We live in a crowded world. As of this episode, the? U S, census bureau puts the number of human lives on our pale blue dot of a planet at around seven point: nine billion. I'm not sure. I need to unpack that, for you, that's simply alot of people, and because of that there are very few places we can go to try, He be alone. Our cities are congested, our highways in parking lots seem to be overflowing. It boggles the mind thinking about just how many people are around us on a daily basis, which is why our homes offer a bit of peace and escape we feel as if we're in control its personal space were strangers, aren't allowed in without invitation where we can let down our guard and feel safe. Our dwelling places have been a refuge for

ever since humans gave up the nomadic hunter gatherer life and settled in one location, even still multiple Religions throughout history have taught us to believe that, while we might think we are alone therein, another world behind the thin veil of reality, Heaven the other world, the afterlife. We can call it whatever we want, but humans, for the most part at least, have always been If that its they're waiting for us, it was in the mid nineteenth century, though, that some people began to propose new ideas about it. They claimed that, rather than being passive, this other world was active and thriving, and if we understood how we could even interact with it, we could even communicate with it. Some people took openness. Some fought against it, regardless this new belief, spread. Few people vote

back the darker side of this new vision, they celebrated the hope that came from discovering a new door and relished their chance to open it and walk through, but just because we can doesn't mean we should some doors. You see, are closed for reason I'm erin monkey and this is lore in eighteen. Forty eight something odd was going on at the home of John and Margaret fox, who lived in hides bill new york. They were a poor family, but their fortunes changed when their two youngest daughters cates in margaret started to communicate with an unseen entity in their home through a series of clicks and knocks in word got out about what they could do. The girls, twelve and fifteen years old at the time were,

ass, to bring their abilities to the stage in rochester new york, and that was the moment that launched their career. Katyn, Margaret toward the country performing groups sciences in front of sell out crowds. They inspired a whole slew of imitators and the girls made a good living at it. For close to forty as the fox sisters came on the scene at a time when there was a growing interest in forces outside of our own existence, while spiritualism itself is said to have blossomed in upstate new york. Some people think we can thank france mesmer for getting it started. Mesmer was a german physician who started out investigating the healing power of magnets, but moved on to believe that inside and outside forces influenced our human experience. He focused on the healing powers of his theory, but never found success in the medical field. Later researchers transition his work into a field, they called nero hypnosis or nervous sleep which

actually simply became known as hypnosis today, when we think of mesmerism or being mesmerized, we think of hypnosis, but it was the spiritualist movement that found the most hope in this idea. It took their beliefs and something that sounded insane communicating with the dead and learning from them and put it into the realm of science. At least that's what they thought in eighteen. Eighty, eight, forty years after their careers began, the fox sisters confessed to their trickery, both, and it seems, could rotate their ankles and Ben their toes in a way that produced audible clicks each seance they performed had been an act and nothing more, but the world of spiritualism that they brought to the forefront of popular culture didn't just go away. It had already taken root despite their confession, and it showed no sign of stopping

there was mixed reception in some ways. These were teaching in contradiction to the accepted theology of a very large portion of christianity, and some spoke out about that. In other ways, though, spiritualism seem to confirm what most churches already taught that even your death. We maintain our personalities and live on in another manner for those who lost loved ones or had a deep curiosity about the after Life sciences offered a chance to say good, bye, to say hello or just to learn popular figures lined up on both sides of the fence. In the nineteen these magician and performer harry houdini, was a vocal opponents and actively sought to disprove anyone that claim to be in communication with the world beyond them. John, never masculine, another stage magician and the inventor of the pay toilets. Actually add in on seances and pointed out the trickery, as it happened, but not everyone saw it as a farce. Sir, arthur Conan Doyle creed

an author of the Sherlock Holmes novels was vocal supporter of spiritualism. He when belong to a london organisation, known as the ghost club rooted in a deep belief in the supernatural and the other worldly, their members included. Charles dickens, w b yeats and charles babbage, one of the fathers of the programmable computer, there were others, though, who took things too far. Thomas bradford was one as people in eighteen, twenty he placed an ad in Detroit michigan newspaper seeking others who were as curious about the afterlife as he was. He was looking for a partner someone to converse with two

