Spiritualism and Society (Routledge Revivals)
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Spiritualism and Society (Routledge Revivals)

G. K. Nelson

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Spiritualism and Society (Routledge Revivals)

G. K. Nelson

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First published in 1969, this title explores the origins of Spiritualism as a religious movement. The first part is a history of Spiritualism, with a focus on its origins within America and the development of the organisation within itself. Next, Nelson considers the rise of Spiritualism in Britain, using evidence taken from contemporary journals, other publications and interviews. Finally, the Spiritualist movement is analysed in terms of sociological theory, looking at the Church and the definition of a Cult, as well as concepts of authority and leadership. This is a fascinating work, which will be of great interest to students researching the origins and development of the movement of Spiritualism and its relationship with society.

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2013
ISBN
9781134695478
Part One
THE ORIGINS OF MODERN SPIRITUALISM
Chapter One
BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA
The Fox Family
The origin of modern Spiritualism can be dated, with great accuracy, to the year 1848. Before that year there was no Spiritualism in the modern sense of that term. There were indeed many instances of the occurrence of the phenomena that later became distinctive of Spiritualism before 1848, for such phenomena, as we shall show, are a universal element in all human societies, and many groups and individuals throughout history have claimed the ability to communicate with the ‘dead’ or other spirits as part of their religious practices, but there had been no movement in civilized societies entirely based on a belief in, and the practise of, regular communication with the dead.
In 1848 the many trends which led to the origin of modern Spiritualism became focused in the episode of the Fox family.
In December 1847 John Fox, a farmer, his wife and two daughters moved into a house in Hydesville, a village within the township of Arcadia, Wayne Co., New York State, U.S.A. In addition to the two daughters, Margaretta, aged fifteen, and Kate, aged twelve, the family included a married son, David, who lived some two miles away, and a married daughter Leah Fish who lived in Rochester, N.Y. (She later remarried twice, becoming in turn Mrs Brown and Mrs Underhill.)
During the first three months of their residence, the Fox family were disturbed by mysterious noises in the house. These occurred only at night, and broke their rest night after night. The disturbances usually took the form of bangs and raps, and the Foxes were unable to discover the cause.
On the night of Friday, 31st March, 1848, the family had gone to bed early, in an attempt to catch up on their rest, and the children had been strictly told ‘to be still’ when the rapping broke out more loudly than usual. The children seem not to have been frightened by this, and Kate is said to have snapped her fingers and called out to the invisible rapper, ‘Here Mr Splitfoot do as I do’, whereupon the raps imitated her. Later she held up her fingers and a number of raps was given equal to the number of fingers she held up. She called out ‘Only look mother, look it can see as well as hear’. Mrs Fox and her daughter continued to ask questions, which were answered with the correct number of knocks.
The neighbours were called in, and a system of communication by raps was built up. Mrs Fox and the children left to obtain some rest in a neighbour’s house and the raps continued in the presence of Mr Fox and between seventy and eighty of his neighbours.
The entity responsible for the raps declared that it was the spirit of a pedlar who had been murdered in the house some four or five years earlier; and that he had been buried in the cellar and he said that his name was Charles B. Roena.1 The Foxes are said to have made an attempt to prove these statements by digging in the cellar in April, but this attempt was unsuccessful and had to be discontinued, when their excavation filled with water. They resumed digging again in the summer of 1848 and claimed to have found human hair and bones.2 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle states that their claims were finally established in 1904 when further digging on the site disclosed a human skeleton.3
Many further phenomena are claimed to have occurred in the house during the Foxes’ residence and the Foxes were plagued with a continual stream of curious inquirers, until eventually Mrs Fox took both her daughters to reside in Rochester with their married sister. In Rochester the phenomena continued to manifest itself in the presence of the Foxes and also of their sister Leah Fish. In the early stages of the story, the Foxes seem to have suffered rather than gained by their association with this strange phenomena. They were censured by the Methodist Church to which they belonged, and Mrs Fish, who was a music teacher in Rochester, seems to have suffered in her professional career, and for a time they tried all the methods they could think to obtain relief from the presence of the ‘spirits’. For a while it seems the phenomena stopped, but after about a fortnight it broke out again. A number of clergymen attempted to exorcize the spirits, but they were all unsuccessful. Other clergymen condemned it as the work of the devil or as an imposture.
