Seances
Spiritualism took over the hearts and minds of many during its reign. It also created many traditions that, even today, are still used as a way to communicate between this world...and another. One of the most popular methods of communication is the seance. Seances seek to channel the dead into the living to ask questions, learn, and communicate with the otherside.
Seances are, at their core, an attempt to communicate with spirits. Although there are several types of seances, spiritualist seances are usually held between a medium or psychic and practitioners of spiritualism. Seances usually take place in a darkened room where all participants are seated around a table. During this time, the medium will attempt to channel the spirits of the dead. If a particular person is trying to be contacted, sometimes an item of theirs or their family members will be present.
Once contact is made, the medium may take on a strange or different voice and share knowledge or information that only the spirit would know, or that the medium speaking would have no idea of knowing. However, speaking is not always necessary. Sometimes the medium would simply call for knocks and ask questions of the spirits. Other times, no direct communication would be made and instead the table would shake, items would move around the room, and sometimes ectoplasm would froth forth from the orifices of the medium.
In the Victorian era, the popularity of seances grew to such popularity that they even became popular household activities. At the time of Spiritualism, people were much more open about confronting death mortality. Being able to take on the loss of loved ones and confront death in the dark seemed to give these people an interesting sort of peace.
Soon, the popularity of seances began to attract the attention of large crowds and mediums could gain full time employment using their powers. The money also attracted, sadly, several crooks. There are countless stories of frauds who ripped off grieving families and pull the wool over the eyes of hundreds of people. One of the most notable stories is that of the Fox Sisters (which I’ll have to do a blog on soon).
The spiritualist medium Mina Crandon with alleged 'ectoplasm' on her face. This image is in the public domain.
