The Occult Sciences: Sketches of the Traditions and Superstitutions of Past Times, and the Marvels of the Present Day
by Reverend Edward Smedley, W. Cooke Taylor
1855

Additional authors include Reverend Henry Thompson and Elihu Rich. The following pages contain a brief but comprehensive account of the Occult Sciences, and other matters of superstitious or religious belief associated with them. The Contents are divided into the following Parts: The Belief in Supernatural Beings; Localities; The Exercise of Occult Power; Psychological Experiences; Wonders of Divination; and Natural and Artificial Charms.

Excerpt: ...spirit, to give me the sound. I then heard the rapping distinctly. I inquired if it was injured in this house. It rapped. Was the injurer living? Same answer. I further understood that its remains were buried under the dwelling, that it was 31 years of age, a male, and had left a family of five children, all living. Was the wife living? Silence. Dead? Rapping. How long since? Two raps." We must be excused following the gradual perfection of the code of signals which was very speedily established between the unknown intelligence and the members of the Fox family, and can but barely note the unparalleled rapidity with which this telegraphic system was spread through the United States, until, at the present time, upwards of thirty thousand "circles," as they are called, are in active operation, besides a teeming press, including several regular journals. As a general rule, these circles have been initiated one by another, but the rappings, in several cases, have commenced de novo, on independent ground, as at the house of Dr. Phelps, an Independent minister, Stratford, Connecticut. This gentleman, whose character is said to be unimpeachable, and who has challenged the strictest investigation, even to the extent of offering his house and all it contains to any one who could detect a natural cause for the disturbances, thus writes:--" I have seen things in motion more than a thousand times, and in most cases where no visible power existed by which the motion could have been produced. There have been broken from my windows seventy-one panes of glass, more than thirty of which 1 have seen break with my own eyes. I have seen objects, such as brushes, tumblers, candlesticks, snuffers, &c., which but a few minutes before I knew to be at rest, ...