Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites / Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief in the Supernatural

by John Netten Radcliffe

In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New York, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the source could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally displaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises and disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was occupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the possession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and Margaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings and irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in intensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained by the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made, and even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the affirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the letters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at certain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was established with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of the disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of the noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be the spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had resided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse interred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five children, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may well be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding that no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that house, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse were found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely necessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred with the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with man.

Several committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they failed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no natural cause being evident, it was assumed, therefore, that the cause was supernatural.

Subsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say, the spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other houses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with the Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through the medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly brief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and multitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their accession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.

Certain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the spiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they were termed "mediums." The belief itself was spoken of under the simple term of "Spirit-rapping," and its advocates and believers as "Rappers," or "Rappites."

Each "medium," somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own views with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another; consequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat varied and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the present time may, however, be summed up as follows:—The "knocks," "raps," and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty (according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of the spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various sounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was permitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans in particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and it is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards perfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice and sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these privileges in full, and the mass of Christians, if believers, have so grown in goodness that the religion of the present day—Biblical religion—is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a state of probation that was requisite to attain the perfection now arrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation of the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a mighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being smothered.

The ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are singularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the spirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine, which shows that even in the "spheres" opinions are divided on this point. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds the earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into seven other spheres, and these again admit of still further division,—a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old monkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and paradise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits reside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are unhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree of their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into this sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on earth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass immediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of goodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually improving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres, until at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with bliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom Paine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and no eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his passions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all languages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority of spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than those they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to have rudimental education in our own language in heaven. "I have no friends to teach me how to spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters. Another, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory communication, from being "an illiterate youth" when he died; and the "medium" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit to get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in three months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable progress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the "spirits" consist of music, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species of concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits generally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also condescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They lie like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally necessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and the spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and orthography, revealed, that they "many times make mistakes, and so we are called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that are given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more careful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our friends." The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of the religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit for general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it contains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that it emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.

Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these doctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition), clergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have permitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing some conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in order to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of the more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.

The phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and intensity, which were called up by the "medium" at will, apparently in various parts of the room in which the "séances" were held, but principally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of certain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the "raps" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the power of the suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or in writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps—an affirmative; or by silence—a negative; or the words of the response were spelled out by running over the alphabet—the affirmative knocks taking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a spiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others shadowed them forth in dancing.

If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons experience in detecting the direction and position of sounds, particularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we may readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping obtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however, soon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very shortly after the development of the mania, a "medium" came forward and confessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried it out. This "medium," named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the mode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original "mediums;" and she stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind being distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or otherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed that the sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums," and by observation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the toes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and the joints of the thumb and fingers (the "cracking" of the joints, a familiar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the table, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another; and lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table. It was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the "mediums" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned methods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case could the "spirits" reply correctly to a single question, when the querist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his actions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters constituting the words he required; and that the "spirits" might be led to answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious of imposition or error.

Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is principally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given by the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted with the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable literary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple phenomenon alone.