A few clergymen and others were genuinely interested in the investigation of the phenomena; these included the Rev. A. H. Jervis, a Methodist minister, George Willetts, a member of the Society of Friends and E. W. Capron, who later became a well known supporter of the Spiritualist movement.
The circle of friends that grew up around the Foxes in Rochester became the first Spiritualist Circle, but news of these events spread and circles developed in many places.
In 1849 the first public investigation of Spiritualism took place. On 14th November of that year a public demonstration was given in the Corinthian Hall, the largest public hall in Rochester. A Committee of responsible persons investigated the proceedings and reported to a second public meeting that they had been unable to detect any fraud. The audience was dissatisfied with this report and a second committee of investigation was set up. This also reported in favour of the Foxes, much to the disgust of the sceptics in the town. A third committee, composed of those most vocal in their opposition to the Foxes, was set up. After a vigorous investigation this committee was also forced to admit that it could discover no imposture. The final public meeting broke up in riot and disorder, started by the enemies of the Foxes.
These meetings at Rochester gave the new movement great publicity. Many newspapers reported the events in Rochester, and while these were mainly unsympathetic they made the phenomena widely known throughout the country.
Emma Hardinge, an early historian of the movement, suggests that phenomena arose spontaneously, ‘in sections of the country where echoes of the Rochester vibrations could never even have reached’. She goes on to say, ‘Spiritualism did not radiate from a definite centre, but sprang with a spontaneous and irresistible life of its own, independent of human propagandism, the contagious force of public sentiment or the psychological effect of common report’.4
Mediums certainly seemed to appear rapidly in many places, and a number of circles were established in 1849 without any direct contact with the Fox family.
This may however be explained without postulating, as Mrs Hardinge did the intervention of the spirits. For as Joseph McCabe says, ‘In the course of 1849 the piquant narrative of the fight over the “Rochester rappings” spread from journal to journal in the United States and people began to experiment in many towns’.5
Later in his book McCabe says that if spirits were at work ‘They ought simultaneously to have manifested in a score or a hundred centres, ———. Instead of this we find the movement slowly spreading in waves from Hydesville ———. It takes a year to reach New York, four years to reach London or San Francisco, five years to Cuba, six years to South America, seven years to Turkey and so on.’6
This statement by McCabe however ignores the fact that phenomena similar to the Spiritualist manifestations had long been familiar in many parts of the world, and that it was only the interpretation put upon such phenomena that was new in the Spiritualist movement and that the interpretation can be said to have spread outwards from Hydesville.
It is certain that the travels of the Fox family helped greatly in the spread of the movement and many circles were the direct result of their visits.7 One circle which definitely arose as the result of a visit from Catharine Fox was the famous Auburn Circle. An outbreak of mediumship followed the visit of Catharine Fox to the home of Mr E. W. Capron in Auburn.8
The Foxes were often challenged but it was some time before anyone was able to suggest a physical explanation for the raps. In December 1850 the Fox sisters visited Buffalo, New York; here they were investigated by three professors from Buffalo University, Drs Flint, Lee and Coventry. In letters to the Buffalo newspaper, Commercial Advertiser on 17th and 21st February 1851 they stated that in their opinion the rappings could be explained as the result of movements of the knee-joints.
On 17th April a relation of the Foxes, Mrs N. Culver, made a statement that Catherine Fox had confessed to her that the raps were produced by the knees and toes. This statement was published in the New York Herald.9
These exposures seem to have had little influence on the spread of the movement. The Buffalo professors had failed to prove that the raps were in fact produced by physical movements, and had only succeeded in proving that they could have been so produced. Many spiritualists claimed that the raps were often heard to come from objects at a distance from the mediums.10 The major difficulty of a physical explanation was that, even assuming the physical production of the raps, this did not explain how the medium could correctly answer questions the answers to which were only known to the questioner, and further, could answer correctly mental questions.
Much later on, in 1888, the two Fox sisters, Margaretta (then Mrs Kane) and Catherine (Mrs Jencken) confessed that the raps had been fraudulently produced,11 though Mrs Jencken later recanted her confession.
Progress in the East
Emma Hardinge records that in 1850 circles were started in ‘Philadelphia, Penn; Providence, Rhode Island; Binghampton, Westfield, Albany, Troy, Waterford and numerous other places in New York State; in Cincinnati; in Memphis, Tennessee; St Louis, Missouri; California, Oregon, Texas, South America, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire’.12
