The Bloody Benders

While many Spiritualists and Mediums were sincere, many were also frauds. They preyed on victims’ needs to be reassured about their loved ones, who had passed away to another world. The Bloody Benders, however, used Spiritualism to commit mass murder.

Are You a Highly Sensitve Person?

If you have any doubts, you’re probably not a HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). These types of people are highly intuitive (great plus) but are also highly vulnerable (great minus).

HSPs generally react to changes in the energy vibrations in their environments. This leads some researchers to argue that HSPs have some form of sickness or have right side brain damage. I say: Pshaw! That’s right: Pshaw! Let’s face it: some people are just more sensitive than others–no brain damage involved.

These folks are able to process information on a deeper level and are aware of changes in the environment before non-HSP people.

According to psychologists, HSPs have:

•        marked intuition and the ability to read between the lines
•        strong sense of justice and idealism
•         sensitiveness (seems like a no brainer, I know)
•        intensive feeling, perception and living
•        perfectionism and reliability
•        very good perception of details
•        being strongly attracted by the beauty of nature and art
•        thinking in wider connections, deep reflection
•       strong sympathy for the sorrow but also for the happiness of other people
•        susceptibility for mysticism and symbolism
•       creativity

HSPs also have many drawbacks, including:

•         support stress and hectic activity only with difficulty
•        inclination to diverse over sensitivenesses (allergies, food incompatibilities etc.)
•         have difficulties in demarcation
•        being startled easily
•       inclination to overreaction
•        inclination to pondering
•        easily overwhelmed
•        the frequent need to withdraw

These folks are strongly empathetic, and this can be a bonus and a negative in many different types of situations. Obviously, they do not do well in large crowds of people. Maybe there’s just too much energy there.

HSPs tend to get a bad wrap in society, mainly due a business oriented culture that frowns on sensitivity.

Researcher Elaine Aron tells us  only about 15-20% of the population are HSPs.

Cherish the HSP in your life (when s/he lets you–remember, they need a great deal of alone time)–s/he might just save your life one day by noticing that one small detail or sensing danger.

Daniel Dunglas Home

Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886) was and is considered by many as the greatest medium of all time.  Home was noted for his abilities in levitation, as a medium, and as a clairvoyant. Scottish by birth, Home moved with his aunt and uncle to America, and later as an adult, returned to England.

Becoming a Psychic Medium
From a young age, Home began making accurate predictions of family members’ deaths. His aunt recalled that at the age of four, Home predicted his cousin’s death (Home 1). As he grew, his abilities became more pronounced. The first visitation he could recall occurred when he was only thirteen years old. One night when he went to bed, he saw his friend Edwin at the foot of his bed. He called family members into the room and related his vision ( 3). It proved to be too true.

Despite his sickly childhood, Home’s abilities continued into adulthood. Home believed his psychic talents were passed down from his mother, who was gifted (or cursed) with second sight. She predicted her own death. When her death came, Home was confined to bed himself with sickness; nevertheless, his mother appeared to him to say farewell (5).

Soon after, Home began hearing “knockings” in his aunt’s house. Home claimed, “there had been some talk of the so-called Rochester knockings through the Fox family, but apart from casually hearing of them, I had paid no attention to them; I did not even know what they meant” (6). Indeed, Home rarely associated or even acknowledged other Spiritualists or mediums (D.D. Home). Whatever the truth may be, soon furniture began to move around the rooms, and increasingly, neighbors were attracted to the house (Home 8).

The Fox Sisters and the Birth of Spiritualism

 Maggie (Margaret), Kate, and Leah are credited with the birth of Spiritualism.

In 1848, the Fox family moved into a house alleged to be haunted in the tiny hamlet of Hydesville, New York.

It wasn’t long before the family noticed strange knockings and the sounds of furniture being moved across the floor. Kate (aged 12) and Maggie (aged 15) challenged the knocker, and the knocker responded. Through a ritual of knocking or “rapping”, Kate and Maggie were able to communicate and ask questions of the spirits in front of a frightened adult audience. Despite repeated searches of the home, neighbors failed to locate any tangible person or object knocking.