The Origins & History of the Séance
The word “séance” is French, and it means basically, ‘sitting’, ‘session’, or ‘seat’, –however, later the word was adapted to mean an event in which a small cluster or crowd of people would attempt to contact the dead, or some religious entity. Séances are shared by various cultures around the world, and are even popular today, amongst the younger generation, who mostly use the planchette or ouija board style of séance to attempt contact with spirits. The media has popularizd séances through television and films, and to say they are a trendy new evening activity would be a little incorrect; séances have generally becaome a household name, and there are few who do not know what they are. But the question of origin remains; where did séances come from?
The theory is, that as long as there have been the dead or dying, there will always be those who would wish to speak to, or contact the dead. Whether it’s out of morbid curiosity, sentiment and mourning, or need to know what lies beyond, many people have made attempts at contact the departed, whether privately or in groups. Even Christianity and Judaism religious beliefs are founded around certain elements of the dead; could it be said that each prayer to Christ in the hope of receiving an answer is one’s own small, personal séance? Or are public prayers in church, with a church leader, and the congregation praying in unison, a type of large séance? The lines are hard to draw, but generally, the first thing the religious biased crowd will assume of the spiritualist séances are their ungodliness.
As the Jewish and Christian religions formed their own, socially acceptable forms of séances, so did the rest of the world; numerous cultures and religions, globaly, have various religious rituals and personal rituals for contacting spirits of the dead, or the dying. The séance as we know it today however, evolved from booming interest in the religion of Spiritualism, during the late 19th, and early 20th centuries. When the highly criticised religion was founded, so followed high interest from those wishing for a little more mystery in life, as well as the interest of debunkers eager for a chance to prove the superiority of science.
