Compared to spiritual communication with the dead in mid-nineteenth-century America, spiritual communication at the beginning the twenty-first century has thrived with much less emphasis on claims to public knowledge. The New York Times in the year 2000 reported on a growing use of media:

“Without a doubt, visiting spirit mediums is becoming amazingly popular,” said Cathy Cash Spellman, whose novel, “Bless the Child,” about a spiritually gifted little girl, was made into a film with Kim Basinger that was released over the summer. …

Ms. Spellman attributed the heightened interest in mediums – or spiritists, as they like to call themselves – to a spillover from the growing interest in alternative medicine and Eastern spirituality. “We live in a world where many people have an acupuncturist. understand that there is energy and practice the martial arts,” she said. “People are so much more open-minded about the unseen.”

The article highlighted the appeal of communication with the dead to persons associated with film, publishing, and fashion industries:

“Quite a large number of people in the fashion world are paying visits to people they have lost,” said Nadine Johnson, a New York publicist with clients in fashion and publishing. …

“To hear from people I know,” she added, “mediums are a hotter commodity than the Prada bowling bag.”^

The New York Times article included some skeptical views, but on the whole was sympathetically uncritical. It presented seeking to communicate with the dead as an activity with no more consequences for public welfare than seeking to buy a Prada bowling bag. One insightful media critic noted the communication style of modern media:

today’s spirits — whom John Edward and his fellow mediums supposedly contact — seem to have poor memories and difficulty communicating. For example, in one of his on-air séances (on Larry King Live, June 19, 1998), Edward said: “I feel like there’s a J- or G-sounding name attached to this.” He also perceived “Linda or Lindy or Leslie; who’s this L name?” Again, he got a “Maggie or Margie, or some M-G-sounding name,” and yet again heard from “either Ellen or Helen, or Eleanore-it’s like an Ellen-sounding name.” Gone is the clear-speaking eloquence of yore; the dead now seem to mumble.

In the nineteenth century, leading American spiritualist John Edmonds published extensive, verbatim texts from dead authorities. Modern media show much less representational power:

The spirits also seemingly communicate to Edward et al. as if they were engaging in pantomime. As Edward said of one alleged spirit communicant, in a Dateline {performance}, “He’s pointing to his head; something had to affect the mind or the head, from what he’s showing me.” No longer, apparently, can the dead speak in flowing Victorian sentences, but instead are reduced to gestures, as if playing a game of charades.^

Such communication poses no threat to established interests in knowledge and is perceived to have little consequence for public welfare. It thus attracts scant concern in public deliberation.