Buzz
For many, trying to communicate with the dead seems like a futile effort. They don’t believe it’s possible. But who hasn't, at least once in their youth, pulled out a Ouija board to give it a try? Is it just theatrics, or is there something deeper at play?
10. The Rock 'n' Roll Séance
Inspiration for music can come from the most unexpected places. Ask The Mars Volta where they found their muse for the album *Bedlam in Goliath*, and they'll tell you it was from beyond the grave. Omar Rodriguez Lopez, one of the band members, bought a Ouija board while in Jerusalem. After a few sessions, the band decided to write some songs based on their experiences with the spirit world. As they entered the studio, they were filled with confidence about the new album. But soon after, strange occurrences started. The studio flooded, one of the engineers experienced a breakdown, and when Cedric Bixler-Zavala injured his foot, the band had had enough. They burned the Ouija board and buried it where it could never be found again. Even rock stars, it seems, have their limits.
9. The Poet’s Vision Séance
William Butler Yeats had a lifelong fascination with the paranormal and occult practices. At just 20 years old, he co-founded the Dublin Hermetic Society. That same year, he attended his first séance. Yeats was also involved in the secretive Order of the Golden Dawn, where he met Georgie Hyde-Lees, who would later become his wife in 1917.
Hyde-Lees, a talented medium, shared Yeats' passion for the occult, and their bond deepened through their mutual interests. Yeats encouraged her to use her abilities to assist him in composing a poem via one of her visions. One evening, Hyde-Lees sent a spirit to guide Yeats' hand. Yeats began performing automatic writing—where the writer allows the hand to move without conscious thought of the words being written. When his hand stopped, he discovered he had written a poem, which he named *Vision*.
8. The Televised Séance
Derren Brown is a globally acclaimed illusionist. In 2004, he executed one of his most astonishing feats: a live televised séance. Broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK, the event featured Brown inviting 12 participants to join hands and attempt to make contact with members of a fictional *historical teenage suicide pact*. Though the story and séance were entirely fabricated, the show still garnered more than 700 complaints from viewers who were unnerved by its seemingly supernatural content.
7. The Séance That Inspired Twelve Steps Programs
Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, had an undeniable interest in the supernatural. In fact, he had a designated room in his house, known as the 'spook room,' where he would explore paranormal and mystical phenomena. Wilson claimed that the experiences he had with spirits in this room played a pivotal role in his recovery from alcoholism. One spirit he reportedly communicated with was a 15th-century monk named Boniface. According to Wilson's autobiography, Boniface and the other spirits he consulted through a Ouija board were instrumental in the development of the *Twelve Steps* of Alcoholics Anonymous.
6. The Harry Houdini Séance
Up until the 1920s, the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini was deeply involved in spiritualism. During his early years before fame, Houdini even made money by participating in fraudulent séances. However, after his mother passed away and his failed attempts to find a legitimate medium to contact her, Houdini turned against what he saw as fraudulent spiritualists, launching a mission to expose as many mediums as possible.
The most famous instance of Houdini’s crusade occurred in 1924. Disguised, Houdini attended a séance judged by *Scientific American* magazine. The mediums were competing for a $2,500 prize, which would go to the first one to produce real paranormal evidence. Boston medium Mina Crandon, known as Margery, was a favorite for her ability to channel the spirit of her deceased brother, Walter. Houdini had frequently followed Margery and exposed her séances. In this instance, with Houdini present, the judges discovered numerous signs of fraud, and *no one won the prize*.
In a strange turn of events, Houdini promised his wife he would attempt to contact her after his death, making one final effort to prove or disprove the legitimacy of séances. Every year around Halloween, a séance is held in memory of Houdini, with fans trying to reach him. To date, Houdini has yet to make an appearance from *the afterlife for a chat*.
5. Pulitzer Prize–Winning Séance
Poet James Merrill’s monumental 560-page poem *The Changing Light at Sandover* was published in three volumes beginning in 1977. The poem encapsulated two decades of messages that Merrill and his partner, David Noyes Jackson, had transcribed during their Ouija board sessions. Over the years, Merrill received messages from various spirits, including renowned poet W.H. Auden and the Archangel Michael. Following the success of this work, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1983. Merrill claimed the spirits instructed him to create and release two more volumes. *Mirabell: Books of Number* was published in 1978, and *Scripts For The Pageant* in 1980. In 1982, Merrill was awarded the *Pulitzer Prize for Poetry*.
4. The White House Séance
Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, hosted séances in the White House as she grieved the loss of *her son*. In the years following his death, Mrs. Lincoln struggled to let go, so she invited spiritualists to the presidential residence to communicate with the deceased in hopes of speaking once more with her son, Willie.
3. The World’s First Recorded Séance
Kate and Margaret Fox were rather unusual sisters. While other girls of the 1840s were playing outside or engaging in typical childhood activities, Kate and Maggie spent their time with spirits. The Fox sisters hold an important place in spiritualism's history as they are credited with conducting the first *officially recorded séance* in history.
By 1848, in the small town of Hydesville, New York, Kate and Margaret had developed a simple code—a system of raps on the table that allowed them to communicate with the dead. Eventually, they invited friends to witness the phenomenon. One memorable séance was attended by family friends John and Susanna Moodie, who were curious about the spiritual events the girls had been reporting. Kate Fox began the séance by asking the spirit if it was willing to communicate with the Moodies. After instructing the spirit to knock three times for 'yes,' it complied. Susanna Moodie later documented her experience in a letter, marking this as the first-ever *recorded successful communication with a spirit*. The next test involved Kate Fox asking the spirit to knock three times for a living friend and five times for a deceased one. The spirit got all of the answers correct.
In reflecting on the séance, Susanna Moodie appeared to be *clearly conflicted* about her experience: “I do not believe that the raps are produced by spirits that have been of this world,” she stated. “But I cannot believe that [Kate Fox], with her pure spiritual face, is capable of deceiving.”
2. The Italian Séance
Politicians can engage in the most bizarre acts. Former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi perhaps took the prize when, under oath in an Italian court, he was asked how he knew where former Prime Minister Aldo Moro was being held by the Red Brigades, *the Marxist-Leninist paramilitary group*. Prodi claimed that during a 1978 séance with professors from the University of Bologna, the “ghost” of former Florence mayor Giorgio La Pira revealed the location of Moro’s captors. Naturally, nobody believed Prodi at the time. The real reason he wouldn’t name his *left-wing source* was clear. Regardless, the information from “Prodi’s Ghost,” as the source came to be known, proved useless. Moro was found some weeks later, dead from ten gunshot wounds to the head. To swear under oath that a séance had been the key to saving someone in society may seem either delusional, courageous, or perhaps a combination of both.
1. The ‘Levitating In The Face Of Science’ Séance
Daniel Dunglas Home gained fame for his levitations, a phenomenon he performed at séances for *almost 40 years*. While contemporaries like Henry C. Gordon and Stainton Moses also experienced levitation, Home stood out because he performed his levitations in well-lit rooms, rather than the typical darkened environments. Moreover, he was never *unmasked as a fraud*.
Some might argue that Home’s most famous séance took place in 1857. During this event, five witnesses reported that Home levitated while seated in his chair, rising approximately four or five feet off the ground. This account was later recorded by Arthur Conan Doyle in his book *A History of Spiritualism*.
However, the most extraordinary séance Home conducted occurred in 1871. During this session, Home’s levitation was observed by none other than Sir William Crookes. But Crookes wasn’t just any average individual—he was a respected scientist who would later become the president of the British Society for the Advancement of Science.
