Séance

My first two posts on this blog were not directly paranormal so I thought I should talk about séances because I wanted to learn more about them and they are more relevant to this class. No one really talks about séances until a celebrity has died unexpectedly because many people will try to “reach” the spirits of passed celebrities (or loved ones) because of how beloved they were. What made me think to post about this was after watching a séance that was trying to get in touch with Michael Jackson and a spiritualist medium claimed that Michael Jackson was speaking through him to fans on the news. Here is a video of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws9gIYM713I. A séance is held to try and communicate with spirits while in a group with a spirit medium who is supposed to be the only one who can receive messages and relay them. For many people, séances are a way to get closure and deal with the passing of a loved one and to establish hope of reuniting one day. Séances have a long history, but a famous example would be the Fox sisters who in 1848 thought they contacted a murdered man because of the taps and sounds that were made when they held a séance, and they started telling everyone in their town and showing, slowly becoming more and more famous. No one could find evidence of fraud or the source of the taps, but they soon fell out of the spotlight as more and more mediums came forward. The Fox sisters are credited with beginning the Spiritualism movement, which was very popular until the early 1900’s. Unfortunately, many took advantage of the trend and would use séances to scam people who were grieving out of their money and as scientists and skeptics started getting involved many mediums were debunked. Today, with the technology we have now, séances aren't held as often because people believe they can easily be disproved.

Séance. (2014, December). Retrieved August 3, 2018, from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Séance