Saying,"You would not buy an automobile if it was only presented in the dark." Skeptics were unwilling to accept this required condition. It was thought spirits of the dead resided within the realm of dark and shadow, making the absence of light a necessity to invoke them. Other modes of communication may also be attempted, including psychography or automatic writing, numbered raps, levitation of the table or of spirit trumpets, apports, or even smell. The leader is typically asserted to be a medium and he or she may go into a trance that theoretically allows the spirits to communicate through his or her body, conveying messages to the other participants. Leader-assisted séances are generally conducted by small groups of people, with participants seated around a table in a dark or semi-dark room. One of the foremost early practitioners of this type of contact with the dead was Paschal Beverly Randolph, who worked with the spirits of the relatives of audience members, but was also famed for his ability to contact and deliver messages from ancient seers and philosophers, such as Plato. Mediums who claim to contact spirits of the dead or other spirits while on a stage, with audience members seated before them, are not literally holding a séance, because they themselves are not seated however, this is still called "séance". Paschal Beverly Randolph Stage mediumship séances Sometimes the medium stands to receive messages and only the sitter is seated in some churches, the message service is preceded by a "healing service" involving some form of faith healing. Generally Spiritualist "message services" or "demonstrations of the continuity of life" are open to the public. In these sessions, which generally take place in well-lit Spiritualist churches or outdoors at Spiritualist camps (such as Lily Dale in upstate New York or Camp Cassadaga in Florida), an ordained minister or gifted contact medium will relate messages from spirit personalities to those here in the physical form. Usually, this is only called "séance" by outsiders the preferred term for Spiritualists is "receiving messages". In the religion of Spiritualism, and the religion of Divine Metaphysics (a federally recognized religious branch out of Spiritualism in the United States), it is generally a part of services to communicate with living personalities in the spirit world. Main articles: Spiritualism, Spiritism, and Espiritismo Modern séances continue to be a part of the religious services of Spiritualist, Spiritist, and Espiritismo churches today, where a greater emphasis is placed on spiritual values versus showmanship. The 1887 Seybert Commission report marred the credibility of Spiritualism at the height of its popularity by publishing exposures of fraud and showmanship among secular séance leaders. Perhaps the best-known series of séances conducted at that time were those of Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving the loss of her son, organized Spiritualist séances in the White House, which were attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, and other prominent members of society. The popularity of séances grew dramatically with the founding of the religion of Spiritualism in the mid-nineteenth century. Among the notable spirits quoted in this volume are Peter the Great, Pericles, a "North-American Savage", William Penn, and Christina, Queen of Sweden. In modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance.įictionalised conversations between the deceased appeared in Dialogues of the Dead by George, First Baron Lyttelton, published in England in 1760. In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits. In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of " une séance de cinéma" ("a movie session"). The word séance comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". ɑː n s/ French: ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits.
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