Spiritualism Essay -- Parapsychology Essays, 2015

â€Å"Don't you remember anything?! There is no 'devil.' There is no 'hell.' There is only Unrest. There is no down, only sideways; the transparent beside the opaque, and a thin wall to separate them.† ― Leanna Renee Hieber, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy According to Merriam-webster.com, Spiritualism is a â€Å"belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living, usually through a medium†. However, Spiritualism is more than a belief. Ever since the Spiritualist movement began and spread in the 1800’s, Spiritualism has evolved into a religion that continues to be practiced today. Contacting the dead is not a pleasant subject for most people however, although Spiritualism used to be casually practiced everyday in the homes of the Victorians in the 1800s. How did something that once used to be a method of being able to re-unite with your beloved, dead, grandparents warp into something that incites fear? Spiritualism was founded by the Fox sisters back in 1848 when Margaretta and Kate Fox claimed to have heard mysterious rappings in their little home in Hydesville, New York. Apparently, their house was reputed to be haunted before the Fox family moved in and there were claims of unexplainable sounds and furniture moving on their own. Margaretta and Fox started speaking to the spirit who was allegedly haunting their home and they eventually developed a system for communicating with it. The Fox sisters would ask the spirit a question and they would get answers in return through the form of rappings. For example, they would interpret one rap for â€Å"yes† or two for â€Å"no† or they would interpret the number of rapping’s given for a letter in an alphabet. It wasn’t long before the neighbors heard about the Fox sisters’ new found abilities and gathered at their house to witness the spirit rappings for themselves. Soon, they were giving performances in major towns, and that was when the rapping phenomena began to spread. The Fox sisters gained fame through their public sà ©ances and it wasn’t long before other people started claiming that they were also able to speak with spirits and other forms of communicating with the dead were created such as table tipping and slate writing. The Victorian era was marked by â€Å"romanticism  and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and the arts† (http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/dr-rescher-english-... ... each other. The information that I have learned regarding this topic has helped me a lot in developing my plot for a comic book that I am working on for Senior Show titled â€Å"Post-Mortem†. My story is set in the Victorian era where two brothers lament the loss of their loved ones. The older brother especially has a hard time coping with the loss of his fiancà ©, and the little brother tries to contact her and bring her back. However, instead of drawing back in the beautiful and kind fiancà © he ends up bringing back one that is hungry for revenge. Even though my story is based in the Victorian era where contacting the dead had nothing to do with evil spirits, I wanted to make my story more modern by adding a macabre touch. Works Cited McClenon, James. "The Scientific Investigation of Wondrous Events."  Wondrous Events: Foundation of Religious Belief, University of Pennsylvania Press(1994): 185-207. Print. Simpkins, Sarah. "Dr. Rescher   English 204."  STUDYBLUE. STUDY BLUE, 28 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. . Roach, Mary.  Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Print.