A Short History of Seances

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From their origins in necromancy to their ritualisation in the religion of Spiritualism, seances have long been a staple in the occultist's toolbelt. Purporting to call forth spirits and allow communication with the dead, they exploded in popularity in the nineteenth century, attracting great scientists, writers and thinkers to their cause. Dan is joined by Lisa Morton, an expert on Spiritualism and author of Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances to talk about where seances came from, what they mean, and the frauds behind them.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and Beth Donaldson and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history at this very spooky time of year.
0:04.7	We're obviously doing some Halloween history podcasts and this one is about salances,
0:09.6	about mediums, about necromancy talking to the dead.
0:15.2	It's obviously a lot of old nonsense, but it's got a long and important history,
0:20.0	getting all the way back to the ancient Greek myths of Homer and Odysseus, who I think
0:26.5	cut the throat of a sheep or a goat he was traveling with in the warm, life-giving, blood-attracted
0:33.1	in the spirits today when he went down to Hades.
0:35.4	Anyway, ever since I've been talking to the dead, I've asked them questions, hanging out
0:40.2	because we miss them.
0:41.5	We're bereaved.
0:42.9	We want insights.
0:43.9	Maybe we should try a bit of fun with the Weegee board and freaking out our friends,
0:48.8	Institute and House Parties.
0:51.0	In this episode to learn more about salances and mediums, I'm talking to Lisa Morton.
0:55.9	She's a screenwriter.
0:57.0	She's an author.
0:58.6	She is apparently a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert.
1:03.1	She's written books about calling the spirits about salances and about the frauds that perpetrate
1:08.2	them on their gallable, gallable clientele.
1:11.7	So close the curtains, light some candles, and get ready for a podcast in which we interrogate
1:17.6	the dead to shine a light on the living.
1:20.5	It's not a say-ounce, folks.
	...

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