A Great Tool for the Serious Scholar of the "Spookiest Years"

"The first fact capable of proof is this: that during the last 18 years, while physical science has been progressing with rapid strides...a continually increasing number of persons maintain their belief in the existence of beings of the nature of those we have hitherto postulated as a bare possibility. All these persons declare that they have re­ceived direct and oft-repeated proofs of the existence of such beings. Most of them tell us they have been convinced against all their previous notions and prepossessions. Very many have previously been materialists, not believing in the existence of any intelligences disconnected from a visible, tangible form, nor in the continued existence of the mind of man after death. At the present moment there are at least three millions of persons in the United States of America, who have received to them satisfactory proofs of the existence of invisible intelligences ; and in this country [England] there are many thousands who declare the same thing. A large number of these persons continually receive fresh proofs in the privacy of their own homes, and so much interest is felt in the subject that two periodicals are supported in this city, several on the continent, and a very large number in America, which are exclusively devoted to disseminating information relating to the existence of these invisible intelligences and the means of communicating with them. A little enquiry into the literature of the subject, which is already very ex­tensive, reveals the startling fact, that this revival of so-called supernaturalism is not confined to the ignorant or superstitious, or to the lower classes of society. On the contrary, it is rather among the middle and upper classes that the larger proportion of its adherents are to be found; and among those who have declared themselves convinced of the reality of facts such as have been always classed as miracles, are numbers of literary, scientific, and professional men, who always have borne and still continue to bear high characters, are above the imputation either of falsehood or trickery, and have never manifested indications of insanity." -- Alfred Russel Wallace,  co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection, "The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural," 1866, page 10 (link).

The evidence for paranormal phenomena is extremely deep and diverse, consisting of reports of a wide variety of phenomena 

In my first 17 installments of my previous series of "Spookiest Years" posts, I gave a history of the astonishing spiritual manifestations reported between 1848 and 1889, which you can read in my posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, 

here, here, here, here,  here, here, here, here, here and here . The whole series can be read in a single free online book here, which allows the convenience of reading the whole series by finger-swiping, after you have pressed the [] icon at the bottom. One minor disadvantage of reading the online book is that it is in reverse chronological order. 

In general I followed a rigorous standard in writing that series: the standard of always searching for the earliest publication reporting some particular event. So, for example, if it was reported that some astonishing paranormal event occurred in a particular city on one particular day, I would make every effort to get the earliest available report claiming such a thing.  

There is no substitute for studying the earliest available observational report of some occurrence. If you are repeating second-hand or third-hand or fourth-hand accounts, there is too much of an opportunity for error.  Second-hand or third-hand or fourth-hand accounts are particularly prone to error when they involve summaries of observational reports rather than full direct quotations of such reports.  There might be embellishments of the original report which grow with each retelling. 

After writing the posts above, I discovered a very valuable resource for serious students of the spooky phenomena reported in the nineteenth century.  The resource is the SSOC page here, which is part of the site at www.iapsop.com. We have a link to hundreds of books and documents, most of which pertain to paranormal phenomena. Each of the books and documents can be directly read for free from this page, without any paywalls or sign-ins. One great thing about the page is its chronological sorting. All of the books and documents are in chronological order. So, for example, if I want to see exactly what was being written about paranormal phenomena in the year 1850, I need merely scroll to the books in the list with a publication date of 1850. The page includes links to almost every English-language book written about the paranormal during the years 1800 to 1920, including many books written by skeptics. 

One of the advantage of a resource such as this page is that the serious scholar can discover the utter enormity of the written testimony in favor of the reality of paranormal events between the years 1848 and 1880. We have links to very many books describing such manifestations, and these books make up a total of very many thousands of pages. And such testimony is only a fraction of the written testimony that appeared at this time, because most of the testimony is contained in periodicals and newspapers that you can read at www.iapsop.com. Such newspapers often offer the best type of first-hand eyewitness testimony, such as testimony signed by multiple named witnesses who describe in the greatest detail events they saw at a particular named location on a particular named day, with the day typically being a few weeks prior to the date of publication, and the account very often written on the same day the events were seen.  

Using the site I have been able to find some publications I was hoping to find, but unable to find on www.archive.org.  For example, while researching my post on the year 1850, I found a quotation of a very interesting statement by C. W. Hammond reporting the most astonishing phenomena. But I declined to quote the statement, because I had not found the original document. So all I said about the statement was this:

"On page 39 we have a long 1850 statement by a Charles Hammond quoted 'from a pamphlet by D. M. Dewey.' I have not been able to find the original document. "

But now using the SSOC page on www.iapsop.com (http://iapsop.com/ssoc/) I am able to find the original 1850 document by Dewey. So let me quote the very interesting account by C. W. Hammond. He describes getting communications under a tedious system in which the alphabet is recited, and mysterious raps are heard after particular letters were recited, with the corresponding letter being written down. When he refers to "the family" he means the three Fox sisters and their mother. On page 27 of the document, C. W. Hammond states this in a letter to Dewey:

"In compliance with your solicitation, I will proceed to lay before you a brief statement of  what has fallen under my observation, in regard to the 'mysterious sounds' and 'demonstrations,'  purporting to be made by intelligent spirits, who once inhabited an earthly tabernacle....On my next visit I was much-more successful. During the interval I had prepared my mind with certain questions, touching events unknown to the family, and of a remote date. The  sounds told me my age precisely, though my appearance is such as to indicate a difference· of eight or ten years. The names of six of my nearest deceased relatives were given me.  I then inquired, ' Will the spirit, who now makes these sounds, give me its name?' Five sounds directed me to the alphabet, which I repeated until the name of 'Charles' appeared, which answered to an infant child whom we consigned to the grave in March, 1843. To my inquiries, it gave me a true answer in regard to the time it had been in the spirit-land, and also the period since my eldest sister's death, which was nearly eighteen years, the latter fact ·not being recollected then, I found true by dates on my return home. Many other test questions were correctly answered; and yet, notwithstanding . the origin of these sounds seemed inexplicable, I was inclined to impute them to mesmerism or clairvoyance. However, as the spirit promised to satisfy me by other demonstrations when I came again, I patiently awaited the opportunity.

On the third visit, I was selected from a halfdozen gentlemen, and directed by these sounds to retire to another room, in company with the ' three sisters' and their aged mother. It was about eight o'clock in the evening. A lighted candle was placed on a large table, and we seated ourselves around it. I occupied one side of the table, the mother and the youngest daughter the right, and two of the sisters the left, leaving the opposite side of the table vacant. On taking our positions the sounds were heard, and continued to multiply and become more violent until every part of the room trembled with their demonstrations. They were unlike any 1 had heard before. Suddenly, as we were all resting on the table, I felt the side next to me move upward. I pressed upon it heavily, but soon it passed out of the reach of us all, full six feet from me, and at least four from the nearest person to it. I saw distinctly its position ; not a thread could have connected it with any of the company without my notice, for I had come to detect imposition, if it could be found. In this position we were situated, when the question was asked, ' Will the spirit move the table back where it was before ? — and back it came, as though it were carried on the head of some one, who had not suited his position to a perfect equipoise, the balance being sometimes in favor of one side and then the other. But it regained its first position. In the meantime the ' demonstrations' grew louder and louder. The family commenced and sung the ' Spirit's song,' and several other pieces of sacred music, during which, accurate time was marked on the table, causing it to vibrate; a transparent hand, resembling a shadow, presented itself before my face ; I felt fingers taking hold of a lock of my hair on the left side of my head, causing an inclination of several inches; then a cold, death-like hand was drawn designedly over my face ; three gentle raps on my left knee ; my right limb forcibly pulled up, against strong resistance, under the table ; a violent shaking, as though two hands were applied to my shoulders ; myself and chair uplifted and moved back a few inches ; and several slaps, as with a hand, on the side of my head, which were repeated on each one of the company, more rapidly than I could count. During these manifestations, a piece of pasteboard, nearly a foot square, was swung with such velocity before us as to throw a strong current of air in our faces ; a paper curtain attached to one of the windows was rolled up and unrolled twice ; a lounge, immediately behind me, was shaken violently ; two small drawers in a bureau played back and forth with inconceivable rapidity ; a sound resembling a man sawing boards, and planing them, was heard under the table ; a common spinning-wheel seemed to be in motion, making a very natural buzz of the spindle ; a reel articulated each knot wound upon it ; while the sound of a rocking cradle indicated maternal care for the infant's slumbers  These were among many other demonstrations which I witnessed that evening, amid which I felt a perfect self-possession, and in no instance the slightest embarrassment, except a momentary chill when the cold hand was applied to my face, similar to a sensation I have realized when touching a dead body. That any of the company could have performed these things, under the circumstances in which we were situated, would require a greater stretch of credulity on my part than it would be to believe it was the work of spirits. It could not, by any possibility, have been done by them, nor even attempted, without detection. And I may add, that, near the close of the demonstrations at this visit, there was a vibration of the floor, as though several tons in weight had been uplifted, and suddenly fallen again upon it. This caused everything in the room to shake most violently for several minutes, when the force was withdrawn.

I have also tested the intelligence of these spirits in every way my ingenuity could invent. On one occasion, I wrote a word on a slip of paper privately, placed it in my wallet, went there, and the sounds, through the alphabet, spelled that word correctly as I had written it. That word was ' Sybil.'

 On the 29th of February, inst., the two youngest sisters made my family a visit. Here the sounds were heard — questions involving subjects wholly unknown to them were answered — a large, heavy dining-table was moved several times — and, on expressing thanks at the table to the Giver of all Good, some six or eight sounds responded to every sentence I uttered, by making loud and distinct sounds in various parts of the room. 

