Hello, and welcome to my modest website. My purpose for creating this site is primarily selfish. I am a writer, working on a ghost story, but I haven't yet found the best avenues for research. I am hoping that by building a ghost related site and encouraging submissions, I might learn a little more about the subject myself. In the process, perhaps I can build an interesting library of facts and theories for others to enjoy.
This site has recently been created and is thus a bit sparse. Visit back often as stories and articles are added!
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The modern spiritualist movement was begun in 1848 by two sisters, Margaretta and Kate Fox, then ages 14 and 12. And if you believe them, a spirit by the name of Mr. Splitfoot.
According to the family, their cottage was often disrupted by odd knockings which could not be accounted for. On March 31, 1848, Kate attempted to make contact by instructing the spirit to repeat the sound of her clapping hands. The spirit repeated her claps with the same number of raps. Mrs. Fox then asked the spirit to recite the ages of all her children, which it did with the appropriate number of knocks for each one, ending in three knocks, the age of her youngest child when it died.
News of the phenomenon spread quickly, and as adults, the Fox sisters became professional mediums, impressing some researchers while denounced as frauds by others. Eventually, under social pressure, they confessed to fraud, only to recant their statement later.
Whether this was an actual occult event or a hoax will be forever uncertain. Regardless, the Fox sisters are the mothers of today's spiritualism.
Source: Ghost Sightings, Barnes & Noble, 1996.