Table-turning

History

When the movement of spiritualism first reached Europe from America in the winter of 1852–1853, the most popular method of consulting the spirits was for several persons to sit round a table, with their hands resting on it, and wait for the table to move. If the experiment was successful, the table would rotate with considerable rapidity and would occasionally rise in the air, or perform other movements.

Whilst most spiritualists ascribed the table movements to the agency of spirits, two investigators, count de Gasparin and professor Thury (father of René Thury) of Geneva, conducted a careful series of experiments. They claimed to have demonstrated that the movements of the table were due to a physical force emanating from the bodies of the sitters, for which they proposed the name ectenic force. Their conclusion rested on the supposed elimination of all known physical causes for the movements; but it is doubtful from the description of the experiments whether the precautions taken were sufficient to exclude unconscious muscular action (the ideomotor effect) or even deliberate fraud.

In England, table-turning became a fashionable diversion and was practised all over the country in the year 1853. John Elliotson and his followers attributed the phenomena to mesmerism. The general public were content to find the explanation of the movements in spirits, animal magnetism, Odic force, galvanism, electricity, or even the rotation of the earth. Some Evangelical clergymen alleged that the spirits who caused the movements were of a diabolic nature. In France, Allan Kardec studied the phenomenon and concluded in The Book on Mediums that some communications were caused by an outside intelligence, as the message contained information that was not known to the group.

Scientific reception

The Scottish surgeon James Braid, the English physiologist W. B. Carpenter and others pointed out that the phenomena could depend upon the expectation of the sitters, and could be stopped altogether by appropriate suggestion. Michel Eugène Chevreul explained that the purported magical movement was due to involuntary and unconscious muscular reactions.

Michael Faraday devised a simple apparatus which conclusively demonstrated that the movements he investigated were due to unconscious muscular action. The apparatus consisted of two small boards, with glass rollers between them, the whole fastened together by india-rubber bands in such a manner that the upper board could slide under lateral pressure to a limited extent over the lower one. The occurrence of such lateral movement was at once indicated by means of an upright haystalk fastened to the apparatus. When by this means it was made clear to the experimenters that it was the fingers which moved the table, the phenomena generally ceased. After this experimental approach, Faraday criticized the believers of table-turning.

Faraday's work was followed up a century later by clinical psychologist Kenneth Batcheldor who pioneered the use of infrared video recording to observe experimental subjects in complete darkness.

Trickery

Apart from the ideomotor effect, conscious fraudulent table tipping has also been uncovered. Professional magicians and skeptics have exposed many of the methods utilized by mediums to tip tables. The magician Chung Ling Soo described a method that involved a pin driven into the table and the use of a ring with a slot on the medium's finger. Once the pin entered the slot, the table could be lifted. Another example comes from Eusapia Palladino, who used custom-made boots with soles that extended beyond the boots' edges in order to lift tables.

According to John Mulholland:

References

References

1. "L'Illustration 1853-05-14".
2. Geoghegan, Bernard Dionysius. (2016-06-01). "Mind the Gap: Spiritualism and the Infrastructural Uncanny". Critical Inquiry.
3. {{EB1911. Frank. Podmore
4. Rawcliffe, D. H. (1987). ''Occult and Supernatural Phenomena''. Dover Publications. p. 137
5. [[Leonard Zusne. Zusne, Leonard]]; Jones, Warren H. (1989). ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking''. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. p. 110. {{ISBN. 978-0-805-80507-9
6. [[Carroll, Robert Todd. Robert Todd Carroll]]. (2003). ''[[The Skeptic's Dictionary. The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions]]''. John Wiley & Sons. p. 172. {{ISBN. 978-0-471-27242-7
7. [[Frank Podmore. Podmore, Frank]]. (1897). [https://archive.org/stream/studiesinpsychic00podm#page/47/mode/2up ''Studies in Psychical Research'']. New York: Putnam. p. 47 "If neither the feet nor the hands of the sitters could be employed, the knees could apparently have been used without much risk, and Thury clearly could not watch both the upper and under surfaces simultaneously. On the whole, though the experiments were conducted with care and a laudable desire not to exaggerate the importance of the facts observed, the experimenters do not appear to have sufficiently realised the possibilities of fraud; and their results add little evidence for action of a psychic, or, as Thury has preferred to name it, ectenic force."
8. [http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:11299/SOURCE01?view=true Yeates, L.B., ''James Braid: Surgeon, Gentleman Scientist, and Hypnotist'', Ph.D. Dissertation, School of History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, January 2013.]
9. [[Michel Eugène Chevreul]], “''De la baguette''”, 1854 (article)
10. [[Michel Eugène Chevreul]], letter to [[André-Marie Ampère]], 1833
11. Faraday, Michael. (1859). "Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics". Taylor & Francis.
12. [[Peter Lamont (historian). Lamont, Peter]]. (2013). ''Extraordinary Beliefs: A Historical Approach to a Psychological Problem''. [[Cambridge University Press]]. p. 129. {{ISBN. 978-1-107-01933-1
13. Faraday, Michael. (1859). "Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics". Taylor & Francis.
14. "The Right Chemistry: Turning the tables on the table turners".
15. Randi, James. (1995). "[[An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural". St. Martin's Griffin.
16. [[Chung Ling Soo. Soo, Chung Ling]]. (1898). [https://archive.org/stream/spiritslatewriti00sooc#page/71/mode/2up ''Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena'']. Munn & Company. pp. 71–72
17. [[John Mulholland (magician). Mulholland, John]]. (1938). ''Beware Familiar Spirits''. C. Scribner's Sons. p. 107. {{ISBN. 0-684-16181-8