Let's call the spirits: Séances

A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from spirits or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits (…)

One of the earliest books on the subject of communication amongst deceased persons was Communitation with the Other Side by George, First Baron Lyttelton, published in England in 1760. (Wikipedia)

The séances became popular during the mid-nineteenth century and it became a popular. Some say that the housewives were so bored that people began to gather for these séances. It is important to note that any meeting of this kind, back then and today, creates a more relax atmosphere, not so focused on social labels or etiquettes, ie that apart from being a gathering of men and women (so they would interact),they could also relax without being judged, hey ... everyone was there for the same reason, right? In the Victorian Era, the séance became a source of entertainment, the rich families could afford this practices at their parties but for the middle class it became a source of hope, they really believed in it and they mixed their religion believes with contacting the spirits for answers and guidance.

The séance usually involved different tools for their purpose like:  Spirit boards, cards, talking boards, and Ouija boards.  The guest sat down around a light-weight tables and the rest people were standing up just in silence watching everything. A medium was invited to contact the dead. This person would use different techniques to achieve the spiritual/paranormal experience. Mediumship, trance, channeling and possession.

The mediums are possessed by a spirit, they speak and act through the medium, sometimes the medium is conscious about what it’s going on around her and she is just transmitting the message of the spirits. It can be orally or by writing, but sometimes the possession it’s so strong that the medium doesn’t remember what she did or said.

Mediums would evoke or invoke spirits. Evocation: Is to call forth, to invite a spirit to be present.

Invocation: when you call a spirit and welcome it to possess you. When the medium invite any spirit willing to communicate but this is dangerous since we don’t know if the spirit will be good or evil.

These practices started as a genuine way to contact the loved ones; a genuine desperation to contact the other side but with time it became a way to entertain people and then it became a show. There were discovered fakes mediums and fake spirits and fake paranormal activities.

Thanks to the popularity of the frauds, séances popularity declined. These practices are still done in the present but it became a rare thing to do and it is always accompanied by skeptics. It is said that real mediums do not accept money from the people they help or their “powers” will be taken away. If you think about it, having a power or the ability to listen or pass messages from the dead to the living should be something that you should do to help people and not because you want to get their money. As a matter of fact I know a medium she does not charge and I ask: What do they get from saying they have spiritual powers if they don't want get paid? Or be famous? Well, there are real mediums out there but to make public you have this gift comes with great responsibility and pressure.

I’m honest and when I see tarot reading or hand reading sign I do not believe completely that they are 100% accurate but in my heart I wish it was true. Who wouldn’t like to get into a medium parlor and contact the spirit of your loved one? But I do believe on the paranormal, spirits, heaven, the beyond and magic. This things exist but are rare to see, it's a matter of faith and feeling it in your guts. We are made of enery, we have a soul and we feel. There must be something beyond our material bodies.