Séance

A séance is a gathering in which participants attempt to communicate with spirits, often through a medium. Practices range from prayer and mourning rituals to staged demonstrations of paranormal phenomena.

Mediumship: The practice of claiming to communicate with spirits or convey messages from them. A medium may lead a séance and interpret supposed messages from spirits.
Fox sisters: Margaret and Catherine Fox were American figures whose reported spirit communications helped launch modern Spiritualism. Their 1848 Hydesville claims helped make spirit communication a public séance practice.
Daniel Dunglas Home: A nineteenth-century Scottish medium known for public séances and claims of physical spirit phenomena. Home's demonstrations made him one of Spiritualism's most famous mediums.
Ouija: A board marked with letters and symbols, used with a movable indicator in purported spirit communication. Ouija sessions share séance aims but can occur without a medium or formal gathering.
Spirit cabinet: An enclosed structure used in some spiritualist demonstrations, often to display alleged spirit manifestations. Cabinets became settings for physical effects presented during séances.
Hydesville rappings: A series of reported knocks in Hydesville, New York, in 1848, attributed to communication with a spirit. The rappings became an early model for the coded messages associated with séances.
D. D. Home: A common abbreviation for Daniel Dunglas Home, the nineteenth-century Scottish medium. This alternate name appears frequently in historical accounts of séances.
Séance hoax: A staged séance in which deception creates effects presented as evidence of spirit activity. Hoaxes account for some celebrated manifestations attributed to spirits.
Table-turning: A practice in which participants place their hands on a table said to move under spiritual influence. Moving tables were among the séance phenomena that helped popularize spiritualism.
Spiritualism: A religious movement that holds that communication with the spirits of the dead is possible. Séances became one of Spiritualism's best-known practices.

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