Spiritualism: A Form of Female Empowerment?

The practice of Spiritualism has its origins in Hydesville, U.S.A in 1884 as a result of the mysterious 'raps and knockings'[1] which occurred at night at the home of the Fox family. The cause of the noises, which increased when daughters Maggie and Katie retired to bed was, at that time, unknown. Mrs Fox leaned to a spiritual explanation of the mystery and gathered her neighbours to witness the rappings. Believing the rappings to be caused by a spirit, they soon established a system of communication, deducing that the spirit belonged to a peddler who had been murdered on the property. In the summer of the same year, excavations in the cellar revealed human hair and bones;[2] the Fox family and their supporters believed this to be confirmation of their spirit communications. However, their experiences were not enough to base a new quasi-religion upon. It was the involvement of Maggie and Katie's older sister Leah Fish who encouraged her sisters to make public performances to demonstrate their spiritual talents. For Leah Fish, Spiritualism was a means of earning a good income, and the Fox sisters became a commercial success.[3].