I would ask you if you believed in ghosts, but every time I do that, there's like a swarm of angry redditors that descend on me like wasps. So I'll ask you this instead. Have you heard of ghost Church? My name is Jamie Loftus, the creator behind the Lida podcast, my year in Mensa, and a bunch of other stuff, and I love a freaky niche American experience. So what if I told you there are camps across the US dedicated to communing with the dead. What if I told you the religion behind these camps had attracted the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Frederick Douglas, Mary Todd Lincoln, Queen Victoria dan Ackroyd, and the first woman to run for the U S presidency. No, but what if I told you I've been there and I've seen it myself. American Spiritualism is a religion I've been tangentially aware of for years. But it wasn't until I went to the religion's largest surviving camp in Cassadega, Florida, that I started to learn out the US as bizarre and somewhat tortured relationship with the spirit communication The assumptions that come along with it are expected. Is it a cult? Are they witches? No, and relax. But the reality of how the religion came together, how it was blown apart, and how it's managed to mostly survive for nearly two centuries undetected is fascinating. My new series Ghost Church follows this uniquely American religion from its origin to a week of n sweating in Florida, listening to medium's drunk gossiping at a karaoke night, trying to make ends meet. I went to spiritualist churches post churches across the country to find out how a religion that was started as a prank by two preteen sisters in upstate New York snowballed into a movement that consumed the final years of Harry Houdini's life. It's not a cult, They're not witches. But the history of American spiritualism intersects with the history of the industrial era, of the rise of science, of the backlash to first wave feminism and abolition, and today with the billion dollar New Age movement that the religion hasn't managed to capitalize on. I'll be taking a look at this entire Bizarro history on our impulse to debunk systems of belief at the celebrity psychics that have watered down and jacked up prices on access to spirit, and take you on my own journey through a week communing with the mediums of Cassadega, Florida. Taking a class where a table would connect you with the dead spirit of your pets, to services where reverence tell you about ghosts you didn't know we're standing right behind you, to rivalries between mediums and psychics who are neighbors. I'm not asking you to believe or disbelieve anything. I'll be interviewing mediums from the camp and skeptics alike. I'm just asking you to get in the spirit circle with an open mind. Let's see what comes through. You can listen to Ghost Church by me Jamie Loftus starting on April on the i Heeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast Sage

I would ask you if you believed in ghosts, but every time I do that, there's like a swarm of angry redditors that descend on me like wasps. So I'll ask you this instead. Have you heard of ghost Church? My name is Jamie Loftus, the creator behind the Lida podcast, my year in Mensa, and a bunch of other stuff, and I love a freaky niche American experience. So what if I told you there are camps across the US dedicated to communing with the dead. What if I told you the religion behind these camps had attracted the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Frederick Douglas, Mary Todd Lincoln, Queen Victoria dan Ackroyd, and the first woman to run for the U S presidency. No, but what if I told you I've been there and I've seen it myself. American Spiritualism is a religion I've been tangentially aware of for years. But it wasn't until I went to the religion's largest surviving camp in Cassadega, Florida, that I started to learn out the US as bizarre and somewhat tortured relationship with the spirit communication The assumptions that come along with it are expected. Is it a cult? Are they witches? No, and relax. But the reality of how the religion came together, how it was blown apart, and how it's managed to mostly survive for nearly two centuries undetected is fascinating. My new series Ghost Church follows this uniquely American religion from its origin to a week of n sweating in Florida, listening to medium's drunk gossiping at a karaoke night, trying to make ends meet. I went to spiritualist churches post churches across the country to find out how a religion that was started as a prank by two preteen sisters in upstate New York snowballed into a movement that consumed the final years of Harry Houdini's life. It's not a cult, They're not witches. But the history of American spiritualism intersects with the history of the industrial era, of the rise of science, of the backlash to first wave feminism and abolition, and today with the billion dollar New Age movement that the religion hasn't managed to capitalize on. I'll be taking a look at this entire Bizarro history on our impulse to debunk systems of belief at the celebrity psychics that have watered down and jacked up prices on access to spirit, and take you on my own journey through a week communing with the mediums of Cassadega, Florida. Taking a class where a table would connect you with the dead spirit of your pets, to services where reverence tell you about ghosts you didn't know we're standing right behind you, to rivalries between mediums and psychics who are neighbors. I'm not asking you to believe or disbelieve anything. I'll be interviewing mediums from the camp and skeptics alike. I'm just asking you to get in the spirit circle with an open mind. Let's see what comes through. You can listen to Ghost Church by me Jamie Loftus starting on April on the i Heeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast Sage