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| 'Seance' |
For the uninitiated, a
séance is a gathering of a small group of individuals who sit together in an
attempt to speak to the spirits no longer of this world…at least one member of
the group is usually a medium or at least possessed of some paranormal
powers…early séances were conducted by private mediums who took no fee for
their ‘services’... later, professional mediums with dollar signs in their eyes
arose and their séances were available to the public for a fee…unfortunately,
many of these séances were sittings that later were proven to be hoaxes thus
damaging the reputation of the séance and true mediums...in fact, Harry Houdini
was one who helped expose these hucksters...
A dark or semi-dark
séance room is believed to be most favorable for phenomena because light is
said to often interferes with spirit manifestation…skeptics have often noted
that this type of environment invites fraud, and the demand for darkness was an
early hindrance to discovering the manipulations of fake mediums…however,
darkness is by no means essential for the production of psychic phenomena, and
many remarkable effects have been said to be produced in good light…
After World War I, there
was a resurgence in the spiritualist movement as many grieved individuals and
families longed to contact those loved ones who had perished in
battle...supposed mediums were there to fill the need for a public that was so
desperate and willing to believe…the best ‘mediums’ were masterful tricksters and
show people, and their séances were thrilling multimedia performances of spirit
channeling, levitating tables, floating tambourines, written messages from the
dead and spontaneous manifestations of ectoplasm...the performances were quite
ingenious and succeeded in fooling many otherwise intelligent people… Harry
Houdini, being a magician and a rather ingenious fellow himself, knew that
these séances were just clever hoaxes…
Houdini set out to and
did expose many of the fraudulent mediums that took advantage of participants
and demonstrated how these mediums performed tricks and stunts to simulate
spirit manifestation…Houdini did not necessarily believe that spirits of the
dead could not be contacted… aside from his fame as a stage magician and
astonishing escape artist, Houdini was just as well known - especially in the
later part of his career - as a debunker of spirit mediums and phony
séances...he felt, however, that if it were possible for anyone to come back
and make themselves known, he would find a way to do it.
For many years after
Houdini’s death, his wife tried real séances in an attempt to contact her
husband, but to no avail...even now, there are some mediums who attempt to
contact Houdini, usually on Halloween night which is when he died...as of yet,
there has been no success.
