Dishonorable mediums were known to hire actors and ventriloquists to feign whispers from a corner of the room. There was no limit to the ploys pulled in the séance room: if people could be convinced, there was money to be made-and thus people willing to take advantage of that susceptibility.įraudsters often didn’t work alone. Ectoplasm, for instance, could be easily made in a home kitchen with flour, water, cornstarch, and the like. Indeed, the Victorian world of the occult was rife with fraud and ruses. If you’re feeling a bit skeptical reading this, you’re not alone.
Sometimes, these mediums would pretend to extract “ectoplasm”-a viscous, plasma-like substance-from various orifices of their body, like their ears or eyes, as tangible evidence of their entrancement.
They would sometimes shout messages from inside the cabinet, or they might exit the cabinet claiming to be possessed at that very moment. Here, mediums claimed to become entranced, or transfixed, by spirits. Many mediums used a large cabinet, into which they would go for part or all of the séance. As the participants move the planchette-presumably under the influence of spirits-the pencil writes, or draws, on a piece of paper, thereby communicating the spirit’s message. A planchette functions similarly to a Ouija board, except that a small pencil is mounted to it. Some mediums liked to employ devices during their séances, such as a Ouija board or planchette. The séance would generally begin with a prayer or petition, after which the medium could proceed with the affair as she so desired. Often, the medium would hang red drapery-believed to be conducive to spirit communication-around the room. Candles would be lit, and oil lamps turned low. Once the medium had arrived on-site, séance participants were instructed to gather around a circular table and hold hands. Why? It was believed that a woman’s passivity, femininity, and intuition allowed her to access otherworldly realms more easily than a man, and because a man was considered less likely to submit to a spirit taking control of his psyche. Spiritualism was one of the only professions in Victorian London in which women were more highly respected than men.
The first was the person leading the séance: this would have been a self-proclaimed spiritualist, otherwise known as a medium. Though the Victorians did not abide by any standard séance protocol, there were a few customary practices. These were an especially popular affair among the wealthy looking to entertain their friends with elaborate parlor-room displays. Public theatrical displays of mediumship and psychic power were a common occurrence in the Victorian era, particularly séances.
Victorians were fascinated by anything supernatural, otherworldly, or occult, and a number of our present-day traditions around death and dying echo the practices of this bygone era. During this era, the spiritualist movement-central to which was communication with the dead, especially through mediums-was in its heyday. The Victorians were fanatical about the dead.
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