The Beginnings of Modern Spiritualism

The Beginnings of Modern Spiritualism - a short documentary brought to you by the Spiritualist National Union

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Spiritualism
• Hydesville
• SNU
• Rappings

[swfbells]

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[429Cage]

@jazzyazz "And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

than are dreamt of in your philosophy." -Shakespeare

It must be noted that anyone who thinks they understand everything is fooling themselves. Any aspect of human experience that is as prominent as the many claims of experiences in the "paranormal", should be taken seriously and investigated as vigorously as any other field. Authentic or not, we need to understand what is going on.

[429Cage]

@jazzyazz I agree! But I have always been of the opinion that we should investigate every aspect of human experience, to see what truth lies there. Just because there is widespread fraud, doesn't mean that we should stop studying the claims; if anything, the few shimmers of light, such as Piper, should prompt us to investigate further. There is still much we have yet to comprehend about the real world! The idea is to be open minded, yet discerning. Willing to learn, yet not willing to be fooled.

[429Cage]

@jazzyazz Well thanks for your compliments. You seem like a nice and knowledgeable person yourself. If you're talking about the Fox sisters, then you're more than likely right. Some mediums have not been adaquatley explained or ever detected in fraud (Leonora Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett, Daniel Dunglas Home, William Stainton Moses, Stella C, George Anderson, etc;). So yes there is widespread fraud in these things; but there are also many, many gray areas.

[jazzyazz]

@429Cage "Whether the sisters were genuine or not, we don't really know." But wait! We do know! I read what you've written and you seem knowledgeable and articulate, however, with all do respect, we do know that every claim thats been investigated to date has been falsified. The real world is exciting enough without having to believe myths and con jobs. Have a nice day.

[429Cage]

@jazzyazz The sisters and no one else had any knowledge of this man prior to the "rapping sessions" in 1848. They had no obvious way of knowing the man had been murdered, allegedly by the previous occupants of the house for his money. Where the skeleton was found was totally inaccesible; that is until the section containing it collapsed in 1904. Many skeptics question the authenticity of the box, but it is very interesting evidence. Whether the sisters were genuine or not, we don't really know.

[429Cage]

@jazzyazz Further more, what is striking to me is that at the original cottage in Hydesville the alleged spirit claimed that it had been murdered in the house and was a peddler named Charles B. Rosna. The spirit claimed to have been buried in the cellar. As the man says in this documentary, people immediately dug looking for the remains, but it wasn't until the early 1900's, after all of the sisters were dead, that a full skeleton was found -along with a peddlers tin box.

[429Cage]

@jazzyazz You see, at the time of the alleged "confession" in 1888, Maggie and Katherine had become very bad alcoholics. The eldest sister, Leah, had tried to get Kate separated from her children, so this could've been a way for Kate to "get back at Leah", since she was very involved in Spiritualism and made a living off it. Also, Maggie had come under a strong Roman Catholic influence. For these reasons and more, many people think that the Fox sisters were made a false confession to the press.

[429Cage]

@jazzyazz Well, Maggie Fox confessed and Kate went along with it, but didn't "expose" it as Maggie did. She also retracted what she said a year later saying that what she had claimed against Spiritualism was "false in every particular". She had been paid by the New York Herald to make a signed confession and being in need of money, people speculate that the confession wasn't honest. A year later, when she said she had did an injustice to the cause of Spiritualism, she had not received any money.

[jazzyazz]

The Fox sisters admitted that they tricked the world. This guy is a nut.