1. "The Mysteries Of The Spiritualism Era"
Posted by Susan on Mar-4th-03 at 2:02 AM

During the Victorian era there was quite a craze for seances, ghost photography and the like.  Here is a link for a page covering these subjects and more.  Makes me wonder if Lizzie and Emma ever engaged in any table tipping or seances in the parlour of Maplecroft to find out who the real killer was?

http://www.prairieghosts.com/museum.html

I missed this post!
I was just making mutterings at Kimberly about ghosts and here they are.
Great minds, etc.
I can't believe we never opened a topic like this before!   OF course we should study this!
"The Bell Witch?" anyone?

I'm particulary fond of Geoffery the poltergeist/weasel/ferret/whatever that lived in the walls of a cottage in England and spoke to the family!!

And I love the story of Borely Rectory, the Most Haunted House In England!  (burned down...)

Did you read the article about the Foxx sisters?  Amazing that it all started in like 1849.  The Borley Rectory story is frightening to me, the handwritten pleas on the wall for help, scary! 

The funny thing is I started reading about stuff like this when I was in grade school.  The librarian would always ask, does your mother know you're reading these sorts of books, wouldn't you like to get something from the children's section instead?

This is weird -- I've just looked in here *AFTER* I
posted a follow-up for Susan & mentioned our Bell Witch
when she mentioned her Jersey Devil. That is unusual.....

Hey, great minds think alike, don't they?  Now I have the Whaley house and Villa Montezuma, not to mention the Chupacabra.   

I remember reading the story of the Bell witch when I was in 5th grade, pretty scary stuff!

I had read a wonderful biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and he really was an interesting, and creative and innovative person, full of curiosity about the world and gagets.  It was said he got the first speeding ticket in a car in Britain!  He certainly had a lust for life and was an important and well-respected figure of his time.
Then he became more publically involved in the Spiritulist Movement and did believe in all the trappings and even subscribed to the opinion that the Fairie Photo's were genuine.
This unfortunately led to him losing all credibility, after a lifetime of universal respect and admiration.  His reputation never recovered...
In essence, those little girls brought him down, but yet he should have been able to investigate such things with all the wonder which was in him the same as was acceptable as he persued eveything else.  But this, just this Movement called Spiritualism was his undoing...

Yes, I've always found him a fascinating person of the period too.  Wasn't the whole fairy episode called something like the Cotswold Fairies, if I remember correctly?  Taken with a kodak "Brownie" camera?  I recall the pictures, see if I can do a search for them.

It is strange -- why suddenly the Bell Witch? I just
about fell over when I checked in here after I posted
that in the other one.

Yes, the aging experience can turn a whiz into a was.

GK Chesterton made a comment, often quoted, about AC Doyle. "A man who believes in nothing will wind up believing in everything." Doyle went to Jesuit schools and college, turned agnostic or atheist, then a believer of the spirit world. (The Sherlock Holmes movies from the 1930s-40s had Dr Watson made up to resemble AC Doyle.)

Houdini had a standing reward if he could not duplicate the actions of spiritualists; read his biography by an associate. Remember all those photos of Houdini in a bathing suit? That was to disguise the fact of his being barefoot. He could untie knots in ropes with his toes! He also had spare keys secreted upon his person (mouth, for example) so could quickly open locks. As I remember this book, I hope Kat doesn't show me up.

(Message last edited Mar-5th-03  1:15 PM.)

Like I said, Kimberly, great minds think alike!    Here is a link to a site on the Bell Witch.

http://www.bellwitch.org/home.htm

Kat, its the Cottingley Fairies.  Heres a couple of pics of them.