What is a Séance?
And how to do one
You can find plenty of information on séances anywhere online. But, I know why you’re really here – you want to do one. Here’s everything you need to get started.
The room is dark. You sit in among a circle of peers, positioned around a large table. Atop it rests a dark purple cloth, a crystal ball, candles, a bell, and smoldering sage. Elsewhere in the room, incense smoke drifts up and helps to cast an amber glow from the flickering candles onto the milky air.
After a long moment of silence, the woman at the head of the table begins to whisper. At first, it’s indecipherable, but you slowly begin to notice that her voice no longer sounds like it did mere moments ago. She is transformed. Her posture is slouched, her head tilted back. Even her face seems to contort, and the voice coming out of her sounds like someone else altogether.
You are in the midst of a paranormal phenomenon, something that, though many have tried, none can adequately explain. You are now one of the very few humans to have ever lived to know with absolute certainty that spirits walk among us and that we can, if only we’d try, communicate with them.
Such is the popular perception of a séance, solidified by Hollywood films, radio plays, novels, and the like. But what is a séance really? Is it like you see in the movies, or should you be wary of these sorts of theatrics?
In this piece, we’re going to examine the long history of séances. We are going to lay out exactly what it is, what it isn’t, where the practice comes from, and how to do your very own, should you be interested.
Table of Contents
What Does Séance Mean? — Definition & Origins
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a séance is “a meeting at which people attempt to make contact with the dead, especially through the agency of a medium.”
I like this definition because it includes a very important aspect: the medium. We’ll get back to this later.
The word séance (pronounced say-AHNCE) comes from the French séance, meaning “session” or “sitting.” You may see the word spelled “séance” or “seance” – both are correct.
The root of the word is much older than the word itself. Sed is a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to sit.” So, three themes are already emerging here:
- A séance involves contacting the dead.
- A séance involves a medium.
- A séance involves sitting.
Keep these in mind as we answer the question, “what is a séance” by exploring its history.
A Brief History of the Séance
When summarizing the history of the séance, it can be hard to decide a definitive point at which the idea really began. This is because people have been reaching out to the dead for about as long as people have been dying.
The ancient Greeks, for example, descended into underground temples called, “necromanteions” to hear the voices of the departed. The Chinese practiced fújì, a form of spirit writing. All across medieval Europe, mystics and cunning folk called upon spirits, though the church wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.
But the séance includes a few distinctions from these other practices – and these distinctions actually help us solidly answer the question, “what is a séance?”
Séances involve a group of people sitting together with the specific intention of contacting spirits. This is a formal ritual practice, not governed by the church or any religious, hierarchical authority.
The séance really took shape in 1848 with the rise of Spiritualism in Hydesville, New York. There, two young sisters, Maggie and Kate Fox, claimed they were communicating with a ghost through a series of mysterious knocks. They were just teenagers at the time, but their stories spread like wildfire. Their older sister Leah turned the whole thing into a sensation, and suddenly séances weren’t just something mystics did behind closed doors; they were fashionable. They were happening in parlors, on stages, and even allegedly in the White House.
At the center of the séance was the medium, and this remains true today. The medium is the person who serves as a living bridge between this world and the next. Spirits might communicate through table tipping, automatic writing, wrapping, or ghostly voices amplified through spirit trumpets.
Some of what occurred during séances at this time seems like it was genuine. Some of it was absolutely not, however. And that’s important to keep in mind as you begin your own exploration into séances. This is a territory where there is a lot of fraud.
Harry Houdini, for example, famously made a second career out of exposing fraudulent mediums. The great irony is that after his death in 1926, his own wife held a séance for him every Halloween for 10 years (in Salem, actually) hoping he’d send a message from the other side. He never did.
But despite the apparent frauds that have popped up throughout the history of séances, people have never stopped sitting down at the table. The methods have changed over the years (there are fewer spirit trumpets for example), but the impulse hasn’t. We still dim the lights, we still reach out to the dead, and some of us still hear something reach back.
