The Missing Link in Modern SpiritualismUnderhill, A. Leah (Ann Leah)
Religion
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
Underhill, A. Leah (Ann Leah)
Fox family; Spiritualism
"In the early part of July a friend, Mrs. J., wife of a gentleman well
known in New York literary circles[17] and who had been staying with
Mrs. Davis, proposed to close her visit and return to that city.
Suddenly Mrs. Davis experienced an impulse for which she could not at
all account. It was an urgent desire to go to New York and visit Mrs.
Underhill (Leah Fox), with whom she was not acquainted, having merely
heard of her through Mrs. J. She said to that lady (Mrs. J.) that
if she would remain with her a day longer, she (Mrs. Davis) would
accompany her to New York and visit Mrs. Underhill in hope of relief.
Mrs. J. consenting, they left Providence on the evening of July 3d,
notwithstanding the doubts expressed by Mr. Davis whether his wife
would be able to endure the journey, reached New York next morning,
and proceeded at once to Mrs. Underhill's.
[17] Oliver Johnson, Editor of the _Anti-Slavery Standard_.
"Mrs. Davis was so much exhausted on her arrival, that she retired to a
private room until the afternoon, when she, Mrs. J., and Mrs. Underhill
met in the parlor.
"Loud raps being heard, it was proposed to sit down at the centre-table.
It being but three o'clock in the afternoon, there was bright day-light.
"Soon after the ladies sat down, all their hands being on the table,
Mrs. Davis felt the ankle of her right leg seized as by the firm grasp
of a human hand, the foot raised, and the heel placed in what seemed
another hand.[18] The touch of the fingers and thumb was unmistakably
distinct, and indicated that it was a right hand which grasped the
ankle, while a left hand received the heel. After a time the hand which
had seized the ankle released its grasp, and Mrs. Davis felt it make
passes down the leg. These passes were continued about ten minutes. Mrs.
Davis felt a sensation as of the circulation pervading the paralyzed
limb; and the natural warmth, of which it had been for months deprived,
gradually returned. At the expiration of about ten minutes, there was
spelled out by raps: 'Rise and walk.'
[18] The allegation by rapping was, that the agency was that of
a deceased brother of Mrs. Davis.
"Mrs. Davis arose and found, with an amazement which she said no words
could describe, that she could walk as well as she had ever done in her
life. She paced up and down the room to assure herself that it was a
reality: the pain, the paralysis were gone; she could use the hitherto
disabled leg as freely as the other. After more than four months of
suffering and of decrepitude, she found the natural warmth and vigor of
the limb suddenly and (as it would be commonly phrased) miraculously
restored.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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