Fairy Investigation Society
The Fairy Investigation Society (or the Society for the Investigation of Fairies) was a semi-secret occult group devoted to collecting evidence and information about the existence of fairies, as well as to organize documented instances of fairy sightings. The society was founded in Britain in 1927 by Capt. Sir Quintin Craufurd, MBE and the artist Bernard Sleigh. Background Spiritualism Spiritualism in the Western world began in the United States in 1848 and moved its way across the Atlantic to Britain in 1852. Spiritualism does not have a central organization, instead it is most like an ideology in which individualism is highly prized through religion. Spiritualists believe in the preservation of the soul after death and that the soul continues to exist in the physical world. The rise of spiritualism influenced an interest in the West with all things mystical from ghosts and seances, tarot (Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn), to fairies. The disillusionment of World War One continued to fuel the rise of spiritualism which correlates to the establishment and growth of the Fairy Investigation Society. Cottingley Fairies During World War One two young cousins from Cottingley, England, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, took photographs of themselves with cardboard