How did Margaret and Catherine Fox claim to communicate through knocking sounds?

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Houdini poster for an anti-Spiritualism show — Spiritualism A Harry Houdini poster promoting a theatrical performance to discredit Spiritualism.

Margaret and Catherine Fox, often credited with launching the spiritualism movement, claimed to communicate with spirits through a series of mysterious rapping or knocking sounds that occurred in their home. These noises, which became known as the "Rochester rappings," were interpreted by the sisters and their followers as a code that allowed for "actual communication" with the spirit world.1

While the sisters initially presented these manifestations as genuine spiritual phenomena, Margaret Fox later confessed that the rappings were a hoax. She revealed that the sounds were produced as a prank on their mother, primarily by using movements of their toes to create the knocking noises. Although Margaret later retracted this confession to return to her work as a medium, the controversy surrounding the authenticity of their séances remained a defining aspect of their legacy.1