Tag Archives: kate fox
My Rapper: Missing you, old friend…
This last week I’ve jumped back into another round of EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) experiments with my long lost cousin and EVP researcher, Randall Keller. I’m not far into reviewing my sessions so far, but like most of my EVP sessions in the last year, the actual live experience is pretty quiet and sometimes boring. In fact, my father participated in a session today and it turns out it was so boring that after only one minute of recording he was asleep and snoring in his chair. You see, it is in the review or analysis stage where the excitement usually comes in. The woman in the basement of the church tells you “it’s all over me”. In the audio from a private investigation of a home you discover a hopeless sounding voice asking “Can you help me?” only to later discover that you were wrong and the message captured was actually way more disturbing. (You can use your imagination, but you won’t see the actual message for the last one displayed here.)
Finding EVP is incredibly exciting, but there’s nothing quite like sitting down for a session and being aware that someone is with you and clearly willing to have a conversation. Readers who have been with me from the beginning will remember my three exciting sessions with an entity I named “my rapper”. It all started not long after I finished a book about Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism. I learned so much from the book and I was a bit obsessed with those events and the time period. The Fox sisters are widely credited for starting the Spiritualist movement and developing a system of spirit communication known as “rapping”. For several sessions I requested communication from the Fox sisters. Then it happened. After the excitement of the first visit in March of 2012, I was up almost all night long composing my hyper thoughts into a blog post. I was on a high for a few days after that. Did one of the Fox sisters get my invite? Was rapping how I was going to establish spirit communication from now on? My rapper returned for two sessions after that but hasn’t been heard from since.
Right now I’d like to throw an invite out there into the ether. I miss my rapper. Come back, old friend. Stay longer. Tell me a story. And please, TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!
If you missed the excitement the first time around, here are some highlights, including audio artifacts, below.
From the post EVP Update: My visit from a rapper!
Below are summarized segments from my notes and some audio files. Times are represented in minutes and seconds. For example, one minute and 30 seconds = 1:30. “Tap” and “knock” are pretty much used interchangeably as it is hard to decide which is which right on the spot.(From the Tascam digital recorder)
Thirty seconds into the recording there is a knock (before I even said anything), at 1:24 a tap. I then ask “Is that you making that noise?” No response.
I then ask “Can you make another noise if that was you?” Several seconds later… “Like two taps or two knocks?” A few seconds later after getting no response I asked “Have you been present with me before in one of these sessions?” Two loud and clear taps at 2:02. The first one further away and the second one closer to the recorder.
At 2:35 I ask if they could give me two more knocks just for validation. I got two taps at 2:51.
I then decided that 1 knock was going to mean “yes” and two knocks was “no”. I asked “Have you been with me in one of these EVP sessions before in the last couple of weeks?” and 15 seconds later there was a faint unidentified noisein the background followed by a tap.
A few questions with no responses.
At 5:10 I ask “Do I know you?” A very light tap can be heard at 5:20. I mentioned “I THINK that was a tap” and then “Yes? Thank you.” Maybe there was another light tap before I answered but I cannot hear it in the audio.
At 5:50 there is another tap while I’m in the middle of a rather long question. I was asking for them to pass on a message, tell me who they are, etc. After the tap I finished my question and also asked where they were talking to me from… the other side? No response. My question ended at 6:00. At 6:16 there is a tap.
At 6:30 “You seem to be good at the knocking thing. Can you tell me… are you male?” For several seconds there is no response. “Maybe that’s ‘no’.”Immediately there is a tap at 6:47.
At 6:52 I asked “Are you female?” No response.
At 8:17 I’m playing music and ask “How many of you are with me?” At 8:34 you can hear a very loud knock somewhere in the house.
At 9:07 I ask “Can you make anymore noises? I think the noises are just how you want to communicate today.” No responses.
I then started up the pink noise portion of the session got no responses to several more questions.
At 11:42 I ask “Is there something I can help you with?” A few seconds later at 11:46 (pink noise still playing) you can hear what sounds like a very soft and low-pitched “no” (11:42 in PX-820… sounds a bit different but still there). A second later… “Or are you here to help me?” No response.
At 12:32 after pink noise is turned off I ask “Are you still there?” At 12:23 in the PX-820 there is two syllables of something heard very softly… right before “Are you still there?” At 12:41 there is a knock. I say “Okay!”
A few seconds later (12:53) I say “I’ve been asking for the presence of Sarah Estep or Cathy…” Before I could finish the question there was a very loud tap right in the room! I say “Ooh… Sarah, is that you?” No response. At 13:98… “Sarah Estep?” No response. At 13:15… “Or Cathy? Is that you Cathy?” A few seconds later… “Cathy from The Big Circle?” No response.
