The History of Ghost Hunting
The History of Ghost Hunting
The present day pursuit of ghost hunting can be traced back to the Spiritualist movement and early organizations founded to investigate paranormal phenomena, like London's The Ghost Club and The Society For Psychical Research.
Spiritualism is a belief system that the dead have both the will and ability to communicate with the living. Anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions, called seances, held by mediums, can provide information about the spirit world.
Spiritualism developed and reached its peak in the mid to late 1800's and early 1900's, especially in Europe and America. By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe.
The Spiritualist movement flourished without formal organization, gaining recognition through periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the promotional activities of mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women, and like most Spiritualists, supported other feminist causes. By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud being perpetrated by mediums.*
Fraud
The Fox sisters were three sisters from New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. The three sisters were Leah, Margaret, and Kate. The younger sisters used rapping to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.
In 1888 Margaret confessed that their rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method. Margaret told her story of the origins of the mysterious "rappings" in a signed confession given to the press and published in New York World, October 21, 1888.
She notes, "A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that the spirits are touching them. It is a very common delusion. Some very wealthy people came to see me some years ago when I lived in Forty-second Street and I did some rappings for them. I made the spirit rap on the chair and one of the ladies cried out: "I feel the spirit tapping me on the shoulder." Of course that was pure imagination."
She attempted to recant her confession the next year, but their reputation was ruined and in less than five years they were all dead, with Margaret and Kate dying in poverty. Spiritualism continued as if the confessions of the Fox sisters had never happened.*
In the years following the Fox sisters, demonstrations of mediumship seances and automatic writing, became popular
forms of entertainment. Showmanship became an increasingly important part of Spiritualism, and
the tangible evidence of spirits escalated as
mediums competed for paying audiences. Independent investigations established fraud as widespread, and some of these cases were prosecuted in the courts.
Despite numerous instances of faking, the appeal of Spiritualism was strong. The most prevalent were those grieving the death of a loved one. Many families during the time of the Civil War had seen their men die, and images of the battlefield, produced through the new medium of photography, demonstrated that their loved ones had not only died in large numbers, but horribly. One well known case is that of Mary Todd Lincoln, who, grieving the loss of her son, organized séances in the White House, which were also attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln.*
Sir Arthor Conan Doyle, who lost his son in the war, was also a member of The Ghost Club, Founded in London in 1862, its focus was the scientific study of paranormal activities in order to prove or refute the existence of paranormal phenomena. One famous member of the club was Charles Dickens.
The claims of spiritualists that ghosts are real were investigated by The Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882. The Society set up a Committee on Haunted Houses and a Literary Committee which looked at the literature on the subject. Prominent investigators who exposed cases of fraud came from a variety of backgrounds, including professional researchers. During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini, undertook a well-publicized campaign to expose fraudulent mediums. He was adamant that "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains."*
Mainstream newspapers treated stories of ghosts and haunting as they would any other news story. In the 1920s many "psychic" books were published of varied quality. Such books were often based on excursions initiated by the use of Ouija boards.
The movement relied on subjective experiences and readings to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organization in the movement was therefore slow happen.*
The Twentieth Century
Differences of opinion among organized Spiritualists has led to a division, the most notable occurring in the U.K. in 1957 between those who believed the movement to be a religion and those who believed it to be a denomination within Christianity. In the United States, this distinction can be seen between the less Christian National Spiritualist Association of Churches and the more Christian spiritual church movement.
The practice of organized Spiritualism today resembles that of other faiths, having put aside most showmanship and fakery. There is an emphasis on "mental" mediumship and an avoidance of the apparently miraculous "materializing" mediumship that so fascinated early believers.
As early as 1882, with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research, secular organizations emerged to investigate spiritualist claims. They base their belief in the afterlife on phenomena susceptible to at least rudimentary scientific investigation, such as mediumship,
electronic voice phenomena, and out of body experiences.*
Pliny the Younger recorded what has been regarded as the first ghost hunt in 100 A.D. The story was already a century old when Pliny told it, and concerns a haunted house in ancient Athens, Greece, being investigated by a philosopher named Athenodoros Cananites.*
*Source: Wikipedia, for information on the Fox sisters, the Ghost club and the Spiritualist movement.
