Seances

A seance is an organized attempt to communicate with the dead. Hence, the seance posits life after physical death in the form of a non-physical and coherent intellect and mind called a "soul" or "spirit."

Since many magicians are fully capable of producing ghostly phenomena, they hold that it is impossible for the dead to communicate with the living; these magicians (such as Houdini) say that seances fall into two general categories:

1) Fraudulent charades given by fake mediums to fleece money from people. The "spectators" in these situations believe the manifestations to be real.

2) Theatrical performances given by magicians (generally those interested in Bizarre Magick). The spectators in these situations understand that they're watching a show.

There are several excellent texts for those interested in the latter category, among them Spirit Theater by Eugene Burger (1985) and Seance (1996, Originally published in magazine form 1988-1991) by Scott Moore-Davis. Both are published by Kaufman and Company.

External Links

• http://geniimagazine.com/kaufman/booksandtapes.html