Port each other at a further each other's knowledge of life after death. When Ruth dorin replied the two struck up a partnership and friendship, their goal was to become of one mind. They said to be a tune to each other in a way that death could not break, and then, in february of nineteen twenty one bradford andorra and took their research to the next level. Bradford lacked his apartment. Door turned on his heater blue, The pilot light and impatiently waited waited for the room to fill with gas. He died of sixty shortly after with a plan to reach out to his partner from beyond the grave and confirmed their beliefs so roof waited. She never heard from him again.

when his wife passed away. Presbyterian minister Eliachim phelps found himself alone. At the age of fifty nine, his children had all grown up and moved out, and so he looked for a change in his life. That would bring him some semblance of happiness. He found that change. Think, younger woman and soon the couple were married, new bride was in her mid fortys and came into the marriage with three other children under the age of sixteen. Shortly after, though mister and missus phelps welcomed another. sign into their lives, and then, in november of eighteen, forty seven, the family purchased a home in stratford connecticut. It was a unique and sprawling mansion built just twenty two years prior by a retired, seek but had sat unoccupied in the years since his death in eighteen. Forty five and it was a large house to those who visit

There said that the lay out had more than a passing resemblance to a ship, something one might expect for a home built for a sailor. main hallway, for example, was an unbelievable seventy feet long and there were five bedrooms on the second floor with two more on the third they provide all the space, a family of six might need and then some they move into the mansion. In february of eighteen, forty eight and for the first two years, life there was uneventful, but on march tenth of eighteen, fifty all of that changed they'd gone to church. That morning, as you might expect from a minister and his family upon leaving reverend phelps locked the door, because no one would be home. Even the maid was offered the day. When they return home later that morning, the front door of the house was standing wide, open, phelps stepped in sight.

carefully and noticed that more doors had been opened inside the home furniture had been toppled, dishes lay broken on the floor in everyday objects like books and declarations were scattered about. They had clearly robbed. The nursery was found in chaos as well with furniture tossed on the bed there in a panic, phelps checked the downstairs closet where they kept the valuable family silver and discovered that it was still there untouched. Even his gold pocket watch was found right where he had left it, which begs the question. If they had been robbed what valuables had actually been taken concerned, reverend felt suggested that the entire family travel upstairs together,

in order to continue their inspection. They looked inside each room, one by one, looking for signs of the same chaos and vandalism, but every room they checked seem to be untouched. If some one had broken in, perhaps they had been frightened off before having the chance to come upstairs. The last room they checked was that of mister and missus phillips The space was clean and tidy, and the bed was still neatly made, but something odd lay in the centre of it. It was mrs phelps Count it had been laid out in the shape of a person with arms crossed over its chest, like a corpse, even a pair of stockings had been added to the arrangements, giving it the appearance of feet and there on the nearby wall was a series of indecipherable, scribbles, something that looks and felt evil to the core as hard as it is to believe, though, the family brush these events off as a simple prank, some random acts of vandalism and nothing more and even harder to believe when it.

time to return to church that day for the afternoon schedule, the entire family willingly did so every one that is except Mister Phelps. He stay behind re, lock the doors and windows and then took a seat in one of the upstairs rooms. With a pistol in hand to wait for the and not to return, but when nothing unusual happen for over an hour, phelps quietly slipped out of the room to inspect the rest of the house. Downstairs. He slowly pushed open the door to the dining room and then froze nearly a dozen figures stood in the room. Some stood tall holding bibles while others bowed low to the floor. All of them, though, seemed focused on the shape of a small otherworldly creature above their heads, phelps stared at it for a moment before, realizing that it was a small statue hanging from the ceiling by a string. It was a lot to take in. I suppose that might explain why it took phelps so long to notice the other audit

he's in the room. The women who were gathered around the figure were moving. They weren't, even real. Each one it turns out was nothing more than clothing, taken from a room upstairs they were life, size, rag, dolls, someone or something had gathered the clothing pen them together into human shapes and stuffed each of them with rags all without phelps hearing a thing dot yourselves took the blame for the figures. No, he didn't create them and no, he did Tell people that he had a fully admitted that they were unusual other worldly. Even he didn't know how to explain their appearance, but he believed that had somehow unintentionally played a part in all of it. He blamed