At 13:31… “I’m kind of excited! Who is this?” You can hear a few very light pops or taps. At 13:48… “I feel like I can’t go on without knowing who you are.” No response. At 14:04… “Should I continue? Or should I end this session and listen?” No obvious responses. You can hear two very soft taps that are very close to the microphone… but I can’t be sure if it’s something I’m doing or not.
A few more questions with no responses.
At 16:04… “So could this knocking be from Sarah?” No response. At 16:18…“Cathy?” At 16:31 there is some kind of knock in the room. At 16:40… “Was that a ‘yes’ for Cathy? Did I hear you correctly? Is this Cathy then?” A few seconds later… “Knock if it’s Cathy”. Other than a dog barking outside, there are no responses.
At 17:05… “Are you someone other than Sarah or Cathy? Or ________? Could you knock if you’re someone else?” At 17:20 there are two faint knocks that I acknowledge hearing in the recording. I’m not sure if this was the answer of “no” or if this was an entity just knocking in response to my question, in general.
At 21:02 I began to do my usual thank you to anyone helping me, but I didn’t get very far. I began “Well I want to thank you for your energy…” and there was a pretty loud knock close by. I excitedly say “Oh!” and you can hear a dog barking loudly outside in the background. A few seconds later… “Thank you, there’s one.”
At 21:16… “I feel like maybe you’re playing games with me. Every time I move on I hear a knock” (more dog barking). A few seconds later… “…but as I was saying, thank you for your presence and your energy… and your assistance.”A few seconds later… “Any last messages… before we end?” No response. A few seconds later… “Thank you.” Then my elbow popped and I laughed and said “Now my bones are popping!”
End of recording.
Audio from the first visit…
Beginning… “Is there someone present with me today?”
“How many of you are with me?“
Possible voice before “Are you still there?” and knock
“…should I end this session and listen?”
“Is there something I can help you with?” (“No”)
From the post The Return of the Rapper
Below are segments of the transcript from my 4/6/12 EVP session. I’ve included links to some of the audio. 11:02 – a knock was heard after asking for a sound
11:38 – a knock was heard after “If you can do that again we can begin to communicate.”
11:57 – I asked the following questions and got no response. “Can you make two of those knocks? Two knocks in a row.”
12:26 – I asked “So maybe it’s not very easy to do two knocks in a row?” No response to this question, either.
16:06 – possibly 2 quick soft taps after the question “Give me two knocks if you have NOT attempted to speak to me.”
18:10 – 1 tap after “Have I known you ever in my life?”
23:39 – 1 knock after “If you can knock on something, maybe you can touch me” (one knock for “no”?)
From the post Identifying the Rapper and a Recent EVP
In an EVP session on May 11, 2012, I once again ended up having communication with who I can only refer to as my “rapper” who has been visiting frequently in sessions. There were several responses, but I couldn’t hold back my excitement when a little more than six minutes in I ask “Is there any way you can give me two pretty big knocks just before I leave… just to validate that you were here today? Two loud knocks.” A few seconds later you can hear two significant knocks or taps right in a row.
Two significant knocks…
Later in the same session I decide to go down the alphabet old school like Kate and Maggie Fox. Maybe this rapper would spell out a name to help identify him/her? I went slowly through the alphabet and allowed the rapper to knock after the first letter of their first name. I got a knock after “B”. I asked for a knock to verify that “B” was correct and unfortunately I didn’t get one. Now I made the attempt to identify the second letter of the first name. We went all the way through the alphabet again and I didn’t hear a significant knock. We then tried it again for the initial of the last name, but before we started I asked if they were still with me and asked for a knock. I didn’t receive a response. I started through the alphabet anyway and when I got to “B” again and I got several little taps or crackles in response. I asked if it was accurate that the initial of their last name was “B”… and if they were a “B.B.”… No response. So I decided to try again for a second initial. No “B” this time around. I continued on and got a tap after calling “H”. No other responses or validation. I gave up for the day.
Does my rapper have the initials of B.B.? B.H.? Am I only talking to creaking walls that mysteriously only creak when I ask them to?
Related Posts
Spirit Bilocation: Is it Possible? (Big Séance)
Speak With the Dead: Seven Methods for Spirit Communication (Big Séance)
The Fox Sisters (RonNagy.net)
The Spiritualist Church, a Place Where the Paranormal World is Accepted as Fact! (DeborahJHughes.com)
The Secret Link Between Magic and the Occult (News from the Spirit World)
Table Tipping… Discuss!
