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Spiritism and the Religion of Spirit Communication

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Spiritism or Kardecism is a philosophy and religion of spirit communication. After being inspired by the Spiritualist movement, the French Allan Kardec developed the loose movement of seances, mediums and communicating with the dead into something people still practice today. 

There is a debate about whether or not we should call the spiritism movement a religion or not, but it certainly was a movement together with Spiritualism that impacted the western world and how they view death, the afterlife and ghosts and the paranormal.

The Spiritism Movement was started by the French author and teacher Allan Kardec and is also called Kardecist spiritism or Kardecism. A simple way of explaining the difference between Spiritualism that grew in popularity in North America was that Spiritism was mainly in Europe and although much alike was much more organized and had a stricter doctrine. Today, the word spiritism is used for most of the religious and doctrines believing that the spirits go on after the body dies. 

He believed in physical reality and that alongside that, there was another spirit world. This world, he believed, could be accessed through mediums and that spirits exist separately from human bodies. 

Most of the practice of Spiritism is around the mediumship and communicating with the dead. It can manifest in automatic writing or drawing among other psychographic ways. 

Read More: Spiritualism and the Occult: Automatic Writing and When Ghosts Slide Into Your DMs 

The spiritists also believe in reincarnation and that the spirit is constantly trying to achieve intellectual and moral perfection. 

The Spiritism Movement as we know it today started in Europe in the 1850s, but soon spread, becoming very popular in the USA, Brazil and in the French colonies. 

Allan Kardec and the Founding of Spiritism

Allan Kardec’s real name was Léon-Dénizarth-Hippolyte Rivail and was really the one that organized the loose movement in Europe to a path with a certain doctrine and way of thinking. He was born in 1804 in Lyon in France and studied in Switzerland. When coming back to Paris he purchased a school for boys in 1928 and was a teacher.

Read More: Check out the story of the haunted Paris’ Haunted Père Lachaise Cemetery, were Kardec is buried.

He was in his 50s when he became interested in séances and started researching them and compiling the consistent things the mediums talked about into a philosophy he called Spiritism. The name Allan Kardec was a name picked out by a spirit called Truth. 

Table Tipping and Communicating with the Dead

A very popular pastime in Europe at the time was animal magnetism, mesmerising and what would eventually be called Table Tipping. This was equally seen as pure fun as well as a séance. Although a skeptic at first, Kardec became interested in the phenomenon and started to explore it as well. 

Table Tipping: Table levitates during Palladino’s séance at home of astronomer Camille Flammarion, France, 25 November 1898. There are two women seated at the table. Palladino sits at the far short end.

Kardec studied the phenomenon and concluded in The Book on Mediums that some communications were caused by an outside intelligence, as the message contained information that was not known to the group.

Read More: Table Turning: When Spirits Spill the Tea Through Furniture

Skeptics and those exposing the truth behind the table turning chucks it up to the ideomotor effect, not ghosts trying to communicate through furniture. The movement experienced in the seances was due to involuntary and unconscious muscular reactions. This scientific explanation was published in the Medical Times and Gazette in 1853, but that didn’t stop its popularity or people believing in it, it only made the hoaxes more elaborate. 

Spiritualism and the Fox Sisters

In addition to European dabbling in the occult already, Kardec became increasingly more interested in Spiritualism from the USA. It was a popular movement that had started with communication with the dead’s spirits. This movement is often connected with the popularity of Margaret and Catherine Fox who kicked off the Spiritualism movement in the USA with their table rapping. 

The Fox sisters: Kate (1838–92), Leah (1814–90) and Margaret (or Maggie) (1836–93). They were famous mediums in Rochester, New York. Taken around 1852

Since childhood they had been famous ever since they communicated with spirits in 1848 with the spirit haunting their home in New York. They later came to Europe to hold public séances.

Read More: The Spiritualist Movement: The Fox Sisters Who Started a Ghostly Revolution as a Prank

Allan Kardec was definitely directly inspired by this, but narrowed the belief system down to one doctrine. For example, Spiritualists do not necessarily believe in reincarnation but this part was important for the Spiritists. He worked to distance himself from fortune-tellers, mediums and magicians from the movement of the time, many of those often ending in trouble when discovered as a fraud.

The Spiritist Codification

Kardec’s first of five foundational Spiritist texts was 1857’s The Spirits’ Book. More than a book on ghosts, it’s a collection of philosophical questions Kardec asked mediums around in Europe. This was also an effort to bridge both religion, science and philosophy to one thing that he himself called a “Positive Faith”. More books followed and collectively, they are called the Spiritist Codification. 

Spiritists believe all humans are spirits, and the body is only a temporary vessel. After you die, the spirit crosses into the spirit world where it resided around the same time it was alive last before being reincarnated. 

It also adheres a lot to the Christian belief in one god as well as the rules science dictates. When Kardec developed his idea, it was definitely through the lens of a christian. Spiritists often cite biblical events to make their claim of how spirits exist, like how Moses consulted the dead, how Saul heard the spirit of Samuel. 

After Kardec died in 1869, medium and writer Léon Denis who had met Kardec many times, continued with his legacy and furthered its popularity. 

Backlash Against the Movement of Spiritism

Although the Spiritism Movement became popular and came from a place of Christianity, it wasn’t without controversy. Critics saw the movement as evil and devil worship. Many of the mediums were also accused of being frauds and charlatans, profiting on people’s grief and fear of the afterworld. 

Read More: Spiritualism and the Occult: The History of Ectoplasm and Gooey Ghosts

In Europe, this type of mediating and communication with spirits have been prosecuted since the middle ages, mostly because it was seen as blasphemous behavior. British witchcraft laws used against mediums were not repealed until the 1950s when the last woman was convicted for witchcraft.

Helen Duncan: Born in Scotland in 1898. In 1926 Duncan claimed to have developed her mediumistic powers. She was around 29 years old at the time. But long before that she had scared her fellow pupils at with her dire prophecies and hysterical behavior. Eventually, Duncan claimed to be able to produced fully-formed physical materialization of spirits by emitting them as ectoplasm through her mouth.

Also scientists attacked the movement, calling it madness, hysteria and fanciful without root in science and the real world. The Roman church condemned it, Brazil even banned it. Counter-movement to expose mediums, like Harry Houdini did for years, started as well. 

What Happened to Spiritism?

Freud: Although said to not believe in the paranormal, Freud once wrote: “Though I am a man of science, I cannot dismiss the idea that ghosts might embody our suppressed desires and unfulfilled wishes.”

With so much hype and popularity that only seemed to be growing at the turn of the century, it begs the question of why Spiritism isn’t a bigger movement today as before. The answer to that might be as boring as timing. 

Two big factors happened at the time that fought against the Spiritism Movement of Spiritualism. One of them was the discipline of psychology that started to take hold of people, especially modern and well read people in Europe. The very same group that a couple of decades ago would probably have turned to Spiritism or some sort of Spiritualism.

Sigmund Freud, who denied all existence of ghosts, was a leading voice going forward, and although some of the earlier psychologists played around with the idea of a spirit world, their voices weren’t strong enough. Although his official stance on ghosts have been to not believe in them, he had some interesting musings and discussions of the concept of ghosts and the supernatural.

The other thing happening in Europe at the time was World War 1 and had a big impact on culture. The war and fear of war stopped a lot of new ideas and thinking that flourished in more peaceful times. Who knows how the movement would have progressed if not for the European wars that century?

Were are the Spiritists Today?

But did Spiritism completely die? Through French colonialism the texts and ideas spread to the colonies in the 19th century to the mid-20th century, especially in Vietnam. Here, the movement and idea was crucial for the Cao Dai religion that started in Vietnam in 1926. The age-old traditions was a mix of Asian divination and mediumship from Vietnamese folk religion with ancestor worship, Confucianism, occult practices from Taoism, theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism.

Caodaism: Cao Dai monks inside Cao Dai Holy See, Tây Ninh, Vietnam. Priests are dressed in red, blue and yellow, followers in white. The full name of the religion is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ (大道三期普度) ‘The Great Faith for the Third Universal Redemption’.

French Spiritists Mediums travelled to Saigon, which today is Ho Chi Minh City and interacted with the Cao Dai mediums. They then began to mix with the new traditions of European Spiritism with the old. Some of them even claimed they had been visited by the spirit of Kardec. 

In addition to the French Colonies, the Spiritism Movement spread to Latin America as well, where it had a big impact on Brazil, even though they banned it in 1890. Today it is the third most popular religion in Brazil. 

The mediums also channel spirits for healing purposes and in Brazil they had around 13000 Spiritists centers that are a sort of physical or mental aid facility in 2022. This can be various ways, often a “laying of hands” much like they do with Reiki to heal energy.

Laying of the Hand: In Christian churches, chirotony or “Laying of the Hand”, is used as both a symbolic and formal method of invoking the Holy Spirit primarily during baptisms and confirmations, healing services, blessings, and ordination of priests, ministers, elders, deacons, and other church officers.

Although the Spiritism Movement didn’t have the hold of people as it used to, there are definitely still practitioners today throughout the world. Today, the International Spiritist Council claim that they have over 13 million followers in 36 countries.

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Allan Kardec – Wikipedia

Séance | Spiritualism, Mediumship & Clairvoyance | Britannica

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Spiritualism and the Occult: Automatic Writing and When Ghosts Slide Into Your DMs

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In the height of the spiritualism movement of séances, mediums and table turning, automatic writing was a popular way to communicate with the dead. But what type of writing and messages did the practice leave us with?

Imagine sitting alone in a dimly lit room, pen in hand, paper in front of you, when suddenly—your hand jerks forward, scribbling furiously as if someone else is holding the pen. You sit there, equal parts fascinated and mildly horrified, as cryptic messages, strange symbols, or maybe just some very messy handwriting pours onto the page you have no control over. Is it a deep connection to the spirit world… or did your subconscious just have way too much caffeine?

This is the basic premise of automatic writing—a ghostly communication method that’s part séance, part psychological mystery, and 100% unsettling.

What Exactly Is Automatic Writing?

Automatic writing, also known as psychography, is the act of writing without conscious thought, letting an unseen force (be it your subconscious mind or something a little more… otherworldly) take the wheel. The idea? Spirits, guides, or even higher consciousnesses use your hand as their personal typewriter to deliver messages from beyond.

It’s not only to come in contact with ghosts that automatic writing is used, and is a method used by writers to tap into their subconsciousness and let the words flow on the paper instead. This was particularly popular with French surrealists and was for a while a popular therapy form in Freudian psychology. Unlike brainstorming or journaling, you’re not supposed to think about what you’re writing. Instead, you let the pen flow, giving the spirit world a direct hotline to your notebook. 

