Seances in the 1850s-1920s

Origins of the Séance

Séances can be traced back as early as the 18th century. Normally a séance is known as several people sitting around a table trying to contact dead spirits. However, Séance was originally a French word, meant "meeting". It's early meaning which referred to a simple sit-down meeting, over time became associated with contacting the dead. A séance would typically take place in a dark room with several people seated around a circular table. A medium, most often a woman, would lead the session and contact dead spirits. Modern spiritualism and séances as a method to speak with the dead are believed to have taken shape around 1850.

Notable People

In 1850, Margaret, Kate, and Leah Fox became famous for their use of a knocking system to communicate with spirits. Because of this, they are often attributed with the beginning of modern séances and spirituality. Their fame grew and attracted a large amount of people to spirituality. About forty years later, the Fox sisters admitted that they had fabricated their séances. Despite their careers being completely destroyed, people still believed that talented mediums could contact spirits.

Years after the Fox sisters' downfall, Mina "Margery" Crandon became known for her spiritual talents. Margery gained popularity during a time when mediums were quickly being exposed as frauds. A panel of experts, including Harry Houdini, offered $2,500 to the first medium who could prove their abilities. Naturally, they came to Margery, but Houdini was not easily convinced. Their investigations of her work failed to prove anything about her abilities.

Bess Houdini, Harry's wife, was present for séances every year for ten years on the anniversary of her husband's death (October 31, 1926). Shortly before Houdini died, he promised Bess Houdini that he would come back if he could, even though he spent the later part of his life exposing mediums and séances as fraudulent. A séance has been held for Houdini every year on Halloween night since 1927, but he hasn't definitively made his presence known to anyone present during the events.

Andrew Jackson Davis had a very different approach to spiritualism than that of the Fox Sisters and Margery Crandon. Around the time the Fox sisters grew to fame, Davis gave lectures, which he was convinced came straight from spirits, and he wrote extensively on spiritualism. Davis was strongly against séances as a method of contacting spirits. Instead, he believed that spiritualism could be practiced through helping people. Because of this belief, he obtained his medical degree in 1883.







The late 1800s were filled with mediums being exposed as frauds. Despite the many frauds, in the 1920s people found an increased interest in spirituality. World War I resulted in the loss of millions of lives and their mourning families turned to mediums in hopes of contacting them. This sense of loss and confusion after World War I is possibly echoed in the first section of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, "The Burial of the Dead". The speaker says, "I had not thought death had undone so many..." (7), which could refer to the number of lives lost in World War I. The speaker then finds himself surrounded by the dead. Upon seeing a familiar face, he calls out to his old comrade, Stetson. Though Stetson doesn't answer any of the speaker's questions, the speaker continues to pursue the conversation. His desire to speak with his fallen friend reflects the hopes of those who participated in séances during the time period. Séances provided people with a connection to their lost loved ones, whether or not their questions were answered.

BBC Documentary: Science and the Séance

Bibliography:

Amos, Julie-Ann. "The Seance - History and Origins." HubPages. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. <http://julieannamos.hubpages.com/hub/The-Seance---History-and-Origins>.

Amos discusses a brief history of séances as well as the origin of the word. She explains the involvement of the Fox sisters during the formation of spiritualism, as well as Mina "Margery" Crandon's fight with Houdini to prove herself as a legitimate medium.

Eliot, T. S., and Michael North. The waste land: authoritative text, contexts, criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. Print.

Karp, Catherine. "Bizarre History of Seances." Bizarre History of Seances. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://www.francescamiller.com/seances.html>.

Karp gives a brief history about séances, but mainly focuses on women's involvement in the movement. She also discusses several female mediums and Harry Houdini's quest to prove mediums' séances as shams.

Kerr, Howard, Charles L. Crow, and Ernest Isaacs. "The Fox Sisters and American Spiritualism." The Occult in America: new historical perspectives. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. 79-110. Print.

This chapter details two very different approaches to spiritualism: séances versus lectures and writings. The Fox sisters found that séances proved to be the most effective way for people to reach spirits, while Andrew Jackson Davis believed that helping people proved to be better.

Wagner, Stephen. "The Houdini Séance."About.com Paranormal Phenomena. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014. <http://paranormal.about.com/od/Halloween/a/Houdini-Seance.htm>.

Wagner details Bess Houdini's decade-long search for communication with her husband after his death. He explains Houdini's desire to prove mediums were frauds, due to his inability to contact his mother through a medium. Wagner also shows that many Houdini fans still host séances on the anniversary of his death in hopes of hearing his message to his wife.