Emma Hardinge Britten is one of the great historical figures of Spiritualism. She was born in London in 1823 under the name Emma Floyd. From an early age Emma was demonstrating her abilities as a Spiritual Medium by relating accurate information about deceased relatives of whom she had no prior knowledge.
After growing up Emma moved to New York in 1855 to pursue a career in acting on Broadway. One year later she was launched into fame with an astonishingly accurate revelation about the hitherto unknown disappearance of the steamship Pacific which was disclosed to her whilst in trance. After the New York Times published an article describing the incident Emma was invited by the famous Spiritualist, Horace Day, to host séances.
She deepened her involvement in the Spiritualist movement as a 'trance lecturer' and delivered many excellent speeches across the USA. In 1870 Emma married Dr William Britten from Boston and from 1878 to 1879 she and her husband worked as Spiritualist Missionaries in Australia and New Zealand.
Emma was inspired to define the 7 Principles of Spiritualism in 1871 by the communicating spirit of Robert Owen in order to summarise the philosophy of Spiritualism.
She later returned to England and founded the Two Worlds magazine for Spiritualists in 1887 which is still published every month!
Emma passed to spirit in Manchester, England in 1899 at the age of 76.
