SPIRITUALISM AND THE FOX SISTERS

Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, November 20, 1888

The repudiation of Spiritualism and alleged exposures of its trickery by the well-known Fox sisters, are just now considered by many in this country as having given the death-blow to this doctrine. That the very ones with whom a doctrine is commonly understood to have originated, should afterward repudiate and expose it as humbug, would under ordinary circumstances be properly taken as conclusive evidence in the matter; and were not the supernatural character of Spiritualism so well established by innumerable other and later manifestations than the famous "knockings," which first brought it prominently before the public; and had these persons held that prominent relation to it since, which is generally held by the founders of a new religious denomination, the action of the Fox sisters would be invested with almost irresistible weight. But in these two particulars the history of the phenomenon of modern Spiritualism has presented a marked contrast with that of other new beliefs which do not claim to rest upon the authority of the Scriptures. In referring, a short time since, to the "exposures" of Mrs. Margaret Fox Kane, in New York City, the statement was made in the Review that Spiritualism as a supernatural manifestation would still stand upon its own internal evidences, even should the celebrated "knockings" turn out to have been a humbug. But doubtless the query has arisen in the minds of many, "Were these original rappings really a humbug, as the Fox sisters claim?" Having always being regarded by Seventh-day Adventists as genuine spiritual manifestations, it will doubtless be a matter of interest to many to examine some of the evidences which have led us, in common with many thousands of others, to this opinion.

The Banner of Light, a leading Spiritualist paper, devotes considerable space in a recent issue to the production of testimony upon this point. The "exposures" of Mrs. Kane, however they may be taken, place her in a dilemma, the two horns of which grow out of these two questions: Did she, when a young girl, practice a great deception upon the people by representing as a supernatural occurrence, raps produced by her own power? Or is she trying to practice a deception now, by representing that they were so produced? In answer to these questions we copy from the above number of the Banner (Nov. 10) the following testimony from Mr. A. E. Newton, of Arlington, Mass, the truthfulness of which there is no good reason to doubt. Though somewhat lengthy, it cannot fail to be of interest to all who are desirous of learning the truth in the controversy which has recently arisen. Mr. Newton says:--

I do not see that any of the papers which are so ready to seize upon the recent statements of these self-accused tricksters as constituting a "death-blow to Spiritualism," are at all anxious to reproduce the evidences upon which the belief in the spirit-origin of the "raps" was at first founded. These evidences are full, elaborate, compiled, upon the spot, and have been for years before the world, not only in ephemeral pamphlets published at the time by different parties, but have been preserved in such volumes as Capron's "Facts and Fanaticism of Modern Spiritualism," Mrs. Hardinge-Britten's "Modern American Spiritualism," and other works. Mrs. Kane herself can hardly be supposed to be acquainted with those testimonies, or even she, if in her senses, could scarcely have had the hardihood to impose on her audiences the silly and improbable statements with which she has recently regaled credulous crowds in New York and Boston.

In the first place, she appears to be ignorant of, or to be misleading, concerning even her own and her sister's age, at the time of the commencement of the raps. She seems to wish to make it appear that either they were too young to be aware of the enormity of the imposition they were practicing upon their parents and others, or that they were exceedingly smart in fooling their "dear mother" and many other people. She is reported as saying:--

"My sister Katie and myself were very young children when this horrible deception began. I was eight, and just a year and a half older than she."

Now the mother in a statement dated April 11, 1848, only about a fortnight after the beginning of the disturbances--a statement to which she says she is willing to make oath if necessary--says:--

"The youngest girl [Kate] is about twelve years old." "The other girl [Maggie] is in her fifteenth year."

It is not at all probable that the mother could have been mistaken to the extent of six or seven years in the ages of her children at that time; and when it is added that "Mr. and Mrs. Fox were connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which they had for many years been exemplary members, and had sustained a character unimpeachable for truth and veracity," there seems little question as to which is the better entitled to credence in this matter. Mrs. Kane further states that the knocks were first made by "bumping an apple, tied to a string, on the floor," and then by "rapping on the bedstead"--that the alleged method of snapping the knuckles and toe-joints, which was afterward practiced, was not invented until after the sisters were taken by Mrs. Underhill to Rochester. The detailed account given by Mrs. Fox, the mother, of the occurrences of the evening of the 31st of March, is entirely inconsistent with the above. After trying in vain, with her husband, to discover the cause of the disturbing sounds, and getting evidences of intelligence which claimed to proceed from the spirit of a person who had been murdered in the house, they called in their next door neighbor, Mrs. Redfield. When she came, "the children were sitting up in bed, somewhat terrified, and clinging to each other." In this position it was evidently impossible for the girls, even if mischievously disposed, either to continue the bumping of an apple on the floor or rapping on the bedstead, without being detected. Yet the sounds continued, manifesting intelligence beyond the knowledge of the children.

Another neighbor, Wm. Densler, was then called in, and we have his testimony at length. He appears to have entered upon the investigation with earnestness and intelligence, and by means of questions, elicited a number of statements regarding the alleged murder. He returned to the investigation on the following evening, and again on Sunday, the succeeding day. On this occasion he states what is conclusive as to the occurrence of the sounds without the presence, and, of course, without any fraudulent agency on the part of the girls. He says:--

"I went over again on Sunday, between one and two o'clock P. M. I went into the cellar, with several others, and had them all leave the house, over our heads; and then I asked, if there had been a man buried in the cellar, to manifest it by rapping, or any other noise or sign. The moment I asked the question there was a sound like the falling of a stick, about a foot long and half an inch through, on the floor in the bedroom over our heads. It did not seem to bound at all; there was but one sound. I then told Stephen Smith to go right up and examine the room, and see if he could discover the cause of the noise. He came back, and said he could discover nothing--that there was no one in the room or in that part of the house. I then asked two more questions and it rapped in the usual way. We all went up stairs and made a thorough search, but could find nothing."

