THE HAUNTED MUSEUM:
TABLE TIPPING WITH THE SPIRITS

POPULAR PAST TIME OF THE SPIRITUALIST HOME CIRCLES

During the early 1900’s, when professional mediums all over the country were claiming to communicate with the spirits, ordinary people developed in interest in psychic phenomena. Most of these people had neither the means, nor the access, to professional mediums, so many of them developed "home circles". The home circles were simply small collections of family and friends who would get together and attempt to contact the spirit world. A number of the home circles began to believe that their attempts to communicate with the spirits were actually successful. Their amateur séances, they believed, were actually connecting with ghosts and the spirit world. Others were not so sure though...

Many of the members of the circles quickly began to realize that what was causing the planchettes of Ouija boards to move, tables to tip and mysterious rappings sounds to be heard was not the work of ghosts, but rather the collective work of the human mind. The energy created by gathered a group of people together who were intent on a single purpose could produce some amazing results. 

Outside of the Ouija board, one of the most popular methods of experimentation for home circles was table tipping. I confess that I have engaged in this many times myself and not only is it entertaining, it’s a remarkable method of examining the psychic abilities of the average human mind. Although I have never claimed to be psychic in the least, I have been present for some very interesting events during table tipping sessions. I believe that all serious ghost hunters should explore this weird and wonderful past time and see what it’s possible to learn about others -- and ourselves.
 

It’s also possible that the table (as it did in the days of the home circles) will behave as with some intelligence. Once the group has begun to experience strange effects, it will be possible to ask questions and receive knocks, raps and event tilts in reply. When you experience this, it will be easy to understand why people believed the phenomena was caused by ghosts in the days of Spiritualism. Just remember though that the power of the human mind is a tricky thing, especially when you have an entire group focused on creating energy. 

And you should remember that the energy created can be pretty amazing at times. Although I have never personally experienced anything like this myself, it has been documented by some table tipping groups that they have literally experienced tables that are so charged with energy that the table moved about with all four members of the group sitting on top of it! 

WANT TO TRY THIS FOR YOURSELF?

To start off with, you will need to select your group for the sessions. The best number to start with is usually the same number that you would need for an investigation, 4-5 people. Make sure that all of the same members can be present for each session and also make sure that they are willing to continue with the experiments for an extended period of time, or at least until you have achieved the desired effects for your experiment.

2. Choose a location like one of the member’s house for the experiments. It should be a place where everyone can be comfortable and relaxed. You will also need to choose a table to use as well. I recommend a trip to an antique store to find a small wooden table that can seat everyone comfortably, but is not too big or too heavy. Experimenting with a gigantic, oak dining room table is not recommended if you want to see results any time soon!

3. The lighting in the room will be important. Table tipping seems to work the best in near darkness, perhaps because the sitters are creating a "spooky" atmosphere, but who knows? 

4. Once you sit down to try and experiment with this, be sure to maintain a casual and relaxed atmosphere. Be sure to talk normally, make jokes and just try to relax. If you are too uptight about things happening, it’s not going to work. Simply relax and try to avoid concentrating on getting the table to move at first.

5. Be sure to have everyone’s hands on the table all the time. As things start to occur, it’s liable to become exciting but no one should move their hands if at all possible. 

6. While nothing at all may happen in the initial sitting, it is bound to get more interesting as time progresses. Just be sure that the group meets regularly, once or twice a week if possible. To succeed, the group needs to be dedicated and willing to sit through several uneventful sessions before phenomena actually occurs. 

7. Make sure that the meetings are always free from interruption and do whatever it takes to prepare for this. Turn off the TV and radios in the house and take the telephone off the hook if you need to. 

8. Interestingly, faking phenomena sometimes encourages real phenomena to appear. In one experiment, a sitter experimented with this and found that he was able to induce real rappings from the table after he faked rapping noises or moved the table. He was never seen doing this as the sittings were conducted in near darkness. His view of why this occurred is because people have an inherent disbelief in this type of phenomena. The disbelief might be deeply buried but it is almost always there. Faking the phenomena seems to bypass the problem and allows the mind to work. In short, it seems that once people have been led to believe that something faked is true, then it actually occurs, possibly because their resistance to real activity has been broken down. This is something to consider in your own experiments and while I would never encourage anyone to fake anything during an investigation, this is merely an experiment and not designed to try and "contact the spirit world" anyway.

A SCIENTIST TURNS THE TABLES -- THE SKEPTICAL VIEW OF TABLE TIPPING

Michael Faraday was one of the most brilliant of the 19th Century scientists. As a chemist and physicist, he helped change electricity from a curiosity into an actual energy source -- and he also dampened the Victorian passion for table tipping. Faraday took an interest in the fad after some other scientists proposed that the reason the it worked was because of a mysterious magnetic or electrical force. Faraday disagreed and instead theorized that the force at work in table tilting was an involuntary and unconscious muscle contraction experienced by séance sitters. This, he believed, was what caused the tables to rock and tilt. 

To demonstrate, he fashioned a table with two tops that were divided by a layer of ball bearings and sturdy rubber bands. When sitters worked with his device, the upper table top moved first, showing that the fingers were moving the table and not the other way around. Once sitters realized the nature of the experiment, movement of the table ceased. Apparently, once the conscious mind realized the force behind the movement, the mystery was gone.

For Faraday and others, the proof was indisputable and the experiments caused a decline in the popularity of the past time. Many believers scoffed at Faraday's findings though, claiming that tables not only tipped but also lifted into the air and galloped about -- behavior completely separate from active fingers and wishful thinking! Needless to say, the mystery remained for most and scientists and Spiritualists once again disagreed on the methods, and perhaps the madness, of the movement.  

What do you think? We suggest you try it for yourself and let the spirits -- or whatever -- be your guide!