Séance
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Henri Robin and a Specter, 1863 by Eugène Thiébault
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A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma" ("a movie session"). In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from spirits or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits; in modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance.
One of the earliest books on the subject of communication amongst deceased persons was Dialogues of the Dead by George, First Baron Lyttelton, published in England in 1760.
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