Yours, truly,

 C. Hammond. 

Rochester, Feb. '22, 1850."

Below is another example of some of the evidence of the paranormal that can be discovered at the SSOC page here,  We have a diagram showing an example of a levitation of a table that was witnessed by the author W. J. Crawford:

You can see the diagram on page 8 of the book here. The next page gives us the diagram below, illustrating a change in position of the table the author observed:

You can ponder the type of engineering that would be needed to cause a table to move in such a way.  The starting position (1) could conceivably be produced by having the table suspended by some incredibly thin nylon wire of a type that had not yet been invented in 1919 when the book was published: a wire so thin it would not be noticed by a careful observer. To achieve the transition from position (1) to position (5) you would need to have a mechanically operating trolley system, like the trolleys used to move cameras when filming some types of movie shots. Such a trolley could drag the suspended wire across the room. The problem is that such a trolley would be a mechanical device observable from the ceiling, where anyone could notice it; and no such thing was observed.  

More Newspaper Accounts of Spiritual Manifestations

Let us look at some newspaper accounts of spiritual manifestations, accounts different from those in my earlier post "Newspaper Accounts of Spiritual Manifestations." Below is a newspaper account of spiritual manifestations from 1867.  We read of mysterious rap sounds that seemed to be able to answer questions correctly. 

"The people of our neighborhood have been for a week past very much excited by spiritual manifestations in a house at the Springfield Furnace Mine Bank. The inmates of the house are persons of integrity and good standing. An orphan girl, a member of the family, who was the special medium or victim of this phenomenon of spiritual communication, also bears a good character. The rapping always commenced about nine o'clock in the evening, and continued until after midnight. Before appearing each night, the medium experienced a dullness beginning at her feet and extending upwards. Then a low tapping was heard over the floor, like some one walking, growing louder as it approached the girl, ending in loud knocks, like the stroke of a mallet. One moment, it was overhead, then under the floor, on the wall, &c. It would respond by distinct raps to every question. It was asked how long since Mr. Lincoln died, and the number of years was immediately given. So in regard to the lapse of years since Stephen A. Douglas died.

A member of the family becoming vexed at the noise and confusion, remarked, 'I am not afraid of you, my trust is in God,' when there was such a succession of 'thundering knocks' that a portion of the plastering fell from the wall. People came from a distance to investigate the matter, believing it to be collusion or trickery, and went away firmly convinced that it was an intangible, unsubstantial
spirit, and found that 'there are more things in heaven and earth than were dreamed of in their philosophy.'  The rappings continued one week. The girl had several convulsions, after which she
sank into a partial trance and the noises  were heard no more."

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85054846/1867-09-12/ed-1/seq-1/

N. P. Tallmadge served two terms as the US Senator from New York and served as the governor of a US territory.  A newspaper account  from 1853 has a letter by Tallmadge. Tallmadge describes a seance in which there were communications claiming to be from the then-deceased US senator John Calhoun. He describes movements and levitations of a heavy table, which very many respectable witnesses claimed to see during this period. Tallmadge states this:

"During the above communication of Calhoun, the table moved occasionally, perhaps a foot; first one way and then the other. After the communication closed, we all moved back

from the table, from two to four feet—so that

no one touched the table. Suddenly the table

moved from the position it occupied some three

or four feet, rested a few moments, and then

moved back to its original position. Then it

again moved as far the other way, and returned to the place

 it started from. One side of

the table was then raised, and stood for a few

moments at an angle of about thirty-five degrees,

 and then again rested on the floor as us

usual.

The table was a large, heavy, round table, at

which ten or a dozen persons might be seated

at dinner. During all these movements no person 

touched the table, nor was any one near it.

After seeing it raised in the manner above mentioned. 

I had the curiosity to test its weight

by raising it myself. I accordingly took my

seat by it, placed my hands under the leaf, and

exerted as much force as I was capable of in

that sitting posture, and could not raise it a

particle from the floor. I then stood up in the

best possible position to exert the greatest

force, took hold of the leaf, and still could not

raise it with all the strength I could apply. I

then requested the three ladies to take hold

around the table, and try altogether to lift it.

We lifted... and did not raise it a particle. We

then desisted, fearing we should break the table. I then said, 'Will the spirits permit me to raise the table?' I took hold alone, and raised it without difficulty. After this the following conversation ensued:

'Q,. Can you raise the table entirely from

the floor? A. Yes - '

'Q. Will you raise me with it? A. Yes;

get me the square table.'

The square table was of cherry, with four

legs, a large size tea table. It was brought out

and substituted for the round one, the leaves

being raised. I took my seat on the centre;

the three ladies sat at the sides and arms resting upon it. This, of course, added to the weight to be raised, namely, my own weight of the table. Two legs of the table were then

raised about six inches from the floor, and then

the other two legs were raised to a level of the

first, so that the whole table was suspended in the

air about six inches above the floor. While thus

seated on it, I could feel a gentle vibratory motion as if floating in the atmosphere. After being thus suspended in the air for a few moments, the table ... let down again to the floor....

I was then directed to put the guitar on the

drawer. We were all seated as before, with

our hands and arms resting on the table.

The guitar was touched softly and gently,

and gave forth sweet and delicious sounds like

the accompaniment to a beautiful and exquisite

piece of music. It then played a sort of symphony, in much 

louder and bolder tones. And

as it played these harmonious sounds, becoming

soft and sweet, and low, began to recede, and

grew fainter and fainter till they died away on

the ear in the distance. Then they returned

and grew louder and nearer, till they were

heard again in full and gushing volume as when

they commenced.

I am utterly incapable of giving any adequate

idea of the beauty and harmony of this music.

I have heard the guitar touched by the most

delicate and scientific hands, and heard from it

under such guidance, the most splendid performances. But never did I hear any thing that fastened upon the very soul like these prophetic strains drawn out by an invisible hand from the Spirit World."

The account by Tallmadge has further astonishing details, such as the mysterious production of a line of text, written in handwriting matching Calhoun's.  You can read the rest of the account using the link here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064476/1853-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Accounts like the one above were very commonly given by many distinguished witnesses at this time, as you can read about by reading my posts   here, here, here, here and here.  Accounts like the one above were often the best type of testimony, in the sense that they appeared as newspaper accounts published a small number of days after the claimed observations, accounts signed by multiple named witnesses, often more than four. 

The account below appeared in the February 22, 1851 edition of the widely respected anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator. We have an account of events on January 22, 1851, which were received by the newspaper with a cover letter dated January 25, 1851, which means the account below must have been written within a few days of the occurrence of the events. The first sentence of the account implies it was written on the same day as the events reported. We read this:

"We, the undersigned, having witnessed, this day,

at the house of Mr. Leroy Sunderland, (No. 28

Eliot street, Boston,) the following phenomena, deem

it proper, in this way, to make mention of them.

When we entered the room, there were some ten

persons surrounding a table, conversing with the

spirits; and as many more in the room as spectators, 

watching the movements of the others. Mrs.

M. Cooper was the medium. There were constant

and frequent rappings upon the table, and responses

to various and ingenious test questions, all of which

were admitted to be answered correctly; and the

company expressed themselves as being satisfied

with the answers given. We saw no motion of the

medium which would indicate that she had, personally, any thing to do with the responses given ; and we think she could not have had. The rappings were made on the table, without exception.

After this circle had retired, we, the undersigned,

surrounded the same table, when the following occurrences were observed:—

1. In answer to the question, ‘If any of our

guardian spirits were present?’ loud and prompt responses were heard

 upon the table, the vibrations of

which were distinctly felt by our hands ; and we are

positive that Mrs. Cooper did not touch the table at

all.

2. We then asked the spirits if they would give

us some physical manifestations, and we were promptly answered by raps in the affirmative. The table

was then immediately moved in various directions,

from one to two feet; and, at our request, was, quite

a number of times, turned over into the laps of those

surrounding it. In two instances, it was raised entirely from off the floor, and we are positive that no human instrumentality was employed in producing these results.

For the purpose of varying the experiment, we all

took hold of the top of the table, holding it clear of

the floor in our hands, when it was violently shaken,

while yet so suspended, as if its standard had been

seized by strong hands, and it apparently varied in

weight from twenty to two hundred pounds.

3. Among the test questions proposed and satisfactorily answered, 

was one by G. F. Farley, Esq., of

Groton, Mass , substantially as follows: —

‘ What relation is this spirit to me?’ 

Ans. ‘Your brother.’

‘ What was your given name?’ 

Ans. ‘Perez' which was spelled out promptly by the alphabet. Mr. Farley then stated, to the astonishment of the company,

that this was his brother’s name, and that he died

some fifty years ago—facts unknown to any other

person present.

[Mr. Farley himself may be referred to for the

truth of what is here stated.]

In the evening of the same day, we met again,

with an addition to our circle. [Mr. Farley, of Groton, and G. A. Somerby, of Wayland, were present

at both sittings,] and in the evening, Mr. George E.

Haskell, Dr. Z. Rogers, Moses Babcock, and Dr. L.

B. Larkin, of Wrentham, were also present. The

circle was formed in Mr. Sunderland’s back parlor,

as before, when the following, among other phenomena, were produced. On holding each other’s hands,

so that no hand was at liberty in the room, a centre

table, around which we were sitting, was raised up from

the floor five times, and let down with considerable

force, so as to shake the floor. Once or twice, the

raps were made, not on the table, but with it, the

table being used by the spirits, as we were assured,

to rap with, on the floor. Five times the table was upset and turned over, so that it fell sideways upon the floor, with violence....

We can only say, that we have been profoundly

impressed with the conviction that no human agency whatever was used in the production of  the phenomena we have described.

