Table-turning

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. 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==

apparatus for experimental demonstration of ideomotor effect on table-turning|256x256px 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. 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 revealing a fraudulent hidden hook method for table-turning.|255x255px 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. ==References==