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A seance is a ritual to communicate with spirits, usually led by a medium. Participants sit around a table in the dark, holding hands. The medium may use various methods to communicate, but traditional methods are susceptible to deception. The popularity of seances peaked during the Spiritualist movement, but most people today consider them entertainment. The sisters Kate and Margaret Fox popularized seances in the mid-19th century, but later admitted their fraudulence.
A seance is a type of ritual conducted to communicate with spirits. It is usually presided over by a medium, a “sensitive” person through whom the spirits are supposed to communicate. A typical séance is conducted by a small group of people, often seated around a table. The word seance comes from the French for “session” or “session.” Seance was most popular during the Spiritualist movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, during which many of the current aspects of the ritual were developed.
A séance is usually conducted in the dark and participants may join hands in a circle. The medium may use a number of methods to attempt communication with the dead, such as channeling through a trance, automatic writing, writing with a tablet, or thought writing. Items such as musical instruments may be supplied in the hope of inspiring poltergeist phenomena.
Traditional methods of holding a séance are particularly susceptible to deception by the medium. Both the darkness of the room and the barrier of the table prevent the participants from closely noticing what exactly is happening. The medium may be able to use his feet to move the table or to create mysterious sounds, for example. He or she can stealthily release a hand from the circle to make the phenomena appear, or the white film can be replaced with film previously processed in the dark. Many fraudulent mediums employed assistants to help them perform tricks even during a séance.
In the mid-19th century, sisters Kate and Margaret Fox of Hydesville, New York ushered in the era of the séance. They claimed to be able to communicate with spirits using a faucet system; they asked yes or no questions, and the spirits answered by tapping once for yes and twice for no. The sisters became renowned mediums and inspired countless imitators.
In 1888, the sisters were paid US$1,500 (USD) to publicly admit that their séances were a fraud. Margaret has shown that she can make taps by cracking her toe. A year later, Margaret retracted, but the damage to their reputation had already been done.
The vast majority of spiritualist-era mediums were caught committing fraud at some point in their careers, and most people today consider séances nothing more than entertainment. Whether elaborate magic shows or manifestations of the supernatural, séances have continued to appeal to the human imagination and curiosity, albeit on a declining scale, since their invention.
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