events on the week before, on march forth, a friend had visited the phelps home. It had been a typical visit after dinner, with the family, both men retired, to the study for drinks and deeper conversation and being eighteen. Fifty the spiritualist movement was fresh on this visitors, mind it's hard to say what they talked about. Maybe the fox sisters came up. Maybe they told stories of reported hauntings

or unusual activity in the newspapers. What we do know, though, is that the conversation eventually turned to say answers. The word seance is french and it simply means a session or a sitting in the spiritualist movement, though, a science was something more than that. It was an attempt to communicate with the spirit world to reach out through the thin curtain, between life and death and feel in the dark for something tangible, something real. A science was and is an act of hope for phelps and his visitor. Though there was a curiosity and they decided right then, and there to try one. Maybe it was the scotch they'd been sharing or late hour, it's hard to say for sure what drives people to do things that are out of their character, but it happens. Nonetheless, the two men were said to have conducted their own short amateur seance right there in the study in

into the admission of phelps himself. It appeared to have been successful, however underwhelming it might have been after calling out for a response from the spirit world. The men reportedly heard a distant knock back. Then they called it wrapping, but please don't confused that with the work of jesse, its most likely that the men forgot about that evening altogether. But after the march tenth incident with the life size, dolls, things in the phelps household only became more unusual. Things were escalating, it seems, and it was happening in the presence of multiple witnesses. Phelps himself was a sceptic and so to help him document these experiences. He often brought an equally skeptical colleagues

later. Reports detail how the activity in the house grew more and more unnatural objects would appear from thin air and moved slowly across the room. Some of these objects, when even land softly as being set down by a guiding hand, food would appear during meals, sometimes dropping right onto the plate. Even heavy objects such as the fireplace rules were said to have moved around the room on their own. At one point, phelps called on another minister, reverend John Mitchell to help him investigate further the two men locked themselves in the parlour and waited knowing it would be impossible for some one one of the children they assumed to sneak in and toss objects. the air, while inside the room that night, it's reported that the men witnessed dozens of items you're in the air and then fall to the floor.

You have those items turned out to be clothing from upstairs as if they had been falling through a hole in the ceiling clothing, mind you, like those used to create life. Sized figures that phelps had seen weeks before the stories caught the attention of other members of the Phelps family to once he was paid, by his adult son, austin theology, professor and phelps his own brother, abner, one of the most prominent medical doctors in Boston. At a time while there the two men heard knocking at the front door when they opened it? No one was there. Of course they assumed it was a prank in a house full of children. That was the logical explanation. So they then systematically inspected all the rooms in house. Looking for the person responsible for the noise doors were checked, children were isolated and watched in the end. Their search came to a frustrating conclusion that evening, when both men heard the knocking once more this time, while each was standing on the other side of the door

now granted flying skirts and invisible, knocking with something that most families might be able to work around their didn't seem to be anything malicious or dangerous about the activity, so throughout all of this phelps acted without urgency. In many ways it seems that he was more of a curious observer. Then a concerned homeowner, but all of that was about change. The physical attacks began his pinches and slaps sometime during april of eighteen, fifty one reporter who had come to the phelps home to discuss their experiences, actually witnessed some of those attacks first hand. According to him, there was nothing suspicious about it at all, no one from what they could tell had faked it. It became more life threatening

When missus Phillips awoke in the middle of the night to find a pillow being pressed over her face in something wrapped around her throat, she survived, but it became clear that day that the spirit, if that's what it really was, was far from benign and then it turned its sights on their young son. Henry Henry was just eleven at the time and although no one is sure why he became the primary focus for the attacks doled out by the unseen force in the house, rocks were thrown at him on multiple occasions. He was sometimes seem to be levitating toward the ceiling and a newspaper reporter once witnessed the child being picked up and thrown across the room all by an unseen worse. Henry occasionally went missing too much to the concern of his parents, the first time it when he was later found, strung up in a tree outside bound with a rope and unaware of how he got there. Another time

