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Authors: Colin Wilson
Tags: Haunting, Paranormal, exorcism, esp, halloween09, halloween20, destructive haunting, phenomenon, true-life cases
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people who were present and to answer various other
numerical questions.
At this point, the neighbor had the idea of devising an alphabetical code, and asking the spirit to answer questions about itself. It identified itself as a peddler named Charles B. Rosma, who had died in the house five years earlier. Asked for details, it said that it had been murdered in the east bedroom by having its throat cut, and had subsequently been buried in the cellar. Police investigation failed to locate a missing peddler named Rosma, and the murder inquiry was not pursued. [1] Soon afterward, the poltergeist rappings turned into a normal “haunting,” with sounds of a death struggle, horrible gurglings (presumably as the man’s throat was cut) and the sounds of a body being dragged across the floor. (Mr. Fox’s hair turned white as a result.)
Meanwhile, the rapping noises followed the girls around from house to house. Various committees were set up to try and detect the girls in trickery—entirely without success. When Kate and Margaret separated to avoid the furor, the rappings broke out in both houses they stayed in. A man named Calvin Brown, who lived in the same house as the eldest Fox sister, Leah, seemed to arouse the spirit’s dislike because of his hostile attitude, and it began to persecute him. Various objects were thrown at him—but without ever causing injury. Then the “spirit”’ began snatching off Mrs. Fox’s cap, pulling the comb out of her hair, as well as jabbing pins into members of the family when they knelt down to pray. The rappings turned into deafening bangs like a cannon, which could be heard a mile away.
The household was in despair until someone decided to try and communicate with the spirit by using the alphabetical code. The result was a message beginning: “Dear friends, you must proclaim this truth to the world. This is the dawning of a new era . . .” It proved to be correct. The first “spiritualist” meeting took place on November 14, 1849, and within months this new “religion” had spread across America, then across the sea to Europe.
All three sisters—including Leah—developed into “mediums,” and gave séances. The simplest method of holding a séance is for everyone to sit around the tables and call upon the spirits. And at a very early stage, the spirits began indicating their presence by causing the table to vibrate, or even making it give raps by raising one leg in the air and banging it on the floor. It seemed astonishingly easy to make a table move (as, indeed, it still is). It was discovered that the best method was to take a fairly light table—a card table for preference—and place it on a smooth polished floor. The “sisters” then had to join their fingers in a “chain” and concentrate. And usually, within minutes, the table was sliding around the room, sometimes even rising into the air, in spite of all efforts to hold it down.
The Parisians were thrilled with this new game; there had been nothing like it since the days when Mesmer had “magnetized” groups of half-naked men and women and sent them into ecstatic convulsions. What astonished everyone was how easy it was to get results. If the phenomena were really due to spirits, then they seemed to be permanently on duty.
One of Paris’ best-known intellectuals at this time was an educationalist called Leon Dénizarth-Hippolyte Rivail. Rivail was to Paris what John Ruskin and Herbert Spencer would become to London: a kind of universal educator, willing to dispense knowledge on any and every topic. His public lectures on such subjects as chemistry and astronomy were attended by huge audiences.
Rivail was one of the few people who still believed in the discoveries of Mesmer, that remarkable physician who had been driven out of Paris seventy years earlier by the hostility of the medical profession. Mesmer believed that illnesses can be cured by magnets, and one of his disciples made the discovery with
numerical questions.
At this point, the neighbor had the idea of devising an alphabetical code, and asking the spirit to answer questions about itself. It identified itself as a peddler named Charles B. Rosma, who had died in the house five years earlier. Asked for details, it said that it had been murdered in the east bedroom by having its throat cut, and had subsequently been buried in the cellar. Police investigation failed to locate a missing peddler named Rosma, and the murder inquiry was not pursued. [1] Soon afterward, the poltergeist rappings turned into a normal “haunting,” with sounds of a death struggle, horrible gurglings (presumably as the man’s throat was cut) and the sounds of a body being dragged across the floor. (Mr. Fox’s hair turned white as a result.)
Meanwhile, the rapping noises followed the girls around from house to house. Various committees were set up to try and detect the girls in trickery—entirely without success. When Kate and Margaret separated to avoid the furor, the rappings broke out in both houses they stayed in. A man named Calvin Brown, who lived in the same house as the eldest Fox sister, Leah, seemed to arouse the spirit’s dislike because of his hostile attitude, and it began to persecute him. Various objects were thrown at him—but without ever causing injury. Then the “spirit”’ began snatching off Mrs. Fox’s cap, pulling the comb out of her hair, as well as jabbing pins into members of the family when they knelt down to pray. The rappings turned into deafening bangs like a cannon, which could be heard a mile away.
The household was in despair until someone decided to try and communicate with the spirit by using the alphabetical code. The result was a message beginning: “Dear friends, you must proclaim this truth to the world. This is the dawning of a new era . . .” It proved to be correct. The first “spiritualist” meeting took place on November 14, 1849, and within months this new “religion” had spread across America, then across the sea to Europe.
All three sisters—including Leah—developed into “mediums,” and gave séances. The simplest method of holding a séance is for everyone to sit around the tables and call upon the spirits. And at a very early stage, the spirits began indicating their presence by causing the table to vibrate, or even making it give raps by raising one leg in the air and banging it on the floor. It seemed astonishingly easy to make a table move (as, indeed, it still is). It was discovered that the best method was to take a fairly light table—a card table for preference—and place it on a smooth polished floor. The “sisters” then had to join their fingers in a “chain” and concentrate. And usually, within minutes, the table was sliding around the room, sometimes even rising into the air, in spite of all efforts to hold it down.
The Parisians were thrilled with this new game; there had been nothing like it since the days when Mesmer had “magnetized” groups of half-naked men and women and sent them into ecstatic convulsions. What astonished everyone was how easy it was to get results. If the phenomena were really due to spirits, then they seemed to be permanently on duty.
One of Paris’ best-known intellectuals at this time was an educationalist called Leon Dénizarth-Hippolyte Rivail. Rivail was to Paris what John Ruskin and Herbert Spencer would become to London: a kind of universal educator, willing to dispense knowledge on any and every topic. His public lectures on such subjects as chemistry and astronomy were attended by huge audiences.
Rivail was one of the few people who still believed in the discoveries of Mesmer, that remarkable physician who had been driven out of Paris seventy years earlier by the hostility of the medical profession. Mesmer believed that illnesses can be cured by magnets, and one of his disciples made the discovery with
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