Signed, Boston, Jan. 22, 1851.

C. P. Kibbee, M. D., Springfield, Mass.

Rufus Elmer, 

Nelson L. Elmer, 

Theodore M. Smith, Boston,

George E. Haskell, 

Z. Rogers, Charlestown, 

Moses Babcock"

You can read the full account using the link below:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84031524/1851-02-28/ed-1/seq-4/

An 1876 newspaper article notes the death of the medium Daniel Dunglas Home. Below is a quote from the article (I'll correct the misspelling of Home's middle name):

"The death of Daniel Dunglas Home, as reported by cable dispatch from Paris, recently, terminates the career of the most famous Spiritualist and medium of modern times. The New York World affects to doubt his departure from this life, as if only the half of what has been told of Mr. Home is true. To suppose him dead merely because he happened to leave his corpse would be as absurd as to suppose so because he happened to leave his great-coat or his umbrella behind him.

He was born in Scotland, and came to this country when a mere child. He made his first conspicuous successes in Springfield and in Boston between the years 1851 and 1853. In this city he was hailed as a prophet by numbers of highly-educated persons, but finally in 1855 he went to Europe. In London he was warmly welcomed by several coteries of the aristocracy, and he made a very strong impression upon the mind of Queen Victoria herself. The Duchess of Sutherland was one of his most open proselytes and believers. In Paris be was made for a time 'the rage' by the undisguised interest which the Emperor Napoleon took in him and in his alleged miracles. He was frequently summoned to the Tuileries, and he gradually acquired a very considerable influence with the Emperor.

He married a Russian lady of noble birth in 1856. She died in 1862, and Mr. Home married a Russian princess. He was a particular favorite at the court of the Czar, and claimed in private to have converted the Czar to spiritualism. The many strange tales of spiritual phenomena contain nothing to rival the demonstrations of Mr. Home. Besides the ordinary phenomena of rapping, table tipping, writing and playing upon musical instruments, they include in his case visions seen by the medium, appearances of hands, arms and spirit forms seen by other persons, 'levitation' or the preternatural uplifting of the medium, elongation and shortening of his body by several inches, and his handling of fire and heated objects without hurt. It has been again and again affirmed of Mr. Home by witnesses of unimpeached character that they have seen him plunge his hands with impunity into a blazing coal fire, seat himself upon heavy mahogany dinner-tables and rise with them several feet into the air, and after floating horizontally head foremost out of the window at a height of many yards from the ground, sail tranquilly around a castle tower and come in again unharmed at the other side."

Home being tested by a leading scientist (in tests described here)

Such was the fame of Daniel Dunglas Home in 1874 that when Scientific American on January 31, 1874 published a summary of the investigations of the eminent scientist William Crookes regarding Home, Scientific American merely referred to "the medium Home," without giving his first name, as if it thought everyone knew his first name. At the time Scientific American was more of a newspaper than a magazine. The first part of the summary is below:

Most of the second part of the summary is below:

The third part of the summary is below:

The items above are all a summary of the book of William Crookes that can be read here, where you can read the details in nice clear type. Crookes (discoverer of the element thallium) said he detected no trickery from Home, who he had subjected to very careful tests. By the 20th century a publication such as Scientific American always showed a complete amnesia about such observations. Its writers never mentioned a word about such matters. It became a taboo to ever mention that one of the leading scientists of the 19th century (William Crookes) had reported observing such wonders as levitation and the appearance of luminous spirit hands floating about.

It Seemed the Paranormal Was Her Near-Constant Companion

Recently I had a dream about the late Kate Fox, one that struck me as being perhaps of great significance.  I dreamed I was standing in front of an elevator, and someone said, "Kate Fox wants to see you." I got in the elevator, and pressed a floor number. But it seemed I pressed a series of digits making a number much larger than 1000, as if I was trying to ascend very many times higher than the top of the world's tallest building. The combination of the motif of the deceased person wanting to see me and the motif of an ascent to some super-high elevation made the dream one of 400+ dreams I have had suggesting life after death. 

Kate Fox was one of the famous Fox sisters involved in the events in  Hydesville, New York beginning in 1848, and the events not long after in Rochester, New York, events that were the beginning of a series of dramatic manifestations that lasted for decades, and were reported in very many places in the United States and Europe, mostly when none of the Fox sisters were present.  The manifestation began as inexplicable sounds that were called "rappings" or raps.

The important American newspaper figure Horace Greeley reported on the visit of the Fox sisters to New York City:

"Mrs. Fox and her three daughters left our city yesterday, on their return to Rochester, after a stay here of some weeks ; during which they have subjected the mysterious influence by which they seem to be accompanied to every reasonable test and to the keen and critical scrutiny of hundreds who have chosen to visit them, or whom they have been invited to visit. The rooms which they occupied at the hotel have been repeatedly searched and scrutinized ; they have been taken without an hour's notice into houses they had never before entered ; they have been unconsciously placed on a glass surface, concealed under the carpet in order to interrupt electrical vibrations ; they have been disrobed by a committee of ladies, appointed without notice, and insisting that neither of them should leave the room until the investigation had been made, etc. , etc. ; yet we believe no one to this moment pretends that he has detected either of them in producing or causing the 'rappings,' nor do we think any of their contemnors has invented a plausible theory to account for the production of these sounds, nor the singular intelligence which [certainly at times] has seemed to be manifested through them. Some ten or twelve days since they gave up their rooms at the hotel, and devoted the remainder of their sojourn here to visiting several families, to which they had been invited by persons interested in the subject, and subjecting the singular influence to a closer, calmer examination than could be given to it at an hotel, and before casual companies of strangers, drawn together by vague curiosity more than rational interest, or predetermined and invincible hostility. Our own dwelling was among those they thus visited, not only submitting to, but courting the fullest and keenest inquiry with regard to the alleged ' manifestations' from the spirit-world by which they were attended.

'' We devoted what time we could spare from our duties, out of three days, to this subject ; and it would be the basest cowardice not to say that we are convinced beyond a doubt of their perfect integrity and good faith in the premises.  Whatever may be the origin or cause of the 'rappings,' the ladies in whose presence they occur do not make them. We tested this thoroughly, and to our entire satisfaction."

In 1855 Canadian author Susanna Moodie described a meeting she had with Kate Fox, who Moodie describes as having the most beautiful eyes she ever saw, eyes of a dark purple color:

"Miss F. [Kate Fox] told me to write a list of names of dead and living friends, but neither to read to her, nor to allow her to see them. I did this upon one side of a quire of paper, the whole thickness between her and me, writing with her back to me. She told me to run my pen along the list, and as a test the spirits would rap five times for every dead, and three times for every living, friend. I inwardly smiled at this. Yet strange to say, they never once missed."

Moodie reports a name being spelled out by raps, apparently under the common system of this time by which the alphabet would be recited, and a letter would be written down whenever a mysterious rap occurred after a letter was named.  The name spelled out (Anna Laura Harral) was someone whose name was unknown to Kate Fox, but who Moodie had made a compact with, under which either of the two people surviving death would try to communicate evidence of survival to the surviving person.  Moodie reports a wide variety of inexplicable sound phenomena occurring around Kate Fox (as did quite a few distinguished authors), including sounds (combined with vibrations) coming from the dirt or rocks Moodie stood on. Moodie reports a piano playing by itself, soon after Kate Fox suggested that it would. 

Moodie reports asking that the birth year and death year engraved under a ring Mr. Moodie was wearing be identified by the mysterious raps. The correct years were given, she says, as was her father's name and the date of his birth and death, and the place and cause of her father's death. Like countless other witnesses, she reports such questions were correctly answered, even though posed only mentally rather than orally. 

In an 1861 book Benjamin Coleman gives this remarkable account of meeting Kate Fox:

"The rappings in her presence are very loud and precise. When I  called on her one morning, the room resounded on all sides as if a host were giving me a joyous welcome. I asked if the spirits who were present would give me their names, and the names of Harry, Isabel, and Sylvester were spelt out, no names having been mentioned by me in Miss Fox's presence, and of course I and my family relations were wholly unknown to her. These were followed by other names of friends, spelt out in full, and one, a relative of my wife's said, 'Let me speak.'  A message followed, of a specially significant and touching character, which I am precluded from giving, as it relates to private family affair; but I may mention that the tenor of the message is an actual apology offered for an assumed injustice done to me during her life-time, now 20 years ago."

Alfred Russel Wallace (co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection) stated this about Kate Fox in 1874:

"Miss Kate Fox, the little girl of nine years old, who, as already stated, was the first ‘medium ' in the modern sense of the term, has continued to possess the same power for twenty-six years. At the very earliest stages of the movement, sceptic after sceptic, committee after committee, endeavoured to discover ' the trick ;' but if it was a trick this little girl baffled them all, and the proverbial acuteness of the Yankee was of no avail. In 1860, when Dr. Robert Chambers visited America, he suggested to his friend, Robert Dale Owen, the use of a balance to test the lifting power. They accordingly, without pre-arrangement with the medium, took with them a powerful steelyard, and suspended from it a dining-table weighing 121 pounds. Then, under a bright gaslight, the feet of the two mediums (Miss Fox and her sister) being both touched by the feet of the gentlemen, and the hands of all present being held over but not touching the table, it was made lighter or heavier at request, so as to weigh at one time only 60, at another 134 pounds. This experiment, be it remembered, was identical with one proposed by Faraday himself as being conclusive. Mr. Owen had many sittings with Miss Fox for the purpose of test ; and the precautions he took were extraordinary. He sat with her alone ; he frequently changed the room without notice ; he examined every article of furniture; he locked the doors and fastened them with strips of paper privately sealed ; he held both the hands of the medium. Under these conditions various phenomena occurred, the most remarkable being the illumination of a piece of paper (which he had brought himself, cut of a peculiar size, and privately marked), showing a dark hand writing on the floor. The paper afterwards rose up on to the table with legible writing upon it, containing a promise which was subsequently verified. (‘ Debateable Land,'  p. 293.)

