It is agreed amongst Spiritualists and Skeptics alike that the modern Spiritualist Movement was ‘born’ in Hydesville in 1848. Now that does not mean that the idea of communication with spirits stems from that time as many spiritual traditions would claim the that this was possible, it is rather the case that spirits would/could communicate in a formal way through ‘mediums’… the spiritualist movement gave a Christian ‘spin’ to the whole thing brought about the creation of ‘spiritualist churches’. It placed the ‘folk’ notions of spiritism and animism into a religious structure which would be accepted by the Judaeo-Christian communities in which it flourished. It made talking to the dead fashionable and acceptable.
If we look at the 19th Century in general we see it was a time of rapid industrial and scientific expansion. There was a cultural drive to explore and explain things; the methods of scientific inquiry were driving development and in some ways the rift between church, spiritual beliefs and science was growing. There were those who needed to find some kind of rationale to support their deist beliefs… and the Fox sisters offered an intriguing opportunity. Note how the drive for the Spiritualist Movement was (and still is today) to provide ‘evidence’ of the ‘afterlife’. The rappings and tappings produced by the Fox sisters and their later counterparts seemingly provided the ‘evidence’ the ‘science minded’ people required.
Notice how the nature and complexity of the evidence provided by spiritualist mediums changed during the 19th century. From raps and taps to signalling letters and words; from spiritboards to “speaking through” the medium; from writing spirit messages on slates to “ectoplasmic” manifestations of spirit forms. Some of the later Victorian seances must have been incredible affairs. Apart from the dancing tambourines and scribblings on slates some of the female mediums would have submitted to a semi-public strip search as apart and parcel of the “show” – for the superficially-repressed sexuality of the Victorian era in the UK this certainly would have been a bit of a draw!
Yes I used the word ‘show’ deliberately. I think that even today stage and platform mediums whatever their intentions are engaging in a ‘show’. They are demonstrating evidence. For many I think the word ‘show’ as applied to ‘entertainment’ is far more appropriate.
It will not have escaped your attention that the first person to really ‘get behind’ the Fox sisters and their demonstrations was P.T. Barnum – the epitome of the ‘showman’ and ‘huckster’. Yes this is the same guy who developed the circus side show where people of unique physical and intellectual abilities were presented for ‘dime show’ entertainments.
If you read the accounts of the Fox Sisters on some ‘believers’ sites you will be presented with the Hydesville Story with varying degrees of credulity. (see: The First Spiritual Temple pages www.fst.org/fxsistrs.htm). If you follow the story through you will eventually discover that all was not well with the Fox sisters themselves, their claims and, indeed, their personal reactions to their success.
In 1888 they renounced their claims of spiritual mediumship. Kate admitted they’d fooled everyone by simply cracking their ties to mimic the sounds. They went on to explain how these deliberate tricks developed into a small arsenal of techniques which included throwing things to make noises in the dark, dropping apples onto the floor and so forth. The credulous audiences seemed more than happy to accept the most spurious of evidence to support their beliefs. Even the scientists who became involved in the spiritualist movement may not have been best placed to research the phenomena that were being presented. Scientists are experts in their own field and some of them are not the best of critical thinkers. As will be explored in a later blog it is the Magician who is perhaps better placed to work with others on explorations of aspects of the paranormal.
In 1888 they renounced their claims of spiritual mediumship. Kate admitted they’d fooled everyone by simply cracking their ties to mimic the sounds. They went on to explain how these deliberate tricks developed into a small arsenal of techniques which included throwing things to make noises in the dark, dropping apples onto the floor and so forth. The credulous audiences seemed more than happy to accept the most spurious of evidence to support their beliefs. Even the scientists who became involved in the spiritualist movement may not have been best placed to research the phenomena that were being presented. Scientists are experts in their own field and some of them are not the best of critical thinkers. As will be explored in a later blog it is the Magician who is perhaps better placed to work with others on explorations of aspects of the paranormal.
But, back to the Fox Sisters…
You can read some interesting archive material here (.http://bit.ly/bkLxkL) from which it can be seen that the Fox Sisters (Margaret, Kate and Leah) grew up in a family where notions and beliefs of/in paranormal abilities were the norm.
After the the Fox sisters’ strange knocking spirits announced themselves. Katherine (12) and Margaret (15) were sent to stay with relative in Rochester during the ensuing public tumult, but mysteriously, the spirits followed them there. Over time the girls became celebrities, with members of high society entreating them for a chance to communicate with the spirit world. They were studied and their mysterious messengers probed, and over time the sisters turned their unique situation into a career, touring music halls and giving ‘performances’ both in the U.S. and overseas.
By the late 1880′s, however, the sisters were beginning to quarrel, both with their older sibling Leah – who herself claimed to be a medium – and the proponents in Spiritualism in general. The two younger Fox sisters had become alcoholics over the past several years and, perhaps tired of their situation, publicly confessed to their fradulent behaviour.They even did so before an audience – in 1888 at the New York Academy of Music, with over 2,000 people watching, the Fox sisters showed how they were able to make their toe joints produce the sounds which reverberated around the theater.
