Spiritualism and Mormonism: Some Thoughts on Similarities and Differences

Footnote 16

16. Mormonism and Spiritualism share a common ancestor in Swedenborgism. Arthur Conan Doyle in The History of Spiritualism notes that Swedenborgism was a forerunner of Spiritualism which was born in upstate New York. He wrote that Swedenborg's "bust should be in a every Spiritualist Temple, as being the first and greatest of modern mediums" (Arthur Conan Doyle, The History of Spiritualism, 2 vols. [London: Cassel, 1926], 1:21). Mormon authors have also noted similarities between Swedenborg's "revelations" and Mormon doctrine. See D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987), 12-13,174-75; Rick Grunder Books, Mormon List 36, Item 141, describing Swedenborg's treatise Concerning Heaven ... and Hell (Boston, 1825 ed.). One early Mormon convert, John Hyde, returned to England and became a follower of Swedenborg. But his book Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs (New York: W.P. Fetridge & Co., 1857) makes no mention of his new belief. As a result of this dilemma, Mormon and Spiritualist responses to competing revelations became increasingly defensive throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.