The History of Spiritualism

The Hydesville Rapping’s of 1848 are a very important landmark and generally are described as being the beginning of modern Spiritualism. These events began on 11 December 1847, when John and Margaret Fox and their two daughters, Kate and Margaretta, moved into a new home in Hydesville, a small town about twenty miles from Rochester, New York. The house they moved into had a reputation for being haunted and several incidents of noises described as rapping’s had encouraged the previous tenant to leave.

Shortly after moving into the house the family became aware of and disturbed by similar rapping sounds. The rapping’s escalated to such a level that the children were so frightened that they refused to sleep on their own and all the family moved into the parent’s bedroom. Attempts were made to find the cause of the noises, and on 31 March 1848, Kate Fox attempted to communicate with whoever was creating the sounds by challenging them to rap the same number of times that she clapped her hands. Kate and her sister Margaretta then developed a form of communication using a different number of raps for each letter of the alphabet. They used this simple code to ask questions of the spirit and using the code established that the spirit had been murdered in the house by a previous owner and that his body had been buried in the cellar. He told them his name was Charles B Rosna, a travelling merchant. In the summer digging in the cellar led to the discovery of the complete skeleton of Charles Rosna.

The story of the Hydesville Rapping’s generated great interest when published in the Boston Journal on 23 November 1904 and the events attracted large numbers of curious visitors to Hydesville. The rapping’s established that is was possible to communicate with those who had passed by using an easily understood code. The public became interested in spirit communication and circles were set up across the USA. Three years later, the first of a number of spiritualist mediums came from America to work in England. Margaret Fox presented what is generally regarded as the first public demonstration of mediumship in the Corinthian Hall in New York. In the following years the sisters travelled the world to tell of their experiences to enthralled audiences. In the years following Hydesville, Spiritualism has helped to bring comfort with the truth of the survival of human consciousness after death.

Although the birth of modern Spiritualism is marked by the events of Hydesville and the Fox sisters, in

1852 Mrs Hayden the wife of a New England journalist arrived in Britain from America bringing with her, her Spiritualist faith. Mrs Hayden demonstrated her abilities in Cavendish Square winning many admirers especially from other women. Her demonstrations attracted the attention of the press at the time and as well as admirers she also had her critics. Then in 1866 Emma Hardinge Britten demonstrated her mediumship in the United Kingdom with great success. In 1871 she received the Seven Principals of Spiritualism, by the spirit of Robert Owen.

Spiritualism unlike most other major mainstream religions avoids a creed of dogma and instead is founded upon these seven principles:

The fatherhood of God

The brotherhood of man

The communion of spirit and the ministry of angels

The continued existence of the human soul

Personal responsibility

Compensation and retribution thereafter for all the good and evil deeds done on earth

Eternal progress open to every human soul.