The Ghost Club, founded in 1862, is the oldest paranormal research organization in the world. Famous members included Charles Dickens, and Harry Price. These people were early 20th century ghost hunters. Applying scientific method to paranormal questions such as the existence of ghosts was new. A core of science-minded individuals formed what became the Society for Psychical Research. It's mission was to collect evidence concerning apparitions, haunted houses, and similar phenomena. The investigators gathered case studies, attended seances and designed tests to determine if claimants were telling the truth.
Investigations into hauntings were undertaken by London's National Laboratory of Psychical Research during the 1920's, and later in the 1950's and 1960's, by German and American researchers such as Hans Holzer and Ed and Lorraine Warren. Other paranormal and para-psychological investigators independently conducted field and laboratory investigations through the 1970's and 1980's. Ghost hunting among part time hobbyists began to be popular in the late 1970's with the founding of the Chicago area Ghost Tracker's Club, which became the Ghost Research Society (GRS) in 1981.
Source: The Ghost Club website and the National Laboratory of Psychical Research website.
TAPS
Based in Rhode Island, The Atlantic Paranormal Society was founded in 1990 by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. In 2004, the organization itself became the subject of Ghost Hunters, a popular weekly American Paranormal Reality TV Series on the SyFy channel. The show is currently airing its eighth season on Syfy in the US.
The Business of Ghost Hunting
Easy access to information on the Internet and TV shows such as Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures are thought to be responsible for the current boom in ghost hunting. One popular website for ghost hunting enthusiasts lists over 300 organizations throughout the United States and Great Britain. There are now hundreds of message boards and websites dedicated to ghost hunting.
An offshoot of ghost hunting is the commercial ghost tour conducted by a local guide or tour operator, who is often a member of a local ghost hunting group or paranormal investigation group. Costs of tours can range from $30 to $100. Since both the tour operators and owners of the reportedly haunted properties usually share profits of such enterprises some people believe the claims of hauntings are exaggerated or fabricated in order to increase attendance. Many businesses have started selling ghost hunting equipment, while new devices are constantly being introduced. Books, DVDs, website advertising, videos, pod-casts and radio shows are experiencing a boom.
Source: Me. Primary research and personal experience. Living in Gettysburg helps.
The present day pursuit of ghost hunting can be traced back to the Spiritualist movement and early organizations founded to investigate paranormal phenomena, like London's The Ghost Club and The Society For Psychical Research.
Spiritualism is a belief system that the dead have both the will and ability to communicate with the living. Anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions, called seances, held by mediums, can provide information about the spirit world.
Spiritualism developed and reached its peak in the mid to late 1800's and early 1900's, especially in Europe and America. By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe.
The Spiritualist movement flourished without formal organization, gaining recognition through periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the promotional activities of mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women, and like most Spiritualists, supported other feminist causes. By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud being perpetrated by mediums.*
Fraud
The Fox sisters were three sisters from New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. The three sisters were Leah, Margaret, and Kate. The younger sisters used rapping to convince their older sister and others that they were communicating with spirits. Their older sister then took charge of them and managed their careers for some time. They all enjoyed success as mediums for many years.
In 1888 Margaret confessed that their rappings had been a hoax and publicly demonstrated their method. Margaret told her story of the origins of the mysterious "rappings" in a signed confession given to the press and published in New York World, October 21, 1888.
She notes, "A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that the spirits are touching them. It is a very common delusion. Some very wealthy people came to see me some years ago when I lived in Forty-second Street and I did some rappings for them. I made the spirit rap on the chair and one of the ladies cried out: "I feel the spirit tapping me on the shoulder." Of course that was pure imagination."
She attempted to recant her confession the next year, but their reputation was ruined and in less than five years they were all dead, with Margaret and Kate dying in poverty. Spiritualism continued as if the confessions of the Fox sisters had never happened.*
Despite numerous instances of faking, the appeal of Spiritualism was strong. The most prevalent were those grieving the death of a loved one. Many families during the time of the Civil War had seen their men die, and images of the battlefield, produced through the new medium of photography, demonstrated that their loved ones had not only died in large numbers, but horribly. One well known case is that of Mary Todd Lincoln, who, grieving the loss of her son, organized séances in the White House, which were also attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln.*
Sir Arthor Conan Doyle, who lost his son in the war, was also a member of The Ghost Club, Founded in London in 1862, its focus was the scientific study of paranormal activities in order to prove or refute the existence of paranormal phenomena. One famous member of the club was Charles Dickens.
