The Séance-Communicating with the spirits

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Subject: The Séance-Communicating with the spirits Thu Mar 29 2007, 13:52

This will be the first assignment on the subject of Seances. This is a very interesting subject and has been heavily debated through the years. This assignment will have you look at the background of these paranormal phenomenons.

Part one: Write an essay of 300-700 words telling me all about seances. The who, what, when, where and why. I want it all. All those little facts you find out in cyber space...put them here. This part is worth 60 points.

Part two: Tell me who from the 6 Harry Potter books you would like to contact in a seance and why. Do this in a couple paragraphs of at least 150 but no more than 300 words. This portion will be worth 30 points.

There is a total of 90 points available for this class.

Please do not forget to give credit where it is due and sight your sources! Points will be deducted if you fail to. This class will be graded periodically.

Have fun with this and please let me know if I can help in any way!!

Subject: Re: The Séance-Communicating with the spirits Wed May 23 2007, 14:03

Seances

Part One

Séance comes from the French word meaning to sit or session, the word was adapted in English to describe the meeting of people trying to recieve spiritual messages from beyond. The séance is often conducted by a medium, who is capable of communicating with the spirtitual world, in order to contact person or persons who have passed from our world into the next. Although séances still continue to this day they were most popular from the 1840s through the 1920s.
Often séances are held in darkened rooms lit by candlelight with the medium and group members gathered around a table, holding hands. During a séance the medium will channel a spirit, letting it use her/his body to communicate with those in the room. Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, are also used in place of a channeling medium. A Ouija board (from the French and German words for yes) is a simple board with letters, numbers and short answers imprinted on it. A planchette or shot glass can be use to point out the spirits answers. Usually one or all of the séance participants will place their fingertips on the planchette and attempt to allow a spirit to use them to move the pointer to the answers they have asked of the spirit. The main problem with both the channeling method and the ouija boards is that the results can easily be faked. A talented medium can creatively answer the questions by faking the connection with a spirit, and the ouija board has become a common parlor game that you can buy for less than twenty dollars ar any Toys R Us or Walmart.
Typtology, a term coined by Allen Kardec, is a form of spirit communication during organized séances that have the spirit use the table to answer questions. The spirit would lift and tilt the table in order to produce rapping or knocking noises to answer yes or no questions, although in alphabetical typtology the participants would speak letters of the alphabet outloud and the spirit would indicate with a knock or rap the right letter which allowed more indepth conversations with the dear departed. The first recorded typtology session, and the most interesting, was that of the Fox Sisters. In 1848 Margaretta and Kate Fox communicated with the spirit of one Charles Haynes, who used the system to inform the sisters that he and been killed and buried in the basement of their home. Bones were discovered in the cellar, instantly catipulting the girls into fame, although they also drew criticism from skeptics. No one was ever actually ever able to discredit the sisters, despite tying them up during the sessions to make it impossible for them to produce the noises. Later one of the Fox sisters claimed that they created the noises by cracking their toes, but she recanted her "confession". It is believed that the two sisters might have lied in order to damage their other sister, Leah, who had managed to profit on the girls alleged abilities, while Margaretta and Kate lived in poverty and drunkeness.
Today séances are more casual, with people like medium John Edwards performing before live audiences. The debate of whether séances are real or simply a scam still wages on, and it seems unlikely that the there will ever be enough conclusive evidence to satisfy either side.

Part Two:
If I could pick anyone to contact in a séance it would be Lily Evans Potter. There are so many unanswered questions when it comes to the Boy Who Lived's parents that I think it would be fascinating to be able to ask her questions. There are many people here on the site who are interested in the Marauder's Era, and personally I would like to here the story of how she and James got together. Also, just how close were she and Snape? Did she help him with any of the spells in Harry's potion book? Was she aware if Snape had feelings for her? What is up with her sister, Petunia? What the heck did she and James to for a living anyway?