You can read some interesting archive material here (.http://bit.ly/bkLxkL) from which it can be seen that the Fox Sisters (Margaret, Kate and Leah) grew up in a family where notions and beliefs of/in paranormal abilities were the norm.
After the the Fox sisters’ strange knocking spirits announced themselves. Katherine (12) and Margaret (15) were sent to stay with relative in Rochester during the ensuing public tumult, but mysteriously, the spirits followed them there. Over time the girls became celebrities, with members of high society entreating them for a chance to communicate with the spirit world. They were studied and their mysterious messengers probed, and over time the sisters turned their unique situation into a career, touring music halls and giving ‘performances’ both in the U.S. and overseas.
By the late 1880′s, however, the sisters were beginning to quarrel, both with their older sibling Leah – who herself claimed to be a medium – and the proponents in Spiritualism in general. The two younger Fox sisters had become alcoholics over the past several years and, perhaps tired of their situation, publicly confessed to their fradulent behaviour.They even did so before an audience – in 1888 at the New York Academy of Music, with over 2,000 people watching, the Fox sisters showed how they were able to make their toe joints produce the sounds which reverberated around the theater.
As is often the case with the paranormal there were those who refused to believe that it was all made up. Prominent Spiritualists claimed the women had been coerced into confessing, many of them claiming that they had heard the knockings coming from several different directions during personal sittings. Katherine and Margaret continued to tour, only this time audiences came to hear about how the young ladies had earlier defrauded them; and on the side the sisters continued to give seances to those who still believed.
Perhaps because of the stress of touring or the conflicts of conscious both Margaret and Katherine their addiction to alcohol became so debilitating that they were unable to tour. It has been reported that both died penniless and unmourned, their old friends and comrades having turned their backs on them long before.
Leah, the oldest of the sisters, is often referred to as the ‘ring leader’ – the individual who fuelled the stories about the trio’s mediumship and, upon their move to Rochester played an active role in presenting their skills to the more affluent and influencial members of the local society.
On the death of her first husband Leah married a successful Wall Street banker. Margaret met Elisha Kane, the Arctic explorer, in 1852. Kane was convinced that Margaret and Kate were engaged in fraud, under the direction of their sister Leah, and he sought to take Margaret away from her sisters. The two married, and Margaret converted to the Roman Catholic faith, but Kane died in 1857, and Margaret eventually returned to her activities as a medium. In 1876 she joined her sister Kate, who was living in England.
Kate traveled to England in 1871, the trip paid for by a wealthy New York banker, so that she would not be compelled to accept payment for her services as a medium. The trip was apparently considered missionary work, since Kate sat only for prominent persons, who would let their names be printed as witnesses to a séance. In 1872, Kate married H.D. Jencken, a London barrister, legal scholar, and enthusiastic Spiritualist. Jencken died in 1881, leaving Kate with two sons.
Aroun 1887 Margaret and Kate became embroiled in a quarrel with their sister Leah and other leading Spiritualists, who were concerned that Kate was drinking too much to care properly for her children. At the same time, Margaret, contemplating a return to the Roman Catholic faith, became convinced that her powers were diabolical.
Eager to harm Leah as much as possible, the two sisters traveled to New York City, where a reporter offered $1,500 if they would “expose” their methods and give him an exclusive on the story. It was this that prompted Margaret’s public appearance at the New York Academy of Music on October 21, 1888, with Kate present. Before an audience of 2,000, Margaret demonstrated how she could produce – at will – raps audible throughout the theater. Doctors from the audience came on stage to verify that the cracking of her toe joints was the source of the sound.
Margaret told her story of the origins of the mysterious “rappings” in a signed confession given to the press and published inNew York World, October 21, 1888. In it, she explained the Hydesville Events.
She also expanded on her career as a medium after leaving the homestead to begin her Spiritualist travels with her older sister, Mrs. Underhill:
- “Mrs. Underhill, my eldest sister, took Katie and me to Rochester. There it was that we discovered a new way to make the raps. My sister Katie was the first to observe that by swishing her fingers she could produce certain noises with her knuckles and joints, and that the same effect could be made with the toes. Finding that we could make raps with our feet – first with one foot and then with both – we practiced until we could do this easily when the room was dark. Like most perplexing things when made clear, it is astonishing how easily it is done. The rapping are simply the result of a perfect control of the muscles of the leg below the knee, which govern the tendons of the foot and allow action of the toe and ankle bones that is not commonly known. Such perfect control is only possible when the child is taken at an early age and carefully and continually taught to practice the muscles, which grow stiffer in later years. … This, then, is the simple explanation of the whole method of the knocks and raps.”
So, there we are…
Spiritualism is based upon the Fradulent activities of three women who began weaving their magic in 1848. Of course one example of fraud does not discredit the whole movement – but perhaps requires some very careful consideration of any of the claims it’s practitioners make!
