Spiritualism
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Pseudoscience Alert
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
Spiritualism is the belief that one can contact the dead through a medium leading a séance.
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[edit] Origin
- In Hydesville, New York in 1848, the farmhouse of John D. Fox was filled with mysterious rapping sounds. The noises created a buzz throughout town, and the farmhouse became a local phenomenon. Two of the Fox daughters, Margeret and Kate (who the noises seemed to center around) attributed the sound to a spirit named Mr. Splitfoot. Eventually, a pattern was established to the knocks in response to questions, whereby one knock meant yes and two knocks meant no.
- Leah Fox, the older married sister of Margeret and Kate, returned home for a visit and discovered the town's fascination with the raps. Sensing a great money-making scheme, she took her sisters on the road to Rochester and founded the Society of Spiritualists. As the spirit seemed to follow them, people in Rochester could, for a price, ask the spirit yes or no questions. The sisters went on a tour of cities, including Philadelphia and New York.
- As Spiritualism increased, so did the number of séances not involving the Fox sisters. Mediums would lead them, asking spirits yes or no questions, which were responded to with the same system of raps.
[edit] Exposure
- On October 21, 1888, Margeret, done with traveling, wrote to the New York World. She explained that everything the Fox sisters had done was a fraud. They had begun in their house by pulling an apple connected to a string, and eventually discovered that by snapping toe joints against wood, the sound would resonate throughout the house. It is speculated that at the time of the confession, there were 8 million Spiritualists in the United States.
[edit] Spiritualism in the UK.
There are over 300 spiritualist churches in the UK. [1]In April 2008 the British government intends to introduce a law which will make claims made by spiritualists subject to consumer legislation. Consequently if a clairvoyant charges an individual for services and that consumer subsequently deems those services to be "defective" then the consumer will have a legal right to seek compensation and damages. [2]. The spiritualist movement is unsure how best to respond to this situation. [3]
[edit] See Also
[edit] Sources
Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer, chapter 3, pages 54-56.