The Role of the Medium
Now we’ve already discussed this a few times while exploring what is a séance, but it’s worth repeating that at the heart of every séance is the medium. This is the person who serves as the bridge between the people present at the table and the world of Spirit.
It’s important to know that, unlike everyone else in the séance, the medium doesn’t just participate in the event; they actually hold the space for it. They are the ones who open the door and invite the conversation to begin. If the rest of the participants in this séance are on one end of the phone line and the Spirits are on the other end of the phone line, then the medium can be considered the phone itself.
Mediums work in a variety of ways. Some might enter a trance state and allow Spirits to speak directly through them. In this case, their voice, their mannerisms, even their handwriting might change as Spirit comes through. Others may work more quietly, relaying from Spirit to the rest of the circle. Some mediums specialize in physical phenomena: objects moving without being touched, audible whispering sounds, even materialized forms. Yet others work through mental impressions—a name that drops in, an image, a feeling that doesn’t belong to them.
It’s essential to note that not every séance actually requires a trained professional medium. Many circles are led by someone who simply has a natural sensitivity to Spirit—a person who’s always felt things others didn’t, who picks up on energy in a room, who dreams of people after they’ve passed. That kind of intuitive awareness can be developed over time with practice and intention, and we have some other resources here on the site to help you do exactly that if you’re interested.
Whether the medium is a seasoned professional or someone just beginning to open up their abilities, their role is essentially the same: to create a clear and protected channel so the living and dead can meet somewhere in the middle.
If you are interested in conducting your own séance or you want to know what sort of things you should be looking for in joining an existing one, the next section is going to be very useful for you.
How to Conduct a Séance: A Step-by-Step Guide
Now it’s time for the moment you’ve all been waiting for – how to conduct a séance: a step-by-step guide. You don’t need a haunted house or a lifetime of psychic training to hold a séance. What you do need is intention, respect, and a willingness to sit with the unknown. If you’ve ever wanted to open a line of communication with the spirit world, here’s how to do it.
Before we jump in, I have put together all of this information in a PDF for you to download absolutely for free. So click this link if you would like to do that.
Step One: Set Your Space
Choosing your space is tremendously important. There is absolutely nothing more disruptive to the success of a séance than choosing a space which will not properly facilitate spirit communication.
There are the obvious things to note, of course. Choose a quiet room where you won’t be interrupted. Turn off your phone. Dim or entirely turn off the lights and let the space be lit by candles (more on this later). Finally, make sure that the space you decide to conduct or join the séance from feels emotionally and spiritually conducive to this sort of work. If you walk into a room and it feels hostile, heavy, and unwelcoming, it’s probably not a great place to hold a séance.
Once you’ve found the space, be sure to choose soft lighting of some variety. It’s a well-known fact that spirits are drawn to warmth, so candlelight tends to be the preferred method of illumination, but if you can’t do that, dim, warm lighting works as well. Once you’ve got the lighting set, burn some sage or palo santo before you begin to cleanse the space. You may also want to burn incense during the séance as an offering. Walk around the room with a clear intention before beginning, repeating to yourself, “Only what is safe and welcome may enter here.”
Once you’ve got the space cleared, lit, and ready for the séance, it’s time to turn to the table or circle. Begin by placing some meaningful objects in the center of your space. This could be a photograph of someone you’d like to contact, personal items that belonged to them, or even a handwritten question.
If you are engaging in the séance as part of a larger ritualistic practice, you may want to place items from that practice here as well. These could include things that you might find on an altar: Tarot cards, bells, crystal balls, etc. All of these objects serve as anchors, whether to the person you are intending to contact or to your own spiritual practice This gives the energy of the séance something to focus on.
Step Two: Gather Your Circle
Next it’s time to put together the group that will be participating in the seance. Now, seances work best with a small group, though there are large seances which report to have some effect in places like Salem. In my experience, a group of three to eight people who are open-minded and respectful tends to be the best for this kind of activity.