Automatic Writing: An alleged psychograph (psychic picture) by the spiritualist medium Francis Ward Monck. Born in 1842, he was a British clergyman and spiritualist medium who was exposed as a fraud. In 1876 a sitter named H. B. Lodge stopped his séance and demanded Monck to be searched. Monck ran out and locked himself in another room, escaping out of a window. A pair of stuffed gloves was found in his room, as well as cheesecloth, reaching rods and other fraudulent devices in his luggage.

When talking about automatic writing within spiritualism, we often talk about mediums letting themselves be used for spirit to talk through. Some claim that they go into a sort of altered state, some not even remembering what happened and what they wrote down, as it came from the afterlife, not their own mind. The handwriting often looks different, even the language could be foreign. 

Read More: Books Written by Ghosts and Channeled Texts

Automatic writing has been a staple within the spiritualist community for centuries now, often combined in a séance as a way to contact the dead, much like Table Turning, Ectoplasma, Spirit Drawing and other means of communications. 

A Brief (and Slightly Haunted) History

Automatic writing isn’t some New Age trend—it’s been around for centuries, quietly creeping through spiritual practices and philosophical circles in all cultures, times and places on earth with a written language.

Some of the more famous traditions of automatic writing includes:

Ancient China:

Spirit writing, known as Fu Ji (扶乩), was practiced as early as 1100 AD, using a suspended stylus to communicate with deities and ancestors. It was considered so powerful that it was eventually banned during certain dynasties—because nothing says “this works” quite like outlawing it.

Read More: China’s Mystical Writing: Fu Ji (扶乩) – When Spirits Pick Up the Pen

The tradition of Fu Ji spread into Taoist lore as well and through this, the kung fu system is even credited to a sage from beyond, given to the living through writing. 

Enochian Magic:

In the west automatic writing has a long tradition long before the New Age takeover as well. One of the earlier examples we can find is through Enochian magic that supposedly gave guidance through the Enochian language, or the language of angels as it was believed to be. 

Here it was particularly John Dee and Edward Kelley in Renaissance England who practiced the art and was advising Queen Elisabeth I, giving this alleged spiritual messaging real life consequences. 

Enochian Magic: John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer and advisor to Elizabeth I. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. As a political advisor, he advocated the foundation of English colonies in the New World to form a “British Empire”, a term he is credited with coining.

Victorian Era:

Pearl Curran: Patience Worth was allegedly a spirit contacted by Pearl Lenore Curran. Starting in July 1912, Pearl Curran, along with her friend Emily Grant Hutchings, began using the Ouija Board. According to their accounts, they soon made contact with several spirits, each bringing their own unique messages and stories from the afterlife.

The 19th century in Europe and USA saw the golden age of spiritualism, where automatic writing made its grand comeback for the popular masses as a means to make the communication quicker than table turning and rapping could. Mediums at candlelit séances would go into trances, letting their hands scrawl out letters from the dead while wide-eyed onlookers gasped (and sometimes fainted for dramatic effect).

Literary heavyweights got in on the action too. Surrealist writers and artists, like André Breton, used automatic writing as a creative tool, believing it bypassed the conscious mind to tap into pure thought. Perhaps his most well known word produced by automatic writing is his book Soluble Fish.  

Then there was Pearl Curran, who in the early 1900s supposedly contacted a 17th-century spirit named Patience Worth, whom she met through a session with a Ouija Board. Together they allegedly wrote several novels, thousands of poems and other writings together. Many people think that this case is one of the best examples that automatic writing is real, mostly because they didn’t think that a housewife would be able to write all of this by herself. Proof of a ghost or just a touch of misogyny? 

From this era, perhaps Hélène Smith, who used the pseudonym of Catherine Elise Muller who was the most well known medium using automatic writing. She was born around 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland and held many séances. She claimed to have been a Hindu princess as well as Marie Antoinette in her previous lives. 

Not only did she produce automatic writing in Arabic, but also in something that she said were the languages of Mars and Uranus translated into French. Although a wild claim to make, and it certainly wasn’t without controversies, she actually had a fair bit of support from believers in her extraterrestrial language. 

Modern Psychology

Although the act of automatic writing still lingers in the corners of religious belief, New Age spiritualism and for those believing in the paranormal, we mostly talk about automatic writing from a scientific and psychological viewpoint today. Documented examples are considered to be the result of the ideomotor phenomenon and a milder form of dissociative state.

How It (Allegedly) Works

Message from Mars: 19th century medium Hélène Smith (Catherine Müller) did automatic writing to convey messages from Mars in Martian language. The “Martian” language looked a lot like her native language French and that her automatic writing was from forgotten sources like books read as a child. The term cryptomnesia is used for this phenomenon.

The process is of automatic writing is a simple concept—at least on paper:

Set the mood: Dim lights, candles, maybe a little incense. Spirits love ambiance.

Grab your tools: A notebook, a pen, and an open mind.

Get in the zone: Many practitioners meditate or use light hypnosis to clear their minds.

Let it flow: Relax your hand, hold the pen loosely, and wait. The theory is that a spirit will “guide” your hand, bypassing your conscious brain.

Decode the chaos: Once you snap out of it, you might find anything from coherent sentences to frantic scribbles that look like your cat ran across the paper.

For believers, automatic writing is a spiritual tool—a direct line to the afterlife or higher planes of existence. Many think that the power comes from themselves as mediums and if it doesn’t work for some, they simply doesn’t have the power and sensitivity for it.

For skeptics, it’s a textbook example of the ideomotor effect (the same involuntary movement theory behind Ouija boards and table tipping).

Read More: Check out The Dark Origins of the Ouija Board: A Mysterious History of Spirit Communication and Table Turning: When Spirits Spill the Tea Through Furniture for more information of the history behind this.

Essentially, your subconscious mind is doing the work, but because you’re not aware of it, it feels like an external force.

Famous Writers and the Art of Automatic Writing

Many famous people have over the years been involved in automatic writing, either doing it themselves or their ghosts have said to have been channeled through other mediums. Charles Dickens unfinished work of The Mystery of Edwin Drood was supposedly finished written through the hand of the itinerant printer T.P James, now remembered as the Brattleboro hoax.

Another famous writer who got involved in the supernatural automatic writing was W.B Yeats who married Georgie Hyde-Lees, a woman who claimed she could channel spirits through automatic writing. This influenced him greatly and his writing after they married.

Read More: Renvyle House and a visit from Yeats

Also the writer Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife explored automatic writing. Once they even held a séance with Harry Houdini where Lady Doyle wrote 15 pages worth of communication with a spirit she claimed was Houdini’s mother. Houdini himself saw it all as a hoax. 

When Things Got… Dark

Of course, no paranormal practice comes without a little side-eye from the dark side. Some caution that automatic writing can be a gateway for less-than-friendly spirits. After all, if you’re leaving the door open, who knows what’s going to walk (or scribble) through it? There are stories of people contacting malevolent entities or receiving unsettling, cryptic messages that seem straight out of a horror film.

And then there’s the famous case of Aleister Crowley—yes, that Aleister Crowley—who claimed to have channeled the text The Book of the Law through automatic writing, dictated by an otherworldly being named Aiwass. He was also very inspired by Enochian Magic. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly help his already spooky reputation.

Aleister Crowley: The book was dictated to him by a beyond-human being, Aiwass, who he later referred to as his own Holy Guardian Angel. Through the reception of the Book, Crowley proclaimed the arrival of a new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity, to be known as the “Æon of Horus”. The primary precept of this new aeon is the charge, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Read the Book.

Exposing the Hoaxes

In the modern era, from Victorian times up to today, there have been people dedicated to exposing charlatans and frauds, trying to pass off their tricks as true communication with ghosts. Some of the more famous paranormal investigators was Harry Price who got involved in many popular mediums and ghost stories. One of them was for example the infamous haunted Borley Rectory where a housewife was trying to cover up an extramarital affair and make it look like ghosts were haunting her house. 

Read More: The Mysterious Tale of Borley Rectory – Was it Really Haunted?

Science largely dismisses automatic writing as a psychological phenomenon. The ideomotor effect explains how subtle, unconscious muscle movements can create the illusion that an external force is at work. Plus, the human brain is really good at finding patterns in randomness. Those looping scribbles? Your brain’s dying to read them as a message.

Harry Price: Harry Price pictured with assorted pieces of his “ghost hunting” equipment

But for spiritualists and believers, automatic writing isn’t about proof—it’s about connection. Whether it’s a voice from beyond, the collective unconscious, or simply a way to tap into deeper layers of your own psyche, the results often feel real to those who experience it.

A Pen, Some Paper, and Maybe a Ghost?

Automatic writing sits at that curious crossroads where psychology and the paranormal shake hands—and then maybe slap each other. Is it a portal to the spirit world? A glimpse into the subconscious mind? Or just a very dramatic way to doodle?

Either way, the next time your hand randomly scribbles something when you’re zoned out in a meeting… Maybe it’s not just boredom. Maybe, just maybe, it’s someone—or something—trying to say hello.

Or maybe you just really need another cup of coffee.

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Automatic writing – New World Encyclopedia

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Table Turning: When Spirits Spill the Tea Through Furniture

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One of the earliest ways of communicating with the dead in the modern era was through Table Turning or Table Tipping. For many it was nothing more than a fun parlor trick and game, but for others it became a lifestyle and the foundation of a new spiritual movement.

When it comes to contacting the dead, humanity has tried just about everything—from scribbled seances and Ouija boards to full-blown ghost-hunting TV shows with night vision cameras, spirit boxes and EMF readers. But before the high-tech ghost gadgets and Hollywood dramatics, there was a simpler (and much wobblier) method: table tipping. Known also as table turning or table tilting, this Victorian-era parlor game blurred the line between a quirky party trick and a deep dive into the supernatural. 

Table Turning: Image published in the magazine l’Illustration in 1853 to illustrate an article entitled: History of the week

A Wobbly Beginning: The History of Table Tipping

The roots of table tipping dig deep into the mid-19th century, during the spiritualism boom that gripped America and Europe. The year was 1848, and the infamous Fox Sisters of Hydesville, New York, had the world spellbound with their “spirit rapping” escapades. They claimed they could communicate with the dead through a series of knocks and taps—a revelation that sent Victorian society into a frenzy of séance-hosting and ghost-chasing.

The Fox Sisters: Leah (April 8, 1813 – November 1, 1890), Margaretta (also called Maggie), (October 7, 1833 – March 8, 1893) and Catherine Fox (also called Kate) (March 27, 1837 – July 2, 1892). The Fox sisters were three sisters from Rochester, New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism.

It wasn’t long before people wanted more…action than what the Rochester Rapping from the Fox sisters provided. Why settle for a few spooky knocks when you could have an entire table dance across the room?

