~Spiritualism and the Fox Sisters~
Personally, I strongly believe in Spiritualism. It is very interesting and deep. If you have ever heard of the Fox Sisters, you most likely have heard of Spiritualism. Below are some sources I have for you about Spiritualism and the Fox Sisters. Check it out for yourself and enjoy!
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WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM?
"Spiritualist believe that those in the Spirit World can and do communicate after they have made the change called death. Through mediumship, we can connect with loved ones, guides, and teachers on the other side of the veil. We can be comforted by talking to our loved ones; we can be helped by instructions from our guides; and we can be taught important life lessons by Master Teachers."
"Spiritualism is much more than communicating with those in the Spirit World. Spiritualism is a way of living our lives to the fullest extent possible through an understanding of Natural Law. We believe in a Father-Mother God that loves us and works with us to provide a progressive incarnation. We understand that we are responsible for our own actions and, due to the Law of Karma, harvest the rewards. We strive to be non-judgmental."
SOURCE READ MORE:
http://www.lansingspirit.com/spiritualism.html
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SPIRITUALISM AND THE FOX SISTERS
Quote:
"Spiritualism is a belief that was given a name in 1848. Its ideal roots may date to very ancient times. In our belief, we give credit to the truths of many religions, we know to say that one person has the truth and no one else is to say that God plays favorites. We believe there is a piece of the truth in everything, that we need to go beyond the segregations of man called religion, and seek true understanding. Through the ages, many enlightened people have made travels in the known world, seeking understanding of what God truly is. We cannot put a date on our beliefs, because to do so, it would also segregate us from the individuals that may have opened the pathway to the beginnings of what we now call Spiritualism, the belief of life after the change called death."Quote:
"The Fox family was having problems sleeping for several nights due to rapping noises in the household. John Fox, Father of Kate, Margaret and Leah Fox, went around the house looking for the source of the rattling, rattled a window in the cottage expecting to find a loose sash. As to reply, an echoing rattle sounded in the room."Quote:
"Through a series of codes, the family over time continued to communicate with these strange rappings. They learned through these codes that the rappings were made from a spirit of a peddler who called himself Charles Rosna that was buried under the house. John Fox was eager at this point to find out the truth about the “rappings” claims that he made many attempts to dig under the house to see if the remains exist. After much hard work and many unsuccessful times of digging, to the families’ surprise, they found skeletal remains along with a peddlers box. News spread throughout New York and Great Britain, and many other people since have explored the spirit world and different ways to communicate with it."
"This was only the beginning of Modern Spiritualism, there are many other stories and references that are worth exploring to understand where we came from. For more information on Spiritualism, you may browse other sites, go to any store carrying New Age books, or come and visit us. We look forward to helping you become more aware of the doorways spirit has opened on your pathway."
SOURCE: READ MORE:
http://www.lansingspirit.com/history.html
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DEFINITIONS OF SPIRITUALISM
"Spiritualism is the Science, Philosophy and Religion of continuous life, based upon the demonstrated fact of communication, by means of mediumship, with those who live in the Spirit World. (1919)"
"Spiritualism Is a Science" Because it investigates, analyzes and classifies facts and manifestations demonstrated from the spirit side of life."
"Spiritualism Is a Philosophy" because it studies the Laws of Nature both on the seen and unseen sides of life and bases its conclusions upon present observed facts. It accepts statements of observed facts of past ages and conclusions drawn therefrom, when sustained by reason and by results of observed facts of the present day."
"Spiritualism Is a Religion" because it strives to understand and to comply with the Physical, Mental and Spiritual Laws of Nature, which are the laws of God."
