An attempt to communicate with spirits. Famous mediums of the 19th century.

Cora L. V. Scott

She was born on April 21, 1840 near Cuba, New York. Her parents, though initially Presbyterian, became interested in the Universalist religion, and in early 1851 joined theHopedale Community, an intentional community in Hopedale, Massachusetts. Led by Adin Ballou, the community was committed to abolitionism, temperance, socialism, andnonviolence. Finding Hopedale too crowded, the Scott family moved to Waterloo, Wisconsin later that year to found a similar intentional community, with the blessings of Adin Ballou. It was there, in early 1852, that Cora first exhibited her ability to fall into a trance and write messages and speak in ways very unlike herself. Her parents soon began to exhibit her to the surrounding country, and in this way she became a part of the network of trance lecturers that characterized the Spiritualist movement.