Read More: The Spiritualist Movement: The Fox Sisters Who Started a Ghostly Revolution as a Prank

Enter Table Turning, which came to Europe from America in the winter of 1852 when Maria B. Hayden came to London as a medium and quickly became a popular Victorian parlor game and show. The arrival 

of the steamer ‘Washington’ at Bremen in March 1853 is said to have first brought these ‘spiritual gymnastics’ to Germany. The art of table tipping became even more popular in France when it came to Paris in April the same year that had a strong tradition of mesmerism and animal magnetism.

Magnetism: Mesmerists saw Table Turning as a sign of animal magnetism, while fundamentalists condemned it as a work of Satan. Animal magnetism, created by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, suggests that all living things have an invisible natural force. This force, known as Lebensmagnetismus, could produce physical effects, including healing. Pictured above: Drawing room scene with many people sitting and standing around a large table; a man on a crutch has an iron band wrapped around his ankle; others in the group are holding bands similarly; to the left, a man has hypnotized a woman.

Participants would sit around a small table, fingertips lightly resting on the surface, and—after a bit of concentration and maybe a dramatic chant or two—the table would begin to rock, tilt, and sometimes even levitate. Supposedly, this was the work of spirits answering questions or simply showing off. Think of it as a supernatural form of charades, except the stakes included possible possession.

Earlier Versions of Table Turning

Although thought today to be a Victorian fad, the art of some sort of divination around a table is much older than when Spiritualism brought it to the masses as a popular game and show. In ancient Rome tables were used for divination called Mensa Divinatoriae.

In fourth-century Ammianus Marcellinus (325-391), a Roman historian, describes a table that had a slab on it with all the letters of the alphabet. Above it was a ring in a thread swinging over the letters and spelling out the words. 

A Message from Satan: Evangelical clergymen claimed that table turning was associated with Satan. Revs. N. S. Godfrey, E. Gillson, and others held séances where the “spirits” admitted to being either bad people or devils. These confessions led the clergymen to condemn table-turning altogether. As they said: ‘Table-moving tested and proved to be the result of Satanic agency’.

Even older examples are from the Christian writer, Tertullian (155-222) who mentioned some sort of table turning when he said to pagans: Do not your magicians call ghosts and departed souls from the shades below, and by their infernal charms represent an infinite number of delusions? And how do they perform all this but by the assistance of angels and spirits, by which they are able to make stools and tables prophecy

There are also those claiming that Jews in the 17th century practiced turning in a work published. Although it was said to be magic, Sabbatai Zevi tried to defend the practice, claiming it was a sacred ritual as singing psalms to God.

The Rules of Table Turning

Gather your friends, Light some candles because, of course, spooky ambiance is crucial, rest your fingertips lightly on the table. No heavy-handed shoving allowed—at least not officially. Ask questions and wait for the table to tip, tilt, or tap in response.

The first such sign was often a quivering motion under the sitters’ hands; it increased until the table pulsated with a mysterious energy. Many sources claim that this usually takes around 10 minutes, perhaps longer, perhaps not at all. After the vibratory stage the table might jerk, tilt, stumble about, spin and eventually become entirely levitated. 

Effect on literature: Eusapia Palladino the table appeared to be somehow alive like the back of a dog. In one of his stories a similar phenomenon occurred during the mediumship of medium D. D. Home induced Alexander Dumas to fantasize the table as an intelligence itself. The conception of a spirit entering furniture became a favorite idea with French authors afterward.Table levitates during Palladino’s séance at home of astronomer Camille Flammarion, France, 25 November 1898. There are two women seated at the table. Palladino sits at the far short end.

Spirits would allegedly answer “yes” or “no” questions by lifting certain legs of the table or tapping out coded messages, often said to be from a deceased close to someone around the table or a well known person. The messages would often take a long time to write down, and tools like the Ouija Board were made to make the communication with the dead easier and faster later.

Read More: The Dark Origins of the Ouija Board: A Mysterious History of Spirit Communication 

The color or type of table wasn’t very important, nor was the type of wood it was made of for most mediums. Many mediums said they preferred that no metals like nails were used as they claimed to be very sensitive to metals. Many also liked to cover the table with a cloth. 

Table Tipping Inspiring a Spiritualist Movement

Table Turning wasn’t just confined to dimly lit living rooms. It caught on with spiritualist circles, prominent mediums, and even some of the intellectual elite. Allan Kardec studied the phenomenon and concluded in The Book on Mediums that some communications were caused by an outside intelligence, as the message contained information that was not known to the group. He eventually went on to kick off the Spiritism movement and religion after this.

Even after the Fox sisters came out and said that it had all been a hoax, the tradition of spiritualism and table turning continued to grow in popularity. But here’s the twist: even when exposed, people still wanted to believe. After all, isn’t it more fun to think a ghost is tilting the kitchen table from the afterlife than to admit your friend is just really bad at keeping his fingers still?

Exposing the Truth Behind the Table Turning

But it wasn’t only inspiring for some, and people started to devote their time to expose the hoax behind table turning. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of Sherlock Holmes was a staunch believer in the practice. Ironically, his fictional detective would have debunked it faster than you can say “elementary.” Even though he wanted to believe it, he spent a lot of time debunking mediums and the hoaxes behind them. 

Table Turning as a Hoax: The magician William Marriott demonstrating a fraudulent method to levitate a table. From On the Edge of the Unknown. Pearson’s Magazine, March-October 1910.

Harry Houdini, the world’s most famous escape artist and part-time ghostbuster, spent much of his later career exposing fraudulent mediums as well. He attended séances incognito, calling out tricksters who used hidden wires, magnets, and even sneaky footwork to get tables dancing. So what was the trick behind the magic?

Harry Houdini: On the stage of the New York Hippodrome, Houdini exposes techniques used by fraudulent mediums in 1925. Some of the methods he exposed was the mechanics behind Table Turning.

Skeptics and those exposing the truth behind the table turning chucks it up to the ideomotor effect, not ghosts trying to communicate through furniture. The movement experienced in the seances was due to involuntary and unconscious muscular reactions. This scientific explanation was published in the Medical Times and Gazette in 1853, but that didn’t stop its popularity or people believing in it, it only made the hoaxes more elaborate. 

This was the case from well meaning people wanting to believe or there would also be those who just performed plain fraud, often looking for money and fame. 

One of these fraudulent methods was described by The magician Chung Ling Soo, or William Ellsworth Robinson that was his real name, involved a pin driven into the table and the use of a ring with a slot on the medium’s finger. Once the pin entered the slot, the table could be lifted.

The Italian spiritualist and medium, Eusapia Palladino, who used custom-made boots with soles that extended beyond the boots’ edges in order to lift tables.

Table Turning: An alleged table levitation of the medium Eusapia Palladino in 1909.

The Paranormal Legacy: Why We Still Love a Good Table Flip

Though Table Turning eventually fell out of fashion—replaced by flashier tools like the Ouija board and EVP recorders—it left a lasting impression on the way we view spirit communication. It tapped into a fundamental human desire: the need to believe that death isn’t the end.

In modern paranormal circles, table tipping has made a bit of a comeback. Some ghost hunters use it in investigations, while others see it as a quaint relic of the spiritualist era. Table Turning sits at that strange intersection of human psychology and the supernatural. It’s a little bit spooky, a little bit silly, and entirely captivating. 

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Table-turning – Wikipedia

Table-turning (or Table-tipping) | Encyclopedia.com

Animal magnetism – Wikipedia

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The Dark Origins of the Ouija Board: A Mysterious History of Spirit Communication

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The Ouija Board has a long and winded history that has created its own lore and rules. What is really the truth behind the board, where spiritualism meets consumerism?

The Ouija board: a simple game to some, a portal to the unknown for others. Whether you see it as harmless fun or a dangerous tool of the occult, one thing is certain—the Ouija board has a long, eerie history that stretches across centuries and cultures. Behind the polished wooden planchette and alphabet-strewn board lies a tale of mysticism, deception, and perhaps even something sinister.

Although most people know what the Ouija board is, few people know its origin, according to Ouija historian, Robert Murch. Sit tight, light a candle, and let’s delve into the shadowy origins of the Ouija board. But be warned—some doors, once opened, are difficult to close.

Ouija Board: Painting by Norman Rockwell depicting a couple using a Ouija board. This painting was used for the cover of the May 1, 1920 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Ancient Spirit Communication: The Predecessors of the Ouija Board

Before Parker Brothers got their hands on it, the concept of talking to spirits through objects wasn’t new, although the notion that Ouija Board was an ancient thing was. Cultures across history have been obsessed with communing with the dead, and they weren’t shy about getting creative.

China’s Mystical Writing: Fu Ji (扶乩)

As early as 1100 AD, the Chinese had a form of “spirit writing” called fu ji, which involved using a suspended wooden or bamboo stylus to guide messages from beyond. Taoist monks and mystics believed the deceased could communicate through this method, leaving cryptic (and sometimes terrifying) messages for the living. Sound familiar? It should—it’s basically an ancient prototype of the Ouija board.

Read More: China’s Mystical Writing: Fu Ji (扶乩) – When Spirits Pick Up the Pen 

The Spiritualist Movement: A Victorian Obsession

Fast forward to the 19th century, when the world was gripped by a new obsession: Spiritualism. This was the golden age of séances, mediums, and all things ghostly. It largely started when the Fox sisters from New York claimed to be able to communicate with the dead. People were desperate to reach lost loved ones, and mediums capitalized on that desire. Knocks on walls, flickering candles, and even floating tables were all part of the supernatural spectacle.

Read More: The Spiritualist Movement: The Fox Sisters Who Started a Ghostly Revolution as a Prank

But let’s be real—not all mediums were exactly credible. Many were caught faking spirit communication, using tricks that would make even Houdini roll his eyes. But fraud or not, the demand was high, and the market was ripe for a faster, easier way to contact the dead.

Spiritualism and Table Turning: Medium William Marriott levitating table. Although communicating with the devil moved away from this, the part of sitting around a table lingers.

Birth of the Ouija Board: A Capitalist Séance

Enter businessman Elijah Bond, who saw dollar signs where others saw ghosts. In 1890, he, along with Charles Kennard and William Fuld, created the first commercial “talking board” for The Kennard Novelty Company: Their goal? To cash in on the Spiritualist craze with a device that lets anyone communicate with spirits.

One problem with Spiritualism and the communication with the dead, was that it was too slow to deliver the messages. There were more people wanting to talk with the dead than there were mediums to deliver the messages, besides, it could be expensive to attend a seance. 

The solution was to make a more effective way of communicating. Often the mediums would spell out the entire alphabet and wait for the spirit to knock when they reached the right letter. Too boring, so the board came with the entire alphabet. 

