la temporada de cárcel de Weldon por difamación y el efecto que tuvo; *herselflater* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«When Susan Fletcher, the American medium, was sent to prison she was proud of the fact that she spent her first night in Mrs Weldon’s old cell at Newgate.» — el detalle carcelario que anuda a las dos mujeres.
«Georgina added the cause of prison reform to her crusade following her experiences in Newgate jail» — la causa que Weldon añadió a su cruzada tras la cárcel; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«and gave several sensational London lectures in which she appeared in the clothes of a female prisoner.» — y el modo teatral en que la llevó adelante.
«Georgina Weldon’s later years were spent in virtual seclusion at the French convent of Gisors, although even here she continued to write.» — el final de Weldon en un convento francés.
«Her obituary, which paid tribute to her good looks, charm, and many abilities, appeared in The Times, 13 January 1914.» — la fecha de su obituario en The Times.
«Her accuser was revealed as a journalist who specialised in debunking spiritualism.» — quién resultó ser el acusador en uno de esos pleitos.
«The summons was finally withdrawn. See Spiritual Notes, November 1880, pp. 78-80.» — el desenlace de otro de esos pleitos, con su fuente.
«The case was reported in full by The Times. See ibid., 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22 March 1884.» — las fechas en que The Times siguió el caso.
«Dr John Conolly was a famous and well-respected alienist who, at the time of Mrs Lowe’s consultation, was still the proprietor of the private asylum which was later taken over by his son-in-law.» — quién era el alienista al que Louisa Lowe consultó antes de su encierro.
«Maudsley was aware of this earlier consultation and he tried to make play with it when giving his evidence before the Select Committee (question 7239)» — el uso que Maudsley hizo de esa consulta ante el comité; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Louisa, too, was aware that it was being used to support the validity of her incarceration and referred to it on several occasions.» — y la conciencia que ella tenía de ese uso.
«Louisa’s change of heart would have coincided with her acceptance of spiritualism.» — la coincidencia temporal que Owen anota entre su cambio y su conversión.
«Both ultimately ‘gave their deepest commitment to crusades of the spirit’, and became leading members of the Theosophical Society (p. 187).» — el destino teosófico de dos contemporáneas suyas, tomado de otra fuente.
«The introduction was appended in 1873 at the time of publication.» — un dato editorial que Owen fija en nota.
«The details of George Lowe’s alleged adultery emerged during evidence given before the Select Committee, and is considered later.» — dónde salieron a la luz las acusaciones de adulterio contra el marido.
«The issue of the key acquired great significance for Louisa at the time.» — el asunto de la llave del cuarto que Owen sigue en nota.
«At one level it was obviously vital that she was able to either lock herself into her room, or keep others out.» — el primer sentido, práctico, de ese asunto.
«When Freud encountered a similar concern over a missing bedroom key in his patient, Dora,» — y el paralelo freudiano con el caso Dora; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de plana.
«It is well known, too, what sort of “key” effects the opening in such a case.» — la lectura sexual de la llave que Freud proponía en ese caso.
«But if rooms, doors, locks, and keys, all have a sexual connotation, it is also important to recognise contextuality» — y la reserva con que Owen la acota; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«The proper segregation of male and female patients, and the treatment ot women by male keepers, had been causes of concern throughout the century.» — el asunto de la segregación por sexos en los asilos, que venía de lejos; *ot* es errata del troceo por *of*.
«It seems likely that both were elderly gentlemen.» — una conjetura sobre dos comisionados, marcada como probable.
«It was read before the 1877 Select Committee, question 5343.» — la referencia exacta de un documento leído ante el comité de 1877.
«It is important to remember here that Mrs Charmier’s actions had all the appearances of double-dealing.» — la reserva que Owen pone en nota sobre la hermana de Louisa Lowe.
«If Louisa finally realised this, it might account for some painful meetings between the sisters.» — y la conjetura que de ahí saca sobre la relación entre las hermanas.