But Miss Fox’s powers were most remarkably shown in the séances with Mr. Livermore, a well-known New York banker, and an entire sceptic before commencing these experiments. These sittings were more than three hundred in number, extending over five years. They took place in four different houses (Mr. Livermore’s and the medium’s being both changed during this period), under tests of the most rigid description. The chief phenomenon was the appearance of a tangible, visible, and audible figure of Mr. Livermore’s deceased wife, sometimes accompanied by a male figure, purporting to be Dr. Franklin. The former figure was often most distinct and absolutely life-like. It moved various objects in the room. It wrote messages on cards. It was sometimes formed out of a luminous cloud, and again vanished before the eyes of the witnesses. It allowed a portion of its dress to be cut off, which though at first of strong and apparently material gauzy texture, yet in a short time melted away and became invisible. Flowers which melted away were also given. These phenomena occurred best when Mr. L. and the medium were alone; but two witnesses were occasionally admitted, who tested everything and confirmed Mr. L.’s testimony. One of these was Mr. Livermore’s physician, the other his brother-in-law ; the latter previously a sceptic. The details of these wonderful séances were published in the Spiritual Magazine in 1862 and 1863 ; and the more remarkable are given in Owen’s ' Debateable Land,' from which work a good idea may be formed of the great variety of the phenomena that occurred and the stringent character of the tests employed. Miss Fox recently came to England, and here also her powers have been tested by a competent man of science, and found to be all that has been stated."

The scientist who Wallace refers to was William Crookes, not merely a "competent man of science" but one of the most accomplished physicists of his time, being the discover of the element thallium and inventor of the Crookes tube that was the technological ancestor of the television set. In the same year (1874) Crookes published his "Notes of an Enquiry Into the Phenomena Called Spiritual" in which he described various classes of inexplicable phenomena. Crookes listed as Class II "The Phenomena of Percussive and other Allied Sounds."  Describing that class of phenomena he stated this:

"The popular name of 'raps' conveys a very erroneous impression of this class of phenomena. At different times, during my experiments, I have heard delicate ticks, as with the point of a pin; a cascade of sharp sounds as from an induction coil in full work; detonations in the air; sharp metallic taps ; a cracking like that heard when a frictional machine is at work; sounds like scratching; the twittering as of a bird, &c.

These sounds are noticed with almost every medium, each having a special peculiarity; they are more varied with Mr. Home, but for power and certainty I have met with no one who at all approached Miss Kate Fox. For several months I enjoyed almost unlimited opportunity of testing the various phenomena occurring in the presence of this lady, and I especially examined the phenomena of these sounds. With mediums, generally, it is necessary to sit for a formal séance before anything is heard; but, in the case of Miss Fox it seems only necessary for her to place her hand on any substance for loud thuds to be heard in it, like a triple pulsation, sometimes loud enough to be heard several rooms off. In this manner I have heard them in a living tree—on a sheet of glass—on a stretched iron wire—on a stretched membrane—a tambourine—on the roof of a cab—and on the floor of a theatre. Moreover, actual contact is not always necessary; I have had these sounds proceeding from the floor, walls, &c., when the medium’s hands and feet were held—when she was standing on a chair—when she was suspended in a swing from the ceiling—when she was enclosed in a wire cage—and when she had fallen fainting on a sofa. I have heard them on a glass harmonicon—I have felt them on my own shoulder and under my own hands. I have heard them on a sheet of paper, held between the fingers by a piece of thread passed through one corner. With a full  knowledge of the numerous theories which have been started, chiefly in America, to explain these sounds, I have tested them in every way that I could devise, until there has been no escape from the conviction that they were true objective occurrences not produced by trickery or mechanical means.

An important question here forces itself upon the attention. Are the movements and sounds governed by intelligence? Ata very early stage of the enquiry, it was seen that the power producing the phenomena was not merely a blind force, but was associated with or governed by intelligence: thus the sounds to which I have just alluded will be repeated a definite number of times, they will come loud or faint, and in different places at request ; and by a pre-arranged code of signals, questions are answered, and messages given with more or less accuracy."

Wallace's account above refers to accounts in The Spiritual Magazine in 1862 and 1863. You can read some of those accounts here (pages 193 -201) and here (pages 260-264).  We read of some dramatic phenomena, but as evidence the accounts are far inferior to the accounts involving the materialization seances of Florence Cook. The reason is that there are not multiple named witnesses. Conversely, the seances of Florence Cook were promptly described in the greatest detail for very many months by very many named witnesses, who quickly published their accounts, typically within weeks (as I describe in my posts here and here). 

Wallace refers to the account of the Livermore seances with Kate Fox given by Robert Dale Owen in his book "The debatable land between this world and the next : with illustrative narrations." You can read the account by using the link here to access pages 483 and the next ten pages or so. On page 487 we have this narrative from Livermore of an event at a seance with Kate Fox:

"At last a luminous globe which had remained stationary some six feet to my left floated in front, and came within two feet of me. It was violently agitated, crackling sounds were heard, and a figure became visible by its light. Then there was revealed the full head and face of Estelle, every feature and lineament in perfection, spiritualized in shadowy beauty, such as no imagination can conceive or pen describe. In her hair, above the left temple, was a single white rose ; the hair being apparently arranged with great care. The entire head and face faded and then became visible again, at least twenty times ; the perfection of recognition, in each case, being in proportion to the brilliancy of the light." 

The physicist William Crookes gave this account of a meeting with Kate Fox:

"I was sitting next to the medium, Miss Fox, the only other persons present being my wife and a lady relative, and I was holding the medium's two hands in one of mine, whilst her feet were resting on my feet. Paper was on the table before us, and my disengaged hand was holding a pencil.  A luminous hand came down from the upper part of the room, and after hovering near me for a few seconds, took the pencil from my hand, rapidly wrote on a sheet of paper, threw the pencil down, and then rose up over our heads, gradually fading into darkness."

From such accounts above, you can get an idea of why a man like me might take it very seriously upon having a dream in which someone says,  "Kate Fox wants to see you." 

Kate Fox (later Kate Fox Jencken)

Postscript: The 1851 book "Pittsburgh and Allegheny Spirit Rappings" can be read here. On page 45 we have an account by William T. Coggshall dated June 6, 1851. It describes a meeting Coggshall had with Kate Fox on that date, June 6, 1851. We read of intelligent messages being received by raps, Coggshall describes a table in the room moving in mysterious ways -- away from him, and then towards him, with the movements sometimes being several feet, with Kate Fox being away from the table.  Similar spooky movements occurred to a chair, according to Coggshall. He describes mysterious raps coming from quite a few different places in the room, We read this:

"Numerous raps were now heard on the table, upon the floor, on the legs of the table, upon the under side, on one of the chairs, and the scratchings were repeated while the raps were being heard with great force. Again the table was moved back and forth, and presently there was a call for lie alphabet, and the word 'Done' was spelled."

The account is corroborated by another witness, E. F. Norton, in a statement dated June 6, 1851. We have here several hallmarks of first-class observational evidence: a named witness giving first-hand testimony of what he saw on the day he wrote such testimony, with someone else corroborating his statements.  The book is filled with similar testimonies, signed by named witnesses who date their statements. 

The SSOC page on www.iapsop.com (http://iapsop.com/ssoc/) is a valuable resource for contemporaneous accounts involving figures such as Kate Fox. I am able to find the an 1850 document by Dewey that gives one of the earliest accounts of a meeting with Kate Fox, an account by C. W. Hammond. He describes getting communications under a tedious system in which the alphabet is recited, and mysterious raps are heard after particular letters were recited, with the corresponding letter being written down. When he refers to "the family" he means the three Fox sisters (including Kate Fox) and their mother. On page 27 of the document, C. W. Hammond states this in a letter to Dewey:

"In compliance with your solicitation, I will proceed to lay before you a brief statement of  what has fallen under my observation, in regard to the 'mysterious sounds' and 'demonstrations,'  purporting to be made by intelligent spirits, who once inhabited an earthly tabernacle....On my next visit I was much-more successful. During the interval I had prepared my mind with certain questions, touching events unknown to the family, and of a remote date. The  sounds told me my age precisely, though my appearance is such as to indicate a difference· of eight or ten years. The names of six of my nearest deceased relatives were given me.  I then inquired, ' Will the spirit, who now makes these sounds, give me its name?' Five sounds directed me to the alphabet, which I repeated until the name of 'Charles' appeared, which answered to an infant child whom we consigned to the grave in March, 1843. To my inquiries, it gave me a true answer in regard to the time it had been in the spirit-land, and also the period since my eldest sister's death, which was nearly eighteen years, the latter fact ·not being recollected then, I found true by dates on my return home. Many other test questions were correctly answered; and yet, notwithstanding . the origin of these sounds seemed inexplicable, I was inclined to impute them to mesmerism or clairvoyance. However, as the spirit promised to satisfy me by other demonstrations when I came again, I patiently awaited the opportunity.

