This book outlines the founding of the New Jersey State Society of Spiritualists and Friends of Progress, revealing the role Spiritualism played in the lives of many people during a time of profound change in the United States. Spiritualism in the 19th century was about more than just communicating with the afterlife. A social and political movement, determined to protect the rights of the working class, believers challenged traditional structures ranging from religion to government and rocked the foundations of American life in a way that will seem very familiar to many people today.