«With respect to Dr Lockhart Robertson’s opinion it should be borne in mind that Louisa s ideas did not accord with mainstream spiritualism in many respects, and that this was to be the cause of future trouble.» — la salvedad que hace sobre el juicio de un comisionado espiritista; el apóstrofo falta en el troceo.
«The identity of Withingston is unknown.» — un muro documental que declara en nota.
«Despite the fact that her own evidence was attended to, and her opinions sought, Louisa was scathing of the Select Committee’s efficacy and impartiality.» — el juicio de Lowe sobre el comité que la escuchó.
«Louisa must have brought the action with her husband’s full concurrence.» — la inferencia legal que Owen hace sobre uno de sus pleitos.
«The case of Lowe v. Fitz Gerald was heard before Mr Justice Watkin Williams in the Bail Court, Westminster.» — la referencia judicial del pleito por difamación.
«Both men, like Louisa, were highly unorthodox Christians.» — lo que Owen anota sobre los aliados de Lowe dentro del movimiento.
«Real control of the Association had devolved onto a handful of council members, the most prominent of whom was Stainton Moses.» — quién controlaba de hecho la BNAS, según esta nota.
«The discord was bitter and complex, but it included allegations of vote-rigging and unacceptable manoeuvring by the ruling clique.» — el contenido de la disputa interna de 1878.
«Harrison’s paper lost its favoured position as the official mouthpiece of the Association to Spiritual Notes, and there followed a flurry of resignations by disgusted members.» — y su desenlace organizativo.
«It is not my purpose here to press the complex claims of Lacanian theory, but rather to indicate why recent readings of psychoanalysis point to a more facilitating approach to questions of sexual identity and its construction.» — el límite que Owen le pone en nota a su propio uso de Lacan.
«Gay sets out to ‘integrate psychoanalysis with history’ (p. 8): ‘To encompass historical experience in all its dimensions requires welding historical attitudes and techniques to the psychoanalytic scheme of human nature and human development, each informing and criticizing its partner’.» — el programa de Peter Gay para integrar psicoanálisis e historia, citado en nota.
«The most recent rendition of the tired fakes/dupes thesis is, Ruth Brandon, The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983), which makes little attempt to come to terms with the spiritualist world and contents itself with heavy criticism of ‘credulous’ psychical researchers.» — el reproche que hace en nota al libro de Ruth Brandon: repetir la tesis de farsantes y bobos.
«Although I am not presenting an argument for an oppositional masculine/ feminine active/passive model, there is an extensive literature on the psychoanalytic implications of a reversal into the opposite’.» — el deslinde que Owen hace en nota respecto del modelo binario.
«This germinal piece which considers, amongst other things, women’s relationship to writing, raises a series of thought-provoking issues relating to femininity and the unconscious.» — el texto teórico que señala como germinal para feminidad e inconsciente.
«The medium was known initially ^s Miss Cora Scott, and then variously as Hatch, Tappan, Richmond, and Tappan-Richmond.» — los cinco nombres sucesivos de Cora Tappan, que Owen consigna en nota; el signo antes de la ese es basura del troceo.
«He described Cora Tappan as the ‘supreme example’ of trance speaking.» — el lugar que una fuente de época le daba entre las oradoras en trance.
«also makes the point that the trance address made it easier for women to appear in public.» — y la función social que otra fuente le reconoce al discurso en trance.
«estimated that Cora Tappan had delivered something approaching 3,000 discourses in fifteen years.» — la cifra de discursos que se le calculaba a Tappan.
«He remarked that, even allowing for the fact that some were repetitive, the feat must still remain a very surprising one’.» — y el juicio con que esa misma fuente la acompañaba.
«Blavatsky is another complex and fascinating example of a woman who used her spiritual powers to transgress the limits of acceptable femininity.» — el lugar que Owen le da a Blavatsky dentro de su propia tesis.
«He also states that Mrs Cook warned her daughter that it was all a trick to amuse the children . The source of this reference, however, is unclear.» — una atribución que Owen consigna y cuya fuente declara no poder rastrear; el espacio antes del punto es del troceo.
