A Whiskey-Drinking Devil Visits Mr Guppy Samuel Guppy, husband to medium Agnes Nichol Guppy, was an ardent advocate of Spiritualism. When the famous American mediums Ira and William Davenport came to England to spread the truths of that religion, a session with Ira brought a naughty devil to Guppy’s door.
Burning the Cursed Furniture: A Story of Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin A strange episode about cursed furniture and household possessions that saw Spiritualist Victoria Claflin Woodhull Martin at her worst.
With the coming of autumn and the chill in the air in the evenings, I’m in the mood for some old-fashioned ghost stories. “I don’t know how long I slept, but I awoke feeling that something was in the room with me. About a minute afterward it put its fingers on my mouth, and then stroked my nose. I thought of getting up, but was too frightened to move…”
Mistresses of the Dark: The Ghost Wore Black The final chapter in my book The Ghost Wore Black: Ghastly Tales from the Past tells of a little-known 19th-century panic over those mistresses of the dark, The Women in Black. This story is a good illustration of some of the features of the apparitions: clothed in widow’s weeds, seen outdoors at night, bullet-proof and evasive.
A Curious County: Bracken County, Kentucky Forteana A “Devil’s Backbone,” a treasure cave with a giant skeleton, an imposter on a grand scale, mysterious faces in window glass, big snakes, fiery devils, and sin-induced levitation—who knew that one small and very rural Kentucky county could be so infested with fortean excitement?
Introducing The Ghost Wore Black: Ghastly Tales from the Past Sinister entities abound in The Ghost Wore Black: Ghastly Tales from the Past. This post introduces some of the main themes and surprises of the new, national book by Chris Woodyard.
The notion that ghosts are demons is not a new one. Here a noted spiritual leader, Wilbur Glenn Voliva and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, go head-to-head about the nature of ghosts, demons, and Spiritualism.
Happy Friday the 13th! A vintage image of a “Jinx” for Friday the 13th and a link to a post on The Thirteen Club. Did you know that Friday was “Hangman’s Day?”
“Just Medium”: Spiritualist Humor and Satire While Spiritualism was taken very seriously, as a kind of New Revelation, by many adherents, the press seized on its eccentricities as always good for a journalistic laugh. And, frankly, some Spiritualists made it all too easy to ridicule the faith. Here are some characteristic specimens of 19th-century Spiritualist humor.
Sex in the Seance Room and the Summerland Sex in Spiritualism has always been a hot button issue. This interview with a spirit named “Zaza” gives a peep into the boudoirs of Summerland, which seems much like 19th-century Paris.