On the third visit, I was selected from a halfdozen gentlemen, and directed by these sounds to retire to another room, in company with the ' three sisters' and their aged mother. It was about eight o'clock in the evening. A lighted candle was placed on a large table, and we seated ourselves around it. I occupied one side of the table, the mother and the youngest daughter the right, and two of the sisters the left, leaving the opposite side of the table vacant. On taking our positions the sounds were heard, and continued to multiply and become more violent until every part of the room trembled with their demonstrations. They were unlike any 1 had heard before. Suddenly, as we were all resting on the table, I felt the side next to me move upward. I pressed upon it heavily, but soon it passed out of the reach of us all, full six feet from me, and at least four from the nearest person to it. I saw distinctly its position ; not a thread could have connected it with any of the company without my notice, for I had come to detect imposition, if it could be found. In this position we were situated, when the question was asked, ' Will the spirit move the table back where it was before V — and back it came, as though it were carried on the head of some one, who had not suited his position to a perfect equipoise, the balance being sometimes in favor of one side and then the other. But it regained its first position. In the meantime the ' demonstrations' grew louder and louder. The family commenced and sung the ' Spirit's song,' and several other pieces of sacred music, during which, accurate time was marked on the table, causing it to vibrate; a transparent hand, resembling a shadow, presented itself before my face ; I felt fingers taking hold of a lock of my hair on the left side of my head, causing an inclination of several inches; then a cold, death-like hand was drawn designedly over my face ; three gentle raps on my left knee ; my right limb forcibly pulled up, against strong resistance, under the table ; a violent shaking, as though two hands were applied to my shoulders ; myself and chair uplifted and moved back a few inches ; and several slaps, as with a hand, on the side of my head, which were repeated on each one of the company, more rapidly than I could count. During these manifestations, a piece of pasteboard, nearly a foot square, was swung with such velocity before us as to throw a strong current of air in our faces ; a paper curtain attached to one of the windows was rolled up and unrolled twice ; a lounge, immediately behind me, was shaken violently ; two small drawers in a bureau played back and forth with inconceivable rapidity ; a sound resembling a man sawing boards, and planing them, was heard under the table ; a common spinning-wheel seemed to be in motion, making a very natural buzz of the spindle ; a reel articulated each knot wound upon it ; while the sound of a rocking cradle indicated maternal care for the infant's slumbers  These were among many other demonstrations which I witnessed that evening, amid which I felt a perfect self-possession, and in no instance the slightest embarrassment, except a momentary chill when the cold hand was applied to my face, similar to a sensation I have realized when touching a dead body. That any of the company could have performed these things, under the circumstances in which we were situated, would require a greater stretch of credulity on my part than it would be to believe it was the work of spirits. It could not, by any possibility, have been done by them, nor even attempted, without detection. And I may add, that, near the close of the demonstrations at this visit, there was a vibration of the floor, as though several tons in weight had been uplifted, and suddenly fallen again upon it. This caused everything in the room to shake most violently for several minutes, when the force was withdrawn.

I have also tested the intelligence of these spirits in every way my ingenuity could invent. On one occasion, I wrote a word on a slip of paper privately, placed it in my wallet, went there, and the sounds, through the alphabet, spelled that word correctly as I had written it. That word was ' Sybil.'

 On the 29th of February, inst., the two youngest sisters made my family a visit. Here the sounds were heard — questions involving subjects wholly unknown to them were answered — a large, heavy dining-table was moved several times — and, on expressing thanks at the table to the Giver of all Good, some six or eight sounds responded to every sentence I uttered, by making loud and distinct sounds in various parts of the room. 

Yours, truly,

 C. Hammond. 

Rochester, Feb. '22, 1850."

Firing Blanks: Works Trying to Discredit 19th-Century Reports of Spiritual Manifestations

In my series of posts entitled "Spookiest Years"  (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,  here and here), I have quoted some of the very many reports of dramatic spiritual manifestations that began appearing around the middle of the nineteenth century. In many different towns and cities and in quite a different countries, a host of witnesses began to report manifestations such as these:

• Mysterious raps that would occur without any physical cause that could be discovered, with the raps very often seeming to display strong signs of intelligent agency. It was very frequently reported that when the alphabet was recited, raps would occur just after particular letters were spoken, and that when the raps corresponding to letters were put in a chronological sequence, an intelligent message would be the result. Often it was reported that the resulting message would correspond to something that was being privately thought of by someone present and known only to him, or would correspond to some fact subsequently verified but known at the time to no one present when the raps were heard.
• There were very many accounts of musical instruments mysteriously playing by themselves, and sometimes it would be reported that the musical instrument itself would levitate.
• There were innumerable reports from a host of witnesses of mysterious phenomena regarding tables. The least dramatic of these would be reports of tables simply moving after a small number of people lightly touched the table with their fingers. It was also very abundantly reported that tables would dramatically move about when no one was touching them. It was often reported that tables would fully levitate above the ground, or half-levitate in a manner that involved one half of the table rising up in the air, so that the table produced a 45-degree angle (or 30-degree angle) while suspended in the air. 
• There were many reports of humans inexplicably rising in the air, in particular the medium Daniel Dunglas Home.
• There were very many reports made by many witnesses of mysterious figures arising out of small cabinets that had been carefully inspected, with the mysterious figures often described as walking around and speaking (a phenomena called materialization).

The people producing these reports caused outrage and fury in writers who wrote works trying to discredit or debunk the reports. The foes of the spiritual manifestations often came from opposite ideological standpoints. Some of the foes were Christian traditionalists who were eager to attack something that they suspected might be a future rival to Bible-based Protestantism or Roman Catholicism. Other foes of the spiritual manifestations were those eager to defend materialism against what seemed like evidence defying the dogmas of materialism. 

Perhaps the earliest attempt to explain the manifestations was a very ridiculous one that appeared in a Scientific American around 1849:

" ' Supernatural Knocking. — A ' knocking at the door ' at nights, which has alarmed the good people of Rochester, who attributed it to spiritual agency, is explained in the American Journal of Science, by Professor Loomis, as the effect of the vibration of a dam over which the water falls. Professor Loomis describes this vibrating as producing sounds like a loud knocking on the doors and walls of buildings, and gives a particular account of the phenomena as observed at the dams of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio ; East Windsor, Connecticut ; Springfield, Massachusetts ; Northampton, Massachusetts ; Gardiner, Maine ; and Hartford, Connecticut. He attributes the vibrations to the friction of the running water which falls over the dam, and shows how these sounds are transmitted to a distance by the earth, and produce that sudden and alarming knocking sound in dwellings. Professor Loomis has pointed out very simple and easy methods of checking this vibratory action in the dams ; and the people of Rochester, who have been troubled by an invisible spirit, will find it easily exorcised by mechanical means."

We have here a great example of a mainstream science publication giving us its laziest effort when trying to explain reports of the paranormal, a sin scientists frequently commit. Anyone making the most cursory examination of the reported phenomena would have known that the reports were of the strange raps giving intelligent and correct answers to questions, something that would never happen because of random vibrations caused by dams. The Scientific American claim also was deceptive, as it implied that Professor Loomis had offered his theory as an explanation for the mysterious raps, when his paper referring to dam vibrations was actually published years earlier, before any reports of mysterious raps were made. 

Let's look at a few of the books attempting to discredit the reported spiritual manifestations.  The earliest such work I could find is a short 1851 book entitled "Rochester knockings! : Discovery and explanation of the source of the phenomena generally known as the Rochester knockings." At the time it was written, no phenomena of dramatic table movements had yet been widely reported. The book is a compilation of writings with no single author. The first article is by three doctors who show no familiarity with the history of the Hydesville and Rochester sound phenomena.  They confess at the end of the article that it is a "hastily penned exposition." They state the following:

"Now, it was sufficiently clear that the rappings were not vocal sounds: these could not be produced without movements of the respiratory muscles, which would at once lead to detection. Hence, excluding vocal sounds, the only possible source of the noises in question, produced, as we have seen they must be, by voluntary muscular contractions, as in one or more of the movable articulations of the skeleton. From the anatomical connections of the voluntary muscles, this explanation remains as the only alternative. By an analysis prosecuted in this manner, we arrive at the conviction that the rappings, assuming that they are not spiritual, are produced, by the action of the will, through voluntary muscles, upon the joints."

The conclusion is contradicted by a previous statement of the doctors asserting this:

"Next, it is taken for granted that the rappings are not produced by artificial contrivances about the persons of the females, which may be concealed by the dress. This hypothesis is excluded, because it is understood that the females have been repeatedly and carefully examined by lady committees.  It is obvious that the rappings are not caused by machinery attached to tables, doors, etc., for they are heard in different rooms, and different parts of the same room, in which the females are present, but always near the spot where the females are stationed. This mechanical hypothesis is then to be excluded."

How could a voluntary muscle action from females produce noises "in different rooms, and different parts of the same room, in which the females are present"?  The hypothesis of the doctors does not fit the facts. Earlier in their article the authors state this about a visit to the Fox sisters: "From motives of curiosity we were led, with some of our colleagues, to pay them a visit, and, we must confess, we were surprised and puzzled by the loudness of the sounds, the apparent evidences of non-instrumentality on the part of the females, and the different directions from which they seemed to emanate." Clearly the doctors have ignored the testimony of their own senses, which does not fit their hypothesis. An examination of the literature, such as the earliest available document, would have revealed that from the beginning the mysterious raps were very heavily reported when the Fox sisters were not in the same building.  And you are hardly debunking claims of spiritual manifestations by making the weak statement that "the rappings, assuming that they are not spiritual, are produced, by the action of the will," a statement which does not actually exclude a spiritual explanation.  That's as weak as saying "the apparition, assuming it was not a ghost, was probably a hallucination."

