ABSTRACT
It was through the mediumship o f two young girls that the spirits first made known their intention to establish regular communication with the modern world. In 1848 Kate and Margaret Fox were 12 and 13 years old, and lived in the family home in rural upper New York state. Their house was repu tedly haunted and the 8-year-old daughter o f the previous occupant had already experienced frightening occurrences there, but the inexplicable knockings and rappings which broke out shortly after the Fox family moved in did little to daunt the young sisters. On the contrary, they discovered that they could ‘talk’ to the unseen source o f the disturbances by establishing a simple code involving a specific number o f raps for Yes and No, and in this way ascertained that the cause o f all the trouble was the spirit o f a murdered pedlar who was supposedly buried in the cellar. From such humble beginnings the girls became a local and then national sensation, and precipitated the phenomenon known as modern spiritualism. As the spiritualist craze raged through the eastern states o f America and swiftly found an enthusiastic reception in Eng land and Europe, resolute non-believers and sceptics could only wonder that ‘with the snap o f a toe joint’1 two young girls could wreak havoc in the theological world, and send parlour furniture in a million homes creaking and knocking in response to unseen spirit hands. During the next four decades spiritualism retained much of its popular appeal and through out these years women continued to be considered central to the successful practice o f mediumship.