The idea of a talking board like this was already a popular thing in the spiritualist communities in Ohio and the press reported on these boards as far back as 1886. Together with the desperation and grief of the loss in the aftermath after the Civil War, the market was there for the taking. 

The more efficient ways of communicating with the dead piqued the interest of the men that would form The Kennard Novelty Company and would exclusively make the Ouija board. In the beginning it was the local coffin maker, E.C. Reiche from Prussia who made the boards. The business venture was a success. It was a tool to communicate with the dead in the easiest way possible.

The name “Ouija” is a whole mystery in itself. Many people think that it’s the combination of the French oui and the German ja. According to legend, the board named itself when Bond’s sister-in-law asked it for its name during an early session one night in 1890. Helen Peters was a strong medium according to Bond and claimed the word meant “good luck”.

It is also possible that it was because she was wearing a locket with a picture of a woman where the word was written next to it. Some have speculated that it was actually a picture of the famous writer, Ouida, that Peters really liked and just misread her name. 

She has since been known as Mother of the Ouija Board.

The Patent Office and the “Supernatural” Test

Mother of the Ouija Board: Helen Peters

Now here’s where things get extra weird. When Bond and his crew applied for a patent, the U.S. Patent Office was skeptical. The officials allegedly demanded proof that the board actually worked before granting a patent. So, Peters asked the board to spell out the name of the chief patent officer—who, mind you, they had never met.

It did.

They got their patent.

Coincidence? Trickery? Did Bond, who was a patent attorney, know of this officer’s name beforehand? Or something else?

The Ouija Board Divides the Peters Family

So what happened to Peters and Helen Peters who was a vital person when creating the board? According to the stories, she wanted nothing to do with the board after it created a rift within the family. 

Family heirlooms from the civil war went missing from her home and she asked the board who had taken them. According to Peter’s grandson, it was a family member, something the Ouija board had told them. Half the family believed it, creating a rift in the family that was never resolved and tore them apart. 

After this, she sold her stock in the company and told everyone until her dying day to never play the board, because it would lie. 

William Fuld: The Man Who “Died for the Board”

William Fuld, who took over production of the Ouija board in the early 1900s, was one of its biggest promoters. He cut ties with his brother in 1919 and never spoke again. The feud was so big, Isaac Fuld exhumed his baby daughter and reburied her in another cemetery. 

In 1927, Fuld fell to his death from the roof of a factory when he was overseeing an installation of a flag—one that he claimed the Ouija board told him to build to prepare for big business. He was expected to live through this injury, but the bumpy road to the hospital sent one of his fractured bones through his heart. On his deathbed, he begged his children to never sell the board out from the family. 

For decades, the Ouija board was just another quirky parlor game, sold alongside Monopoly and Clue. After Full died, people started to argue about who really was the inventor behind the board, and several rival boards appeared and failed to reach the cult status the Ouija have. Four decades after Full’s death, they sold the board out of the family.

A fun pastime for the whole family as well as a spiritual oracle. The more uncertain the times were, the more the board sold. During the first world war there was a surge in interest in the board as well as during Prohibition times. In the second world war, a single New York department sold over 50 000 boards over five months in 1944. During the Vietnam war, the Parker Brothers bought the game and two million boards were sold, more than Monopoly. 

It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that things took a sinister turn.

Hollywood’s Love Affair with the Ouija Board

If there’s one thing Hollywood does well, it’s making innocent things terrifying (looking at you, Annabelle). The 1973 horror classic The Exorcist sent the Ouija board straight into the realm of nightmares. In the movie, a little girl uses a board to talk with a spirit she thinks is Captain Howdy, unwittingly inviting a demon into her life. Suddenly, the board wasn’t just a game—it was a gateway to hell.

The Exorcist: After the use of the Ouija Board in the horror movie, many believed that the thing was the thing of the devil.

After that, reports of “Ouija-related hauntings” skyrocketed, appearing in over 20 films and appearing on countless shows. But this also affected how Ouija was seen in the real world. Stories of possessions, cursed homes, and terrifying encounters flooded the media. 

Religious groups condemned the board, and even today Catholics claim that the board is “far from harmless”, and that it is an occult practice and that “nothing positive can ever come from the use of Ouija board.”. Exorcists got busy, and Parker Brothers probably started questioning some life choices.

Real-Life Horror Stories (Or So They Say…)

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the Ouija board has a long list of spooky anecdotes attached to it:

The “Zozo” Demon: Many people claim to have encountered a malevolent entity named Zozo through the Ouija board. He’s known for deception, threats, and generally ruining your night. Skeptics say it’s a case of the ideomotor effect (your muscles move the planchette unconsciously). Believers say, well…good luck sleeping.

Read More: The Demon Zozo: The Mysterious and Terrifying Entity of the Ouija Board

In 1930, a woman in Buffalo participated in a murder, supposedly on the encouragement of Ouija board messages.

Read More: The Ouija Board Murder in Buffalo

So, is it just a game? Or is something playing you?

The board has been through much criticism from religious groups, even burning. in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 2001, it was burned on bonfires along with copies of Harry Potter and Disney’s Snow White and Eminem CD’s.

Fearing the Ouija Board: A woman tosses a Ouija Board into a bonfire outside a church in New Mexico in 2001, after the church’s pastor urged parishioners to burn dozens of Harry Potter books and other types of literature and games they found offensive. // Source

The Science of the Ouija Board: A Trick of the Mind?

Of course, there’s a rational explanation for all of this. The Ouija board is often linked to the ideomotor effect, where tiny, unconscious muscle movements create the illusion that an external force is moving the planchette.

In simpler terms: your brain is tricking you. You think you’re not moving the planchette, but your subconscious is. Science has replicated this effect in multiple studies, proving that the board’s messages aren’t coming from ghosts—they’re coming from you and small muscular movement creating a large effect.

Boring? Maybe. But definitely less terrifying than summoning a demon.

What research of the board has shown though, is that with the help of Ouija board, participants have been able to answer more factual questions correctly than without it. 50% accuracy for vocal responses compared to 65% for Ouija Board responses. Read the entire research report. 

The subconscious working better than anything else, or something else coming to visit?

Final Thoughts: Should You Use a Ouija Board?

Look, I’m not here to tell you what to do. But let’s be real—whether you believe in spirits or not, the Ouija board has a reputation. If it’s just a board game, why do so many people have terrifying experiences with it? Why does it consistently pop up in stories of hauntings and possessions?

Maybe it’s just superstition. Maybe it’s the power of suggestion.

Or maybe…just maybe…some doors are better left closed.

People have tried to come up with rules for safe playing, like claiming you shouldn’t ask the board about God, where treasures are buried and when you are going to die. It is said that if you try to burn the board, it will scream at you, so the safe way to get rid of it is to break it into seven pieces, sprinkle it with holy water, then bury it. 

Hasbro, whose website warns: “Handle the Ouija board with respect and it won’t disappoint you!”

But hey, if you do decide to use one, don’t say I didn’t warn you. And for the love of all things spooky—never, ever forget to say goodbye.

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References:

The Ouija Board Can’t Connect Us to Paranormal Forces—but It Can Tell Us a Lot About Psychology, Grief and Uncertainty | Smithsonian 

The Dark History Behind Ouija Boards

Ouija board | Spiritualism, Divination, Supernatural | Britannica 

The Ouija board’s mysterious origins: war, spirits, and a strange death | Life and style | The Guardian 

https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/mysterious-talking-board-ouija-and-beyond

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | ‘Satanic’ Harry Potter books burnt 

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | ‘Satanic’ Harry Potter books burnt 

The Museum of Talking Boards: Ouijastitions

Earlier boards:

History of the Talking Board 

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The Spiritualist Movement: The Fox Sisters Who Started a Ghostly Revolution as a Prank

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It’s impossible talking about communicating with the dead without talking about The Fox Sisters and their impact they had on the Spiritualism movement as well the enduring popularity ghosts and the afterlife have on people, even when its well known fraudsters performing. 

At a public demonstration at the New York Academy of Music, Maggie Fox takes the stage. She had all her life been one part of the most popular medium duo in the world at the time. She had since she was a little girl held public seances where she and her sister would communicate with the dead. Now she was telling everyone in the crowd that it had all been a fraud.

She was met with hissing and cheers from the crowd. People had spent their money on her, been comforted when she said that their dearly departed was at peace in the afterlife and with her help, she could communicate a message from the spirit world to the world of the living. All a lie. 

“When I began this deception I was too young to know right from wrong,” Maggie told the crowd, according to the Herald. “That I have been mainly instrumental in perpetuating the fraud of Spiritualism upon a too-confiding public, many of you already know. It is the greatest sorrow of my life.”

The Fox Sisters: Portrait of Kate and Maggie Fox, Spirit Mediums from Rochester, New York. Along the bottom edge of the daguerreotype “Kate and Maggie Fox, Rochester Mediums, T.M. Easterly Daguerrean” is inscribed. Portions of the daguerreotype are colored with pink pigment.

Spiritualism and the Hunt for Ghosts and Communicating with the Dead

The 19th century was a time of grand discoveries, scientific advancements, as well as talking to ghosts.

Enter Spiritualism, a movement that swept through the Western world like an eerie whisper in the dark. It promised communication with the dead, answers from the great beyond, and (let’s be honest) a fair share of parlor tricks.

At the center of it all? Two young girls from upstate New York, Margaretta and Catherine Fox—better known as the Fox Sisters. Their story is one of mystery, deception, and perhaps a little too much ambition. Were the Fox sisters truly gifted with the ability to communicate with spirits, or did they accidentally start one of the biggest hoaxes in history?

Light a candle, keep your ears open for unexplained knocks, and let’s step into the shadowy world of the Fox Sisters and the rise of Spiritualism.

A Knock in the Night: The Birth of a Phenomenon

Our tale begins in Hydesville, New York, in 1848, in a modest farmhouse occupied by the Methodist Fox family. It was here that 14-year-old Margaretta (Maggie) and 11-year-old Catherine (Kate) first encountered what they believed to be messages from beyond the grave.

Read More: Check out all ghost stories from the USA

The family had been experiencing strange noises—knocking sounds in the walls, unexplained raps on furniture, eerie disturbances in the dead of night. 

The Fox Sisters Childhood Home: Original Cottage before it was moved to Lilydale in 1916. This is where the alleged haunting started.

Instead of running for the hills, the Fox Sisters leaned into it when they scared their parents. One fateful evening, they wanted to share it with a neighbor. They said they heard the rapping every night on the walls and furniture. The neighbor was curious and wanted to see for herself and came to visit the small bedchamber the sisters shared with their parents. Their very superstitious mother, Margaret started, asking the knocking to count to five.

Five heavy knocks answered. Then followed her command when asking for fifteen knocks. 

“What is our guest’s age,” she asked and the entity in the room answered with thirty-three knocks. 

