How to Host (or Fake) a Session
After your next dinner party, instead of smashing board games for another round of Boggle, consider breaking the veil between the living and the dead by hosting a DIY session instead.
Once a popular pastime in post-Victorian saloons, the séance has largely fallen out of the public consciousness, but it should be back and you can lead it, whether you want to sincerely try to talk to dead relatives or just want to scare your Friday night friends.
What is a session?
A séance, derived from the Old French word ” seoir ” meaning “to sit,” in its broadest sense, is a gathering of people for the purpose of communicating with the dead. This practice is old enough to be mentioned in the Old Testament (particularly Deuteronomy, which is believed to have been written around 630 B.C. ), but the séances reached their heyday about 100 years ago, with the rise of the spiritualist movement in USA and England. .
“In the 1920s, there was a craze for séances in America and England because there were a lot of deaths after World War I,” explains Rob Zabrecki, resident medium at the legendary Magic Castle of Los Angeles (where the séances are definitely not real.) “People tried to contact their loved ones, and, lo and behold, these [charlatans] and magicians realized that there are many tricks that you can perform to seemingly contact a ghost or spirit.
As the séances grew in popularity, the competition between mediums became more and more sophisticated, resulting in more and more sophisticated tricks (or spiritual manifestations, if you’re a believer). Eminent figures such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Edison were believers, as were countless ordinary people, but the mediums of the era also attracted the attention of debunkers. Religious figures (who probably didn’t like outsiders working on their side of the corner), courts , scientists, and magicians (including Harry Houdini, whose 1924 book A Wizard Among Spirits remains the last word on seance secrets) in public. figured out the tricks of middle trading. The popularity of the classical séance (and spiritism itself) waned as the deception was discovered, but never truly disappeared. As long as people believe in ghosts – and almost half of Americans do – it seems we will try to talk to them.
How to host a modern session
Old-fashioned séances were often spooky events during which exotic weirdos were invited into people’s homes to practice their secret craft. This kind of esotericism is almost non-existent these days, but you can try communication in the afterlife without these trappings. Who said spirits don’t want to talk to an ordinary person like you? You just need like-minded friends, a free evening, and a backup plan if the spirits don’t want to chat.
Warning before starting
Many practitioners of the supernatural arts consider holding a special session a very bad idea. According to Californian clairvoyant Sansa Asylum , “No one should do this. It absolutely opens the door to God knows what, and nasty spirits can wreak havoc unnoticed.”
I don’t know about all this, but the public embarrassment that can result from a bad session is a real danger.
Guest List: Who do you invite to the session?
Like any party, a séance is only as good as the guests, so make sure your spooky party is full of people who are open to the experience. Strictly religious people are generally not the best séance guests, as they bring with them a lot of baggage and resistance to the process. However, a hardened skeptic, oddly enough, can be the best guest at a session. If something actually happens (whether real or fabricated), no one will be blown away like a non-believer.
You don’t want to have too many people in the session for it to become unmanageable. Think of it like a Dungeons & Dragons game: four to six dedicated players and you, the spiritual DM.
Create the right mindset to talk to the dead
Modern mediums tend to steer clear of the dark exotics of the past (shame if you ask me) and opt for a softer approach, and if you’re doing a séance, this is probably the kind of atmosphere you should go for to make guests comfortable. Think of affirmations of love from kind relatives rather than visions of terrifying ghosts seeking vengeance from the bowels of hell.
“Be very light and enjoy it,” advises Joan Carra , a Connecticut psychic with years of experience.
How to start a session
It is important to start any ritual with a statement of intent, so gather your circle in a comfortable place and set the mood by affirming that you are trying to see if you can connect with the spirit world. Take this as seriously as you can.
Traditionally, the séances were attended by a leader – a medium through which the guests spoke with the dead. But since we’re going to a modern, cooperative session, think of yourself as the commander, but only because someone has to say, “Let’s get started.” Don’t take the ghosts for yourself.
Then do something to separate ritual time from regular time. Ring a bell or light a candle; it does not matter. You only need something tangible to mark the transition while talking to the ghost.
How to receive messages from the dead
According to psychic Joan, when everyone is properly relaxed and in a magical state of mind, explain to your guests that they should allow themselves to experience any impressions or visions they may have and share them with the group right away. Above all, be patient and don’t force it.
“Be very open and accept that you are just getting [messages from the dead]. It is a very relaxed state,” Ms. Carra explains. “Ask [spirit] ‘Can I have your permission for your first initial?’ Then one person might say, “Oh, I got an S!” From there, play with the letter. Associate names with it as received. Maybe someone will say, “Oh, it’s Sally!”
From there, you can dig a little deeper to fill in the details about Sally. According to Joan, you may feel a physical sensation in some part of your body. Maybe your neck hurts? Tell the group about this and you might find out that Sally died of decapitation or that she had a favorite locket around her neck.
