This is the memory palace of Nait D'Ameyau.

So there was a time there back in the 19th century

when hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of Americans,

maybe even something approaching most Americans.

We can't entirely be sure.

But there was a time there and we are talking decades and decades

when these many, many, many people believe that some among them,

the gifted, the blessed, could communicate with the dead.

And there are people who think that now too, for sure.

There are people who say they're mediums or channelers or psychics or whatever.

And there are plenty of people who believe them.

And that is what it is, but it is not what we're talking about here.

I'm talking about spiritualism,

mass movement to pervasive cultural phenomenon

that was kickstarted in 1848 when two sisters in a nothing town in upstate New York

pretended that there was a ghost in their house.

And then they just kept pretending and kept claiming straight face

that they were conduits to the spirit world.

I told their story before.

And I loved their story, but this isn't their story.

So anyway, the fox sisters, Kate and Maggie,

became famous and then there were copycats all over the country.

...