Convincing even the adults in the room, they didn’t even consider that the night was going into April Fool’s day. The young girls called the knocking for Mr. Spitfoot, a nickname for the devil, and the parents genuinely thought the house was haunted by something evil. They then called it Charles B. Rosna, the name of a man allegedly killed on the property. 

There was a rumor that a peddler had been murdered in the same farmhouse five years before and that this was the spirit trying to communicate with them. It’s uncertain if the story started before or after the Fox sisters started to hear the knocking. There was a whole ordeal of whether or not there actually was a dead man buried on their property haunting it, but after excavations, it has, as with everything else, said to be a hoax.

The Rise of Spiritualism: Talking to the Dead Becomes Trendy

The 19th century was the perfect time for a movement like Spiritualism to explode. Death was everywhere, and people were desperate for comfort. High infant mortality rates meant grieving parents longed to speak to lost children. The Civil War (later on) would create millions of mourning families, looking for closure. Scientific progress made people more open to the idea that maybe there was something beyond the grave that could be studied.

And then came the Spiritualist Movement—an alluring blend of religious belief, science, and just enough mystery to keep people hooked. It promised proof of the afterlife, making it one of the most compelling belief systems of the era.

The Fox Sisters weren’t just two kids from New York anymore. They were the pioneers of an entire industry—one that would dominate the world for decades.

The Fox Sisters Take the Stage

With their newfound fame, the sisters—along with their older sibling, Leah Fox—decided to take their act on the road. They moved to Rochester, New York, a place where all kinds of spiritual movements flourished. This area gave birth to Mormonism, Millerism that would become Seventh Day Adventism – As well as Spiritualism. 

The Fox sisters: Kate (1838–92), Leah (1814–90) and Margaret (or Maggie) (1836–93). They were famous mediums in Rochester, New York. Taken around 1852

They began holding public séances, demonstrating their “spirit communication” abilities to packed audiences. Where they could have been condemned to death for their claims to be communicating with the dead a couple of centuries ago, now they could make money from it. Leah had seen that this act could turn into a nice business venture.

The formula of the Fox Sisters was simple but effective:

A darkened room for maximum spookiness and where you could hide details your audience shouldn’t see. A table where spirits could “manifest” through knocks and tilts. A crowd eager for messages from beyond. And just like that, a supernatural empire was born.

They traveled from city to city, performing for skeptics and believers alike. Even respected intellectuals and politicians found themselves drawn into the movement. In 1849, 400 people came to see them at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall. After the performance they were taken to a backchamber and undressed to be examined by skeptics, finding no evidence of a hoax.

A physician from New England named Dr. Phelps claimed that his windows had shattered during one of their seances and that his clothes had been torn off by an unseen entity and objects were dancing on his floor. Even turnips had sprung from the carpet, inscribed with mysterious hieroglyphs. 

The Medium Madness: When Talking to the Dead Became Big Business

By the 1850s, Spiritualism was in full swing, with thousands of people across America and Europe attempting to communicate with the dead. In upstate New York there were forty families claiming to have the same gifts as the Fox sisters, and hundreds of more throughout Virginia and Ohio. 

They were not the first to claim to be able to communicate with the dead, and there were already many thinkers and philosophers who were exploring the idea around the same time. Franz Anton Mesmer from Australia was healing people in the States in the 1840s by putting them in a hypnotic state where some who woke up, thought they had been visited by a spirit. Philosopher and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg from Sweden described a world of spirit and claimed to have seen and talked with them. 

And then things got really out of hand.

Séance: After the Fox Sisters, the séance and spiritualism got a boost in popularity that changed how the western world would see the ghosts and afterlife. The alleged clairvoyant medium Erik Jan Hanussen (middle) at a an illuminated séance.

With the Fox Sisters’ success, everyone and their ghostly grandmother wanted a piece of the action. Suddenly, mediums were popping up everywhere, offering séances, table-tipping sessions, and spirit photography.

It was a belief system with a show, filled with lighting, music and drama feeding on people’s curiosity of death and longing after their death. The mediums like The Fox Sisters became celebrities. Some of the most famous names in Spiritualism came out of this boom, including:

Daniel Dunglas Home, a medium who could allegedly levitate. There was also Eusapia Palladino, known for “spirit hands” appearing out of thin air. This is where the notion of Ectoplasm was coined. 

Read More: Spiritualism and the Occult: The History of Ectoplasm and Gooey Ghosts

The Bangs Sisters, who produced “spirit paintings” of deceased loved ones. But with fame came skepticism. Scientists, magicians, and journalists began questioning whether these supernatural events were real or just elaborate hoaxes.

Read More: Georgiana Houghton and her Spirit Drawings in Watercolor

Not to say that this went on without controversy. They had from day one people suspecting them for fraud. One time Maggie was almost kidnapped by a group of men who didn’t like the childrens show. They tried as early as 1849 to end the charade and said that the spirit bid them farewell during a show. But Leah pushed them onward.

And unfortunately for the Fox Sisters… things were about to fall apart.

The Fall of the Fox Sisters: Confession and Collapse

By the late 1870s, the Fox Sisters’ once-glorious reputation was crumbling. Throughout their career they had noted mistakes they made. Like when they conjured the ghost of Benjamin Franklin through writing and one observer noted how the former president’s spelling and grammar had diminished since he died. On a show in Buffalo the girl’s had cushions placed under their feet and only silence came through that night. 

Maggie struggled with alcoholism as she was mourning the death of her sort-of-husband in 1857. His family hated her and she wasn’t even allowed to attend his funeral. She had by then converted to Catholicism to honor her belated husband and promised to abandon Spiritualism forever. 

Kate on her side had married a devoted Spiritualist and wanted to expand and cash in on the grief the Civil War left in society. She was also accused of fraud and drinking heavily under the pressure to constantly summon spirits and perform.

The final blow came in 1888, when Maggie Fox did the unthinkable—she confessed and was scheduled to publicly denounce Spiritualism.

In a public lecture at the New York Academy of Music, she admitted that their ghostly communications had been faked all along. Leah had distanced herself from the younger sisters and Maggie was mad at her and the other Spiritualists who ridiculed Kate for her drinking and calling her an unfit mother as all of her children had been taken from her because of her drinking. Kate herself was in the audience to support her. 

Their secret? Cracking their toe joints to produce the knocking sounds. They also used their knuckles.

Yes. The entire phenomenon that launched Spiritualism had been created using nothing more than clever deception and a few well-placed toe pops.

Maggie even demonstrated the technique on stage, proving that the rapping noises could be recreated without any supernatural assistance. She confessed to the New York World in 1888 that the childhood prank had spun out of control. 

“My sister Katie and myself were very young children when this horrible deception began. At night when we went to bed, we used to tie an apple on a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. Then we started to crack our bones. A great many people when they hear the rapping imagine at once that the spirits are touching them, It is a very common delusion.”

She then went on to expose her sister, Leah, who had known it was fake all along and exploited them. The audience was horrified. The Spiritualist Movement had been built on a lie.

But here’s the kicker—even after the confession, people still believed in Spiritualism that had by then spread around the world. Many brushed off Maggie’s words, claiming she was coerced or simply bitter. After all, people had claimed to talk with the dead before the Fox sister’s ever existed and types of mediums have been around in all cultures at all time. The movement was too big to die, and it continued to thrive long after the Fox Sisters faded into obscurity.

Maggie later recanted her confession the year after confessing it all, but the damage was done. What was the hoax? The confession or their entire career? According to Spiritualist she had been lying at the confession performance as she needed money and they paid her 1500 dollar for it. She then said that her spirit guides had told her to do so. Still, she spent the rest of her life to reveal the tricks behind her profession and the lies of other mediums. 

Maggie never reconciled with her sister who died in 1890. Her sister Kate died two years later, Maggie eight months after that. Both sisters died in poverty, their once-glorious reputations reduced to whispers of fraud and scandal.

Legacy: The Fox Sisters’ Impact on the Paranormal World

So, were the Fox Sisters frauds? Yes. But did they also accidentally launch an entire paranormal movement? Also yes.

Their “discovery” of spirit communication led to:

The rise of modern-day mediumship, the popularization of séances, spirit boards, and paranormal investigations. An entire industry of ghost hunters, TV psychics, and supernatural tourism. Even today, we see echoes of the Fox Sisters in every ghost-hunting show, every psychic reading, and every flickering candle during a séance.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, one thing is clear: the Fox Sisters left their mark. Even when confessing to lying people refused to believe in the power of communicating with the dead. It was something that people desperately needed to believe in. 

They may have started with toe cracks and lies, but their influence? It’s undeniably haunting.

So, the next time you hear a mysterious knock in the night, ask yourself—

Is it just the wind?

Or is Mr. Splitfoot still knocking?

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References:

How a Hoax by Two Sisters Helped Spark the Spiritualism Craze | HISTORY 

The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism | Smithsonian

The Paris Review – How the Fox Sisters’ Hoax Gave Birth to Spiritualism

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Spiritualism and the Occult: The History of Ectoplasm and Gooey Ghosts

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Ectoplasm was a substance said to be the materialization of spirits in our world. The fascinating ectoplasm gave some insane pictures from seances and plenty of bonkers debunking of fraudulent mediums using it. 

“Ectoplasm is a thick, vapory, slightly luminous substance which exudes from some materializing mediums. Immediately there comes from her body this vaperous substance which surrounds her like a fog. As the ectoplasm increases it becomes more dense. It coalesces, becomes sticky. It can be felt. It can be photographed.”
– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Ectoplasm is the name given to a type of psychic energy which is said to be the medium by which the spirits interact with the physical world. According to the Spiritism movement, ectoplasm is a translucent, luminous substance that forms around the mouth, eyes, and nose of mediums during a seance. 

Although we today mostly know it to popular media like Ghostbusters like a gooey and sticky substance, it was an actual thing that mediums used in their seances to prove the existence of ghosts. The word “ectoplasm” was coined in 1894 by the French Scientist Charles Richet to explain a third arm that allegedly appeared from a medium named Eusapia Palladino, and derives from the Greek words ἐκτός ektos, “outside” and πλάσμα plasma, “anything formed”.

Ectoplasm: Stanisława Popielska (born c. 1893), known as Stanisława P., was a Polish spiritual medium alleged to have produced ectoplasm and moved objects psychokinetically. In 1913, psychical researcher Albert von Schrenck-Notzing investigated her, taking flashlight photographs during séances, and published a book declaring her ectoplasm genuine. However, his experiments faced criticism for poor controls, and he was accused of falling victim to fraud.

What is Ectoplasm in the Paranormal Realm?

Ectoplasm is a type of spiritual energy that can be seen by clairvoyants and mediums in Spiritualism. Ectoplasm is said to be a type of energy that can be seen and felt by people who have the ability to see or sense it.

