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| Spiritual Trendsetters Maggie and Kate |
This is a tale of twenty talented toes.
They were located on the pretty feet of sisters Maggie and Kate Fox.
In truth, the ladies also had talented ankles and knees.
In the late 1800s the Fox girls started a cult that was bigger than the Rev. Moon, Father Devine and the Bagwan Rajneeshi cults combined.
It was Spiritualism and it enabled the gullible to communicate with the spirits of the dead through séances. The two sisters hailed from a tiny village near Rochester, N.Y.
As youngsters, the Fox girls fooled their parents and neighbors into believing their house was haunted by a spirit that they could summons up. The spirit made rapping sounds .
Soon the Fox girls were communicating with the Spirit World in auditoriums and houses of famous people here and in England. Leah, a third sister, became their manager.
Other mediums got into the act, too. Some said ghostly figures appeared in their photographs. Others could make the dead write on slates or make objects move about a room.
A few figured out the girls’ gimmick. Late in life, the Fox sisters admitted the noise – often quite loud – came from cracking the joints in their toes, ankles and knees.
So where is the Philly connection? Well, Maggie married one of Philadelphia’s most famous 19th century residents, Arctic explorer Elijah Kent Kane.
More important was a multi-year study (1884-87) of Spiritualism, in all its manifestations, by scholars from the University of Pennsylvania.
Henry Seybert was a true believer in Spiritualism, but he must have had a few vague doubts because he left money in his will for a thorough study by Penn scholars. The 10-member Seybert Commission was composed of top intellects, including scientist Joseph Leidy, neurologist,S. Weir Mitchell and Shakespeare expert Horace Furness.
In brief, the Seybert Commission concluded that all forms of Spiritualism were pure bunk. A load of hooey.
Of course, even a 1000 Seybert Commissions cannot stop the gullible from a belief in ghosts and mystics with the power to contact the dearly departed. Examples include Uri Geller, the booming success of ghost tours in every city, and scary urban legends.
Studies in 2017 show close to half Americans either strongly believe in ghosts or they’re not sure about their existence. Search on line for Spiritualists or “contacting the dead” and you will find that this malarkey flourishes.
“Your love one is in a beautiful world of light. They are safe and happy. So do not fear them,” declares one site by a husband-wife team of mediums. There’s similar stuff on Youtube and something called “Afterlife TV.”