History
It was founded by Edmund Dawson Rogers and others in 1873 to bring together the various spiritualist organisations established by that time
Its inaugural conference was held on 16 April 1874 (Frank Podmore, Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism, 1902)
Its conference in 1882 led to the establishment of the Society for Psychical Research (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for Edmund Dawson Rogers)
Dissensions within the Association led to its withdrawal from publishing its news via William H. Harrison’s journal the Spiritualist, transferring instead to the established journal Spiritual Notes in 1879, and subsequently to the new journal Light, founded by Edmund Dawson Rogers in 1881 (Frank Podmore, Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism, 1902; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for Edmund Dawson Rogers)
In 1884 the Association was entirely reformed as the London Spiritualist Alliance by Rogers and Rev. William Stainton Moses, a spiritualist and medium who was English master at University College School from 1871–1890, and was also involved with the Society for Psychical Research and a founder of the Ghost Club in 1882 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
The Alliance moved to Queensbury Place, London SW7, its first permanent home, in 1926, and became the College of Psychic Science in 1955 and the College of Psychic Studies in 1970
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What was reforming about it?
“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. When they did so they had in mind a new ethical code based on fairness, equality, co-operation, and right living” (Alex Owen, The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England, 1989)
Its Prospectus emphasized their commitment to “a life of energy and acticity, lived up to the highest physical, moral, and intellectual standard attainable in this world”, and its members were therefore generally against class distinction and the existing divorce and lunacy laws, and in favour of penal reform, hospital reform, equality of the sexes, and vegetarianism (Alex Owen, The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England, 1989)
It led to the foundation of two major organisations for the investigation of paranormal phenomena, the Society for Psychical Research and the London Spiritualist Alliance
Where in Bloomsbury
Its inaugural conference was held at Lawson’s Rooms,145 Gower Street (Charles Maurice Davies, Mystic London, 1875), which had been since at least 1870 a location for spiritualist gatherings (‘MP’, Hints for the “Evidences of Spiritualism”, 1872)
Its successor institution, the London Spiritualist Alliance, moved to Queensbury Place, south-west London, in 1926
Website of current institution
The successor institution is the College of Psychic Studies, www.collegeofpsychicstudies.co.uk (opens in new window)
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Books about it
None found, although the Association and the various spiritualist journals appear in many general histories of nineteenth-century spiritualism
Archives
Material relating to the history of the College, and possibly its earliest days as the BNAS, along with a complete run of the journal Light, is held on site by the College of Psychic Studies in Queensbury Place, London SW7; some details are available online via the College’s website (opens in new window)
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