Welcome, my ghouls, to the ParaGhoul Paranormal Research Files! Full access to these files is only available to my KDK Ghoul Guild members, so if you aren’t a member, check that out! You also access the full videos of all interviews on the ParaGhoul Paranormal radio show and podcast, as well as a chance to hang out with me over Zoom once a month to ask questions, talk about paranormal experiences, and more!
In this article, we are returning to the history of the paranormal, including ghost hunting, investigations, debunking, and paranormal technology. Our focus is on the start of séances, which led to the increase in investigations to debunk paranormal hoaxes and the appearance of ectoplasm in the world of psychical research.
The last time we covered this topic, we left off talking about Thomas Hamilton. If you recall, he founded the Winnipeg Society for Psychic Research back in 1931 after his fascination with the paranormal and the ability to converse with the dead grew following the loss of his 3-year-old son in 1919. He investigated all the typical psychical phenomena of the time, whether it was automatic writing, table tipping, trances, or even the appearance of ectoplasm. Yes, we are not in a Ghostbuster movie. They had attempted to study ectoplasm.
In this article, we will look at questions like:
- How did Houdini get involved in investigating mediums and spiritualists?ory.
- What is a séance?
- Who started the Spiritualist movement?
- What is ectoplasm, and where did it come from?
Séances and The Fox Sisters
Let’s go back to the beginning of séances. It seems to have all started with three sisters back in 1848. At the time, they were living in Hydesville, New York, with their parents. There are different versions of exactly how it started, but the overall theme is the same. They moved into a small house in Hydesville in 1847 and claimed it was haunted. Some say the taps and knockings were in the house, making the family unable to sleep. Others say it all started with the two younger girls, Maggie and Kate Fox, claiming they could talk to a ghost in the house through knocks, with their mother then excitedly inviting the neighbours to see what their two girls could do.
Whichever the real story, it quickly drew the attention of neighbours and people in nearby towns and became a topic of interest in the newspapers. Maggie was fourteen years old at this time, and her younger sister, Kate, was eleven. The older sister, Leah, was already out of the house, living in Rochester. Through these knocks and taps, Maggie and Kate were able to help visitors to their home discover that the haunting of the house was by a peddler who had been murdered and buried underneath the house.
* That’s the end of the free intro to the article! If you are interested in access to the full articles, along with other articles, full video interviews, and live Zoom meetings with me once a month, become a KDK Ghoul Guild member!
One thought on “History of the Paranormal: Séances, Hoaxes, and Ectoplasm”