The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos—Volume a relationship between the spiritual world and the material world, with much information to be shared The website that I obtained my Spiritualism information from did not want to be included as an “also ran” in the chapter on Spiritism.) In 1848, the Fox family began to hear unexplained rapping sounds Catherine and Margaret conducted channeling sessions in an attempt to contact the presumed The Fox girls became instant celebrities They demonstrated their communication with the spirit by using taps and knocks, automatic writing, and later, even voice communication as the spirit took control of one of the girls Skeptics suspected this was nothing but clever deception and fraud Nonetheless, belief in the ability to communicate with the dead grew rapidly, becoming a religious movement and contributing greatly to the embracing of Spiritism.5 People love the idea of spirits and angels, because it gives them hope of an afterlife The tale of the Fox sisters spurred immediate interest, and the beginning of Spiritism was underway Four years later, in 1852, a spiritualist convention was held in Cleveland with additional impetus, with the help of Horace Greeley, the editor of the Much of this activity was motivated by mere curiosity and the fascination of the supernatural, but it had a more serious intention Many inquirers wished to convince themselves as to human survival of bodily death; others felt comfort to communicate with their departed love ones; others wanted information about the future life Following the communication with rapping spirits by the Fox sisters and others, communication through the phenomena of moving objects became much more common It was clear that the cause was not purely physical and, based upon the principle, “to every effect a cause is associated, then to every intelligent effect there is an intelligent cause,” and spiritual intelligence was appointed as the cause The way to ascertain this was quite simple: a discussion with such an entity would be necessary Interrogated in this way about their nature, all the beings declared themselves to be spirits and belong to an invisible world As the phenomena were produced in different locations through several different people and observed by serious and intelligent people, it was decided that they were not an illusion.6 ~ 199 ~