It wasn’t a new discovery in 1894, and before it was called ectoplasm it was called soul substance, biogen or a manifestation of the perispirit. It is not to be confused by the actual scientific term ectoplasm.

Real Ectoplasm: Ectoplasm is a defined term in science. It’s used to describe the cytoplasm of the one-celled organism, the amoeba, which moves by extruding portions of itself and flowing into space. Ectoplasm is the outer portion of an amoeba’s cytoplasm, while endoplasm is the inner portion of the cytoplasm. Ectoplasm is a clear gel that helps the “foot” or pseudopodium of an amoeba change direction. Ectoplasm changes according to the acidity or alkalinity of the fluid. The endoplasm is more watery and contains most of the cell’s structures.

Some people see ectoplasm as a type of mist or a kind of energy that surrounds living beings. This mist or energy is said to appear in the form of a white, wispy substance, often light colored and can only be seen in the darkened atmosphere a seance brings. It has been said that ectoplasm can appear in many different ways, including as a solid, liquid, or gas.

What are the Different Purposes of Ectoplasm?

Ectoplasm is a term used to describe a medium’s or spiritist’s substance which is supposedly seen. Ectoplasm is said to be formed by physical mediums when in a trance state. People who have had a spiritist experience may have seen a ghostly image with a white substance. This substance is said to be the medium’s or spiritist’s “ectoplasm” or “spirit substance.” 

Early Seances Before the Ectoplasm Craze: Materialization is a term used by psychical researchers to describe a phenomenon that emerged in séances during the 1870s. It refers to the appearance of spirit presences as objects or bodies, as well as sensations like touches on the cheek or hands, slaps, caresses, or breezes suggesting something is passing by.

This substance is said to have the ability to move, fly, and even change shape. Often said to start out as clear before darkening when the psychic energy becomes stronger. It is also sometimes said to have had a strong odor.

Within Spiritualism and seances, levitation is a common trope said to happen to some. Many say that the levitation of material objects comes from a gradual buildup of ectoplasm under the objects. 

What is the Difference Between Ectoplasm fluids and forms?

In the early 1900s, ectoplasm was seen as a physical manifestation of the spirit itself. It is believed that spirits would leave a body and move into ectoplasm, which was seen in the form of a white cloud, slimy and soft tissue or other forms. 

The Edge of the Unknown (1930): Conan Doyle described ectoplasm as “a viscous, gelatinous substance which appeared to differ from every known form of matter in that it could solidify and be used for material purposes” Doyle suggested that ectoplasm often functioned as a more sensitive body part, noting that if it was “seized or pinched […] the medium cried aloud”

There was also teleplasm, referring to ectoplasm acting separate from the medium’s body. Ideoplasm is when the ectoplasm molds itself into another person.  

Where did the Idea of Ectoplasma come from?

But where did this idea come from? You can often draw a line of medium using ectoplasm in their seances after the idea of an ‘ectenic force’ came along. This was an early psychical researcher who tried to seek a physical explanation for psychokinesis and Table Turning. 

Absurd as it seemed, ectoplasm looked like it could change the understanding of science. Dr. Gustave Geley, a French doctor and researcher, saw this paranormal phenomenon as proof of new human abilities and thought it could bring a major shift in scientific thinking.

Mystery of the Female Anatomy and the Sexualisation of Ghosts: On some level, the medium performs a type of striptease for a crowd that likes to watch. A complete examination of the medium had been performed before it commenced. This was the case of Eva Carrière (pictured) as well. How did they believe cloth came out of people’s bodies, especially women’s? A classic trick was it came from their vagina. At that time, female anatomy was an even greater mystery. Even Sigmund Freud, despite his analytical tools, could not penetrate the “dark continent” of female sexuality by 1926. Thus, it is unsurprising that male researchers viewed ectoplasm—a tangible and often gynecological externalization of the spirit world—as a substance promising to revolutionize science.

Throughout the years, notable scientists experimented and researched this phenomenon. Although most of the research was to find out if the medium was a fraud or not. Even though people were starting to leave the ectoplasm thing in the past as a hoax, it had dire consequences for some of the mediums claiming they were real. 

Helen Duncan and Britain’s Last Witch

Although a visually strong thing during seances, not every medium used it. One who did however, was Helen Duncan. Today, she is perhaps best known for her trial in 1944, were she became the last woman convicted and imprisoned under Great Britain’s Witchcraft Act of 1735.

Helen Duncan was born in Scotland in 1898 and in 1926 Duncan claimed to have developed her mediumistic powers. She was around 29 years old at the time. But long before that she had scared her fellow pupils at with her dire prophecies and hysterical behavior. eventually, Duncan claimed to be able to produced fully-formed physical materialization of spirits by emitting them as ectoplasm through her mouth.

Photographs revealing the fraud mediumship of Helen Duncan. Malcolm Gaskill revealed in his book Hellish Nell: Last of Britain’s Witches (Fourth Estate, 2001) that the photographs were taken by the photographer Harvey Metcalfe in 1928 during a séance at Duncan’s house.

Pictures taken of her seances, showed the reality behind her papier-mâché dolls and slimy cloths that something strange was going on, but not the paranormal one. Things really got worse for Duncan after she was investigated by the famed paranormal investigator Harry Price in 1931.   

Cheesecloth of Helen Duncan taken by Harry Price

During the sitting in Edinburgh one of the participants grabbed the supposed spirit and discovered it was made from fabric. The police were called and Duncan was arrested for fraud.

Her 1933 conviction followed a séance in which she allegedly made contact with a dead sailor, before the loss of his ship was public knowledge. This supposed clairvoyance was perceived as a breach of wartime security. Duncan’s trial for fraudulent witchcraft was followed closely by the public, even in London in the midst of the war. Duncan was imprisoned for nine months after being found guilty.

On her release in 1945, Duncan promised to stop conducting séances, but she was arrested during another one in 1956. She died shortly after this, some of her followers spreading rumors about it being because of the ectoplasma. Truth was that she had been in bad health for years. She fought against her verdict until her death.

Keeping her Electoplasma: Although exposed, her electoplasma from a séance in 1939 is preserved at the University Library in Cambridge. Inside was a folded heap of yellowing dressmakers’ lining material, about four yards cut straight from the bolt with no hems. It had been washed and ironed, but creases from being crumpled remained, indicating it had been tightly wadded. Traces of old blood were still visible.

What Really Was Ectoplasma?

Although a popular fad at the time, now many paranormal researchers, mediums and other ghost interested people take much notice and talk about ectoplasma anymore. The substance has also been proven many times to be nothing more than a fraud. 

Because ectoplasm was believed susceptible to destruction by light, the possibility that ectoplasm might appear became a reason for making sure that Victorian séances took place in near darkness. Poor lighting conditions also became an opportunity for fraud, particularly as faux ectoplasm was easy to make with a mixture of soap, gelatin and egg white, or perhaps merely well-placed muslin.
– John Ryan Haule

Most often it was some sort of textile products like cloths, gauze with potato starch. Sometimes it was paper, sometimes it was egg white or butter muslin. The mediums used a method of swallowing and spewing out the cloth during the seance. 

Male Mediums: Although an overwhelming number of female mediums topping the list with ectoplasm, men also dabbled. Einer Nielsen (1894–1965) was a Danish physical medium and spiritualist and claimed to use ectoplasm.

This was the case with Eva Carrière who was a medium known for making fake ectoplasm from chewing paper and cutting out faces from magazines and newspapers. Danish medium Einer Nielsen was investigated by a committee from the Kristiania University in Norway in 1922 and it was also caught hiding ectoplasm in his rectum. Nielsen continued to work as a medium until his death but was never considered credible again by people outside his small circle of influence.

Famous Medium, Mina Crandon produced a small ectoplasmic hand from her stomach which waved about in the darkness. Her career ended, however, when biologists examined the hand and found it to be made of a piece of carved animal liver

The Future of Ectoplasm

Is the use of ectoplasm really dead, or has it merely evolved into a form that is less recognized today? In the past, ectoplasm was often associated with spiritualism and paranormal phenomena, particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when mediums would claim to produce this mysterious substance as a manifestation of spiritual energy. As we delve deeper into the realms of science and technology, one might wonder whether ectoplasm has become an obsolete concept, overshadowed by modern understandings of the universe.

There are however cases of paranormal investigation where people insist on seeing different residues, often explained as a slimy and gooey substance.

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References:

Ectoplasm | Spiritualism, Mediums & Seances | Britannica

Bawdy Technologies and the Birth of Ectoplasm | Genders 1998-2013 | University of Colorado Boulder

Ectoplasm and the Last British Woman Tried for Witchcraft – JSTOR Daily

https://www.eframserashriar.com/post/a-brief-history-of-ectoplasm

https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/12/warner.php

Ghost Bluster: Arthur Conan Doyle and his wacky ectoplasm – The Bowery Boys: New York City History 

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The Tulip Staircase Ghost: A Haunting at the Queen’s House in Greenwich

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After some tourists took a picture when visiting the Queen’s House in Greenwich, they came back with a strange image now known as The Tulip Staircase Ghost. Even today, people still debate if the ghost in the image was real or not.

If there’s one thing the British serve exceptionally well besides tea, is haunted history. And the Queen’s House in Greenwich? Oh, it serves up ghostly chills with photographic evidence. This stunning piece of 17th-century architecture might be a vision of classical elegance, but beneath its beauty lies a paranormal playground. 

There were already ghostly legends circling around the old house before the picture was taken with children laughing in the hallways, a ghostly maid mopping up blood. At the heart of its spectral reputation is one particularly famous spirit: the Tulip Staircase Ghost.

Queen’s House in Greenwich: Royal Naval College North East Building Queen Anne’s Quarter. The mansion became popular for the paranormal community after a picture allegedly showing a ghost by the stairs. // Source: Tony Hisgett/Flickr

A House Fit for a Queen… and Her Ghosts

The Queen’s House was commissioned in 1616 by Anne of Denmark, wife of King James I as an apology from him after swearing at her in public. It is worth noting though, she did just shoot his dog, although it was an accident. Designed by the revolutionary architect Inigo Jones, it was England’s first consciously classical building—a stark contrast to the Gothic styles that came before. 

The home has been inhabited by many female royals over the centuries. However, Anne never got to enjoy her royal retreat, as she died in 1619 before its completion. The house was eventually finished in 1635 under Queen Henrietta Maria (wife of Charles I), but from the get-go, it seems this regal residence was destined to be haunted.

Ghosts Haunting the House: There is said to be more than one ghost haunting the place. A lot of the paranormal activity is said to be around the grand tulip stairs. // Source: Elliott Brown/Flickr

Over the centuries, the Queen’s House has been home to royalty, naval officers, and later, the National Maritime Museum. With so many lives passing through its halls, it’s no wonder that whispers of eerie encounters began to surface. Strange voices, phantom footsteps, and inexplicable shadows have all been reported within its grand walls. But none of these compares to the chilling mystery of the Tulip Staircase.