«Barrett was Professor of Physics at the Royal College of Science for Dublin from 1873-1910, and was a distinguished early psychical researcher.» — las credenciales de William Barrett.
«Raupert was a member of the Society for Psychical Research who had experimented fully with spiritualism but who, as a result of his experiences, had adopted a critical stance.» — y el itinerario de otro investigador psíquico hacia la crítica.
«It also indicates that there was by no means a consensus on Acton’s infamous dictum that woman ‘seldom desires any gratification for herself.» — el disenso que Owen documenta frente al dictamen de Acton sobre el deseo femenino.
«Physicians, whilst seeking to impose the virtuous female ideal, were well-aware that women were not asexual beings.» — y la contradicción que señala en la profesión médica.
«He concludes that, with few exceptions, male shamans seem to be either homosexual, transvestite, or effeminate, and that identification with a female possessing spirit permits the acting out of female components of the personality.» — la tesis antropológica sobre los chamanes varones que recoge en nota.
«He argues that women shamans, whilst not overtly lesbian or transvestite, act out masculine impulses» — y su contraparte femenina; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Spiro, however, is inclined to see shamanism in terms of aberrant sexual needs, and retains the concept of fixed and oppositional gender categories.» — la objeción que Owen le hace a Spiro: conserva las categorías fijas y opuestas de género.
«T.P. Barkas, an alderman and respected Newcastle spiritualist, conducted a series of question-and-answer experiments with the medium in 1875» — los experimentos de preguntas y respuestas que Barkas hizo con Elizabeth d'Esperance en 1875; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Frank Podmore, Modem Spiritualism, Vol. 2, pp. 128-30, criticised Barkas claims or the medium, and thought it a case of fraudulent cramming.» — y la objeción de Podmore a esos experimentos; *Modem* y *or* son erratas del troceo.
«This was the ‘Yolande’ seizure in which Elizabeth’s erstwhile» — la nota que identifica la exposición de d'Esperance; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Hall’s book caused a considerable stir at the time because it slighted one of the foremost Victorian mediums and an eminent scientist and psychical researcher, and the ripples are still felt.» — el efecto duradero del libro de Trevor Hall, según esta nota.
«The ‘celebrated experiment’ was a reference to the Volckman seizure of ‘Katie King’ at the end of 1873.» — la identificación del experimento célebre que la carta de Crookes menciona.
«He cited the 1922 statement of Francis Anderson who claimed to have had an affair with Florence Corner (nee Cook) in the early 1890s, during the course of which she admitted to the earlier affair with Crookes.» — la declaración de 1922 en que Hall apoyaba su tesis sobre Cook y Crookes.
«The case against Hall’s thesis is scrupulously presented by R.G. Medhurst and K.M. Goldney,» — y quiénes la objetaron, según Owen; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«There is currently considerable interest in the expression of class difference, as well as arguments for a more careful deployment of the concepts of both ‘class’ and ‘difference’.» — el estado del debate sobre clase y diferencia que registra en nota.
«In a different connection Freud pointed up the possession as power motif when he commented that ‘ . . .old peasant-women and others ot the kind . . . make up for the loss of their power to control things in the present world by concentrating it on the future’.» — la observación de Freud sobre las viejas campesinas que Owen trae al motivo de la posesión como poder; los puntos suspensivos son del corte de la fuente y *ot* es errata del troceo.
«It was always the spirits who were the cause of the disruption.» — la fórmula que resume la atribución de la culpa en la sesión.
«The notion of possession as a philosophy of power has cross-cultural parallels.» — los paralelos transculturales que le reconoce a esa noción.
«Some women took this to its logical conclusion and disclaimed all responsibility for their choice of career, maintaining that it had been thrust upon them by a demanding spirit world.» — hasta dónde llevaban algunas mujeres esa lógica de irresponsabilidad.