"A Spiritualist is one who believes, as the basis of his or her religion, in the communication between this and the Spirit World by means of mediumship and who endeavors to mold his or her character and conduct in accordance with the highest teachings derived from such communication. (1914, Rev. 1938)"
"A Medium is one whose organism is sensitive to vibrations from the spirit world and through whose instrumentality, intelligences in that world are able to convey messages and produce the phenomena of Spiritualism. (1914)"
"A Spiritualist Healer is one who, either through one's own inherent powers or through mediumship, is able to impart vital, curative force to pathologic conditions. (1930, 1993)"
SOURCE: READ MORE:
"The Phenomena of Spiritualism consists of Prophecy, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Gift of Tongues, Laying on of Hands, Healing, Visions, Trance, Apports, Levitation, Raps, Automatic and Independent Writings and Paintings, Voice, Materialization, Photography, Psychometry and any other manifestation proving the continuity of life as demonstrated through the Physical and Spiritual senses and faculties of man. (1950)"
http://www.thecse.org/Spiritualism.htm
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CONCEPTS OF SPIRITUALISM
Quote:
"These are the three fundamental concepts of Spiritualism."
"The birth of the Modern Spiritualist Movement is most widely accepted as having taken place on March 31, 1848, with the events surrounding the Fox family, in Hydesville, New York. In reality, though, Spiritualism is as old as humanity. Spiritualism, in its pure essence, has its roots in ancient religion and spirituality. In effect, Spiritualism represents the alternative to Materialism. Furthermore, it is the basic essence from which all religious thought appeared and continues to appear on this great Earth plane. As such, Spiritualism really belongs to no group, nor to any religious movement or denomination. It is a gift from God, given to all people, of all faiths and denominations."
"Therefore, what is a Spiritualist church? Well, I guess all churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques are spiritualist in nature, because all houses of worship are supposed to be places from which the message and inspiration of a higher Spirit can come forth."
"Spiritualism, itself, as a concept of communication between those in the body and those in Spirit, has been a part of the human story for centuries. The Old and New Testaments are, in effect, a grand recording of ancient Spiritualism; they talk about spirit intervention and communication from approximately 1800 B.C. to around 200 A.D. Throughout their pages, we are warned to discriminate carefully between true and false prophets. Many were the people of Biblical times who were admonished to "test the spirits"."
SOURCE: READ MORE:
http://www.fst.org/spirit1.htm
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SPIRITUALISM AND THE FOX SISTERS
Quote:
"One of the greatest religious movements of the 19th century began in the bedroom of two young girls living in a farmhouse in Hydesville, New York. On a late March day in 1848, Margaretta “Maggie” Fox, 14, and Kate, her 11-year-old sister, waylaid a neighbor, eager to share an odd and frightening phenomenon. Every night around bedtime, they said, they heard a series of raps on the walls and furniture—raps that seemed to manifest with a peculiar, otherworldly intelligence. The neighbor, skeptical, came to see for herself, joining the girls in the small chamber they shared with their parents. While Maggie and Kate huddled together on their bed, their mother, Margaret, began the demonstration."Quote:
"The Posts invited the girls to a gathering at their home, anxious to see if they could communicate with spirits in another locale. “I suppose I went with as much unbelief as Thomas felt when he was introduced to Jesus after he had ascended,” Isaac Post wrote, but he was swayed by “very distinct thumps under the floor… and several apparent answers.” He was further convinced when Leah Fox also proved to be a medium, communicating with the Posts’ recently deceased daughter. The Posts rented the largest hall in Rochester, and four hundred people came to hear the mysterious noises. Afterward Amy Post accompanied the sisters to a private chamber, where they disrobed and were examined by a committee of skeptics, who found no evidence of a hoax"
".The idea that one could communicate with spirits was hardly new—the Bible contains hundreds of references to angels administering to man—but the movement known as Modern Spiritualism sprang from several distinct revolutionary philosophies and characters. The ideas and practices of Franz Anton Mesmer, an 18th-century Australian healer, had spread to the United States and by the 1840s held the country in thrall. Mesmer proposed that everything in the universe, including the human body, was governed by a “magnetic fluid” that could become imbalanced, causing illness. By waving his hands over a patient’s body, he induced a “mesmerized” hypnotic state that allowed him to manipulate the magnetic force and restore health. Amateur mesmerists became a popular attraction at parties and in parlors, a few proving skillful enough to attract paying customers. Some who awakened from a mesmeric trance claimed to have experienced visions of spirits from another dimension."
