The Victorians were fascinated by spiritualism, mediums, ‘ghostly manifestations’ and all the other trappings associated with the pseudo-supernatural.

Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the world’s greatest detective, was a believer.  Which is odd when you consider Sherlock Holmes approached every case, even the terrifying “Hound Of The Baskervilles” with cool logic, dismissing any supernatural involvement.  As he wryly remarked in “The Sussex Vampire”: ‘No ghosts need apply!’

But if you think the Victorians were naïve in believing people with psychic powers had the ability to converse with the departed (after they’d been handsomely paid to) and that we’ve moved on since 1888, you’d be wrong.
Because the amount that Americans hand over annually to ‘Psychic Services’ is a staggering $2.2 billion and the market has grown 0.5% since 2017.

The great showman Derren Brown has made documentaries in which he unmasks charlatans who earn large amounts of money (which they sometimes refer to as ‘donations’) out of the bereaved by allegedly contacting their deceased relatives.

Although his jaw-droppingly impressive stage shows are packed with mysterious, apparent other-worldly happenings, he goes to great pains to explain they all have a perfectly grounded explanation.  He’ll be touring again soon and I urge you to go and see him if he comes your way.

I’m not saying that everyone who claims to communicate with the dead is a conman or woman.  I genuinely don’t know whether it’s possible.  What I do know is, it’s never been scientifically proved.

The late American magician James Randl was such a sceptic when it came to claims of psychic ability that, in 1996, he offered $1 million to anyone who could provide genuine proof they could speak to the dead.  While he was alive, the money remained unclaimed – and since he died in 2020 the James Randl Educational Foundation has kept the offer open.

To date, not one person has approached the Foundation to claim they could speak to the dead – not even to James Randl.

I’ll leave you with one of his quotes…
“Psychics use exactly the same gimmicks as magicians and they effectively deceive millions of people, to their detriment”