We then have a long postscript in which some writer or writers (we can't tell whether it was the authors of the original paper) offer some ridiculous evidence to try and debunk the mysterious raps. Their evidence is that when they put a pillow under the feet of the Fox sisters, and waited for about a half an hour, they heard no raps. We read, "The company, seated in a semi-circle, quietly waited for the 'manifestations' for more than half an hour, but the 'spirits,' generally so noisy, were now dumb."  To claim this debunks anything is preposterous. According to the theory that the raps were caused by spirits, the raps would occur unpredictably, at the arbitrary will of some unseen spiritual agency. You never discredit such an idea by some half-hour observation (or even days or months of observation) in which the effect is not observed.  In general, you never discredit observations suggesting a paranormal effect or paranormal agency by observing some time in which the effect was not observed. If I report seeing a ghost on January 1, my non-observation of ghosts for the remaining 364 days of the year does nothing to discredit my January 1 report.   

An 1852 book called "Mysteries, or Glimpses of the Supernatural" by Charles Elliott has a chapter attempting to debunk the raps reported at Rochester. It offers nothing substantial-seeming other than a letter by a Mrs. Norman Culver claiming that "Catherine [Fox] told me that when the committee held their ankles in Rochester, the Dutch servant girl rapped with her knuckles under the floor from the cellar,"  and claiming other similar confessions.  E. W. Capron later stated this statement by Culver "was an entire fabrication in all its essential statements." Capron wrote a letter to the editor pointing out (1) that the claim by Culver of the committee investigating at the Fox family residence was false, with the investigation taking place elsewhere; (2) that the Fox family never had any servant, Dutch or otherwise, up to the time of the committee's investigation;  and (3) that Catherine Fox was not even in Rochester when this committee made its investigation, but was seventy miles away.  The claim by Culver is not a credible one, as someone rapping their knuckles from a cellar underneath a room would not even be audible in that room.  

On page 304 of the June 29, 1877 edition of The Spiritualist, Catherine Fox (then Catherine Fox-Jencken) rebutted the earlier claim by Culver, stating this:

"At the time of the publication of this defamatory, unsworn deposition I was a mere child. My family, however, took up the matter, and Mrs. Norman Culver, subsequently, not only verbally, but in writing, retracted all the charges brought against me and my sister....I may be perhaps permitted to state that, as regards Mrs. Norman Culver, she left her husband some year or two prior to the year 1851, and wandered about with a person named Burr, who gained a livelihood by giving public lectures, principally denunciatory of Spiritualism. After her return to her husband her mind gave way, and she had temporary attacks of kleptomania; her husband, in despair, committed suicide." 

We get a good chronicle of the mysterious events occurring in New York State and New England between 1848 to 1851 in the 1852 book by John C. Bywater entitled The Mystery Solved, or a Bible Expose of the Spirit Rappings, Showing That They Are Not Caused by the Spirits of the Dead, But by Evil Demons or Devils. The second half of the book (attempting a  "demons did it" explanation) will be of no value to any of today's materialists attempting to explain these events. But the first half of the book provides some careful documentation of the mysterious events occurring between 1848 and 1852, helping to show the lack of any credible natural explanation for such events. 

An 1853 book by Z. Campbell was entitled "The spiritual telegraphic opposition line, or, Science and divine revelation against spiritual manifestations."  On page 148 and the next few pages the author quotes attempts to explain the dramatic table manifestations under the idea that it was mere electricity or that tables became "magnetized." At about this time electricity and magnetism were poorly understood, and people were willing to attribute all kinds of mysterious phenomena to electricity or magnetism. Part of the reason was that decades earlier various phenomena occurring under hypnosis were called examples of "animal magnetism," that term being replaced in the middle of the nineteenth century with the term "hypnosis."  Scientists now understand magnetism and electricity far better than people did around 1853. Scientists know that magnetism only occurs with metal objects, and can never occur with wood.  Nothing that science has discovered about electricity and magnetism in the 170 years since 1853 provides any warrant for the belief that either electricity or magnetism can explain the mysterious table movements and table levitations reported so abundantly around 1853. 

After quite sensibly debunking the claimed-as-scientific attempts to explain the massively observed mysterious table movements and table levitations as being caused by magnetism and electricity and noting that they don't agree with what science then knew about electricity and magnetism,  the skeptical author (Campbell) then introduced his own explanation: that the reports were all just mass hallucinations. He states this:

"No matter how many persons are ready to testify to their locomotion, no human testimony is to be allowed in the case. It is contrary to all known and immutable laws of nature, but is in harmony with a certain kind of phantasm known in all ages. Under certain circumstances, people have, from time immemorial, seen things which did not exist. But these things never happen in the normal play of the faculties of the mind. To produce them, the equilibrium of the mind must be destroyed by some exciting cause. This cause is sometimes sickness — exhaustion from fatigue — the action of certain medicines, and sometimes fear; but more frequently by something being presented to the mind of a wonderful or marvellous nature...Feeding the desire for the marvellous results in hallucination, or intoxication of the mind. Under such circumstances, a man's testimony is not to be taken, any more than when he is drunk. The deranged play of the senses presents things to the mind, in strength, according to the degree of excitement, but not at all according to facts." 

The attempted explanation of hallucinations is a ridiculous one. In the case of the table manifestations there would very many times occur in many different places a set of witnesses at the same place all reporting the exact same testimony of tables moving and levitating in ways that science cannot account for.  If there were a group of people together having random hallucinations, they would never all report seeing the same thing as a result of hallucination, but would each report seeing a different thing.  There is zero evidence that people tend to hallucinate when they want to see marvelous things. Millions have come to see the magic shows in places such as Las Vegas, and I have never heard of any of them hallucinating when seeing such a show. 

In the same year (1853) there was published the book "Psychomancy : spirit-rappings and table-tippings exposed" by Charles Grafton Page.  Early on the author takes an extremely emotional tone:

"Shall the silence of the grave be disturbed by grovelling mountebanks, or its stern abodes become vocal through these gross mediums of rappers and tippers? IMPIOUS! IMPIOUS!"

Writing constantly like some raging prosecutor of the witch-burning trials of the 16th century, the author gives us a good example of the type of volcanic hatred and seething vituperation which authorities gave to the people reporting phenomena such as mysterious rapping and mysterious table movements and table levitations.  The author's hatred and contempt seems to have no bounds, and there is no insult too strong for him to use against the phenomena witnesses he despises so intensely. 

His refusal to pay attention to compelling evidence is shown on page 48. He participates in an experiment in which he is asked to think of a person and how he died. The answer apparently occurred after repeated recitations of the alphabet, in which raps occurred after particular letters were named. The author confesses "The rappers hit it right as to the name" (a Mr. Webster).  But he rages that the raps did not give the place and mode of death correctly.  But there are many Websters, so would it not have been more logical to be impressed by the mysterious raps getting the name he silently thought of correctly, so unlikely to occur by chance?  Having two sittings with mediums, the author produces no compelling evidence of any fraud, and none of the insinuations or generalizations he makes should be regarded as reliable, given his very obvious extreme bias. 

Page cites triumphantly that he tried testing the Fox sisters standing on a pillow: "While standing upon the cushion they could not rap at all." This is ineffective as a debunking, because the nonoccurrence of some paranormal phenomena at some particular moment does nothing to debunk observations of its occurrence at other moments.  Moreover, a newspaper had previously reported three witnesses saying that three witnesses had previously tried the same test of standing the Fox sisters on a cushion, and that " we all heard the rappings on the wall and floor distinctly."  

Turning to the topic of mysterious table movements, the author gives away his attitude when he says, "We were much gratified recently at the remark of an experienced friend, that 'he would not believe these things, even if he saw them with his own eyes.' " The author has nothing to offer as an explanation other than voluntary or unconscious muscle movement. He attempts to insinuate that the mysterious table movements only occurred when hands were on a table. He obviously had failed to study the topic, because by 1853 innumerable witnesses had reported tables mysterious moving, half-levitating by standing on two legs, or fully levitating, all when no one was touching the table. 

In 1853 there also appeared the book "RAPPO-MAMA OVERTHROWN: IN TWO PARTS PART FIRST,

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION TRIUMPHANT, 

OR, THE SCRIPTURES. REASON, PHILOSOPHY, COMMON-SENSE AND RELIGION VINDICATED AGAINST THE CLAIMS

OF THE 'SPIRITUAL' RAPPERS," by Henry Wickliffe. The first 10 pages offer objections that are purely theological, along the lines of complaining that the spiritual manifestations are leading to some ideas that are not orthodox Christianity. On page 11 the author makes the extremely untrue claim that those making claims about the spiritual manifestations are materialists. No, they were not materialists, and were bitterly opposed by materialists. The next forty pages of argumentation are purely arguments appealing to scripture, the kind of arguments that will have no appeal to those who are not fundamentalists or near-fundamentalist. 

We then have a chapter entitled "The Testimony of Reason" which consists of arguments such as this (referring to mysterious movements of tables):

"We would like to see a Spirit move a table in a way that even God does not attempt, for he has certainly never been suspected of being one of the Tipping Spirits. If, then, God does not choose to operate in this way, why does a Spirit ?"  

Trying to rule out the possibility of actions by spirits (or by men) on the grounds that God does not do them is an absurd line of reasoning, as it would rule out the possibility of half of the things that humans are observed to do (such as filling out government forms and swimming in pools and raising children and dancing theater shows). On page 61 we have some ridiculous reasoning that if spirits could move tables they could also move houses, but no houses are seen moving, so spirits cannot be moving tables. It's not good reasoning, because it does not logically follow that if spirits could move tables they could also move houses. The chapter has no attempt to explain the reports of tables moving and raps occurring. We have "rhetorical question" reasoning like this:

"Again : where is the proof, that a Spirit can leave its home in the skies ? What powers of locomotion does it possess ? Allowing that its ethereal nature, immediately on its separation from the body, causes it to ascend to the Second Sphere, by what process is it to be able to descend again to our earth ? Has God provided it with an air balloon to travel in ? No, for we have seen, that he does not countenance the movement, and if he does it for a good spirit, he must also for a bad one. How then can the spirit move?" 

