Since time immemorial people communicate with spirits of the dead, but only shortly before 1850 is formed the movement, gained fame as spiritualism. The word "spiritualism" stems from the Latin, "Spirit".
Followers of Spiritualism argue that the souls of the dead continue to live and we can establish contact with them. But this is contrary to the teachings of the Bible, the unconscious state of the dead.
Fox is an American family, Which in 1848 applied to a house in Hidesville, New York, Which for years carried the glory of the haunted. Two daughters, Margaret, fifteen, and Kate, age of eleven began to hear abnormal taps. During the night Friday, March 30, Kate enters into dialogue with the ghostly something called by the two girls, "Mr. Splitfut".
Father subjected to interrogation the invisible presence. When asked whether a person will answer, but the question "Is the Spirit? If so, knock twice, " the answer is yes. In response to further questions by tapping the spirit replied that it was a poor peddler who was killed in the same place several years ago. Then critics of the Fox family did not take this case, due to lack of evidence. However this appears fifty years later, when the wall was necessary from the family house to be demolished. It was walled with ruins of a man.
The fame of the two Fox sisters quickly spread across America.
Several months after their first conversation with the murdered peddler, they were invited to a demonstration before an audience in Rochester. Thus arises the new spiritualistic movement, during their U.S. tours, Margaret and Kate did not miss the event to throw to the crowds: "You have chosen to leave the world and to convince the skeptical in the great truth of immortality."
In the summer of 1850 they reached New York, where they caused a furor, and the editor of "Tribune" Horace Greeley was convinced that they tell the truth, and became their faithful and powerful ally.
Of course, there are opponents of spiritualism and the Fox sisters are accused of charlatanism, and in the public service of the devil. On both sides of the Atlantic appear a number of "psychics" who demonstrate various phenomena, including automatic writing, kind contribution of objects and cross the "direct voice" in which the dead speak through the medium with almost earthly voice.
A lady named Norman Culver, a relative of the two sisters, announced to all of America that the two girls are frauds and that Kate showed her how to make a "click" with your toes.
On October 21, 1888 Margaret and Kate admit publicly that they knowingly participated in fraud. They convened a meeting in the Academy of Music in New York.
"Tonight I'm here as one of the founders of spiritualism, to rebuke it as an absolute lie from beginning to end, as one of the most unconvincing superstitions, And the most pernicious blasphemy"says Margaret.
She explains the participation of her and her sister in the fraud with pressure on them by the Catholic Church. Both sisters are attributed to drugs and alcohol and become widowed early.
This finding does not mark the end of spiritualism. It engulfs the world with remarkable speed, and today has millions of followers.
Ancestor of spiritualism is considered American researcher Andrew Jackson Davis. In 1843 17 year old boy met Levingstan which revealed him as an extraordinary psychic. Two years later, Davis had a vision in which he had been given unusual revelations by mediation to publish for the benefit of present and future humans.
He settled in New York state and dictated his book "The principles of nature, her divine revelation and the voice of humanity" in a trance. After a half century it became the bible of the religio-philosophical current, which is based on belief in afterlife and the ability to communicate with the spirits of deceased people through mediums.
The first confirmed case of documentary photography is an apparition of 1862. An American photographer was in the studio of a friend and tried to make a self-portrait.
Upon manifestation of the plate he found on it another figure. Memler first decided that the second figure appeared as the photo plate was not very clean. The photographer made several attempts using completely clean plates. On some of them again was a strange shape. On the advice of friends who are fascinated by spiritualism, Memler abandoned his previous pursuits and became a professional photographer of psychic causes and photographed ghosts.
Audiences flocked to amass in the executive manager photographer. But it did not last long. Several competitors of Memler accused him in fraud and demonstrated a method by which can be obtained another white, fuzzy figure posing.
But Memler’s reputation was saved by screening. Under the strict supervision of several professional photographers he using a foreign camera and plates, still got a ghost image, writes "shock."
