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When I was a bit younger I was full of curiosity about the tales people tell of séances. Being a hardened atheist, I wanted to experience it for myself and be able to categorically say that it was all bunk (rather than just say it was all bunk but, no, I hadn't actually been to one). Many years went by with the occasional story to tweak my interest but the two stories that made me decide that I had to try it myself were from my brother and my fiancée.
Both had experienced séances and from their descriptions it was all a bit of fun, the glass moves around, you ask questions and generally get bizarre answers. Most times you'd talk to a number of characters. Neither had been in control of the events though and it was my firm belief that someone had been tricking them into believing that something had happened.
I was convinced that if I set up a séance, white paper with letters, numbers and yes/no, a glass and a candle, nothing would happen (although, in that duplex nature that the human mind has, I did concede that that might only be due to the extreme lack of belief on my part). One major condition I set for the experiment was that the people that I had with me had to be those I could trust, no strangers, no-one who take it as a bit of a joke or try to set up a hoax. Preferably one of us should know what to do.
My fiancée and my brother were the only candidates that I could think of so I asked them. My beloved agreed on the condition that she had to have a cross. I found this quite weird because she does not believe in 'God' a strict church sense and who is to say that if there is a 'God' that anything called up during the séance would be beholden to him/her/it.
I was staying at a hotel at the time (another long story) but was due to move out. This was another precondition as if something were to go wrong then I'd prefer it not to happen in my house. We set up the table with the paper, candle and glass and got to it. My beloved put the glass over the candle then placed it on the paper. Each of us placed a finger on the glass and we went around the alphabet and numbers, to show them the way as it was explained to me. Then the question was asked, 'Is there anyone there?'
Up until this point I really felt rather silly. I had drawn Christian symbols on the paper's corners, just in case. We had decided on a number of rules; the future was off limits, I preferred not to know where the 'spirit' came from - my brother's previous experiences were with something that called 'herself' a demon', no personal or potentially embarrassing questions, no talk of death, keep calm and at all times be overly polite. We were sitting in a darkened room with just the candle for illumination. My beloved made a bit of a show about having her cross on the outside of her clothes. I remember thinking that I was hungry.
It all seemed comical, particularly in that I expected nothing to happen. Although I was convinced that nothing would happen, I was taking no chances. I acted as if something might happen and took appropriate precautions, a bit like the atheist who goes to church and pretends to believe because the ramifications of not believing are so great if he is wrong - if he's right he just wastes an hour or so each Sunday which is better than burning in hell for eternity. Taking all these precautions were going to make me look pretty stupid when nothing happened.
As it was I didn't suffer from any embarrassment. After my beloved said, 'Is there anyone there?' the glass moved to the 'Yes'. A question was asked that neither of the other two of us could know (the maiden name of my beloved's grand-mother) and it was answered correctly. Another testing question was asked, one that my brother and I knew the answer to, and this too was answered correctly. For the next forty five minutes to an hour many questions were asked and answered.
There was a reasonably coherent discussion and unfortunately the 'spirit', for want of a better term, told us not to discuss the issue with another family member so I do not therefore feel comfortable about describing the content of the discussion. Enough to say that during the event the glass moved very quickly, so quickly at times that I could not keep my finger on the glass as it moved across the table away from me. It was a tall glass, not one which could easily be dragged by my fiancée and brother on the other side of the table. Words were spelt out very quickly and without hesitation, no searching around for the right letter, no spelling errors.
Towards the end of the discussion the 'spirit' became increasingly intolerant of questions asked by my fiancée. Eventually she asked if she was welcome to ask question, 'No'. Should she leave, 'Yes'. She said thank you and left. At this time all I could think of was that she was the one wearing the cross. Otherwise the fact that she was asked to leave was not so strange, the discussion was about my family.
After my beloved left, the glass slowed down - but it still moved. It moved all around the table and moved in such a way that it would have been impossible for my brother to have pushed or dragged it without me noticing. He was as concerned about the most recent exchange as I was and we soon thanked the 'spirit' and left.
My fiancée was very shaken, she had played 'spirit in a glass' before but never had the responses been so coherent. She was in fact so affected by the séance that she refuses to hold another and prefers that I don't either. My brother's previous experiences were equally insignificant in comparison but he seems to have been little affected it in the longer term.
In the years since this event the question of 'How did the glass move?' has followed me and crept up during reflective moment. Some types of believers would say a spirit of some sort (a ghost, demon or spooky). Others would state that it is the combined force of our collective wills moving the glass, telekinesis, but this is just taking the unknown from the supernatural and putting onto the account of the paranormal. Apart from that neither my brother nor I knew the maiden name of my fiancée's grand-mother. She would have had to control us and the glass to get the right name spelt out, quite a feat really for an untrained telekineticist.
All I know for sure is that I cannot explain what happened that night in the terms of modern science. I cannot accept mind power as an explanation but also find it hard to believe that it was any sort of ghost or spirit. Basically, the event does not fit comfortably into the way that I see the world. I cannot forget the incident nor deny that it happened. Therefore a little under an hour of my life is set aside from everything else, awaiting integration when, and if ever, I find out how the glass moved.
Postscript: Sometimes I get comments on my site and one my story. Here's an interesting one.