I’ve read a lot on paranormal and spiritual topics, but for some reason most of the books I read avoid the topic of “table tipping”. Or, at least they don’t get into the subject very deeply. Along with discussing séances, mediums, etc., the book I’m reading now (which is not necessarily spectacular) discusses table tipping a bit. If you’ve followed my Scole Experiment posts recently, you’ll know that some of the major phenomena for them involved the table in the room. Apparently, in one sitting, the table levitated completely off the floor, turned on its side, and spun around like a fan. Can you imagine? It was recreated and dramatized in the introduction of the Scole documentary video I posted.
Can you spot the trickster in this photograph?
But table tipping has roots way before Scole. Beginning in the middle to late 1800s, table tipping was just one of the phenomena being experienced by the Fox sisters, most famous for spirit “rapping” and really introducing modern Spiritualism to the world. Along with some EVP (electronic voice phenomena), I tend to get a lot of rapping in my home. Table tipping sometimes happens in a séance, usually involves a medium, and requires all sitters to gently place hands (sometimes just finger tips) on the top of the table. Usually a smaller, lighter table, and made out of solid wood. The idea is that spirits use your energy to rock or tip the table, making it easy to communicate.
Of course, this form of spirit communication involves a lot of trust. All the sitters must be able to trust that their fellow sitters are not causing the rocking or tipping themselves. I think this is probably why the practice has a lot of skeptics.
I’ve never been involved in table tipping. Have you? Thoughts? Feelings?
Enjoy these videos (there are also many others online) and discuss.
Science and the Séance…
Some Random Updates…
During an EVP session today I seem to have been visited by another knocker… possibly some very quiet voices as well, but I’m only halfway through audio review. Hopefully I’ll have some details in the next few days.
I think many people enjoyed following my first two-week EVP experiment. I’ve been toying with some new ideas and experiments to document on The Big Séance. After viewing the rest of the this post, can you guess what those ideas might be? Does anyone have any thoughts? Let me know…
Science and the Séance…
Today I ran across an amazing BBC documentary on Spiritualism, séances, and the mediums of the day. Guess who it opens up with? Maggie and Kate Fox! I feel like I’ve gotten to know them so well this year. The author of the book I read recently is also featured in this video. I’ve decided I am SO very ready for Hollywood to make a movie about the Fox sisters. Anyway, below is Part 1 of 4. Watch it if you have some free time. It is great!
Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
I was very excited to get this book and to start reading it. Then life happened. I absolutely hate for a book to take me longer than 2 weeks to read when I’m busy, but this book took me three weeks. For an earlier post about the Fox sisters from three weeks ago when I started the book, CLICK HERE.
I think you’ll learn everything you ever wanted to know about Kate and Maggie Fox with this book, Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism by Barbara Weisberg. If you read books on ghosts or paranormal investigation topics you know that most of these books include a small section that usually credits these two sisters for starting the movement known as Spiritualism on accident in the late 1840s. Usually when you read this section you get a little bit of the author’s personal opinion on whether or not the Fox sisters pulled off the biggest hoax ever. Before reading this book I knew that they admitted to being frauds but then later recanted, but it seemed to me as if most authors that mentioned the sisters believed there was at least an element of authentic spirit communication happening.
The two younger sisters (Maggie and Kate) claimed to hear “rapping” and knocks in their home coming from what they eventually decided was the spirit of a murdered peddler from years before. They were one of the first to attempt to communicate with spirits with this system of rapping. They eventually developed a system of “yes” and “no” answers and even spelling out messages. People came from all over to see it and they were an overnight sensation!
Throughout this book I kept thinking to myself… “So was it real or not? Just tell me!” As I read I started out with the feeling the author was pro-spiritualism and seemed to believe almost every detail. Then toward the end I was surprised to find the author seemed to actually be very skeptical and was only telling the story from documented history. Strangely though, there are a lot of holes in the records and history involving the Fox sisters… I mean it wasn’t THAT long ago. It seems that some people believe they were legit and some people don’t. I definitely learned they had some sketchy and unclear moments.
In this book we learn a lot about Maggie and Kate’s parents and other siblings. Leah was a much older sister and was very influential in Maggie and Kate’s futures as mediums and speakers who travel around the world demonstrating their abilities. The book doesn’t always paint a nice picture of her. I had never heard of Leah. It seems to me that she is just as important in the story.
I learned about their loves and relationships. Maggie went through a particularly rough time with a man who tried to change her (Elisha Kent Kane, the explorer). I despised this man more and more with every detail I learned.
