Emma Hardinge Britten and the message about the "Pacific"

by Admin Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:11 am

http://ehbritten.blogspot.com/2011/02/wednesday-january-23-1856.html

by Wes Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:57 am

That's an interesting article though I would have thought that if you have inconsistencies between two reports, you would expect the earlier one to be more accurate as the events would be "fresher" in the mind of the author.

As it turned out the earlier account was more accurate, which only casts doubts on EHB's memory when writing the later account, not her mediumship.

by Admin Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:51 am

Interesting point Wes, now Emma died before the completion of the editing of her autobiography, which her sister finished for her. It is possible that this led to errors.

However, Mediums have been known to glamorise stories and the auto biography shows a friendship with one of the most unreliable recounters of accurate history Leah Fish Fox Underhill the eldest Fox Sister. Her embellishmenst, a la Mr Splitfoot, have caused a rewrite to history which is almost impossible to remove, she also introduced a flying table at the Rochester Investigations in November 1849. On top of that at very census she became much younger, so by the end far from being the eldest by the many years she was she describes the events occuring as when we were all little children.

Interestingly the Auto Biography is the only place where there is a mention of a communication with Robert Owen at which the 10 laws and commandments were given. This was at an undated seance, around the time of the civil war, attended by Leah Fox Underhill, her husband and Robert Dale Owen the son of Owen.

These are of course to cause endless confusion about the arrival of the 7 Principles direct from Robert Owen at Cleveland Hall.
Thanks to the work of Marc Demarest, Pat Deveney, Paul Gaunt, Leslie Price and some other dedicated peole we are progressively gaining access to wonderful periodicals and journals from our past.

One of these is a copy of the issue of Medium and Daybreak covering the Cleveland Hall meeting http://www.ehbritten.org/texts/primary/ehb_creed_of_the_spirits_medium_and_daybreak_1871.pdf
This shows clearly that the 7 Principles were not then given

Interestingly here we find another one of those memory issues, or a misunderstanding on the part of the editor, James Burns, about the date the 10 commandments were given because he contradicts the autobiography saying
As a supplement to the oration, Mrs. Hardinge electrified the
audience by reading Ten" Spiritual Commandments," which she
had written in a very rapid manner on the previous morning under the
infiuence of Robert Owen, whose centenary takes place next
week. They are wonderfully characteristic of that revered philan-·
thropist, and present perhaps the most comprehensive view of religious
ethics which the world has ever seen. On Monday morning
Mrs. Hardinge presented the manuscript and copyright to
Mr. Bums, with the request that he would print them for his own
benefit and that of the cause, and have them circulated as opportunity
offered.

Suffice to say we have covered this in greater depth on the forum and the 10 laws and 10 commandments are shown there
http://spiritualismlink.forumotion.com/t131-the-seven-principles-a-discussion-on-their-creation

by Wes Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:53 am

Thanks Jim, your comment reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask. I remember hearing that there was a man who investigated the Hydesville rappings and wrote a pamphlet on his findings, which included interviews with people who were there.

Is that any place on the internet to read what was in that pamphlet?

by pricel Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:48 pm

Wes. One place is Psypioneer April 2005. Paul Gaunt spent many hours working from a battered copy of the original pamphlet which had been typeset in rural New York State just a few weeks after the Rappings. Paul scanned and checked it. Almost no Spiritualist living in this century had ever read this pamphlet, by Lewis. Even today there are top Spiritualists who are too busy to read it. And yet it is the original record of what happened, artless interviews with the local people who were there, including the Fox family. Especially worth reading before the 31 March anniversary.

http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/Leslie_Price_PP12.pdf

by zerdini Tue Feb 15, 2011 10:15 pm

pricel wrote:Wes. One place is Psypioneer April 2005. Paul Gaunt spent many hours working from a battered copy of the original pamphlet which had been typeset in rural New York State just a few weeks after the Rappings. Paul scanned and checked it. Almost no Spiritualist living in this century had ever read this pamphlet, by Lewis. Even today there are top Spiritualists who are too busy to read it. And yet it is the original record of what happened, artless interviews with the local people who were there, including the Fox family. Especially worth reading before the 31 March anniversary.

http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/Leslie_Price_PP12.pdf

I have a copy of the pamphlet by Lewis and I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the Fox Family and the record of the happenings in Hydesville.

by Admin Tue Feb 15, 2011 10:37 pm

Very many thanks for putting the link up, I meant to do it but totally overloaded yesterday what with work and dealing with the visit of our two Scottish Mediums. Yes it was a wonderful job Paul Gaunt did to make this available to all Spiritualists

As both you and Z say it should be mandatory reading.

The next news letter for the Mission, being March, will see a write up of Hydesville and also I will place a link to the EE Lewis brochure on our elibrary. At the same time I will be putting the Ebooks Hisrory of the Strange Sounds, Dewey 1850, Capron & Barron's Book 1850 plus a couple of the otherearlest books into the library.

I did a brief write up on the remarkable DD Home this month and added Lights and Shadows and his autobiography onto the library.
http://www.nasm.org.au/library.html

by Admin Tue Feb 15, 2011 10:53 pm

Of course I mentioned the varying ages of the Fox Sisters but forgot to put a link to Lis's Psypioneer article which is the most definitive piece about the Fox Sisters ages to date.
http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/PP4.9September08.pdf

by Admin Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:12 am

Looking at this piece by Lis we also find another of the types of inconsistencies notes above. To quote Lis

Just ten years later, Emma Hardinge, in ‘Modern American Spiritualism’, at first wrote:
“At the time of the manifestations, the house was tenanted by Mr. and Mrs. Fox and their two youngest children, Margaret and Catharine, the respective ages of whom Mrs Fox’s published statement represents as twelve and fifteen years.” 29
In the final pages of her work, however, Hardinge offers a correction:
“ Since the earlier chapters of this volume were in type, the author has been requested to correct the statement made by the witnesses at Hydesville, respecting the ages of Catherine and Margaretta Fox at the time of the first disturbances. The mother of the ladies, Mrs Fox, addressed a letter to the President of the anniversary meeting held in New York City in 1868, in which she stated that, at the time of the first ‘Rochester knockings,’ her daughter Kate was seven years old, and Margaretta ten. The ages of the children being as the family allege, ‘incorrectly rendered in the first printed report, have been erroneously represented in all subsequent accounts.” 30
Emma Hardinge’s ‘errata’ statement is perhaps the most puzzling of all made regarding the ages of Maggie and Kate Fox, for in March 1868 when it is claimed Mrs Margaret Fox had written, she had been deceased some 2 years and seven months, having passed into spirit at the age of 68, on August 3rd 1865 as a result of typhoid fever. She was laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York. 31

It perhaps highlights the problems for serious researchers if they are relying upon the later writings of other people rather than the original records.

by Admin Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:26 am

Funny I found this piece in an olds Spiritualist and Lis discussed it with Marc who, as it happened, had already written it up.
http://ehbritten.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/pacific-yet-yet-again-mrs-porters.html

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