Victorian Ghost Hunters
Table tilting, spirit writing, Ouija boards, séances, mediums, and apparitions were all the rage in the nineteenth century. The investigation into the world of ghosts gained momentum in the Victorian era and the age of spiritualism.
Fueled by a belief that science would soon unravel all the mysteries of the spirit world, the Victorians were very avid ghost hunters. They lived in a society that, for the first time in centuries, did not blindly accept religious dogma as the absolute truth.
The Spiritualist Movement
The Spiritualist movement began in 1848, when many reputable eyewitnesses observed poltergeist activity in a house in Hydesville, New York. The activity began with loud rapping, which occurred first in the presence of two teenaged girls, Margaret and Kate Fox.
The Victorians had an incredible interest in all things bizarre and paranormal and enjoyed grotesque images such as this sphinx with the head of a Victorian lady.
Photo copyright Melissa Martin Ellis, 2008.
The Fox sisters believed the noises were made by some intelligent entity or entities. A spirit they called Mr. Splitfoot could answer questions and told the girls things they could not have known on their own.
The Fox sisters became a sensation and were soon traveling throughout the eastern United States, demonstrating their powers and bringing messages from the spirit world. They rented large halls and held demonstrations of their abilities. The public was riveted and their appearances stirred up huge controversies. Soon other mediums sprang up in their wake, including the Eddy brothers, Madame Blavatsky, and Daniel Dunglas Home, to name a few.
Spiritualism in England
It was not in the least unusual to find middle- and upper-class people with an interest in spiritualism. Some scientists of great standing and reputation took psychic research very seriously.
In séances held in the nineteenth century, a phenomenon often reported was table knocking or tapping, often called spirit rapping. This sort of phenomena has actually been associated with spirits for centuries, but the Fox sisters revived it in the 1850s.
Men of letters who were open to the claims of mediums included poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson; philosopher Henry Sidgwick; and Nobel Prize winners Charles Richet and Lord Rayleigh. Two of the paranormal world's most respected supporters were William James, a writer who authored one of the earliest books on psychology in nineteenth-century America, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.
In 1882, some of the intellectuals in London decided to form an organization to study the world of psychic powers and paranormal abilities. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was formed. The founders were Edmund Gurney, an English psychologist, poet and essayist; Frederic William Henry Myers, professor of physics at the Royal College of Science; philosopher William Barrett; philosopher Henry Sidgwick; and journalist Edmund Dawson Rogers. The SPR exists to this day and has a branch in America as well.