«Freud once remarked in a letter to Hereward Carrington that had he been able to live his life again he would devote it to psychical research.» — la frase de Freud sobre la investigación psíquica que Owen recoge en nota.
«Cerullo offers a functionalist account of the success of the Freudian over the Myersian understanding of the unconscious (‘Modern British social life demanded not a protean but a functional view of the self . . . one from which rationales for social order could be more easily extracted.» — la explicación funcionalista que Cerullo da de la victoria de Freud sobre Myers; los puntos suspensivos son del corte de la fuente.
«Two women Freudians, Karen Horney and Helene Deutsch, sought to develop Freud’s ideas on femininity but both adhered to a model of the biological origin of sex differences.» — las dos freudianas que trabajaron la feminidad y el límite que Owen les pone.
«Equally, there is disagreement amongst so-called psychoanalytic feminists, many favouring the influential school of object-relations.» — el desacuerdo interno del feminismo psicoanalítico que consigna.
«An occultist all her life, the poet and writer H.D. wrote her Tribute a decade after her psychoanalysis in Vienna during the early 1930s with ‘the Professor’.» — la nota sobre H. D. y su tributo a Freud, con su ocultismo declarado.
«There was a strong spiritual component to the suffrage campaigns, whilst a mingling of feminist, political, and spiritual concerns was also to be found within certain circles of the Independent Labour Party.» — el componente espiritual del sufragismo que registra en nota.
«The Theosophy Society, established in the 1870s by the charismatic Madame Blavatsky, became strongly identified with advanced socialist and feminist views.» — y la identificación de la Sociedad Teosófica con el socialismo y el feminismo avanzados.
«For an excellent and informative discussion of the relationship between feminism and Theosophy, see Diana Burfield, ‘Theosophy and Feminism: Some Explorations in Nineteenth Century Biography’, in Pat Holden, ed., Women’s Religious Experience, pp. 27-56.» — la referencia que da para el cruce entre feminismo y teosofía.
«SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY A. PRIMARY SOURCES 1. Newspapers and Periodicals (substantially consulted) (a) The Spiritualist Press, with dates of publication Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph 1855-57 British Spiritualist Telegraph 1857-59 The Spiritual Magazine 1859-77 Spiritual Times 1 864-66 Daybreak 1868-69 Human Nature 1 867-77 The Spiritualist 1869-82 Medium and Daybreak 1870-95 The Christian Spiritualist 1871-73 Spiritual Notes 1878-80 Light 1881— Psyche 1882 Two Worlds 1887-Borderland 1893-97 Spirit World 1896» — la bibliografía abre con la prensa espiritista consultada y sus años de publicación, que es la base documental del libro; los espacios dentro de las fechas son del troceo.
«(b) Psychical Research Journal ofthe Societyfor Psychical Research Proceedings of the Societyfor Psychical Research» — el segundo bloque de fuentes: las publicaciones de la Society for Psychical Research; *ofthe* y *Societyfor* son uniones de palabras del troceo.
«2. Published Works by Spiritualists and Associated Contemporaries (Including Contemporary Opponents)» — el encabezado con que la bibliografía reúne a espiritistas y a sus adversarios en una misma sección.
«Adshead, W. P., Miss Wood in Derbyshire: A Series ofExperimental Seances (London: James Burns, 1897).» — la primera entrada de esa sección; *ofExperimental* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Ashburner, John, On the Connection Between Mesmerism and Spiritualism, with Considerations on their Relations to Natural and Revealed Religion and to the Welfare of Mankind (London: W. Horsell, 1859).» — la obra de Ashburner que enlaza mesmerismo y espiritismo.
«Crookes, William, Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism (London: James Burns, 1874).» — las investigaciones de Crookes, publicadas por el propio Burns.
«Crosland, Mrs Newton, Light in the Valley (London: Routledge, 1857).» — y uno de los libros que el capítulo segundo cita entre los primeros.
«Houghton, Miss, Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye (London: E.W r . Allen, 1882).» — la crónica fotográfica de Georgiana Houghton, fuente de las láminas; la erre suelta es del troceo.