As you’re putting this group together, keep in mind that a séance is not a great place for skeptics or people looking to debunk the process (these sorts might want to begin with a for-sale divination practice like tarot or rune reading). Here’s why you don’t want this sort in the group.
First off, that kind of energy is not welcoming. Imagine you are a shy spirit. Maybe you’ve never been contacted by the living before and you enter a space where one person clearly doesn’t even believe you exist and probably wouldn’t believe it no matter what you did. Are you going to want to be in that space for very long? Probably not.
On the more practical side, skeptics tend to disrupt proceedings with things like unwelcome comments, giggling, and other purposeful disruptions. This is just not the sort of thing that you want in this environment. This will disrupt the experience of everyone present, living or otherwise, so just bypass it if you can.
Once you’ve got a good group, go ahead and talk openly about what you’re planning to do. Tell everyone who you are hoping to contact, if there is anyone specific (there doesn’t have to be), and make sure everyone feels comfortable with what is about to happen. It’s also important to communicate that this is a serious practice, not a party trick. Setting a clear intention at the outset and everyone else agreeing on it will only serve to magnify not only your experience, but the energetic resonance that your chosen medium sends into the spirit world.
Step Three: Open the Séance
Now it’s time to open the séance. Sit around the circle, whether at a table or on the floor. Join hands or place your hands flat on the surface in front of you. This creates an unbroken circle of energy between everyone present, and it is a very important step. Don’t break this circle unless instructed by the medium.
The session’s leader should open with a spoken invocation. There is no single script that they should follow, but the words should set both a boundary and an invitation. Something like, “We gather in this circle with respect and open hearts. We ask for protection and light as we invite any spirits who wish to communicate with us to make their presence known.” You may also want to swap out the latter part of this invocation with the name of the person you’ve chosen to contact.
Regardless of how you do this opening invocation, the next part is often the hardest one: you wait.
Sit in the silence. Don’t rush to fill it. Don’t get impatient. I recommend discussing this step at the outset with the rest of the group. Let everyone know there may be one or many periods of unbroken silence, and that no one should try to fill them. The reasons why are pretty obvious. Go back to our earlier example about a shy spirit. Are they necessarily going to be inclined to jump in and start communicating as soon as the doors open? No, they are going to warm up to it.
For this reason and many others, the first signs of communication in a séance are often pretty subtle. It might be a shift in temperature, a tingling sensation on your hands, a flicker in the candle flame, a faint tapping sound.
If you are rushing to fill the silence, you very well may miss these things and not be aware that the spirit communication you are trying to provoke is already occurring.
It’s important to note here that even after this period of silence, not every séance produces dramatic results, and that is perfectly fine. Patience and presence matter more than spectacle. The goal here is communication, not theatrics. If the goal feels like theatrics, you are likely in the midst of a fraud.
Step Four: Ask Your Questions
Once you feel the energy begin to shift and you get some signals that you are in communication with the spirit world, it’s time to begin asking questions. These questions should be asked one at a time, spoken clearly and respectfully by the medium. Keep these questions simple and open. An example might be, “Is there a spirit present who wishes to speak with us?” Or, “Can you tell us your name?” Or perhaps, “Do you have a message for someone in this circle?” Again, you want to allow space between each question. Silence is not a failure, it is an invitation.
Some séances use tools at this stage to help facilitate communication: a pendulum, a spirit board, tarot cards, or even a candle flame that the spirit can interact with. Others rely solely on the medium’s impressions or on the collective awareness of the group.
This is the point at which your spirit communication will likely get the most intense. All of the crazy stories you’ve heard about séances likely occurred during this part of the séance. For that reason, it’s important to know that if the energy ever feels heavy, uncomfortable, or wrong, the leader should trust that instinct and move on to the next step: closing the session.
Never, ever provoke a spirit. Never demand anything. Any time you have ever seen anyone demanding anything of a spirit in media, that person is a charlatan. That person does not understand, respect, or likely even believe in honest spirit communication. And I know that because, if they did believe, they would not be provoking.
