Communication with a ghost comes naturally to some people, but other people need to communicate through a medium or to do so through a séance. Find out how to do a séance and what kind of things not to do during seances.
The film scene opens on a darkened room with glamorously dressed starlets moaning over a velvet covered table that is glittering with candles. The dead are called and they materialize dramatically in a fictional séance. Chaos ensues, and everybody regrets the day they called up the dead! Do real seances happen in such a spectacular way? Thankfully not. Seances are ways to call the spirits of the departed to communicate with them, and are not sensational, gory, or glitzy at all. Join SpiritualBlossom to learn what seances are. Find out how to talk to the dead, how to have a séance, and learn about what not to do during a séance.
What is a Séance?
Seances are communication sessions with spirits and are usually led by a psychic. Quite often, they are done in shops or at events, where people pay admission. Sometimes, though they are privately held between a psychic and the people who want to speak with a spirit, usually the spirit of a departed loved one. One person can lead a séance and speak to the dead by themselves, of course, but a séance is usually one psychic and multiple people who want to speak with the dead.
Exactly how a séance is done depends on the people leading it. Modern seances are typically conducted seated, with the attendees gathered around the psychic. There is no particular time when a seance is most effective, but some people do seances during auspicious times. The birthdate or death date of the departed is a time when a lot of people want to do a séance. The date of some anniversary like a wedding anniversary is a good time for a widowed spouse to do a séance for the dead. Sacred holidays like Samhain or Dia de los Muertos when some people believe the dead visit the living are popular times for seances too. Read about Samhain here: All About Samhain
What is a Spirit Medium?
Spiritual mediums are people who communicate with the dead. They are often called upon by people who are having trouble communicating with the dead on their own, and they are sometimes called to conduct seances. They interpret what the dead say for the living. How do they talk to the dead? Well, it depends on the medium. Each medium is different and their gifts manifest differently. Some of them naturally understand the voices of the dead, and talking to the dead is as natural for them as speaking to the living. Others get into a trance state to communicate. Different religious traditions have their own ascribed techniques of speaking with the dead which may entail fasting, meditation, doing a pilgrimage, or self-isolating for a while before the communication begins.
Some mediums receive spirit communication in dreams. An American superstition is that when you dream about the dead you will hear from the living. This is one way the dead communicate in dreams to alert us to what will come to pass. Some spirit mediums see visions while communicating with the dead and others use things like automatic writing to let them know what the dead are saying. One popular method is to allow the dead to speak through a medium, using their own words to communicate with the living. Mediumship is a psychic gift, and mediums can use that gift because they are not scared of speaking with the dead. Read about facing your fears here: Facing and Overcoming Fears
How to Talk to the Dead
Would you like to talk to the dead, but you want to do it without a medium? If you had a relationship with someone who died, you can set up a small altar space in honor of them. Place a photograph of them if you have it, and if you have something they owned, put that with it. If you don’t have either of these things, place things that represent them. If they like birds, for example, use a bird figurine. Then place a small food and drink offering, and whatever they liked to eat and drink will be perfect for this. Light a small candle and then just sit and talk aloud to them or in the silence of your heart. Give them time, and they will answer
How will the dead answer? There are a lot of different ways they can. If their favorite bird starts appearing often after you open communication, that is them saying hello and letting you know they heard you. You may suddenly smell their favorite perfume in public, or smell the type of cigar they smoked for a moment before the aroma suddenly disappears. You may hear their favorite songs start to play often or see their favorite kind of butterfly. You might even feel their loving presence and their words may come to you carried on the voice of a stranger. Be patient and be open to communication because when you call upon your dead, they will respond! Read about a special bird some believe carries the voices of the angels, and ancestors, the red cardinal here: What is Red Cardinal Spiritual Meaning?
How to Do a Séance
You might still decide, after reaching out to your beloved dead, to enlist the help of a medium for a seance anyways. You don’t have to wait for a certain time of year, and you can do a one-on-one séance or do a séance with a group. Keep in mind that if you do a group séance with different strangers, all of whom are calling their own dead, it will lack the intimacy that a private séance does. Your loved ones can book a séance with a psychic medium privately to speak with just your loved one. At seances, respect the dead, respect their time, and get right to the point of what you want to say to them.
Be Respectful
Respect for the dead is as important as respect for the living. Going to a group séance with strangers, all of whom want to call their dead might upset your beloved departed soul. If you choose to do this form of séance, speak to your dead loved one alone before you go, and ask them to speak to you through the medium. Tell them if they decide not to speak through a medium, you understand, and ask them if they will speak to you on their own terms. Think of speaking to the dead as speaking to someone who is alive and extend them the same respect.