Here is positive testimony to the fact that the raps and other sounds occurred in the Fox residence when neither the sisters nor any of the family were in the house. Add to this the testimonies of numerous other witnesses, which might be quoted at great length, to the effect that not only rapping sounds (which might possibly be imitated by the snapping of joints, etc.), but also "a sound like the death-struggle, the gurgling in the throat, etc., of a man whose throat was cut; then the sound of dragging a lifeless body across the room, down the stairs, the feet striking on each step; then a sound as if shoveling dirt in the cellar, the nailing of boards, and the filling up of the hastily-made grave--all sounding as perfectly natural as if you had stood in the graveyard, and heard the clods descend upon the last resting place of the body of a friend, were heard in the presence of these girls. Add also the evidence of numbers of individuals and committees, whose testimony might fill a volume, who investigated the phenomena after the Fox girls left Hydesville, in Rochester and elsewhere, and found the sounds to be often produced on the walls of rooms and at a distance from the persons of the mediums, and hence without the possibility of trick on their part. Add further the fact that similar raps and other sounds have occurred in every part of the country and the world, in the presence of people of unimpeachable honesty and veracity--who never saw the Fox sisters or could have learned their alleged tricks--the sound in all cases claiming to emanate from excarnate spirits;--and this accumulated evidence makes the story now told, wholly incredible. It is far more probable that this self-accused woman is now playing her role for a price, than that hundreds of witnesses were deceived by a childish trick, as she alleges.

In the editorial columns of the Banner, we find additional testimony given:--

In "The Missing Link," a valuable and reliable work on the early history of modern Spiritualism, since it was written by Mrs. A. Leah Underhill, the eldest of the Fox sisters, is given a very minute account of the tests to which Margaretta and herself submitted in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, N. Y., November, 1848, before large audiences. Introducing the narrative, Mrs. Underhill says:--

"Modern Spiritualism was now to be tried in a way by which no guilty person could hope to escape detection. Any one guilty of fraud as great as this would have been, had it consisted of simulation on our part, must certainly have met with swift exposure, and been stripped of all power or opportunity for further mischief. In fact, could it be rationally apprehended that we, or any one, would have dared to face an adverse public of a thronged city, and the entire sentiment of a world against us, as we had been directed to do, with nothing but a damning falsehood at our backs to lean upon?"

On the first evening the audience consisted of about 400. A committee of reputable citizens was appointed, who at the close reported that, unknown to any one, they selected a place to conduct their investigation; that the sounds on the floor, near where Margaretta and her sister stood, were heard as distinctly as at other places, and that some of the committee heard the rapping on the wall behind them. The raps were heard on the outside of a front door and on the door of a closet. A member of the committee placed one of his hands upon the feet of the ladies, and the other on the floor, and though the feet were not moved, there was a distinct jar on the floor. On the pavement of the street and on the ground the same sound was heard. They all agreed, and so reported, that the sounds were heard, but that they entirely failed to discover any means by which they were done.

This report was wholly unexpected. Mr. Capron says:--

"So sure were the editors of the Rochester Democrat that the meeting would be the last of the raps, that they wrote an article, and had it in type, saying the whole thing was exploded. When the report was made, the article was suppressed."

At the second meeting, another committee reported in like manner. At the third meeting a sub-committee of ladies was appointed, who took the mediums into a room, disrobed them, satisfied themselves there was nothing to produce the sounds, clothed them in garments of their own selection, and caused them to stand on sacks of feathers on a table, with their dresses tied tightly above their ankles. Immediately the raps were heard on the table, floor, and walls. The gentlemen then came in and heard the raps under these conditions; and the committee--Mrs. Stone, Mrs. J. Gates, and Miss M. P. Lawrence--signed a certificate attesting to the fact, and gave it to the mediums.

Such are some of the evidences by which the views hitherto held and advocated by S. D. Adventists in regard to the origin of modern Spiritualism, are sustained. So long as the facts therein alleged remain unrefuted, we shall not be in a hurry to change our opinion upon this point, and conclude that we, with so many thousands of others, have been made the victims of a deception in a matter which sustains such a prominent relation to our work: and that a movement so manifestly based upon the supernatural, as is modern Spiritualism, had its origin in fraud and humbug. Rather would we conclude that the Fox sisters are practicing a fraud at the present time in their alleged exposures,--a step to which it is said they are urged by another motive than a desire for the welfare and enlightenment of the public.

That these revelations, notwithstanding the source from whence they proceed, will prove a death-blow to Spiritualism, we do not at all believe. To quote the words of the Banner's correspondent above mentioned, "Spiritualism has always thrived on death-blows and always will." It has a work to do in the fulfillment of prophecy, which it will most assuredly accomplish. It is yet to go forth "to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16:14. We look for its influence and work to steadily extend in the earth until it receives its final and actual death-blow at the second coming of Christ.

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I hope this will be helpful to you. Thank you for writing, and God bless!

William Fagal
Associate Director
Ellen G. White Estate
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600 U.S.A.
Phone: 301 680-6550
FAX: 301 680-6559
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