Its detractors said it was fraudulent; said it was some sort of diabolical magic. Said it was witchcraft. Nevertheless, Spiritualism—which centers on the practice of communicating with the spirits of the dead though a medium—flourished in America during the 19th century, mostly in the eastern states but also in the West. The idea that the living could communicate with their departed loved ones was simply too comforting; for in this period childhood mortality stood at 20 to 30 percent, and thousands of young men and women in their prime died from war, disease, accidents, or childbirth.
The movement began in March, 1848, near Rochester, New York, when sisters Kate and Margaret Fox, then 14 and 11 respectively, told their parents they had heard “rappings,” (knocks on their bedroom walls), from the spirit of Charles Rosna, a traveling salesman who allegedly had been murdered in that very bedroom five years earlier, and buried in the basement. Although a body was never found, and it was never proven beyond doubt that Rosna had actually died in the house, word spread to the neighbors, then to the town and beyond. Soon the area was taken with a fervor for contacting the hereafter, the Fox sisters, through their newfound roles as mediums, began helping others contact their own departed nearest and dearest . . . and spiritualism was born.
But Spiritualism, which flourished for decades without either canonical texts or formal organization, was not born in a vacuum. American culture was changing: there was more industrialization and urbanization; new scientific discoveries were challenging the veracity of the Bible. Earlier in the century, a Protestant revival had sparked a number of social reform movements and introduced new religious denominations, all with differing theological beliefs. People grew confused as to which belief system held the truth—while few, if any, of these theologies offered meaningful solace to the grieving, especially to heartbroken parents mourning their dead children.
Spiritualists filled that emotional need. They held meetings, gave lectures that drew thousands, and conducted séances to bring forth the dead, sometimes with sensational effects such as tables that levitated, or ghostly photographic images of spirits “captured” on paper. At most séances the medium, apparently in a trance-like state, simply asked the contacted spirit questions which it answered by knocking on the walls or floors.
Of course, this type of answer from the unbeknown hereafter—by its very nature seldom entirely clear—provided fuel for ongoing accusations of fraud from hosts of nonbelievers. Although there were active spiritualist societies throughout California’s major cities, cynical California newspaper editors, unafraid to offend them, published defamatory, often caustic articles. Published in San Francisco’s Daily Alta in 1850, “Stop That Knocking,” while freely admitting that a committee of worthy eastern gentlemen who interviewed the Fox sisters (three now, the first two girls having been joined by much older, married sister Leah Fox Fish) could not definitively explain the mysterious knockings, impertinently suggested that Mrs. Fish and her “two virgin sisters” ought to be engaged to play the three weird sisters in MacBeth, as the attraction of three “real witches” would fill a theater.
“The War Against Spiritualism” confidently declared that Spiritualism was all but finished, that the “ism” had really exploded; furthermore, that the “delusion in so many minds” had been scattered. All because, the article claimed, the movement’s reputation had suffered from its connections with prominent spiritualist men recently exposed as humbugs themselves, or else willing to defect and publicly denounce “the ism’s” doctrines.
However, that piece, published in 1859 in Marysville’s Daily National Democrat, was a bit premature. During the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of young men died far from their homes. Bereaved families, who never saw their bodies, were denied the rituals and small comforts of proper burial according to their professed faith. The living needed assurance their loved one was at peace, which only heightened the appeal of a movement that offered them a chance to communicate with the deceased.
Despite strenuous efforts by the church and the press to debunk it, Spiritualism continued its programs and various, sometimes controversial, social reform campaigns until late in the century. Then in 1888—forty years after they had launched the movement—the Fox sisters admitted that their long-ago, spirit-communication with salesman Charles Rosna had been a hoax, a prank they played on their parents; moreover, that that their long careers as mediums were entirely fraudulent.
With that, the bubble burst. Those who had been skeptics all along rushed in to interview the sisters, and then publish the imposter’s confessions of deceptions and trickery. So began the decline of Spiritualism in 19th century America, much to the relief of its critics; yet doubtless leaving its stunned followers searching for another truth.
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