«Marvin, Frederic R., The Philosophy of Spiritualism and the Pathology and Treatment ofMediomania (New York: Asa K. Butts & Co., 1874).» — el tratado de Marvin sobre la mediomanía que el capítulo sexto discute; *ofMediomania* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Myers, Frederic, Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death, 2 Vols. (London: Longmans, Green, 1903).» — la obra de Myers que la bibliografía registra en su edición de 1903 en dos volúmenes.
«F.J.T. [Theobald, Florence], Heaven Opened; or, Messages for the Bereaved from Our Little Ones in Glory (London: J. Burns, 1870).» — el primer libro de Florence Theobald, publicado bajo iniciales; el corchete es de la fuente.
«Blavatsky, H.P., The Key to Theosophy , being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy for the Study of which the Theosophical Society has Been Founded (1889) (London and Bombay: The Theosophy Company, 1948).» — la Clave de la teosofía de Blavatsky, con su fecha original entre paréntesis; el espacio antes de la coma es del troceo.
«Blavatsky, H.P., Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology, 2 Vols. (1877) (Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press, 1972).» — e Isis sin velo, en la reimpresión de Pasadena.
«Freud, Sigmund, ‘Splitting of the ego in the process of defence’ (1938), The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (London: Hogarth Press, I953-74)» — la entrada de Freud sobre la escisión del yo que el capítulo octavo emplea; el *I953-74* es del OCR.
«Nichols, T.L., M.D., Nichols’ Health Manual: being also A Memorial of the Life and Work ofMrs Mary S. Gove Nichols (London: E.W. Allen, 1887).» — el manual de salud de los Nichols, que hace de memoria de ella; *ofMrs* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Noyes, John Humphrey, History of American Socialisms (1870) (New York: Hillary House Publishers Ltd, 196» — la historia de los socialismos estadounidenses de Noyes; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Barrow, Logie, ‘Anti-Establishment Healing: Spiritualism in Britain , Studies in Church History, 15 (1982).» — el artículo de Barrow sobre curación antiestablishment; la comilla de cierre falta en el troceo.
«Barrow, Logie, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebeians, 1850-1910, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986).» — y su libro, que la primera nota del volumen discute.
«Besant, Annie, H.P. Blavatsky and the Masters of Wisdom (London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1907)-» — el libro de Annie Besant sobre Blavatsky y los maestros; el guion final es del troceo.
«Cominos, Peter T., ‘Innocent Femina Sensualis in Unconscious Conflict’, in Martha Vicinus, ed., Suffer and be Still: Women in the Victorian Age (London: University Paperback, Methuen, 1980).» — el artículo de Cominos dentro del volumen de Vicinus.
«Constantinides, Pamela, ‘111 at Ease and Sick at Heart’, in I.M. Lewis, ed., Symbols and Sentiments: Cross-Cultural Studies in Symbolism (London: Academic Press, 1977).» — el estudio transcultural que edita I. M. Lewis; el *111* es el *Ill* del OCR.
«Ehrenreich, B., and Deirdre English, Witches, Midwives and Nurses: a History of Women Healers (Old Westbury, New York: Feminist Press, 1973)» — la historia de las curadoras que sostiene el capítulo quinto.
«Hall, Catherine, ‘The Early Formation of Victorian Domestic Ideology’, in S. Burman, ed., Fit Workfor Women (London: Croom Helm, 1979).» — el artículo de Catherine Hall sobre la ideología doméstica; *Workfor* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«Kerr, Howard, Mediums, and Spirit- Rappers, and Roaring Radicals: Spiritualism in American Literature, 1850-1 goo (Chicago 8c London: University of Illinois Press, 1972).» — el estudio de Kerr sobre el espiritismo en la literatura estadounidense; *1 goo* y *8c* son del OCR.
