For centuries , séanceshave allow for amusement for skeptics as well as solace for people hoping to catch a glimpse of their gone loved ones . Here are a few notable timesmediumshave sample to meet the dead .
Harry Houdini’s widow conducted annual séances to contact her deceased husband.
Before magician and celebrated skepticHarry Houdinidied on Halloween in 1926 , he said he would institutionalise word of the afterlife , if there was one , once he was gone . He and his wife , Bess , even devised a code watchword that only they knew . Though Bess held séances on the day of remembrance of his death for 10 class , hop to hear their underground Holy Scripture , nothing ever happened . Still , a variety of magicians , Houdini partizan , and spiritualists havecontinued the traditionever since , including avirtual séance in 2020 .
First lady Jane Pierce held a séance at the White House.
Even if you do n’t believe séances can produce spirit , you ca n’t blame first lady Jane Pierce for try out . She had already drop off two young Word before her husband , Franklin Pierce , was elected president in 1852 , so she was particularly protective of Bennie , their only pull round tike . regrettably , it did n’t do her much good — two months beforeFranklin Piercewas introduce , the sept was involved in a train derailment that take 11 - year - onetime Bennie ’s life .
She publish her deceased sona letternot long afterwards , asking him to appear to her so she could apologise for failing him . To facilitate him discover his way , she take theFox sisters , famous medium who did much to popularize séances . There ’s no record as to what take place at the White House séance , but we do cognize Jane reported that Bennie had seem to her in her dreams in short thereafter .
Daniel Dunglas Home levitated.
start up in the eighties , famed disembodied spirit mass medium Daniel Dunglas Homeconvinced some peopleof his supernatural power by levitating during séances . Though the stunts certainly generated publicity , Home ’s abilities were called into question when insiderssaidhe just stood between closely placed balcony or remain firm outside on wide windowsill . abode counted many celebrity among his fans , including Queen Sophia of the Netherlands , Napoleon III , and poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning , but he did n’t move everyone . Houdini was n’t fooled , callingHome “ the herald of the medium whose specialty is fleecing by presuming on the credulity of the world . ”
Cora L. V. Tappan “raised” a judge.
Judge John W. Edmonds died on April 5 , 1874 . A calendar month later , he allegedly gavea speechin London , thanks to medium Cora L. V. Tappan , a young woman who had been giving popular spiritualist performances since the age of 15 . The eloquent language helped bolster the medium ’s successful vocation ; she became the minister of a spiritualist Christian church the following class , and helped found the National Spiritualist Association .
Mary Todd Lincoln held a séance for her husband and sons.
Like Jane Pierce , Mary Todd Lincoln ’s interest in talking to the dead is moderately graspable . And , also like Pierce , Lincoln employed the Fox sister to help herreach a loved onetaken too soon — specifically , her assassinatedhusband . There are no theme as to whether she was quenched with the resolution , but theFox sisters afterward admittedtheir method acting of communicate with the bushed — knock on table and other objects — was created by break their joints and making stochasticity with their feet .
In addition to Abe , Mary also tried to adjoin her sons via séance , using a variety of medium — and was quite happy with how those flex out . “ Willie lives , ” she oncereported . “He come to me every night and stand at the human foot of the bed with the same sweet endearing smile he always has had . He does not always amount alone . picayune Eddie is sometimes with him . ”
Georgiana Houghton tried to contact Renaissance painters.
Georgiana Houghton was an artist who becameinterestedin spiritualism in the early 1860s after the death of her younger sister . It did n’t take long for Houghton to mix her two interests , conduct originative smell during séances to produce watercolors and other works of artistic creation . Though she primitively said that dead family line penis helped head her bridge player , Houghton later claimed to have touch Renaissance creative person Titian and Correggio . Whether or not her plant were the answer of the hereafter , they ’re still relevant today — her art was exhibitedat a prestigious London art gallery in 2016 .
Leafy Anderson channeled a spirit guide named Black Hawk.
In 1913 , Mother Leafy Andersonfoundedthe Eternal Life Christian Spiritualist Association in Chicago , an organization partly founded on the message she brought from her alleged intent guide , Black Hawk , a real - life sentence leader of the Sauk kinship group , during religious séances . Anderson never love Black Hawk — he died in 1838 , most 50 age before she was comport . Anderson herself fail in 1927 , but the word she brought from Black Hawk stuck — some faithsstill channelBlack Hawk to this day .
Psychics sought Princess Diana in a pay-per-view séance.
Lest you suppose that séances are ancient history — a zany divagation for people unenlightened by technology — considerSpirit of Diana , a 2003 wage - per - view event in which British mass medium Craig and Jane Hamilton - Parker claimed to have contactedPrincess Diana . The matter Diana “ revealed ” were n’t exactly scandalous or personal : The mediumsclaimed she saidshe was “ having fun ” in the afterlife , chilling with Mother Teresa . She had plan on conjoin Dodi Fayed , and was still watching over her Son .
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A version of this story in the first place ran in 2016 ; it has been update for 2024 .
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