Spiritism in Secular Turkey 1936 - 1969

Spiritism, established by Allan Kardec claims to study an immaterial world through scientific methods and derives knowledge from communication with spirits. In contrast to its depiction in popular culture, communication with spirits was a serious venture for spiritists. This book examines Turkish spiritism, spearheaded by Bedri Ruhselman, between 1936 and 1969 in an effort to reveal why a group of intellectuals were interested in a supernatural practice such as spiritism. To answer this question, the book examines the history of spiritism in Turkey and provides an in-depth analysis of its spiritist, scientific and moral teachings. It also offers a group biography of Turkish spiritists and analyses the impact of spiritism on Turkish society. The results of the study demonstrate that Turkish spiritism was an attempt to construct a scientified spirituality that reconciled modern science and religion and an attempt to provide a solution to the moral gap observed within republican reforms.This book thus offers a more complex understanding of both Turkish modernization and of Turkish modernizers. In the process, the book also traces the changes in approaches to modern science throughout Turkish modernization.