«Moore, R. Laurence, ‘The Spiritualist Medium: A Study of Female Professionalization In Victorian America’, in Esther Katz and Anita Rapone, eds., Women’s Experience in America: An Historical Anthology (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1980).» — el artículo de Moore sobre la profesionalización femenina que la primera nota destaca.
«Pearsall, Ronald, The Worm in the Bud: the World of Victorian Sexuality (London: Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 1969).» — el estudio de Pearsall sobre la sexualidad victoriana; *Weidenfeld&Nicolson* va sin espacios en el troceo.
«Stannard, David E., Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980).» — la crítica de Stannard a la psicohistoria, que Owen tiene presente al usar el psicoanálisis.
«Weeks, Jeffrey, ‘Foucault for Historians’, History Workshop Journal , 14 (Autumn 1982).» — el artículo de Weeks sobre Foucault para historiadores; el espacio antes de la coma es del troceo.
«Woodring, Carl Ray, Victorian Samplers: William and Mary Howitt (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1952).» — y el estudio sobre los Howitt, vecinos de los Theobald.
«Wilson, Bryan R., ed.. Patterns of Sectarianism: Organisation and Ideology in Social and Religious Movements (London: Heinemann, 1966).» — la última sección de la bibliografía reúne la sociología de las sectas; los dos puntos por coma son del troceo.
«Wilson, Peter J., ‘Status Ambiguity and Spirit Possession’, Man, n.s., 2 (3).» — el artículo sobre ambigüedad de estatus y posesión que las notas discuten.
«Wood, Ann Douglas, “‘The Fashionable Diseases”: Women’s Complaints and their Treatment in Nineteenth Century America , in Mary Hartman and Lois Banner, eds 'Clio’s Consciousness Raised: New Perspectives on the History of Women (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1974)-» — el estudio sobre las enfermedades de moda de las mujeres; las comillas encadenadas y el guion final son del troceo.
«Wilson, Elizabeth, ‘Psychoanalysis: Psychic Law and Order’, Feminist Review, 8 (Summer 1981).» — y el artículo de Elizabeth Wilson sobre psicoanálisis y orden psíquico.
«INDEX abortion, 121 adolescence, 207-8, 209 alcoholism, 64-6, 132-3 Alexander, Sally, 205 alienists, 140-2» — el índice analítico abre con entradas que son a la vez temas del libro: aborto, adolescencia, alcoholismo, alienistas.
«Alleged Lunatic’s Friend Socieity, 152, 154» — la entrada de la sociedad amiga de los presuntos lunáticos, con la errata *Socieity* del troceo.
«America: feminist spirituality movement, 240-1; free love, 35-8; healing mediums, 122-3; lunatic asylums, 156, 157, 158-9; materialisation, 42; origins of spiritualism, 4, 18-19; psychoanalysis, 238; social reform, 30-1» — la entrada América, que reúne los ocho asuntos por los que el libro cruza el Atlántico.
«androgynous Divinity, 13-14, 186» — la entrada de la divinidad andrógina, con sus dos remisiones.
«Anti-Compulsory Vaccination and Mutual Protection Society, 132» — la entrada de la sociedad antivacunación.
«cabinets, 46 Caithness, Earl of, 48 Camisards, 78 Carlyle, Thomas, 79 Census (1851), 2 Charcot, Jean Martin, 148, 214, 236» — un tramo del índice donde conviven el gabinete de sesión, los camisards y Charcot.
«child spirits, 23 1-2 childbirth, 130-1 childhood, 206-8 chiliasm, 12, 13, 14, 186» — las entradas de espíritus niños, parto, infancia y quiliasmo; el espacio dentro de la cifra es del troceo.
«Fox, Kate, 18-19, 4*. 42, 50, 65, 73, 196» — la entrada de Kate Fox, con las cifras dañadas por el OCR.
«fraud, 67-72, 75-6, 203 free love, 3 5-8 Free Masons, 29 Free-thinkers, 22 Freud, Sigmund, 204, 205, 208, 214, 215, 226, 237-8» — las entradas de fraude, amor libre, masones, librepensadores y Freud, seguidas en el índice.