Such objections are very easily answered with an answer such as this: "We do not understand the relation between some spiritual realm and our earthly habitat, and not knowing that, are not in any position to exclude things we see and do not understand, merely because we don't understand how they work."  The author makes no attempt to explain the very hard-to-explain reports of paranormal phenomena that were so abundant in 1853.  He had no theory to offer of why people should be reporting mysterious raps spelling out intelligible messages, or why untouched tables would be seen moving about dramatically or levitating. 

In 1853 there also appeared the odd work "Philosophy of mysterious agents, human and mundane: or, The dynamic laws and relations of man. Embracing the natural philosophy of phenomena styled 'spiritual manifestations' " by E. C. Rogers. An 1855 book has a quote summarizing the underlying theory like this:

"Mr. Rogers credits the existence of a newly- discovered physical agent, 'distinct from electricity, but closely allied with animal magnetism,'  and which is identical with the od or odylic force of Baron Reichenbach. This force can be traced in two distinct forms of operation ; one is totally independent of a presiding intelligence — the other exhibits the phenomena of intelligence ruling and guiding it. It thus becomes prevision — intelligent clairvoyance— acts at a distance through matter and space, and thus produces all the phenomena that have been attributed to direct spiritual agency."

A person trying today to dismiss such phenomena will take no comfort from such a theory, which requires some occult force imitating intelligent spiritual agency and acting in all kinds of spooky ways. The underlying theory has no support among modern scientists. 

In 1854 there appeared a book by John Bovee Dods entitled "

Spirit manifestations examined and explained, Judge Edmonds refuted, or, An exposition of the involuntary powers and instincts of the human mind." On one page the author states this:

"I now say, that all the so called spirit-manifestations are produced by the involuntary powers of the human mind through the nervous force of those persons only who are either in the electro-psychological state, or in the mesmeric state, or in an entire or partially cataleptic state — these three. All my arguments center here, and hinge on the involuntary powers of the mind. These three conditions, it is to be understood, involve not only somnambulism and trance, but every abnormal condition to which human beings may be subject."

The author was clearly a poor student of these phenomena. It is true that many of the most dramatic events called spiritual manifestations occurred in the presence of a medium who was in a trance. But more frequently dramatic paranormal events would occur when no one in the room was in any special state of consciousness.  In countless well-documented cases, ordinary people (none calling themselves a medium) would gather together around a table, place their fingers lightly on the table, and and witness dramatic movements of the table beyond anything that can be accounted for by unconscious muscle movements.  Such table movements would very often be described as including full levitations and partial levitations of the table. As for the rap phenomena, it typically occurred when no one was in any special state of consciousness. The rap phenomenon was reported countless times in the presence of Kate Fox when she was in no special state of consciousness. The rap phenomenon was also reported in endless cases when none of the Fox sisters were present, and when no entranced person was around. 

The quote below from page 82 shows how little the author is doing to debunk the reported phenomena:

"It is often requested that some skeptic present at the meeting of a circle shall state mentally how many times he desires the table to tip. He consents, and says mentally four times — I will now suppose no failures to occur — and, sure enough, the table tips four times ! He again merely thinks and proposes thirteen ; and it tips thirteen times ! All are awe-struck at the mysterious nature of that invisible spirit that reads the thoughts ! But do you not understand, that mesmeric clairvoyants have done this in thousands and thousands of instances, and so often repeated, that the experiment has become stale ? But do you object, and contend that the medium is not in the mesmeric state ? How do you know this ? What immortal spirit has revealed it to you, and not to us ?" 

The phrase "the mesmeric state" refers to what we now call a hypnotic trance.  The author is asking us to believe that in such a trance a medium can have powers of mind-reading, and also of mind-over-matter psychokinesis or telekinesis. You're hardly debunking the paranormal if you ask someone to believe all that; instead you're giving an explanation relying heavily on an appeal to paranormal human powers. It was very often observed that such wonders would occur when no one nearby was in any hypnotic trance, but the author most implausibly asks us to believe that someone not appearing to be in such a trance was in such a trance. The author is also incorrect in claiming that "mesmeric clairvoyants" had demonstrated mind-over-matter powers countless times. There is very good evidence that while under hypnotic trances people could show dramatic powers of clairvoyance (see, for example, my posts here and the book Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance by the very accomplished surgeon James Esdaille). But I am aware of no evidence existing by 1854 that people put into such trances would show mind-over-matter powers sufficient to move tables. Eventually a researcher would report a young woman with the power to levitate small objects while in a hypnotic trance (as reported here), but those were merely small objects. 

On page 90 we have a quote that shows the author is not presenting anything that will be of use to one of today's materialists trying to debunk the spiritual manifestations of the nineteenth century. He states this:

"Though I am perfectly aware that there are mediums and other persons who have become so electrically charged through passivity as to be capable of giving off electro-magnetic discharges sufficient to be heard at considerable distances, and in certain rare cases to move light substances alone, with little or no contact ; and though I conceive it possible for about one in fifty million, like the Seeress of Prevorst, to produce electromagnetic sounds in other dwellings while in the mesmeric state, and for which she claimed no assistance from departed spirits — though I admit all this, yet I now seriously and decidedly challenge any medium in the United States to raise the lightest stand from the floor to the ceiling without contact, or to sit down alone and place his hands upon the end of a table, that has its four legs at the corners, and make it tip from him. I believe that persons have seen apparently a table rise from the floor to the ceiling, but they were in the electropsychological state, and I have produced that impression upon hundreds, yet the table never stirred from the spot where it stood !"

We have here a mish-mash that is no use to today's materialists. First there is the claim that mediums can give off "electro-magnetic discharges" capable of causing sounds to appear at "considerable distances."  There is no evidence that any human body can cause sounds to be heard distantly through "electro-magnetic discharges," nor is there evidence that any human body can emit  "electro-magnetic discharges" other than perhaps a tiny bit of static electricity.  Later in the paragraph the author attempts to insinuate that the people reporting table levitations were hallucinating because they were in "the electropsychological state." No such "electropsychological" state is known to modern science, and the countless 19th-century witnesses who reported untouched tables dramatically moving and levitating or half-levitating were people in an ordinary state of mind.  It is not credible to postulate that such people were hallucinating, because we are faced with an abundance of cases in which all of the witnesses reported seeing the same thing, which would never happen if they were merely hallucinating. 

In 1855 there appeared the book "Modern Mysteries, Explained and Exposed" by the Reverend Asa Mahan. The book was an attempt to debunk the reports of spiritual manifestations that had appeared in the past seven years. But today's skeptic will not find much in its pages that will be of use to him in debunking such reports.  The author writes this:

"We were forcibly struck with this suggestion, that they seemed evidently to imply the existence in nature of a polar force not yet distinctly recognized in philosophy, a force having, when developed, very strong attractive and repulsive power ; a force, the direction of whose action, when certain conditions are fulfilled, accords with mental states, and is determined by the same ; a force, finally, through which the mental states of one mind may be reproduced in others, and thus embodied, as in these communications."

The author dubs this force "the Odylic force."  On the next page he postulates that this powerful mysterious force is generated unconsciously or subconsciously by mediums, and can explain all of the manifestations of spiritualism, mesmerism and clairvoyance. The "Odylic force" he describes seems to have unlimited powers of telepathy, levitation, clairvoyance, precognition and mind-over-matter psychokinesis. An explanation attempt like this is of no value to materialists. It involves attributing to the human mind all kinds of mysterious psychic powers that could never be explained by brain activity. 

In appendixes to his 1855 work on spiritualism, E. W. Capron quotes at length from newspaper articles and "letters to the editor" trying to discredit the spiritual manifestations reported up until that time. His examples make it rather clear that nothing but unbelievable explanations were being offered. He also makes it clear that the methods of the opposition included frauds and imaginary tales of confessions.  It is very clear that those eager to suppress the evidence for these manifestations would use all means "fair and foul" to achieve their ends, and seemed to have no scruples in combatting the observational reports they despised. They passed around libels and calumny as freely as an American householder throws around grass seed on his lawn, and seemed to spare no insult in attacking those making the reports they hated to hear. 

In 1860 there appeared the work "Spiritualism tested, or, The facts of its history classified, and their cause in nature verified : from ancient and modern testimonies" by G. W. Samson. Using a rhetorical device of letters addressed to particular names such as Charles, the author appeals to the idea of a "nervous fluid," and tries to make us think that this mysterious invisible fluid can pass from one person to another. We read this: 

"Moreover, since my nervous fluid, like an electric current, courses along the nerves leading from the brain, enters and controls the muscles of my mouth, and causes my lips to utter my thought, why may it not be, when I am put in communication with a mesmerized person, whose personal control over her nervous energy has been overpowered by another, and that nervous energy is left to be subject to the control of any one put in nervous connection with her, — why may it not occur that my nervous energy shall pass over, as electricity on connected telegraphic wires, to her frame, so as to control her lips ; and thus, when I am expecting the reply from her mouth, and unconsciously directing my nervous energy to her lips, through them I may speak out my own thought by an operation as purely mechanical as when I send my thought over the telegraph wires to be spoken out from a distant machine ? I think, Charles, that no instance of clairvoyance can be found in which the thought uttered by the clairvoyant may not be traced directly over to the mind of the person put in communication with her."

