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True paranormal mysteries (part three)
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Margaret (Maggie) Fox
The psychic highway:
During the period of time the Fox sisters were experiencing their 'supernatural visitations', a great upheavel in religious, political and social thought was taking place primarily along an unique narrow stretch of land from Syracuse to Buffalo, 20 miles north and south of the Erie Canal. Emerson Klees, in his book "The Crusible of Ferment", called it, "The Psychic Highway".
It was here that witnessed the Anti-Masonic movement, the advent of the Modern Spiritualist movement, the Women's Rights and Abolitionist movements as well as the founding of seven new religions, sects and utopian communes
In "Religion in America", Winthrop S. Hudson, commented on these forces:
"The first half of the nineteenth century in the United States was a time of eager expectancy, unbridled enthusiasm and restless ferment. A new nation and a new world was being born, and to many anything and everthing were possible. it was a period when a comet's tail was said to have swept America, and everyone went a little mad"
Among the extraordinary social, religious and political activists during this period include:
Charles Gradison Finney, called by many, including the Reverend Billy Graham ,"the greatest evangelist who ever livedr", came to Rochester in 1830 and preached to thousands. He was known for his innovations in preaching, such as having women pray in public meetings of mixed gender. Interestly enough, Finney, prior to his conversion was a Freemason, but became a staunch opponent of Masonry later in life.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church from Palmyra, who claimed a visit by an angel who had shown him a set of golden plates that described a visit of Jesus. In 1830, Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates as the "Book of Mormon", and in the same year organized the "Church of Christ".
Frederick Douglass, former slave who became a noted abolitionists, women's suffragist, orator, editor of the Rochester newspaper, "The North Star", friend of the Fox sisters and one of the most prominent figures in African-American history.
Susan B. Anthony, prominent civil rights leader and women's suffrage who attended the Rochester womens rights convention in 1848 and who would also go on to befriend the Fox sisters and engage in the practice of spiritualism.
William Miller, founder of the "Millerites", the forerunner of what today is known as "The Seventh Day Adventist Church. Miller and his disciples, including Hiram Edson from Port Gibson, congregated on Pinnacle hill in 1843 waiting for the second coming of Jesus and the destruction of the earth. When that didn't happen, they attributed the non-event to a typographical error in their calculations of the ancient Jewish calendar....To be continued
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