The claims of spiritualists that ghosts are real were investigated by The Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882. The Society set up a Committee on Haunted Houses and a Literary Committee which looked at the literature on the subject. Prominent investigators who exposed cases of fraud came from a variety of backgrounds, including professional researchers. During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini, undertook a well-publicized campaign to expose fraudulent mediums. He was adamant that "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains."*
Mainstream newspapers treated stories of ghosts and haunting as they would any other news story. In the 1920s many "psychic" books were published of varied quality. Such books were often based on excursions initiated by the use of Ouija boards.
The movement relied on subjective experiences and readings to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organization in the movement was therefore slow happen.*
Differences of opinion among organized Spiritualists has led to a division, the most notable occurring in the U.K. in 1957 between those who believed the movement to be a religion and those who believed it to be a denomination within Christianity. In the United States, this distinction can be seen between the less Christian National Spiritualist Association of Churches and the more Christian spiritual church movement.
The practice of organized Spiritualism today resembles that of other faiths, having put aside most showmanship and fakery. There is an emphasis on "mental" mediumship and an avoidance of the apparently miraculous "materializing" mediumship that so fascinated early believers.
As early as 1882, with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research, secular organizations emerged to investigate spiritualist claims. They base their belief in the afterlife on phenomena susceptible to at least rudimentary scientific investigation, such as mediumship,
electronic voice phenomena, and out of body experiences.*
The First Ghost Hunters
Pliny the Younger recorded what has been regarded as the first ghost hunt in 100 A.D. The story was already a century old when Pliny told it, and concerns a haunted house in ancient Athens, Greece, being investigated by a philosopher named Athenodoros Cananites.*
*Source: Wikipedia, for information on the Fox sisters, the Ghost club and the Spiritualist movement.
The Ghost Club, founded in 1862, is the oldest paranormal research organization in the world. Famous members included Charles Dickens, and Harry Price. These people were early 20th century ghost hunters. Applying scientific method to paranormal questions such as the existence of ghosts was new. A core of science-minded individuals formed what became the Society for Psychical Research. It's mission was to collect evidence concerning apparitions, haunted houses, and similar phenomena. The investigators gathered case studies, attended seances and designed tests to determine if claimants were telling the truth.
Investigations into hauntings were undertaken by London's National Laboratory of Psychical Research during the 1920's, and later in the 1950's and 1960's, by German and American researchers such as Hans Holzer and Ed and Lorraine Warren. Other paranormal and para-psychological investigators independently conducted field and laboratory investigations through the 1970's and 1980's. Ghost hunting among part time hobbyists began to be popular in the late 1970's with the founding of the Chicago area Ghost Tracker's Club, which became the Ghost Research Society (GRS) in 1981.
Source: The Ghost Club website and the National Laboratory of Psychical Research website.
TAPS
Based in Rhode Island, The Atlantic Paranormal Society was founded in 1990 by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. In 2004, the organization itself became the subject of Ghost Hunters, a popular weekly American Paranormal Reality TV Series on the SyFy channel. The show is currently airing its eighth season on Syfy in the US.
The Business of Ghost Hunting
Easy access to information on the Internet and TV shows such as Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures are thought to be responsible for the current boom in ghost hunting. One popular website for ghost hunting enthusiasts lists over 300 organizations throughout the United States and Great Britain. There are now hundreds of message boards and websites dedicated to ghost hunting.
An offshoot of ghost hunting is the commercial ghost tour conducted by a local guide or tour operator, who is often a member of a local ghost hunting group or paranormal investigation group. Costs of tours can range from $30 to $100. Since both the tour operators and owners of the reportedly haunted properties usually share profits of such enterprises some people believe the claims of hauntings are exaggerated or fabricated in order to increase attendance. Many businesses have started selling ghost hunting equipment, while new devices are constantly being introduced. Books, DVDs, website advertising, videos, pod-casts and radio shows are experiencing a boom.
Source: Me. Primary research and personal experience. Living in Gettysburg helps.
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