finally found inside one of the homes closets resting on a shelf too high for the boy to have climbed onto himself, and there was a noose around his neck. henry suffered more than anyone else in the phelps household. That year he was pushed into a cistern of water. Is clothing was torn apart while he was wearing it and on one occasion a fire was ignited beneath his bed, threatening to burn him alive. Thankfully, he managed to escape most of these attacks unharmed, but the threat was very A real as the attacks on Henry continued phelps grew more and more frustrated. and to shout out to whoever was responsible speaking to empty room in demanding the activity to stop. It never did and on more than one occasion, mysterious notes would appear, rough handwriting on scraps of paper that past messages to the homeowner,

I know the notes themselves are now lost. Phelps reported that their contents were beyond disturbing as a final attempt to free his home from whatever force was inhabiting. It phelps gathered witnesses for a second seance. His hope was that he might learn something about the spirit, something that would help him get rid of it or at least a piece it phelps had lost hope, and now his rational mine was leaning into unknown territory out of desperation, the sand, revealed very little new information, but according to reports from phelps and other witnesses, the spirit did identify itself. It claimed to be a he a deceased clerk who once worked with mrs phelps on.

financial matter. The name was investigated and certain details matched up with the public records, but it is still unclear what the spirit wanted and how they might be able to finally be rid of it. The notes continued to appear as well once a paper drifted onto the table during a tea party hosted by missus phillips Phelps himself received dozens, many of which reference common names for the devil. From that era, titles, like the owls above sam slick and sir sambo. All found their way onto these notes. Finally, in september of this year, a note appeared on the desk. While phelps was their working, he glanced at the handwriting and deciphered the message as best he could. It was a question, presumably from the spirit who hunted the house. When are you planning to leave

it asked it was a clear and powerful message. Phelps and his family weren't welcome there any more. Perhaps it was a threat. Perhaps the attacks would increase or more dramatic events might follow. If a small fire could be lit beneath henry's bed, it didn't seem, like a stretch to imagine the entire house being at risk of burning phelps, took a moment to process the question and then reach for the paper. Taking his pencil, you wrote his answer below the messy handwriting october. First, there was no reply that day, but felt stuck with the agreement on october. First of eighteen, fifty the family return to pennsylvania and he followed shortly after weeks later, though they all returned, I'm not sure why, to be honest, maybe they wanted to give it another try. It was their home. After

but the activity continued. There was more knocking more writing on the wall and more objects that move through the air as if they were dangling from invisible strings. One final note appeared in the house in may of eighteen, fifty one and after that the family moved out for good most of us know someone with a story to tell about unexplainable things, objects that seem to me Without our involvement sounds. They can't explain that feeling of being washed when there's no one else in the room, or even

the house. It's easy to understand why some people have a desire to search for the truth, but what if the act of reaching out for answers, has real world consequences? Certainly the events in the phelps mansion confirms something, of that kind. Maybe those events were the result of a family with a very open mind, doing their best to interpret admittedly unusual experiences or perhaps there right Maybe there really is something beyond the veil and it reaches through from time to time in order to affect the lives of the living. It's a difficult question to answer even impossible, perhaps, which is why we keep ass. in it, remnants of spiritualism have stuck around embedded in our popular culture, classic horror novels, like the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson and richard matheson's, hell house both draw heavily on that world, featuring seances automatic writing and

their worldly activity, even today with movies like the exorcist in what lies beneath the notion of reaching out to communicate with the world beyond our own is alive and well, and maybe there's a good reason why another family bought the phelps mansion. After they moved back to pennsylvania and over the years the home changed hands. Often eighteen forties. It had been converted into a facility for the care of the elderly and when the cosette us, both of whom were registered nurses, move there in nineteen forty seven, there were already more stories filling the hallways doors that would instead shut knocking whispers and random noises that scene have no explanation, but it was their infant son Gary who encountered the most trouble one night. The couple was pulled from sleep by one of the patient, buzzer's carl quickly. stepped out of the room and descended to the second floor to see what was wrong ass. He did, though, he caught the scent of smoke.