The spread of the movement was extremely rapid throughout the eastern states of the U.S.A. and seems to have aroused great public interest wherever its advocates penetrated. In the early stages the movement was completely unorganized, in that no ‘churches’ or permanent societies were set up. Interest centred in private circles and irregular public meetings, lectures and demonstrations.
In New York City the phenomena were first reported to have appeared in December 1848, when a lady who was a magnetic clairvoyant approached Dr Hallock, a magnetist, with a request that he should ‘magnetize’ her in order that she might investigate at first hand the ‘Hydesville rappings’, which had recently been reported in the New York Tribune. Dr Hallock became a Spiritualist, and the movement was active in the city before the first visit of the Foxes in the spring of 1850.13
The visit of the Fox family further stimulated interest in the movement. They succeeded in converting the Hon. Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, the most influential newspaperman in the country, who proved a most valuable ally of the cause.
Early in 1851 Judge J. W. Edmonds, a former Justice of the Supreme Court and at that time a Judge of the Court of Appeals, and Charles Partridge, a wealthy merchant, were also converted.
The New York Circle which was formed in 1851 was as Mrs Hardinge said, ‘The first organic society’. It included among its members Judge Edmonds, Professor Burt and the Rev. J. B. Britten. This circle, in November 1851, brought together all those who were sympathetic to Spiritualism and organized the New York conference. Under the auspices of the conference regular weekly meetings were organized. After two years these became public Sunday meetings.
By 1851, it was estimated, there were fifty circles in Brooklyn and 100 in Williamsburg and a committee of the conference had been set up to assist in the establishment of new circles.
Spiritualist papers and magazines sprang up in many places; there were six or seven by 1851, including the Spiritual Messenger of Springfield, Mass; which had been established in 1849; The Spiritual and Moral Instructor of Auburn; Heat and Light published in Boston; and the Spirit World also of Boston which had been first published as Spiritual Philosopher in 1850.
Other papers rapidly grew up, but in most cases were published for only a few issues. In 1852 Shekinah first saw publication and The Spiritual Telegraph was also first published in that year. It continued publication for eight years. New Era of Boston, and Light from the Spirit World of St Louis both appeared at this time. Many books and pamphlets helped to spread knowledge of the movement.
The secular press also widely reported the sensational events that occurred within spiritualist circles. While the press was often hostile, its reports gave great publicity to the movement, and the existence of a cheap and popular press throughout America at the time must be counted as one of the factors favouring the rapid spread of the movement.14
The movement however did not progress without opposition. This was strong and came both from the churches and the press. Many spiritualists suffered persecution, some even lost their jobs and in a few cases the opposition resorted to violence. In 1850 Margaret Fox was attacked by a gang of Irish Catholics while on a visit to Troy.
At this time an attempt was made by the Rev. Chauncey Burr to expose the tricks of the spiritualists and for a time he gave a series of demonstrations in which he produced ‘rappings’ by cracking his toe joints. His performances however were very amateurish, and he was finally discredited when Mrs Fish (Leah Fox) sued him for slander. Another person who attempted to discredit Spiritualism at this time was Leo Miller, whose meetings attracted large crowds. Unfortunately for the opponents of Spiritualism, Miller fell into a trance in the middle of one of his meetings and delivered a lecture affirming the truth of Spiritualism, much to the disgust of his former supporters. After his sudden conversion Miller became a staunch supporter of the movement.15
Another similar event is also reported by Mrs Hardinge.16 In September 1857, the Rev. C. H. Harvey, a Methodist episcopal minister, attempted to give a lecture denouncing Spiritualism. Soon after commencing his lecture he collapsed, and a doctor pronounced him to be dead. A Spiritualist in the audience however succeeded in rousing him, and when he had recovered he tried to carry on with his lecture, but he was struck dumb, and after a further unsuccessful attempt to speak he was forced to abandon the attempt. Harvey himself thought that he was being attacked by evil spirit forces. It seems that at one time he had been sympathetically interested in Spiritualism and that he had given it up because of the conflict with orthodox Christian teachings. His collapse while denouncing Spiritualism was probably only the result of the stress put upon him by conflicting beliefs. Nevertheless it undoubtedly impressed many people at the time.
In 1851 Judge Edmonds was violently attacked by the press for his support of the movement. Governor Tallmadge, an ex-Governor of the State of Wisconsin, came to the defence of Edmonds, and as a result of his invest...

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