Page 5 - Demo

%u201cscientific errors and crudities.%u201d He also said Davis %u201cwas a palpable cheat,%u201d whose work was nothing more than a %u201cvery crude and badly digested mess of early scientific literature.%u201dThe Fox SistersWhile these serious adult males provided some of the earliest roots for Spiritualism, it was two young girls%u2014Kate and Maggie Fox%u2014who played the most important role in its actual founding and spread. Beginning in 1848, at the ages of 11 and 14, they claimed to be able to communicate with the dead through mysterious rapping sounds. Even though various investigators came to their Hydesville, New York home and declared that the Fox sisters were making rapping noises using manipulative bone movements (cracking of their joints), they were joined by their older sister Leah, and all three became widely known and respected around the country through public demonstrations and s%u00e9ances.But later in life, after decades of deception, at the age 55 Maggie signed a confession which was published in the New York World. In it, she explained how she secretly made the raps with her fingers or toes. She also denounced Spiritualism as an, %u201cabsolute falsehood from beginning to end, as the flimsiest of superstitions, the most wicked blasphemy known to the world.%u201d The next year, under pressure from Spiritualist followers, she recanted her confession, but never regained her credibility.In later life, both Maggie and Kate were chronic alcoholics, and both died in poverty. Kate succumbed at home in 1892 at 55, and Maggie less than a year later, at 58, while living on charity in a tenement house. By then, Spiritualism had taken on a life of its own, rapping had become a nationwide craze, and the country abounded in mediums, psychics, and clairvoyants. A s%u00e9ance is the most important feature of Spiritualism. During a s%u00e9ance, a medium (a person who facilitates communication with spirits) often begins with a prayer. After that, the session may take a variety of forms. The medium might sit on a stage, in front of a large audience, enter into a trance, speak to the spirits, and pass on messages or answers to questions from relatives in attendance.A more personal s%u00e9ance could involve a medium and a small group of individuals sitting around a table in a darkened room. (The darkness is said to be necessary because spirits reside in a