he quickly ran from room to room checking in with each patient, but all of them were asleep. Finally, at a loss. He dashed back up to the third floor and into gary's room inside the sent with stronger and smoke billowed from the direction of a crime, rushing over. He found the blanket at gary's feet was burning small flames slowly spreading to the sheets. One other night of sleep was interrupted by the same buzzer system, and this time Gary's parents both exited their room just in time to find the boy crawling toward the top of the staircase. How he got out of his crib and into the hallway was a mystery in each instance. The alert system saved gary's life. Needless to say, the conservatives were very think for the person nor people responsible for telling them that gary needed help. It was ironic, really the buzzer system,

was designed to allow them to help the patients, but twice it seems the patience had helped them instead, so they asked each of them one by one and none of the patients claim responsibility. Now clearly, that caserta didn't know the facts, and while there is a chance that locals whispered the hauntings they most likely didn't, know the full extent of the stories they certainly didn't know about the contents of those other worldly notes. That would appear from time to time give the chance to read them, though they would have been surprised by what that final note said a century before them in may of eighteen. Fifty one the evil one has gone and a better one has come.

Unusual activity. Moving objects and mysterious noises are the sort of things that any of us would run from, especially in a safe place like our own home. So I, today's exploration. Other Phelps household gave you a glimpse into just how terrifying that sort of ordeal could become, but it's not just a one off tail. In fact, right in new england, there is at least one more frightening story of unusual circumstances, with no hard proof to explain it all away. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. This episode is sponsored by better help online therapy. Here's a question for you how well would you take care of your car if you had to keep the same one, your entire life? That's how our brains work too, so and if we treat them the same way, how we Therefore, our minds affects how we experience life. So it's important to us best time and care into keeping them healthy.

The things that I do to take care of my mind is balancing my busy work schedule with unplugged non work. Activities like golfing our role playing games helps keep me refreshed and safer from burn out, which is so port and there are plenty of ways to support a healthy brain from learning a new language to taking power. Naps and there's also better help on my therapy. Better help is online, therapy that offers videophone and even live tat only therapy sessions. So you don't have see anyone on camera. If you dont want to its much more afford Well, then in person therapy and you can be matched with a therapist in under forty eight hours. Our listeners get ten percent off their first month at better help, doc come slashed, lore, that's, b e t, t r, hd, LP, dotcom slashed lore.

This episode of war was made possible by stamps that come if you're, a small business owner. You know how important it is to be ready for the insane holiday season and if you haven't, started preparing for the chaos of holiday mailing shipping, europe already- falling behind luckily stay It's dot has everything you need to make your life a whole lot easier. It's the twenty four seven post office that you can access from anywhere now lie snow traffic no hassle for more. twenty years stamps dot com has been indispensable for over a million businesses stance I can give you access to all the post office and shipping services that you need right for your computer with Inflation on the rise, every dollar counts, protect your margins with major discounts. On: u S, p s end you ps rates up to eighty six percent off. It ahead of the holiday chaos this year get started with stamps dot com sign up with a promo code, lore for a special offer that includes a four week: trial, plus free postage and a digital scale, no longer

term commitments or contracts just go to stamps dot, com and click on the microphone to the top of the page and type. In the word, lore that stamps dot com offer code lore. The. as we learned from the Phelps family. Just because someone is young doesn't mean that they're not spared from spirits malevolence. Children are just as susceptible to a ghosts ire, if not more so than adults are just ass. Students of miss perkins class

twenty three year old lucy, a perkins was used to her students, shenanigans. She taught a class full of boys in a one room schoolhouse in newburyport massachusetts back in eighteen. Seventy one the building was drab with green blinds and soiled door posts. Even the fence around the property was broken in spots. It was a dreary place to learn. In september of that year, though, miss perkins noticed that her lessons were being interrupted by loud, knocking sounds. Her first thought was to ask the children, after all, with a group of boys cramped together in a single room all day, some one was bound to channel their boredom into well entertaining pursuits, but none of them fest up still the wrapping grew louder and emanated from all over the classroom. Behind the walls under the floor and even from the desks in the ceiling during one particular lesson, a child attempted to spell the word cannot out loud but was unable to complete the word. He could only