Sources:
wikipedia
http://www.fst.org/spirit4.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/seance.html

Subject: Re: The Séance-Communicating with the spirits Tue Jul 31 2007, 11:59

Part One:
A séance is, in simple terms, the attempt to contact spirits. The word itself comes from the French word for meeting. Seances are usually done by smaller groups of people. They are generally conducted with the people participating sitting around a table in a dimly lit or completely dark room. If a medium is present, they might go into a trance or such thing like a trance. This trance lets the spirit communicate through that person’s body. Another way of connection, for an example, is an Ouija board.
Channeling is a common part of a séance. This is, to put it simply, the process in which the medium only allows the spirit to use their body to communicate with the rest of the people who are present at the time. The most usual and regularly reported signs of channeling is unusual voice patterns or abnormal behaviors from the medium. Seeing these signs of channeling are often used by children to play tricks, it’s quite easily seen that people can be ‘fake’ channeling. There is no proof that any kind of real channeling has ever occurred, but anyone who believes they’ve been channeled, normally have a firm belief in it.
Ouija Boards are another common part of a séance. The word Ouija comes from the German and French words for yes. Ouija boards are traditionally flat and made out of wood, although now a lot of times they are plastic, or some other material depending on where they are made and whom they are made by. On the board, there are numbers and/pr words, letters, symbols, and pictures. It also has a pointer or a looking glass. You use the board like this:
One or more of the people participating in the séance place one or so fingers on the pointer located in the middle of the board. The person who has been appointed medium asks the spirit questions. The general idea is to use the energy that is focused on the pointer from the people who are participating to have the spirit move the pointer using the people’s energy, to spell out messages using the symbols on the board. This can also be turned into a fake because people can easily move the pointer to spell out any message they wish.
In the older days (and still today) the séance would be performed in the medium’s house, or one of the other people participating. The reason the lights were/are turned down is because it is believed that spirits can be seen easier in the darkness. The people participating would normally be divided by gender, and people who happened to be skeptical where left out. It is said a circular arrangement works/worked best. They placed their hands flat on a table, or sometimes, clasped together, or other times, their fingers simply touching.
There was a number of unwritten rules for a séance. Normally not too many could be performed in one week, they were only supposed to last for one to two hours (unless the spirit asked for extra time), and the sitters were not allowed to touch the medium unless the spirit had touched them themselves first. It was said that coming in contact with the medium while being “channeled” could damage them or the sitter responsible for the interaction between themselves and the medium. That might include illness, insanity, or even death. One more thing that was vita to the séance was the correct music. Most séance’s where started with prayers or songs, and apparently, on many occasions, the spirits came in with more ghostly music.
The decoration of the séance room was aimed to be simple and made of wood. Smallish tables were needed for tilting and tapping by the spirits. The sitters were most normally provided with wooden chairs. Some séance rooms included spirit cabinets that were used to enclose the medium during the trance. Many of these cabinets were wood, although it was a lot more usual for people to use a corner of the room with something hung over so it was cut off from the rest of the room.

Part two:
The person from the first six Harry Potter books that I would like to contact in a séance is Dumbledore. The main reason for this is because of all the facts that we’ve learned about him, his past is still very unknown to us. It would be very interesting to really learn his past, coming straight to us. What was going through his mind about his family as a child? How close was he truly to his brother? How much did he care about his friend at school? What did he believe to be his biggest mistake? There was so much that we have learned, but there is also a lot of things that are just way too blurry to be satisfied with. To really understand him, I think you’d need to get the answers to our questions straight from the source. Really, I would just like to really get inside the “brilliant” wizard’s mind. There is just loads to uncover about him.

Resources:
http://www.prairieghosts.com/seance.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Séance
And of course, the Harry Potter books =]

Subject: Re: The Séance-Communicating with the spirits Sun Aug 16 2009, 14:51

Ravenclaw
Rigby Dumbledore: 85 The Séance-Communicating with the spirits Smilie11

Gryffindor
The5Potters: 80 The Séance-Communicating with the spirits Smilie11