There is a very obvious answer to this question. It is that neither two separated people nor two people grasping hands are connected to each other by a linked nervous system. We now know that nerve impulses travel not by some vague invisible "nervous fluid" but by particular neurotransmitter chemicals that travel across axons of the nervous system and jump across synaptic gaps. We now know that no nervous system communication can occur between two people merely when people hold hands. One person's neurotransmitter chemicals cannot leap across his skin and travel into some other person's nervous system if the two hold hands with each other.  The claim at the end of the paragraph above shows a failure to study clairvoyance, which very often involved reports that could not be explained by telepathy. And the spiritual manifestations reported during the previous twelve years were very often physical effects such as mysterious raps and table levitations, things that cannot be explained by any theory of telepathy. 

A few pages later the author states this:

"Moreover, Charles, reflect a moment on the character of the media [mediums] and on the nature of the communications and, and see if you can believe that spirits in another world are the communicators ; see if all does not confirm the fact that these responsive rappings are the working of our own nervous organism, echoing to our own thoughts. We should not disparage at all, we wish not to do so, the character of those who are generally the media. We allude not to the act that they are generally young, and inexperienced, and females. But observe simply this fact : they are just that class whom we ordinarily speak of as persons of a high nervous temperament, of an acute mental organism. It is the very class of persons in whom the nervous principle is active, from whom we seem to see the nervous energy thus flowing off."

This explanation attempt will be of no value to the modern skeptic trying to explain the reported spiritual manifestations of this time. We now know that there is no such thing as nervous energy which projects beyond a person's body. So mysterious raps cannot be explained by any explanation having to do with the human nervous system.  

An 1861 book by William Ramsey discussing the reports of spiritual manifestations was an example of Bible-based reasoning and the most seething hatred towards those making such reports.  Not believing in the devil, a modern materialist will find no arguments of value in it.  The same can be said of an 1861 work by Samuel Post. 

In 1875 the previously mentioned reverend Asa Mahan made another long attempt to debunk the reports of spiritual manifestations, producing a work entitled "The phenomena of spiritualism scientifically explained and exposed." The work has a failure to discuss any of the more dramatic phenomena mentioned. For example, Mahan makes no mention of Daniel Dunglas Home or William Crookes or Florence Cook. Home was reported by dozens of reliable witnesses to have levitated, but Mahan's attitude is "so what?" He states this:

"Much is said in the papers, at the present time, on the subject of levitation, the ascent of human and other bodies from the earth, and that from no visible cause. In the progress of this treatise, facts of this character will be undeniably verified. Such facts, however, as will also appear, have no more connexion with the claims of Spiritualism, one way or the other, than they have with the transit of Venus. Suppose that a human or any other heavy body should rise up before us, and we cannot tell the reason why. What infinite fools we should make of ourselves, if we should leap to the conclusion, that intangible, impalpable, and unearthly spirits laid hold of that object, and lifted it from the earth."

Such reasoning will be of no use to the modern materialist, who cannot resort to "it might have been demons showing off their powers" ideas such as Mahan might have had. Asa's 1875 book contains some extremely bad lies and internal contradictions. On one page he will confess that all sorts of inexplicable wonders really have occurred and on some other page he will say the wonders were all fake. He tells very bad lies such as on page 32 when he says, "Not only have these wonder-workers been exposed as deliberate impostors, but their impositions, in all essential particulars, have been copied," then claiming that stage magicians duplicated artificially the spiritual manifestations reported in previous decades. No, the most famous names of the time such as Daniel Dunglas Home and Florence Cook and Kate Fox had not been exposed as deliberate imposters when Mahan's book appeared; and the best documented observations of wonders when such persons were around have never been credibly explained as imposture or deceit. And stage magicians were not able to make any relevant duplications of their phenomena under similar conditions. A stage magician who causes someone connected with piano wires to seem to levitate has no relevance to reports in which people said they saw someone levitate who had no such piano wires attached to him. And a stage magician utilizing a stage's trap door (combined with a cabinet's trap door) to produce an effect of a  mysterious figure appearing has no relevance to reports of mysterious figures appearing from small cabinets in rooms, when both the cabinet and the room were very carefully checked to make sure that no such trap door existed. 

Some of these works attempt the "incompetent witnesses" lie used by Michael Faraday. Under this type of deceit, an attempt is made to exclude the testimony of large numbers of people by simply branding them as "incompetent witnesses."  Any person with good vision not under treatment for mental illness and with no criminal record or indictment record or arrest record qualifies as a competent witness. The vast majority of the witnesses reporting spiritual manifestations during the 19th century were competent witnesses, and it is simply a lie to claim they were incompetent witnesses. The witnesses of these manifestations included good-as-you-can-get witnesses such as the world-class scientist Sir William Crookes (whose reports on such manifestations are discussed here), John W. Edmonds (former Chief Justice of the New York State supreme court),  Harvard chemistry professor Robert Hare (whose observations are discussed here),  and Alfred Russel Wallace (co-founder of the theory of evolution, whose observations are discussed here). 

In fact, the people reporting the most dramatic spiritual manifestations in the nineteenth century were very often not merely witnesses of high competence but often witnesses following best-practices observation methods, such as writing up very detailed reports on the same day as observations were made, and very soon publishing reports of very great detail only a few days or weeks later in specialized newspapers, with a full listing of all relevant details, and a full listing of the names and addresses of all of the witnesses. I give many examples of such best-practices methods in my "Spookiest Years" series of posts you can read using the links at the top of this post.  To call such witnesses following such best-practices methods "incompetent witnesses" is just a big lie. It is a fact that witnesses of this type were for many years subjected to very bad libels, slander and persecution (examples can be found here, here and here). 

There were two other works of the nineteenth century or very early 20th century that tried to explain that century's abundant reports of spiritual manifestations: Edward W. Cox's 1872 book Spiritualism Answered by Science, and e 1905 book Metaphysical Phenomena: Methods and Observations by J. Maxwell, who was not only a doctor of medicine but also a deputy attorney general.  I already discussed these books at length in my post "They Tried to Set Up a Halfway House Between Materialism and the Supernatural." Both books took an approach of conceding that there was very much reality to all the reports of spiritual manifestations, while trying to explain them under a hypothesis of something like subconscious mind-over-matter combined with various other dramatic human abilities such as clairvoyance and telepathy and the ability to levitate objects.  You could summarize the explanations of these books by saying they made the claim "it's not spirits, but mysterious human superpowers." The modern materialist (unwilling to allow such claims) will not find much of anything of use in such books. 

In 1877 there appeared the book "Mesmerism, spiritualism, &c. : historically & scientifically considered : being two lectures delivered at the London Institution, with preface and appendix" by W. B. Carpenter. Carpenter's book contains many misstatements. On pages 76-80 he discusses the case of Alexis Didier, who abundantly demonstrated powers of clairvoyance in a host of tests before very many witnesses. Carpenter's idea of debunking Alexis Didier is to claim one or two tests in which Alexis Didier failed. But you don't debunk a phenomenon by discussing one or two cases in which it did not occur.  Similarly, you don't show that lightning does not occur by going out and looking for lightning, and reporting that you didn't see any. 

Regarding the phenomenon inadequately described as "table turning, " he states emphatically on page 99 "there is no evidence whatever of the exertion of any other force than the Muscular action of the operators." To the contrary, very many witnesses in very many places reported tables levitating when no one touched them. Later on page 105 Carpenter refers to some of the more dramatic reports:

"Of the ' higher phenomena ' of Spirituahsm — the " ' levitation ' of chairs and tables, and even of men and women ; the ' elongation ' of Mr. Home's body, his handling of heated bodies, and his heaping hot coals on the head of a bald gentleman without any discomfort to him ; the untying of knots and change of coats ; the production of 'spiritual photographs ;' the bringing-in of fruits, flowers, or live lobsters, in dark seances ; and the like — I have left myself no time to speak. The very catalogue speaks, to any sober and unprepossessed mind, of the extreme improbability that any ' spiritual ' agents should so manifest their presence. And in regard to the spirit-writing by pens or pencils, I can only say that of the revelations given by its means, I have seen none that could claim any higher character than that of unmitigated ' twaddle.' "

Carpenter fires only blanks here, and in the remaining pages. He doesn't know how invisible spirits would act, so his "they wouldn't act that way" argument has no force. He shows no signs of having studied the relevant literature, so his "I have seen none" claim has no force. In the few pages which treat of the claims of spiritual manifestations, Carpenter has nothing to say of note to defeat all of the observations of paranormal events that occurred. He shows no signs of having seriously studied the literature documenting such phenomena. 

Carpenter makes no mention of the books and writings of the world-class scientist Sir William Crookes who a few years earlier documented  some of the paranormal phenomena so carefully, some of the very phenomena Carpenter mentions in the quote above (including the levitation of objects and a human, the mysterious elongation of a body, and the handling of hot coals without injury).  Crookes works were his 1874 Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism and his writings here and here and here.  Carpenter's only comment about Crookes is this feeble comment:  "I cannot but believe that if Mr. Crookes had been prepared by a special training in the bodily and mental constitution, abnormal as well as normal, of the Human instruments of the Spiritualistic enquiries, and had devoted to them the ability, skill, perseverance, and freedom from prepossession, which he has shown in his Physical investigations, he would have arrived at conclusions more akin to those of the great body of scientific men whom I believe to share my own convictions on this subject."  That's a feeble rebuttal, because Crookes was one of the leading physicists of his time, and his reports of paranormal phenomena were reports of inexplicable physical phenomena. 

Having almost nothing he can use from the works of the nineteenth century attempting to explain away the abundant reports of dramatic spiritual manifestations during this time, today's materialists will typically resort to just ignoring any detailed discussion of this topic. It's as if their underlying thought is, "Let's just not talk about it, and here's hoping people don't read up about this."