«Gay, Susan, 159—60 gender, 6-12, 205-6» — las entradas de Susan Gay y de género.
«her husband, 176-7; and the Lunacy Reform movement, 154-6, 157, 193-7, 200-1; marriage, 168-9; passive writing, 171-5, 185, 189, 214, 215; release, 192-4; rescues Georgina Weldon, 162-3, 164-5, 167; suicide attempt, 170» — el desglose de la entrada Louisa Lowe en el índice, que ordena su historia por asuntos; el arranque queda del otro lado del cambio de plana.
«Lunacy Act (1845), 165 Lunacy Law Reform Association, 154, 155, 156, 196-7 Lunacy Reform movement, 193-7, 200-1» — las tres entradas del índice sobre la ley de locura y su reforma.
«Lutwidge, Robert W.S., 188-9, 195 Luxmoore, J.C., 49, 51» — las entradas del comisionado Lutwidge y del patrón Luxmoore.
«Nonconformism, 7 Nottidge, Louisa, 152-4, 201 Noyes, John Humphrey, 35, 36» — las entradas de inconformismo, Louisa Nottidge y Noyes.
«occultism, 241 Olive, Mrs, 115-16, 1 17-19, 120 Oneida community, 35, 36» — las entradas de ocultismo, la señora Olive y la comunidad de Oneida; el ocultismo remite solo a la plana del movimiento espiritual feminista.
«Owen, Robert, 19, 22, 30, 91-2 Owen, Robert Dale, 122» — las dos entradas de Owen en el índice, el reformador y su hijo.
«palmistry, 241 Paris, 73 Passagesfront the Diary ofa Late Physician, 169 passive writing, 79-83, 171-5, 213» — las entradas de quiromancia, París y escritura pasiva; *Passagesfront* y *ofa* son uniones de palabras del troceo.
«Showers, Mrs, 71, 230 Sibyl, 59—60 Sidgwick, Henry, 102, 230, 231 Skeffington, Robert Wilfred, 182 Slade, Dr, 1 6 1» — un tramo del índice con la madre de Showers, la médium Sibyl y los investigadores.
«Social Democratic Federation, 27 Social Purity movement, 34-5. 39 socialist feminism, 239 societies, 25 Society for Psychical Research (SPR), 94* 102-4, 237-8» — las entradas de las organizaciones políticas y de la SPR; los puntos y asteriscos por comas son del troceo.
«Winslow, Dr Forbes Benignus, 156 Winslow, Dr Lyttleton Stuart Forbes, 156-7, 158-61, 163-6 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 33» — las dos entradas Winslow del índice, padre e hijo, que el cuerpo no siempre distingue.
«Womanspirit, 240-1 women’s rights, 28-9, 31, 234» — las entradas de Womanspirit y derechos de la mujer.
«Wood, Julia, 155-6, 201 Wood, Thomas, 57 Woodforde, Mrs, 120-1 Woodhull, Victoria, 37» — las entradas de Julia Wood, el padre de la médium Wood, la curadora Woodforde y Victoria Woodhull.
«working class: attitudes to religion, 91—2; gender roles, 7-8; healing, 1 13, 1 14; and healing, 138; public mediumship, 50-1; strong interest in spiritualism, 21-2» — el desglose de la entrada clase trabajadora, con su duplicación de *healing*; los espacios en las cifras son del troceo.
«writing: passive, 79-83. 171—5. 213-15; spirit, 41, 88-9» — la entrada escritura, dividida entre pasiva y espírita; los puntos por comas son del troceo.
«‘Yolande’, 220, 223-4, 2 32 York Retreat, 140 Yorkshire, 13, 21,22, 30 Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph, 22 Young, Mr, 100 Zoist, no ‘Zouave’ Jacob, 100» — el cierre del índice, con el espíritu Yolande, el York Retreat y el curador Zouave Jacob; el *no* por 110 es del OCR.
