Spiritualism is a belief in a survival of the human personality and that living humans can communicate with the spirits of the dead.
In mid nineteenth century North East America, still affected by the second Great Awakening, many felt that direct contact with God and his angels was possible and for some who wished to contact deceased loved ones contact with the dead became the logical next step.
The Spiritualism movement originated in 1848 when two sisters, Kate and Margaret Fox in upstate New York allegedly heard strange rapping noises. They declared them to be messages from the spirit of a pedlar murdered in their cellar and that they were in communication with him. Soon sittings were being organized where spirits were called up. By 1853, when the popular song "Spirit Rappings" was published, spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity.
Spiritualism quickly took off in a big way and the movement became prominent in English-speaking countries until the 1920s with the sisters both becoming well-known mediums.
In 1888 after 40 years of seances Margaret came clean about the rappings from the afterlife when she demonstrated publicly how the sisters could produce the apparent noise of a rap on a table from the afterlife by cracking her toe joints with a sharp sound. However devout Spiritualists didn't believe her confession.
In England the Society for Physical Research was founded in 1882. The SPR's investigations into spiritualism exposed many fraudulent mediums which contributed to the decline of interest in physical mediumship.
The Ouija board was developed by businessman William Fuld in the late 1890s, and was named for the French and German words for yes - oui and ja. They were a development of the various divination techniques used to contact the dead, which had arisen from the Spiritualism movement.
The ouija board was regarded as a parlor game unrelated to the occult until American spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I.
William Fuld built a factory according to what the board told him. On February 24, 1927, Fuld climbed to the roof of his three-story factory to supervise the installation of a flagpole. When the rail against which he was leaning gave way, Fuld fell to the ground below and died.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle traveled the world as an evangelist for Spiritualism and gave many public lectures. When he failed to arrive one day for a lecture at Cambridge, university students mounted a placard; "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has failed to materialise."
In mid nineteenth century North East America, still affected by the second Great Awakening, many felt that direct contact with God and his angels was possible and for some who wished to contact deceased loved ones contact with the dead became the logical next step.
The Spiritualism movement originated in 1848 when two sisters, Kate and Margaret Fox in upstate New York allegedly heard strange rapping noises. They declared them to be messages from the spirit of a pedlar murdered in their cellar and that they were in communication with him. Soon sittings were being organized where spirits were called up. By 1853, when the popular song "Spirit Rappings" was published, spiritualism was an object of intense curiosity.
Spiritualism quickly took off in a big way and the movement became prominent in English-speaking countries until the 1920s with the sisters both becoming well-known mediums.
In England the Society for Physical Research was founded in 1882. The SPR's investigations into spiritualism exposed many fraudulent mediums which contributed to the decline of interest in physical mediumship.
The Ouija board was developed by businessman William Fuld in the late 1890s, and was named for the French and German words for yes - oui and ja. They were a development of the various divination techniques used to contact the dead, which had arisen from the Spiritualism movement.
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| Original Ouija board created in 1894 |
The ouija board was regarded as a parlor game unrelated to the occult until American spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I.
William Fuld built a factory according to what the board told him. On February 24, 1927, Fuld climbed to the roof of his three-story factory to supervise the installation of a flagpole. When the rail against which he was leaning gave way, Fuld fell to the ground below and died.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle traveled the world as an evangelist for Spiritualism and gave many public lectures. When he failed to arrive one day for a lecture at Cambridge, university students mounted a placard; "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has failed to materialise."
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