in the first three letters before the knocking sounds got too loud and drowned out everything else. Miss perkins had the children sing out loud in unison to fight back, but sadly it didn't help. Soon the knocking turn into something more physical jackets were plucked off their hooks and dropped to the ground. Items were knocked off desks in shelves as though an invisible cat had been prowling. Schoolhouse desks even slid across the floor, without anyone touching them and to everyone's shock objects started to float in mid air. Perkins also had to bells on her desk one small and and the other larger and heavier adding to the cacophony of classroom noise that smaller bell began to incessantly ring all by itself. It seemed this loan schoolhouse was now the centre of paranormal

Typically in newburyport inside the fire in the corner would stove would spontaneously go out. The stoves lid would sometimes lift up and income slamming back down over the coals, as if, by a phantom hand outside when it rained only the schoolhouse would get wet, but nowhere else winds blew a cry The building and cast debris against its walls, while leaving the area around the building untouched and those gusts of wind. But sometimes make their way inside and blow the furniture and other objects around as well, and sometimes when the skies turn gray and storm clouds rolled in the classroom glow with a pale yellow light and, of course, miss perkins alerted the school committee to everything. At first, they dismissed her things soon got too big to ignore and an investigation was conducted. Students were offered a dollar a piece by the committee to confess to perpetuating this elaborate hoax, a dollar was a big deal back then clustered twenty five bucks today, but none of the children admitted to their guilt, miss bracken

was also interrogated as well and accused of anxiety. Nobody believed that any of the strange happenings were genuine. They were either a prank gone too far or the machinations of teachers stress addled, Soon word amiss: perkins class began to spread. This was the mid too late. Eighteen hundreds, after all, the height of the spiritual, is a movement in america. Children and adults alike were at least familiar with spiritualism, even if they had not attended a science themselves. Local news, First printed articles, one publisher called loring, publishing a boston put out a pamphlet about the haunted, schoolhouse and several celebrities even came to try and de bunk the claims legal scholar, Oliver window homes among them and as for the students, a few of them are a bachelor. Out of the class by their families. Small conversation swirled around the idea of closing the school forever or even demolishing the building, but that never came to pass spirit.

lists eventually started arriving and holding seances within the schoolhouse to try and make contact with spirits. Everything came to a head after report surfaced of an actual ghost being spotted within the classroom. Miss perkins had been the first to see it followed by miss perkins and the students together. Perkins was placed leave shortly thereafter and that pamphlet from loring publishing I mentioned earlier gives us a good description of the ghost. The figure was that of a boy of thirteen. It says The visage was remarkably pale. The eyes were blue, the mouth sad and the whole effect was that of extreme melancholy. The general picture was Out of a child prepared for burial and prepared, moreover, in a poor and makeshift way, the ghost continued to appear every so often until eighteen, seventy five when all the activity just stopped the knocking the eerie, yellow, glow, the wind and the ghosts.

Young boy all of them disappeared. Some years later, a former student name AMOS courier step forward. He confessed claiming that he then behind all of it is part of an elaborate hoax, but when he was asked to prove his involvement, he couldn't and to be honest, most think it was unlikely that one small boy could have conjured gale force, wins inside a classroom or cause the knocking, sounds and floating objects. Of course, that sort of assumption hides one other option. What if AMOS courier did have the power to do all those things which might be the most frightening possibility of all.

This episode of law was research written and produced by me, Aaron monkey, with additional help on the epilogue from general nether caught in harry marks and music by Chad. Lawson more is much more than just a podcast there's a book series available in bookstores in online and two seasons of the town. Vision, show on amazon, prime video, a tv oh by the way, the features, the phelps story in season. One check involve out. If you want more lore in your life, I also make an executive produce a whole bunch of other pipe casts, all of which I think you'd enjoy my production, company grim and mild specializes in shows that city intersection of the dark, any historical you can learn more about all of our shows and everything else going on over in one central place and mild dot com, and you can also.

followed. This show on twitter, facebook and instagram just search for lore podcast I'll one word, and then click that follow button and when you do say hi, I like it when people say hi and as always, thanks for listening.