Séance

A séance ( {{IPA|}}) is, on its most basic level, an attempt to communicate with the dead. The séance, or sitting, is led by a person known as a medium who will usually go into a trance and allow the dead to communicate through him or her. More recently, this has been known as channeling. Other forms of séances use Ouija boards and automatic writing. The Spiritualist Church is based around the belief that the dead can impart wisdom through its ministers in the form of channeling and séance.

Related Topics:
Dead - Medium - Trance - Channeling - Ouija board - Automatic writing - Spiritualist Church

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John Edward, through his television show, is perhaps the most famous medium in the United States. Chico Xavier seemed to be a famous Brazilian medium.

Related Topics:
John Edward - Chico Xavier

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No scientific evidence has ever been gathered concerning the possibility of communicating with the dead, and skeptics consider séances to be scams.

Related Topics:
Skeptic - Scam

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The word séance comes from the French word for 'seat', 'session', from Old French seoir, 'to sit.' In French as in English the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people to receive spiritualistic messages (a sense first recorded in English in 1845), but earlier in French and English the word had been used for meetings more generally.

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