There were a lot of famous and influential people who supported, followed, or were clients of the Fox sisters.
There is much history of the Spiritualism movement in general included in the book. These women had leadership roles and started a movement in the days that women weren’t really accepted as leaders and weren’t supposed to be influential and smart. There were times they were definitely in danger. These were some ballsy girls!
In general, I had no idea that they were famous into adulthood and led the movement for such a long period of time. They were full-blown celebrities for a while. The book follows them till death and closes out with a summary of the Spiritualism movement since then.
So what do I think now? I think there is definitely proof of spirit communication and we learned a LOT from the Spiritualism movement (Obviously… this is The Big Séance). I also think a lot of frauds came out of it… and maybe there is much to learn from that too. But I think this story has to have some element of truth to it. I fell in love with the Fox sisters in this book and I really want to believe that they weren’t complete frauds.
On a final note, there are 34 pages of notes & bibliography at the end of this book. I didn’t read these pages, but I feel good knowing they’re there if I need them. 🙂
If anyone has suggestions of any good reads on the Spiritualism movement in general, I’d love to read more!
The Woman In Black…
It’s the kind of scary movie that I just love, and unfortunately they’re never made anymore. There’s no gore, no overly intense computer generated imagery (a pet peeve of mine), just an incredibly pimped out and abandoned mansion in the late 1800s that is just as spooky as you would expect it to be. Hammer Film Productions, from the UK (The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy), makes a comeback to produce this film. Their heyday was from the 1950s into the 70s.
After seeing the trailer I knew I’d love this movie. But I had no idea that there were so many references to spiritualism, including a scene where Daniel Radcliffe’s character notices an add in a newspaper mentioning a spiritualist and séances. I knew then that I was meant to see this movie. I’ve been reading a book about Kate and Maggie Fox, the sisters who are widely credited for starting the whole Spiritualism movement from the 1850s to the late 1800s. I blogged about them recently. Anyway, this is all from roughly the same time period.
There are several clips and trailers, but this one is my favorite. If you haven’t seen the film I think you should! This might be a DVD purchase for me!
The Fox sisters and the rise of Spiritualism…
Alright, here we go… second post for The Big Séance.
This evening as I lie in bed I’ll begin my next book. It is called TALKING TO THE DEAD: KATE AND MAGGIE FOX AND THE RISE OF SPIRITUALISM by Barbara Weisberg. I’ve read many books on talking to the dead and several include and discuss the Fox sisters. This is the first book that I’ll read that is entirely focused on the sisters and the rise of spiritualism.
Kate and Maggie Fox were young girls who are widely credited for really kicking off the movement of Spiritualism in the mid to late 1800s in New York state. They were one of the first to attempt to communicate with spirits with a system of “rapping” (knocking) on surfaces inside the home. They eventually developed a system of “yes” and “no” answers and even spelling out messages (even though it was time consuming and tired spirits out). People came from all over to witness it and they became famous for that time. Apparently they were caught red handed hoaxing at least some of their paranormal experiences as the years went by and they felt pressure to put on a show… but most Spiritualists believe that for the most part they were really communicating with the other side.
All of this led to a period in time that I’ve always been a little obsessed with and would love to visit in a time machine (providing someone could guarantee I’d make it safely back to my iphone, DVR, Keurig brewer, etc.) Home circles and séances began to be popular. People began looking within to realize they had some mediumistic abilities… and of course some faked it too. 🙂 And of course, ouija boards or talking boards (which I don’t promote) came from this period of time as well. It sounds SO exciting to me. 
Really, without even considering the fact that it is “2012” (which I have issues with… that’s another post), I think a lot of people believe that we’re experiencing another Spiritual movement right now… or at least a shift of some kind. People are becoming more intuitive and learning to choose love over fear or power. And… I believe people are becoming more and more open to the concept of there being no death… life continues. AND, there are only about eleventy-six paranormal or ghost shows of some kind on TV at all times. Then throw in the hundreds of paranormal investigation groups that are out there… and the number grows every day.
From dictionary.com…
Spiritualism
1. the belief or doctrine that the spirits of the dead, survivingafter the mortal life,
can and do communicate with the living,especially through a person (a medium)
particularlysusceptible to their influence.
2. the practices or phenomena associated with this belief.
3. the belief that all reality is spiritual.
4. Metaphysics . any of various doctrines maintaining that the ultimate reality is spirit or mind.
5. spiritual quality or tendency.
Anyway… I’ll have to let you know what I think when I’m done.
Peace!
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