Let the guests who knew Sally make connections, and gradually you will be able to get a complete picture of the phenomenon and find out what she has to say alive.
If everything goes right, your guests will feel like they have experienced communication from the other side. And, hey, maybe they are. But perhaps something else is going on.
Counterpoint: you can’t really talk to the dead because they’re no longer alive
Clairvoyant Joan is a sweet person, and she seems sincere in her beliefs, so I’m a little embarrassed to point it out, but her stated techniques for communicating with the dead are very similar to the classic “cold reading” technique for making high-probability guesses, then sharpening everyone who has them. confirms to back them up with small details. Maybe it’s just the preferred style of communication among the Dead, but it’s probably our human instinct to find patterns where there aren’t any.
“Psychics say things like, ‘I get the feeling that you love to have fun, but sometimes people get a little annoying and you want to be on your own,'” says Dave Cox , an award-winning illusionist based in Los Angeles. “Well, yes. Because I’m human, and every human feels that way all the time.”
“Some mediums know it’s fake and convince themselves they’re fine anyway, but some probably believe it’s true,” Cox said. “They say, ‘I don’t know how I come up with these things. I just say, “I feel like someone has money problems,” and it turns out that someone in the crowd has money problems. Amazing, right?
The Magic Castle’s resident medium, Rob Zabreki, takes a less condescending view, at least of the mediums of the 1920s: “These people were all crooks. They were all scammers,” Zabretsky said. “Especially those who took money from people, saying, “Oh Stephen, you lost your brother in the war. For $5 you can come and sit in my dark living room…” It really is a mess. It’s horrible.”
However, you are not terrible, dear reader. You are just a good facilitator who wants your session to be successful, and a session without perfume is a failure. This means that if you want your guests to be able to talk to a ghost, you have to pretend.
How to fake a session
There are two types of sessions. “Easy session” is what the clairvoyant Joan described. This is what you might see on a TV show like The Long Island Medium, a smiling medium delivering uplifting messages from the Other Side in a well-appointed living room.
On the other hand, dark sessions take place in the dark and therefore have a more eerie vibe. I prefer the dark variety, but an ethereal type session will allow even a moderately intelligent host to mimic spiritual phenomena with ease.
One Simple Trick to Convince Anyone You Can Talk to Their Dead Relatives
Many/most mediums (and, coincidentally, stage magicians who perform mental tricks) use cold reading techniques to give the impression that they have supernatural powers. Cold reading isn’t that hard to learn, but like any stage magic, it takes a lot of practice to perfect. Years of dedicated work is much more preparation than your session deserves, but there is an easier way – a fail-safe technique that requires no practice and will leave people convinced that you are a gifted medium.
“Just straight up, Google folks,” Cox advised. “You can look at people’s social media profiles and get an incredible amount of information about them, which you can then claim is coming from their Aunt Karen or Ulysses S. Grant.”
For optimal effect, explore the guests you least know – each other is perfect. Pick a few very specific details from their feeds to remember: maybe the name and color of their cat, who died in 2018, or the physical description of their childhood home. Then start the session as suggested above, imagining that this is a group experiment. Have your guests chat for a while and say, “I see a gray and white animal…”
Start with the most general touches so that gradually deepening into details has a greater impact. If you set it up right, you can impress them with a statement as simple as “Fluffy says he doesn’t blame you for leaving the door open that night.”
How to Fake an Old Fashioned Dark Session
In the past, séances tended to be held in dark rooms, and if you’re willing to go that route, you can create a scary séance with little effort. Old school mediums tried to thwart smart skeptics with careful preparation and sleight of hand, but you don’t have to put in all that effort – you just need a partner in crime hiding somewhere in the house.
Make sure the room you are in is completely dark. Have everyone join hands (so there is no deception), then give a prearranged verbal signal to your hidden friend so that he can slip out from behind the couch and cause a mayhem. Call attention to yourself with some scary patter to give your hidden confidant more cover and they can head into town. Be creative, but keep it simple for the greatest effect. A gentle touch on a seated guest’s ear, a tap on a table, or a light spray of water from a spray bottle is really all you need to elicit a scream.
You can also use the guest as a plant. “If you have a roommate or wife—someone who can be by your side—let them say things like, ‘That’s just bullshit’ all night long,” Cox suggests. pockets and throwing things around when it gets dark and you’re safely on the other side of the table.”
So the study is real?
On the one hand, what happens after we die is ultimately an unresolvable philosophical question – no one has ever come back to life (maybe), so there is no verifiable evidence anyway. Believers point to the law of conservation of energy, quantum mechanics, or mankind’s long history of spiritual beliefs to prove that ghosts are real, or at least that there are mysteries about death that we can’t explain.
On the other hand, ghosts are not real. No sessions. But, like many fake things, they are still funny.