SOURCE: READ MORE:
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2012/10/the-fox-sisters-and-the-rap-on-spiritualism/
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THE FOX SISTERS
Quote:
"The Fox sisters were three sisters from New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. The three sisters were Leah Fox (1814–1890), Margaret Fox (also called Maggie) (1833–1893) and Kate Fox (1837–1892). The two younger sisters used “rappings” to convince their much older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.In 1888 Margaret confessed that their rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method. She attempted to recant her confession the next year, but their reputation was ruined and in less than five years they were all dead, with Margaret and Kate dying in abject poverty. Spiritualism continued as if the confessions of the Fox sisters had never happened."
" In 1848, the two younger sisters – Kate (age 12) and Margaret (age 15) – were living in a house in Hydesville, New York with their parents. Hydesville no longer exists but was a hamlet that was part of the township of Arcadia in Wayne County. The house had some prior reputation for being haunted, but it wasn’t until late March that the family began to be frightened by unexplained sounds that at times sounded like knocking, and at other times like the moving of furniture."
"In 1888, Margaret told her story of the origins of the mysterious “rappings”"
“When we went to bed at night we used to tie an apple to a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. Mother listened to this for a time. She would not understand it and did not suspect us as being capable of a trick because we were so young.”"
" During the night of March 31, Kate challenged the invisible noise-maker, presumed to be a “spirit”, to repeat the snaps of her fingers. “It” did. “It” was asked to rap out the ages of the girls. “It” did.The neighbours were called in, and over the course of the next few days a type of code was developed where raps could signify yes or no in response to a question, or be used to indicate a letter of the alphabet."
"The girls addressed the spirit as “Mr. Splitfoot” which is a nickname for the Devil. Later, the alleged “entity” creating the sounds claimed to be the spirit of a peddler named Charles B. Rosma,who had been murdered five years earlier and buried in the cellar. Doyle claims the neighbors dug up the cellar and found a few pieces of bone, but it wasn’t until 1904 that a skeleton was found, buried in the cellar wall. No missing person named Charles B. Rosma was ever identified."
"Over the years, sisters Kate and Margaret had developed serious drinking problems. Around 1888 they became embroiled in a quarrel with their sister Leah and other leading Spiritualists, who were concerned that Kate was drinking too much to care properly for her children. At the same time, Margaret, contemplating a return to the Roman Catholic faith, became convinced that her powers were diabolical."Quote:
"The Fox sisters are believed to be the first practitioners of a seance, when two of the sisters -Kate and Margaret Fox – became frightened by mysterious knocking sounds in their home. Kate asked the mysterious source of the knocking sound to knock the same amount of times she clicked her fingers, as it obeyed this soon formed into a yes/no system, and later into an alphabet knocking system, which led the women to discover they were communicating with a man who had been murdered inside their house."
SOURCE: READ MORE:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fox-sisters?before=1330718819
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Well, that's I all have for you for now. Are you interested? Feel free to do more research for yourself online. Go ahead and do some "soul searching". Also, you can check out this EXCELLENT book on Spiritualism called:
"Buckland's Book of Spirit Communications"
by Raymond Buckland.
This is a great book for studying and learning more about Spiritualism. I HIGHLY recommend it. You can get it at Amazon.com. This book goes into great detail and it even has work book pages in it so you can test yourself and see how much you have learned after each chapter. It's a great book to learn from. There are also other great books on Spiritualism out there. I own quite a few books about it, and they are all pretty good. But Raymond Buckland's book about Spiritualism is the best I have read by far!!! You should definitely check it out. It is worth the read. You can learn so much from this book.
-Rachel Livingston
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