The Ghost Caught on Camera

Let’s rewind to 1966—when the famed image of The Tulip Staircase Ghost was taken at the stairs. A retired Canadian reverend, R.W. Hardy, and his wife were visiting the Queen’s House on a casual tourist outing. Around 5.00pm Rev Hardy was taking photographs of the interior of the building. He was using a Zeiss Ikon Contina camera with a Zavar Anastigmat lens and skylight haze filter and K2 daylight film. He took a seemingly innocent photograph of the house’s famous Tulip Staircase, an architectural marvel with its elegant spiral design and delicate wrought-iron railings.

At the time there was no one there, this was according to his wife as well, standing by his side. There was also a ‘no admittance’ sign, and no one was around them. 

Ghost on the Stairs: The picture was said to be sent to experts to check the validity of the image. Although it certainly could be a classic case of double exposure, the image of The Tulip Staircase Ghost still holds a lot of credibility with some.

When the film was developed, what should have been a simple snapshot became one of the most famous paranormal images in history. The photo clearly shows a shrouded, shadowy figure ascending the staircase, gripping the railing with an almost skeletal hand. Not one, but two hands, in fact, as if someone—or something—was climbing upward. 

Experts—including Kodak in their laboratory—examined the negative, ruling out tampering or double exposure. The eerie, translucent figure remained unexplained, solidifying its place in ghost-hunting lore.

Who—or What—Haunts the Queen’s House?

Theories about the Tulip Staircase Ghost abound, but the Queen’s House doesn’t just have one restless spirit. Some believe the spectral figure belongs to a 17th-century maid who was murdered on the staircase. Legend has it that she was pushed—or fell—to her death, and her tormented soul lingers to this day. Visitors and staff have reported hearing phantom footsteps on the staircase, feeling unseen hands brush against them, and even spotting a woman in old-fashioned clothing drifting through the halls, cleaning up the pool of blood before vanishing into thin air.

Read Also: The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, another ghost allegedly caught on cam in a mansion in England.

But she’s not alone. Other ghostly residents allegedly include the sound of disembodied children laughing, the echoes of mysterious chanting, and the sudden appearance of shadowy figures that dissolve when approached. One particularly unnerving report comes from a group of restoration workers in the 1960s, who claimed to hear loud, violent footsteps following them—only to turn around and find no one there.

The Haunting Continues Through a Séance

As news of the spectral photograph of The Tulip Staircase Ghost spread, seven members of paranormal investigation organisation The Ghost Club decided to spend the night of Saturday 24 June 1967 in the Queen’s House to investigate the claims. They had to wear soft-soled shoes, synchronise their watches and carry a working torch, notebook and pencil at all times. Everything was to be noted down, from odd noises and smells to any feeling of a presence.

Séance in the Queen Anne House: held at night by members of The Ghost Club at the Queen’s House on 24th June 1967 after they saw the photo of the The Tulip Staircase Ghost.

According to some sources, they found some startling discoveries, such as bells ringing and shadowy figures. However, the vigil and séance produced no conclusive evidence of the paranormal that night, or any other night after.

A Haunting That Stands the Test of Time

Today, the Queen’s House is a part of the Royal Museums of Greenwich and what is now known as the Old Royal Naval College. While it’s best known for its art collection and architectural significance, those with an eye for the supernatural know better. The Tulip Staircase Ghost remains one of the most compelling pieces of paranormal evidence ever captured, and the building itself continues to exude an air of mystery.

Skeptics might scoff, dismissing the ghostly figure as a trick of light or an overactive imagination. But those who’ve felt the chill of unseen eyes watching them, or heard the spectral echoes of the past, know that the Queen’s House is more than just a historical landmark—it’s a place where the past refuses to stay buried.

So, if you ever find yourself in Greenwich, take a stroll through the Queen’s House. Admire its beauty, soak in its history… and maybe, just maybe, glance over your shoulder. You never know who—or what—might be following you up the Tulip Staircase.

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References:

The Tulip Staircase Ghost – Burials & Beyond 

Greenwich, Queen Anne, and the Ghost(s) of the Queen’s House – Historic Mysteries  

The Tulip Staircase, Queens House 

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Ghosts of Tagore House – Jorasanko Thakur Bari

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In the old house of a famed Bengali poet and philosopher, the ghosts of Tagore House or Jorasanko Thakur Bari are said to linger. Throughout the years, the family of Rabindranath Tagore have told about the haunting said to have happened inside of the mansion. 

North in Kolkata lies Tagore House, an anglicized way of saying Jorasanko Thakur Bari, a grand mansion that once served as the residence of the illustrious Tagore family built in 1785. The stately home of high ceilings, black and white marble floor and arched doorways is today a nod to just how powerful the ancestral home of the Tagore family was. They were one of the leading families in Kolkata and key players in the Bengali Renaissance. 

Read more: Check out all of the ghost stories from India

This sprawling palace stands as a testament to the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate poet and polymath who called it home. In 1913 he became the first non European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Now his ancestral home operates as a house museum and has, according to his family, always been haunted. 

Jorasanko Thakur Bari: The Tagore House is the formal house of the nobel prize writer Rabindranath Tagore and his family for generations and also thought to have been or is haunted by his family. // Source

Rabindranath Tagore and his Life of Ghosts and Spirits

Several eerie tales shroud Tagore House in an aura of mystique, adding to its allure as a haunted abode which is said to come to life at night. When he was alive, Rabindranath Tagore had a keen interest in the supernatural as well and had often planchette sessions inside of the building after his father, Debendranath died. 

Source

Even in his writings, like the tale found in Mastermoshai there are haunting tales happening. And one particularly story about a student drive his teacher to suicide is said to have been inspired by something that happened at Jorasanko Thakur Bari, and most ghost stories comes from his era. 

Rabindranath Tagore (রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর) was born in Jorasanko Thakur Bari in 1861 and his poetry and writing have been called both spiritual and magical. 

Among the most chilling accounts are those of phantom footsteps echoing through empty corridors and the haunting sound of anklets tinkling in deserted rooms and other strange occurrences inside of the Jorasanko Thakur Bari building. 

These spine-tingling tales have been meticulously documented and shared from the Tagore family over the years, finding their way into writings like ‘Thakurbarir Bhooter Golpo’ (Ghost Stories from Thakurbari), a collection that chronicles the chilling legends of Tagore House. 

Hauntings of Jorasanko Thakur Bari

One of the stories you will find written down is from when Rama, who was Tagore’s granddaughter died. The family was distraught by her death and didn’t want to send the body away. Instead they put her downstairs that evening and waited and grieved. 

Rabindranath Tagore: (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj (syncretic Hindu monotheist) philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and novelist whose avant-garde works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Amita Thakur was one of the women in the family who sat in the room next door that evening and told about what happened next. Suddenly the lanterns in the room went off one by one in the row they hung in. Everyone in the room freaked out, not daring to light the lights again.  And when a cold breeze started coming from nowhere, they knew that there was a spirit with them. 

The Ghost Walking in Tagore House

Another story told from the Tagore House was when Tagore’s nephew, Nitish died. In the period right after his death the family claimed that Nitish was seen almost every evening as he was walking down his favorite corridor. Which also says something about just how big this house was. 

There would also be stories about the relatives living in Jorasanko Thakur Bari waking up and seeing a ghostly figure standing and watching them.

The Dead Wife in the Picture

Mrinalini Devi

From the book detailing the haunting of the mansion they also discuss one of the mysterious pictures taken of the family that sparked a debate that yet again a ghost in the family lingered in the Tagore House. 

Mrinalini Devi, the wife of Rabindranarth Tagore, was also a translator and described as a woman with a great personality as they described her. She died in 1902 after a serious illness the doctors never managed to diagnose. She was only 28 and according to legend, her ghosts have shown up from time to time. 

In 1904, the family gathered for a family picture, and as a shadow behind her husband, it is said she sat in the picture, two years after her death. Was this the final haunting from her side? Some say that she is still haunting the place.

The Haunted Jorasanko Thakur Bari House

As dusk descends and the shadows lengthen, Tagore House takes on a hauntingly beautiful aspect, its majestic facade concealing secrets that defy rational explanation. 

Whether fueled by imagination or rooted in reality, the haunted rumors surrounding this historic palace continue to captivate the imaginations of those who dare to delve into its shadowy depths. A story just as good as the fictional stories that were written in the Tagore House. 

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References:

https://www.boldsky.com/insync/life/2012/ghosts-famous-people-030152.html?story=1

10 haunted places in Kolkata you MUST visit to see what a horror movie really looks like

Jorasanko Thakur Bari – Wikipedia

Transforming the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra into a Technological Marvel | – Times of India  

Rabindranath Tagore – Wikipedia 

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Renvyle House and a visit from Yeats

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Renvyle House was said to be haunted long before the poet Yeats stepped into the hotel and decided to hold a seance. What they experienced staying there though almost sounded as fantastical as one of his stories and today it bears the fascinating history of modern spiritualism and occult seances. 

Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls’ Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Five bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost’s right,
His element is so fine
Being sharpened by his death,
– W. B. Yeats, “All Souls’ Night”

Amidst the picturesque landscapes of Galway in Ireland, Renvyle House stands as a charming rural hotel today, exuding warmth and hospitality. But it hasn’t always been like this, and there is a dark story of the occult ricocheting in the many rooms. 

Read More: Check out all of the ghost stories from Ireland

Within its inviting walls, guests, including renowned Irish poet and spiritualist William Butler Yeats, have encountered spine-tingling encounters with the supernatural, and who knows, perhaps even summoned some?

Renvyle House, a low, sprawling gray structure on Ireland’s western coast, boasts a storied history marked by construction, destruction, and rebirth. It has withstood the tumultuous shifts in Ireland’s fate, serving as a testament to the nation’s enduring spirit.

A Hotel with an Eventful Past

Originally, this site was inhabited by the formidable Gaelic clan of Donal O’Flaherty since the 12th century. In 1689, the Blakes, one of the 14 Tribes of Galway, acquired 2,000 acres of O’Flaherty land and eventually took up residence in 1822. They transformed the modest thatched cabin into a grander dwelling. 

Major renovations, including the addition of a shipwreck-sourced timber extension and a slate roof, took place under Henry Blake’s ownership. In 1883, his widow, Caroline Johanna, converted it into the area’s first hotel, opening its doors to guests seeking Connemara’s natural beauty.

