Séances

Every generation has its beloved diversions. They tend to influence complete generations. We can look at certain generations of people from countries all over the world and we can even say that they might be grouped by these pastimes. For example, we can look at generations of people who loved baseball, trains, arcade games, etc. At this point it’s clear that it might also completely depend on the location. Popular hobbies in the late 1800s certainly varied as the world was a lot less connected than it is now. Another way to divide hobbies isn’t by location but economic class. The hobbies of a certain economic class and those of another might be different even today in this era where we are all very well connected. The hobby I’d like to talk about here is holding séances.

There was a time in history where séances were all the rage among the elite of various countries. A séance is a kind of organized attempt to communicate with spirits. From the British elite to Mexican elite to American elite, everyone seemed to be deeply fascinated with the prospect of contacting the dead and other spirits. For the regular, more pious, people of the era, such a thing would not be something to participate in lightly. However, even a hero in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Francisco Madero, was deeply into the occult and regularly participated in séances. The majority of the people of Mexico would not have approved of such a thing and it hasn’t been until recently where the occult has become more mainstream in the country. It should of course be noted that such connections with spiritual forces have always been something that a certain class of people have pursued even during times in history where such things were forbidden by local governments or powerful religious orders. As the power of religious organizations waned, more people, at least in the elite class, became more open about their interest in dealing with spiritual forces.

One way to group this new hobby for the era would be under the religion of Spiritualism. Their attempt at ‘receiving messages’ became very influential in subsequent minor religious and spiritual groups which still exist today. As for who people were contacting, that depended on the region. For example, in the United States it was popular for Spiritualist to contact certain Native American spirits. It was a time when people in the so-called modern world were fascinated by those outside of it. A spirit such as Black Hawk was very popularly contacted. In Latin America, because of the power of the Catholic religion and local traditions, they preferred to try to contact Catholic saints or ancestors.

What is most interesting to me is that the most seemingly successful of these attempts to make contact with spirits occurred in the UK. They did their séances in a very informal and relaxed atmosphere. Oftentimes they would not focus on contacting the spirit but instead they would focus on having fun and enjoying each other’s company. They would do their best to create a positive atmosphere and sometimes after many years of nothing happening, their combined energy would somehow create certain incredible phenomenon. As far as evidence of any of it being real, their attempts at contacting spirits have been the most well studied in parapsychology. At the very least there seems to be great value from a group of people who get along regularly and seem to foster a warm atmosphere. It seems to be something so special that even the spirits want to join in.

Ivan

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Vocabulary
diversion (noun) - an activity you do for entertainment or pleasure
pious (adjective) - having strong religious beliefs, and living or behaving in a way which shows these beliefs
the occult (noun) – the supernatural; and the practices, powers and things associated with it
wane (verb) – to become less powerful, important, or popular
foster (verb) – to encourage a particular feeling, situation, or idea to develop