Get to the Point
When you want to speak to the dead at a séance, it is understandable you will want to say hello before you ask whatever questions you have, but don’t draw things out for too long. Don’t try to hide your intentions in communicating with them. Some people who love us can see in our hearts before we speak to them, even after death. The most important part of a séance is listening to the dead and enjoying their presence. Say what you need to say, and make sure to talk less, and listen more. Virgos can be very upfront when they want to communicate and you can read about them here: Virgo Traits and Love Compatibility
Respect the Dead’s Time
Everyone has their own beliefs about where the dead go. If the dead are busy elsewhere, when you call for them, they have to stop what they are doing to communicate with you. Some people believe the dead reincarnate and calling them if they have will result in zero answer from them. Other people believe they cross to an afterlife immediately, and being pulled from their new life back to our world isn’t exactly what the dead plan to do. Somehow, they still manage to answer when we ask them to communicate. Thank them and respect the fact they have other things to do besides speak with the living.
How NOT to Do a Séance
If you approach a séance with an attitude of respect, you will probably be just fine. However, there are a few things to avoid doing in a séance. Don’t make demands or try to shock or scare people with seances because that is not what they are for. They are also not for fun or a way to have a spooky Halloween celebration. Don’t verbally attack the dead, and if you are scared, don’t do the séance.
Don’t Make Demands
Making demands on the dead is something you should not do. While the dead can communicate, they don’t have bodies anymore, and they have fulfilled whatever they were meant to before death. So asking them where to find money in old bank accounts or to help take care of something you think they should probably won’t amount to anything. Asking for guidance, for them to be near you, or for them to watch over you is something the dead tend to respond well to, however. Asking them for their love and help with these things is usually something they usually will be happy to do. Read about love here: What is the Spiritual Meaning of Love?
Don’t Try to Scare People
Doing a séance to shock people who believe it is evil or to scare your friends is not a reason to have a séance. Such people often find ways to scare themselves anyways, and the dead should not be disrespected in this way. They are not scary monsters who are out to haunt the living. They are living beings, and they will still communicate with the people who they love. Seances should include people who want to have meaningful conversations with the dead. If somebody does not want to be included in that, that is okay. Include the people who do.
It’s Not for Fun
Some people think they are going to have a fun, thrilling session with friends and conjure up spirits. That’s not a séance. It’s something fictional literature and shows sensationalize. Seances are serious communications. Maybe your loved one who died liked to have fun, and they appreciate humor, but a séance is not for entertainment. It is a way to spend quality time with the spirit of someone you love. While some people will include seances as part of Samhain celebrations, which is where many secular Halloween traditions come from, a séance as a “fun Halloween” activity is not respectful. Perhaps the most fun Zodiac Sign- if you ask them anyways- is Sagittarius and you can read about them here: Sagittarius Traits and Love Compatibility
Don’t Attack
After somebody who you know dies, you may have some things you want to say because you didn’t get a chance to say it while they were alive. However, after someone’s death is not the time to verbally attack them. It is not a time to give them a list of all the things you feel they have done or said wrong. It is true that even abusers die, and if you did not have a chance to confront them when they were alive, you might feel the need for closure after their death. Chances are, if they were not sorry when they were alive, they will have no remorse as a spirit.
Instead of calling up the soul of someone who has died so you can tell them off, write a letter. Write down every last thing that hurt you and write down how it made you feel. Then sit the letter aside for a few days. Go back and read it after not thinking about it for a while. Then, breathe in peace, aware of the fact that the pain is over, and it will never happen to you again. Exhale and release the pain from what was done to you. Burn the letter and release the ashes to the wind, and begin to heal. Libras are known as peacemakers and you can read about their Zodiac Flowers here: What is the Best Libra Flower?
Don’t Communicate if You’re Afraid
If you are scared, don’t do a séance. The dead are still people, just people without bodies and they are not the evil ghosts that some frightened people depict them to be. They have the same feelings they had when they were alive, and if they know you are scared of them, it might upset them. If you are reaching out to someone who you love who has died, remember they are the same person they used to be when they were living. There is no need to fear the souls of your loved ones. If you are thinking of communicating with someone who hurt you, it’s okay to begin your communication by telling them you want peace and you need to speak with them. Don’t be afraid.
Seances are not for a fun way to spice up a party, or a way to scare people. They are respectful meetings to communicate with the dead. Some people focus on seances near Halloween because they believe communication with the dead is easier then. Other people do them whenever they want to speak with their beloved dead. Seances can be used to get answers or just to keep in touch with someone, but they should always be respectful. Remember the dead might not have bodies anymore, but they are the souls of people jjst like you. In life the lived, loved, laughed, and cried, and they have feelings after death also. When you call your dead in a seance, they will answer.
Would you like to speak with a psychic medium to help you communicate with the dead? Get a reading started with one of our mediums today: Online Psychic Readings. Make sure to sign up for our Horoscopes to find out what the future holds. Daily Horoscope | Free Horoscopes.
About the Author: Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own Magical Path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor, she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for Mysticsense and SpiritualBlossom, and she writes for The Green Egg Magazine and PaganPages.Org emag.
