Séance
- For the album by the Church, see Seance (album).
A séance (pronounced: [seɪɑ:ns]) is, on its most basic level, an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word séance comes from the French word for 'seat', 'session', from Old French seoir, 'to sit.' In English, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people to receive spiritualistic messages (a sense first recorded in English in 1845). In French, it is much more general: one can say un séance de cinéma.
Séances are generally conducted by small groups of people, with participants seated around a table in a dark or semi-dark room. If a medium is present, he or she may go into a trance that theoretically allows the spirits to communicate through his or her body. Other modes of communication may also be attempted, such as the use of ouija boards, automatic writing by both hand and planchette, and numbered raps on the table or walls. More archaic and nonspecific forms of interspiritual communication involved the table leaning, spinning, or levitating. Occasionally, the goal of a séance was for the presence of a spirit to be revealed, which could manifest itself by an out-of-place smell or sound, or even physical objects supposedly materializing.
Séances to communicate with the dead are part of (although not exclusive to) Spiritualism, which flourished from the 1840s until the 1920s and still exists in various forms today.
Skeptics generally consider séances to be scams, or at least a form of pious fraud.
Channeling
A "Channeling" is a common element of a séance. This is the process by which the medium allows a spirit limited use of their physical body to communicate with the sitters present. This is distinct from the concept of 'possession', which is considered to be the complete, non-consensual takeover of a living being by a spirit. Channeling, on the other hand, is assumed by believers to offer opportunities for more positive and mutually respectful interaction between the living medium and the spirit. The most commonly-reported physical manifestations of channeling are an unusual vocal pattern or abnormal overt behaviors of the medium. Therefore, channeling is quite easily faked, and is considered by skeptics to be a rather basic 'trick'. While there have been many mediums caught faking a channeling, as with most spiritual experiences, there is no scientific proof that any kind of legitimate channeling has ever occurred. However, most people who have seen or been responsible for a channeling are convinced that the channeling occurred.
Ouija Boards
Ouija boards (pronounced: wee-jee) are another common element of a séance. The words Ouija comes from the French and German words for 'yes', 'oui' and 'ja'. There are many different varieties of Ouija boards, coming in different shapes with different symbols and different names, but they are all essentially Ouija or Spirit boards, which are flat tablets, traditionally made of wood, although many commercial boards are made of cardboard or plastic, and home made boards can be made of paper or scrabble pieces. On the board are a number of symbols, pictures, letters, numbers and/or words. The board is accompanied by a pointer, 'looking-glass' or something of the like; the proper device is a planchette, although home made boards commonly use shot glasses. A most basic Ouija board would contain simply the alphabet of whatever country the board is being used in, although it is not unocommon for whole words to be added.
The board is used as follows: One to all of the participants in the séance place one or two fingers on the pointer which is in the middle of the board. The appointed medium asks questions to the spirit(s) that they are attempting to communicate with. The idea is that using the energy that is focused on the pointer by the people present, the spirit will move the pointer and spell out messages using the symbols on the boards. However, the fact that people have their hands on the pointer allows one of the people to spell out anything they want without the others knowing. This is a common trick used at sleepover parties, and the like, to scare the people present. There is also a theory that a Ouija-user's subconscious mind may have a proverbial hand in guiding the person's movements with relation to the pointer, hence said person will honestly believe they are not moving the planchette, when, in fact, they are.
Séances in media
- Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1965) - Kim Stanley plays a medium who tries to convince her disbelieving husband to commit a crime.
- Ghost - Character Oda Mae Brown (played by Whoopi Goldberg) was a con artist conducting fake séances for money, but then discovers she really can talk to the dead.
References
- M. Lamar Keene (as told to Allen Spraggett), The Psychic Mafia, Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1573921610 (Originally published in 1976 by St. Martin's Press and published by Dell (publisher) in 1977).
- James Randi (1995), An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. St. Martin's Press ISBN 0312151195 (Online Version).