Seance

French philosopher Allan Kardec defined "spiritism" as "a science dedicated to the relationship between incorporeal beings (spirits) and human beings". Since time immemorial, people have believed it's possible to contact spiritual planes, but such themes exploded in Western culture in the late 18th century, a period rife with doubts and uncertainties, as well as one characterized by dogged research into the realm of the supernatural.

One much-depicted practice related to spiritism is the seance, in which a small group of people typically sit around a table and join hands in a darkened room. One or more mediums usually guide the group, serving as a "conduit" to the other side in an attempt to contact supernatural entities such as souls of the dearly departed, angels/demons, ghosts, or other incorporeal presences. The goal of a seance is often to obtain information, as the denizens of the spirit world are believed to possess sweeping knowledge of both past and future.

The films grouped within this Tag feature plots that revolve around a seance or related events: levitating furniture, Ouija boards and planchettes, mediums going into trances, egregors, characters joining hands in a darkened room to summon spirits, etc. By extension, we will also add a handful of films featuring certain "past-life regression" hypnotic techniques which allow the subject to "recover" memories of prior lives or incarnations, or to otherwise communicate with individuals who are long dead and buried (+) (e.g., "The Aztec Mummy" - 1957).

P.S. The majority of films in this Tag will also receive the "Parapsychology" Tag, given that spiritism and reincarnation constitute important fields of pseudoscientific inquiry.