Speak to the spirits as you would speak to a living person that you respect. There is no wiggle room on this rule. Make sure that your medium has this same attitude or you may be setting yourself up for consequences from which there is no return.
Step Five: Close the Séance
Once you’re done communicating, it is time to close the seance. Now, this step is just as important as the opening, and it may be tempting to skip it, but please don’t.
The leader should formally thank any spirits who communicated, whether the messages were clear or not. If absolutely nothing happened, you should still do this step. Just because you didn’t perceive spirit communication doesn’t mean it didn’t occur. Just because you didn’t perceive spirit attachment doesn’t mean it didn’t occur.
Always, always close the seance.
Again, thank the spirits, then state plainly that the session is finished. You might say something like, “We thank you for your presence. This seance is now closed. You are not invited to follow us beyond this space. Go in peace.”
Once you have thanked, closed, and dismissed it’s time to do the same to the space. Extinguish your candles with intention, douse the incense, collect your items, draw a few deep breaths together, then ground yourselves. Step outside for some fresh air, eat something, wash your hands, talk about what you experienced – come back into the physical world after sitting in that liminal space.
This is a really, really important step. It introduces the idea, both to the spirit world and to the participants’ psyches, that this transcendent moment is now concluded. Without this step, both the participants and the spirits may not detach, which can have disastrous consequences down the line.
What to Expect During a Séance
If you’re not interested in conducting your own séance but you are curious as to what to expect when you participate in one, here’s a few things to know.
The first thing you’ll want to know is that if you are sitting down for your first séance expecting spinning tables and disembodied voices booming through the darkness, you might want to recalibrate those expectations.
Most spirit communication in my experience is actually really quiet and subtle. Spirits like to communicate in synchronicities, coincidences, small things that point to specific awareness and could not be adequately communicated to outsiders, even if you tried. It makes sense why this sort of communication doesn’t work for Hollywood movies, for example, but in the real world, this tends to be how it goes.
Spirit communication is often felt long before it is perceived with the five senses.
The most common experiences during a séance are subtle ones like:
- A sudden drop in temperature
- Gentle pressure on the back of your neck
- Unexpected waves of emotion that don’t seem to belong to you
- Tingling on your hands or the back of you neck
- Sensations coming from the hands of the person beside you
- Candle flames stretching tall or flickering wildly in a room with no draft
- Faint knocking
- The medium receiving a name, image, or feeling they can’t explain but which has resonance to someone else in the group
Sometimes nothing obvious happens at all, but that doesn’t mean that the séance failed. The veil between worlds is thin, but it doesn’t part on command.
What matters is that you showed up with an open heart and willingness to listen – and that you gave yourself the experience of attempting to communicate with the other side.
Finally, this is something that is drastically under-reported by those who have gone to séances in my opinion: sometimes, in fact a lot of the times, the message comes way after the séance.
There will be a dream, for example, or a sudden memory or a quiet knowing that settles over you in the days that follow the séance. Like I said, spirit communication is subtle and personal. So enter a séance with an open mind and non-judgmental heart, and you will likely get a lot out of the experience.
Closing Thoughts
So, what is a séance? A séance is, at its heart, one of the oldest and most human things you can do. I know we don’t necessarily perceive it that way in popular media, but it’s the truth.
Reaching out to someone you’ve lost and whispering in the dark, “Are you still there?” is one of the things that makes us human.
For that reason, I believe that engaging in a séance is not so much about the communication you receive but about the experience of attempting to receive it.
Séances don’t require special gifts or a lifetime of study. They only require presence, intention, and the willingness to believe that love doesn’t end where the physical body does. The spirits of those we’ve lost and who have passed on are closer to us than many people dare realize.
Sometimes all it takes is a quiet room, a circle of open hearts, and the courage to listen.
Joel Austin is an actor, writer, and filmmaker who’s lived all over the country. He’s been an avid Salem lover since the 2010’s.