In 1923, during the Irish Civil War, the IRA set the house ablaze, erasing the structure along with Gogarty’s priceless library. Surgeon, poet, and statesman Oliver St. John Gogarty, who had acquired the property in 1917, embarked on its reconstruction in the late 1920s. 

The new design reflected the aesthetic of that era, restoring Renvyle House as a hotel. It was during his stewardship that the first eerie tales of spectral encounters began to surface as his guests often included those with a keen interest in the paranormal.

A Haunting Presence at Renvyle House

Oliver St. John Gogarty: Owner of Renvyle House and a writer. He served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses and often entertained his literary friends at his house.

Even before Yeats came for a visit, the Renvyle House was said to have had a haunted reputation about it. Servants working at the Renvyle House often spoke in hushed whispers of unsettling “presences” that seemed to lurk within the shadows of the home. Bedsheets would inexplicably take flight from their resting places, doors would open and close with no human hand to guide them, and the atmosphere was charged with an otherworldly energy.

One night, the owner himself, the writer Oliver St. John Gogarty experienced something he claimed had to have been something paranormal. In the middle of the night he was jolted from slumber by a haunting disturbance. As the midnight hour approached, he was roused by the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway outside his room coming closer and closer.

Gogarty lit a candle and ventured out to confront the source of the disturbance. Perhaps it was a guest, maybe a servant walking in the night? Yet, as he stepped into the corridor, a chilling gust extinguished the flame he was carrying. In that moment, he described an inexplicable heaviness in his limbs, as though “exercising with rubber ropes.” The spectral presence had vanished, leaving him in solitude in the pitch dark.

The Arrival of William Butler Yeats

The supernatural activity at Renvyle House reached its zenith when Gogarty’s close friend, the renowned poet William Butler Yeats, and his wife, Georgia, came to stay. Yeats grew up in Sligo, a part of Ireland known for its hauntings and fantastical fairy tales that blended into the locals’ everyday life. 

Yeats believed that when you spoke of a dead man you conjured his ghost, and together with his wife that acted as a medium for them, they had a habit of chasing ghosts and exploring the afterlife. 

Together, they embarked on a journey into the realm of the paranormal. The couple was highly interested in the occult, as it was both new and fashionable in that area, and they took part in many seances. 

One evening, while gathered in the library, the Yeatses and their companions were startled by the creaking of the library door, which slowly swung open of its own volition. Fear swept through the room, yet Yeats, resolute and unyielding, raised his hand and boldly declared, “Leave it alone, it will go away, as it came.” Remarkably, the door obeyed, slamming shut with an unsettling finality.

The Yeats Couple: At the age of 25, Georgie Hyde-Lees received a marriage proposal from the 52-year-old poet W.B. Yeats. This proposal came shortly after Yeats had been rejected by Iseult Gonne, whom he had loved for a long time. Surprisingly, Georgie accepted Yeats’ proposal, and the two were married just three weeks later. During their honeymoon, Georgie began automatic writing, a practice that greatly intrigued Yeats and eventually led to the creation of “A Vision,” which played a significant role in their marriage. Within a year of their marriage, Yeats found Georgie’s name insufferable and began calling her George instead.

The Yeatses decided to delve deeper into the mysteries of Renvyle House through automatic writing, a popular way of communicating with spirits in that era. In a séance, they hoped to unlock the secrets of the house’s restless spirits with a seance. 

There was in particular one room Yeats claimed to get in contact with an entity that said he didn’t like when strangers came to the house. 

His wife told about seeing a red-haired, pallid-faced boy of about fourteen. “He had the solemn pallor of a tragedy beyond the endurance of a child,” recalled Georgia Yeats. They learned that this melancholic figure belonged to the Blake family, the original proprietors of the house.

A Catholic Exorcise

According to the gathered people in the room there was one of them that had just converted to catholicism named Evan Morgan. He felt confident in his abilities to perform an exorcism in the room of the ghosts that resided in there. 

Spiritualism: Spiritualism is a belief system that holds spirits can communicate with the living through a medium. The term was first recorded in 1796 and was associated with 18th-century spiritualist Emanuel Swedenborg. It has evolved to encompass various meanings. In a broad sense, spiritualism includes beliefs in a vital life force within living beings, supernatural or divine entities, and the idea that spirits of the deceased continue to exist after death and can interact with the living.

According to them, he was thrown to the ground by a thick fog and had to get help to get to safety. When he calmed down he claimed to have encountered the same young man that grabbed his throat and threw him down. 

The Rest of the Ghost Haunting the hotel

This ghost from the seance is not the only ghost that is said to have been recognised though. Some claim that there are children haunting some of the rooms, and apparently one man haunting the hotel strangled himself. 

According to those who have stayed there there is a female ghosts known as Old Mrs. Gogarty that have been seen in the hotel 

There is also a man that is all dressed in tweed reported to haunt the place and is known to appear in room 27. There have also been complaints about him watching women in their rooms when they are putting on makeup. When some psychics visited in 1965, they claimed that the ghost had to be that of Yeats himself, and this theory has been passed around as fact ever since. 

A Fiery End, and Lingering Spirits

Despite its fiery end at the hands of the IRA, Renvyle House rose from the ashes, rebuilt and resolute. However, the passage of time has not dissuaded the restless spirits from roaming its corridors. To this day, guests and staff have reported uncanny encounters and inexplicable phenomena within these historic walls. 

Renvyle House remains not only a haven of hospitality but also a portal into the enigmatic world of the supernatural, where the echoes of the past continue to whisper their secrets.

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References:

A Low, Long, Sea Grey House | Renvyle House Hotel & Resort ****, Connemara, Co. Galway, H91 X8Y8 

Renvyle House Hotel | Haunted Galway, Ireland | Spirited Isle 

Renvyle House Hotel, Galway, Ireland | Haunted Rooms® 

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Georgiana Houghton and her Spirit Drawings in Watercolor

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From beyond the veil, some mediums claimed that ghosts and spirits guided them to paint and draw. One of them was Georgiana Houghton and her spirit drawings.

Now mainly referred to Spiritualist art, spirit art, mediumistic art or psychic painting, this was and to a certain extent, still is a form of painting or drawing highly influenced by spiritualism. Spiritualism was a movement where connecting with the spirit world was both a performative and at times lucrative business. And the mediums that held these seances had different ways of reaching out to the spirits. One of the ways was by the pen. 

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Although perhaps not the psychic or spiritual part of the art is put much weight in today, the movement had a huge impact on modern art as part of the abstract art department. There are perhaps more famous men behind this genre of abstract art known today, like Piet Mondrian, Vasily Kandinsku, Kasimir Malevish and František Kupka. 

Often overlooked goes the women that may have been the pioneers within this type of paintings and drawings, decades before the textbook pioneers. One of them is Georgiana Houghton (1814–1884)

The Artist and the Medium

The Spiritualist painter: Georgiana Houghton was both a medium and a trained artist.

She was a British artist and medium born on Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, but moved and lived in London. She was remembered more like an eccentric amateur artist that was more known for her medium role than of an artist. And she gave more credit to the spirits that guided her paintings than to herself as their creator. 

This is also where she produced her first abstract work, or as they called it then, spirit drawings. Many of the pieces remind more of 196 or 1970 psychedelic art then Victorian from the 1860s and 70s. In 1859 she started having these private seances where she allegedly were guided to paint by different spirits and celestial beings. 

Precipitated Paintings

Often, these particular paintings would come during a seance where the medium claimed that it was in fact spirits that guided the artist to produce the paintings. 

When spiritism was at its peak of popularity, it was very common for the mediums to sketch a portrait of the spirit they were in contact with during their seances. Another form of this was by automatic drawing where mediums and other practitioners controlled the body of the artist. 

Georgiana Houghton started her spirit art career first by drawing and then with watercolors. She was one of those relying on an automatic process where she told she was directed by spirits. First she drew flowers and fruits, and was somewhat of a floral artist. This was the one way of painting that was looked at as more of a respectable practice for Victorian artists. But then her style turned to something else entirely. 

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The floral pictures evolved to project the spiritual experience more than objects of the natural world. She had complex pictures with several layers, colors and details. She described the abstract shapes she found in her and colors as sacred symbolism

Not only was spiritualism on the edge of what was perceived as ordinary, at this time, the abstract way of painting was still not a concept, so the reception of the paintings was received more as a curious rarity than art. 

In the beginning, Houghton claimed that it was her dead family members like her sister Zilla that guided her, but as her work evolved, so did her artist spirit guides. And she would later claim that it was the likes of Renaissance artists Titian and Correggio that led her brush. 

The Frauds and the Performers

Spirit photographs: She was not only a painter that drew her seances. Here she is posing for a photograph, also used a lot within the spiritism movement.

She started gaining quite the notoriety for her paintings and even held an exhibition at the New British Gallery in Bond Street in London in 1871. Although it perplexed the visitors and was an eye opener for many of those watching the exhibition, it was not a commercial success at all. It almost bankrupted Houghton.

Despite this, she spent every day for around three months talking about her paintings to visitors and discussing the meaning behind her sacred symbols and what they could have meant. 

In 1882 she published the book: ‘Chronicles of the Photographs of Spiritual Beings and Phenomena Invisible to the Material Eye’. This book featured spirit photographs from many well known spirit photographers that were active in the 1870s like  Agnes Guppy-Volckman, Stainton Moses and spiritualists Alfred Russel Wallace and William Howitt.

There were also pictures from Frederick Hudson, well known for being the first spirit photographer in Britain, but also a well known fraudulent one that was exposed already in the 1870s. The book itself was heavily criticized for featuring dubious pictures where the pictures themselves were unconvincing and could be replicated with double exposure and . 

Her Legacy as the Artist and not the Eccentric

Now, the collection is missing many of her works. Because it is not the museums, galleries or art historians that kept her legacy intact. Most of her works were kept by the Victorian Spiritualists Union in Melbourne. Like so many other women’s achievements they are kept hidden in their diaries, botanical albums and embroideries that not often are looked at as real art. And the irony that she attributes her work to the likes of ghost men speaks echoes with a bitter aftertaste today. 

Although more known for her medium role than that of an artist, her work speaks for itself. Especially when we look at the way the art movement moved in the modern world, and her art were so ahead of its time. In 2016, the The Courtauld Gallery held an exhibition of her paintings where they acknowledged, not only the curious and peculiar origin story behind the paintings, but her craftsmanship and artistry as well. Because no matter how we feel about the spiritualism part, we cannot ignore how in modern art, the pieces we watch in a gallery, can help us see past the realism of the world and our thinking and reach a place in our sub consciousness we otherwise couldn’t see.

Some of Georgiana Houghton Spirit Drawings:

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 Image courtesy of Victorian Spiritualists’ Union Melbourne Australia

Georgiana Houghton 

Spiritualist artist Georgiana Houghton gets UK exhibition | Painting | The Guardian