«BOSTON PU IC BRARY 3 9999 01^ 7» — el sello de la Boston Public Library en el ejemplar digitalizado, con el OCR comiéndose letras.
«No longer the property of the Boston PubBc Library. Sale of this material benefited ths UbifflY*» — y la nota de descarte de esa biblioteca; *PubBc*, *ths* y *UbifflY* son del OCR.
«The Date Due Card in the pocket indicates the date on or before which this book should be returned to the Library. Please do not remove cards from this pocket.» — el aviso del bolsillo de préstamo, resto del ejemplar de biblioteca del que sale el troceo.
«The Darkened Room provides an interlocking social and psychological interpretation of Victorian female mediumship, as well as addressing present-day feminist concerns.» — solapa trasera: el elogio del Times Higher Education Supplement, que resume el libro como interpretación social y psicológica a la vez.
«These stories are certainly riveting, in all their melodramatic, eccentric and sometimes hilarious detail» — y el remate de ese mismo elogio.
«This is the premier volume in the New Cultural Studies Series edited by Joan Dejean, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, and Peter Stallybrass.» — la solapa declara el volumen como primero de la serie, con sus tres editores.
«ALEX OWEN is Head Tutor in Women’s Studies at Harvard University.» — la solapa da el cargo de la autora al publicarse el libro: tutora principal de estudios de la mujer en Harvard.
«The cover shows a detail from Psyche by Ernest W. Appleby. Reproduced by kind permission of Fine Art Photography.» — y el crédito de la cubierta, un detalle del Psyche de Ernest W. Appleby.
«ALSO OF INTEREST i P Creation and Procreation Feminist Reflections on Mythologies ofCosmogony and Parturition Marta Weigle» — la contracubierta anuncia otros títulos de la editorial, empezando por el de Marta Weigle; *ofCosmogony* es unión de palabras del troceo.
«One of the fundamental premises of most mythology, theology, philosophy, and psychology is that procreation is the antithesis of creation.» — el reclamo editorial de ese libro, ajeno a la obra de Owen.
«Weigle asserts that, in revisioning the myths of many cultures, giving birth to a child can be recognized as the fundamental act of creation and that the privileging of metaphysical and spiritual over p» — y la tesis que le atribuye ese mismo reclamo; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Trask has written what will likely» — el segundo título anunciado en la contracubierta; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«Trask shows the logical and ontological progression» — y el reclamo de ese segundo título; el verbatim se corta donde el troceo cambia de renglón.
«THE DARKENED ROOM WOMEN, POWER AND SPIRITUALISM IN LATE VICTORIAN ENGLAND ALEX OWEN U UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia» — la portada del volumen, con el título completo, la autora y el pie de imprenta; la *U* suelta es el logotipo leído por el OCR.
«Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/darkenedroomwomeOOowen» — la plana de digitalización que el ejemplar escaneado añade al frente, con la dirección del archivo del que procede el troceo.
Concepts treated
Ocultismo (occultisme) — Owen usa el término en dos sitios y con dos sentidos. Del lado histórico, dice que la creencia en la supervivencia del espíritu, *as necromancy*, había estado envuelta en un manto de arte oculto y saber arcano, y que el espiritismo moderno tiene otra genealogía cultural. Del lado contemporáneo, censa el instrumental que la espiritualidad feminista toma del ocultismo: astrología, quiromancia, tarot y variantes de la cristalomancia. El índice analítico remite la entrada solo a esa segunda plana.
Necromancia (nigromancia) — La nigromancia es el nombre bajo el cual la creencia en el contacto con los muertos circuló antes del siglo XIX, asociada a la adivinación y a la magia; Owen la separa expresamente del espiritismo moderno, que nace en la América de mediados de siglo con otro pedigrí cultural.
Evocación (llamar y constreñir espíritus) — La materialización espiritista se define como la evocación de la manifestación física de un espíritu, y Owen la lee como una escenificación de la corporalidad —y del erotismo— en el lugar mismo donde ambos debían negarse.