Having toyed with that dial without result, Lenfield was anxious to see what Xanadu did with it, but the Mahatma simply retired to the seance room, stating that he would receive Lenfield shortly. Gesturing to two chairs, Xanadu turned back into the seance room and spoke through the door as he closed it.Īkbar was grim enough, but in the gloomy seance room, Mahatma Xanadu outdid his formidable servant. With a salaam, Mahatma Xanadu polished the all-revealing crystal and placed it upon a stand to announce the conclusion of a highly successful seance. Modern séances continue to be a part of the religious services of Spiritualist, Spiritist, and Espiritismo churches today, where a greater emphasis is placed on spiritual values versus showmanship.įriday morning, that is, the day after the accursed seance, all the available staff of the Variety - the bookkeeper Vassily Stepanovich Lastochkin, two accountants, three typists, both box-office girls, the messengers, ushers, cleaning women - in short, all those available, were not at their places doing their jobs, but were all sitting on the window-sills looking out on Sadovaya and watching what was going on by the wall of the Variety. The 1887 Seybert Commission report marred the credibility of Spiritualism at the height of its popularity by publishing exposures of fraud and showmanship among secular séance leaders. Perhaps the best-known series of séances conducted at that time were those of Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving the loss of her son, organized Spiritualist séances in the White House, which were attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, and other prominent members of society. The popularity of séances grew dramatically with the founding of the religion of Spiritualism in the mid-nineteenth century. Among the notable spirits quoted in this volume are Peter the Great, Pericles, a "North-American Savage", William Penn, and Christina, Queen of Sweden. One of the earliest books on the subject of communication amongst deceased persons was Communitation With the Other Side by George, First Baron Lyttelton, published in England in 1760. In modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance. In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits many people, including skeptics and non-believers, treat it as a form of entertainment. In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of " une séance de cinéma" ("a movie session"). The word " séance" comes from the French word for "seat", "session" or "sitting", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". A séance or seance is an attempt to communicate with spirits.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |