Table back

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Moving the table is a spiritualistic act in which a connection to the souls of the deceased is to be established. It is the seemingly paranormal movement of a table, brought about by one or more participants in a séance and an occult exercise for establishing connections with demons , which can be explained physically by involuntary muscle impulses of the participants. When moving a table, a distinction must be made between the physical and psychological side:

“As a physical phenomenon , the movements are probably caused by involuntary nerve impulses of those involved. Psychologically (in terms of content) your subconscious plays an important role. If they explicitly or tacitly seek a connection with demons or souls of the deceased, they search for secret knowledge (divinatio) in an unauthorized manner. Without such an intention, the exercise to research the physical phenomenon or the natural psychological relationships can be permissible. "

- Karl Hörmann

history

Already in the times of the Greeks and Romans , a similar method of moving the table and knocking the table was known; consecrated tripods were used for this . After the execution of this superstition, a great sorcery trial arose under the Roman emperor Valens , about which Ammianus Marcellinus had reported. But it was also known in China and India and was also a cult act among the Indians in North America .

Table moving began its triumphant advance in 1848 from North America until it attracted great attention in Europe in 1853 through a newspaper article by K. Andree . The physicist and astronomer François Arago (1786–1853) succeeded in making the first plausible statement at a lecture in Paris . In the course of spiritualistic sessions, which spread particularly under the spiritualist Allan Kardec (1804–1869) in Paris, from 1853 onwards the table moving spread in Europe and America. For example, Baron von Güldenstubbe (1817–1873) dealt with table backs, magnetism and researched in the field of " direct writing ", which he interpreted spiritistically, for over 20 years . Most of the time in Paris he organized spiritualistic circles in which well-known people are said to have "shown" themselves while moving the table. Since the sober explanation of the physicist Michael Faradays (1791–1867), which he provided in 1853, interest in table backs has faded into the background in wider circles. Today, it comes in nichtspiritistischen circles occasionally as a parlor game before. It is different, of course, in spiritualist circles: Arago's explanation was too simple, too trivial, to satisfy the thirsting spirit of a sworn mystic and spiritualist.

Practices

The practices of moving the table are mostly described in the same way, with a few differences:

  • Moving a table includes a group of people who sit at a table and place their hands on it. Supported by the joint effort and in the expectation of an oracle , a turning or tilting of the table is expected. The oracle proclaimed more or less understandable words and “brought out” prophecies.
  • Another variant means that several people sit at a round three-legged table and hold their outstretched hands over the table top. The hands form a circle when they touch each other . After a while, the table begins to make slow circular movements, the speed increases and the table rotates around the room.

Attempts to explain

The physicist Michael Faraday demonstrated that the phenomenon of the table back is triggered by the unconscious muscle pressure of the hands resting on it. Further physical explanations lead the phenomenon back to the trembling movement of the spread hands and an unconscious pressure that the tiring hands exert on the table. François Arago had argued in exactly the same way and Faraday had also used a dynamometer to measure the pressure exerted.

Trivia

  • The composer Philipp Fahrbach the Elder (1815–1885) composed the dance: Table Back Magnet Polka (op. 149).
  • In addition to his political career, Karl Lotz (1823–1875) also devoted himself to spiritualism and published five spiritualistic sessions in his book "The so-called table back or the communication with the deceased" in 1855, supplemented by alleged drawings of the spirits who were summoned.

literature

  • Ulrike Müller-Kaspar (ed.): The great handbook of superstition, From eel to cypress , Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2007, p. 700.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ table back. In: Lexicon of Psychology [1]
  2. ↑ table back . In: Karl Hörmann , Lexikon der Christian Moral , Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck-Wien-Munich 1969 & 2nd revised edition 1976 ([ [2] Electronic version of his articles as a mixture of 1976 & 1969]), 1969, Sp. 1210- 1213 [3] , accessed October 6, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f table back . In: Zu Wunder und Wissenschaft , Lexikus Verlag 2016 [4] , accessed on October 6, 2017.
  4. ↑ The direct writing . In: Charles Richet, Grundriss der Parapsychologie und Parapsychophysik , Verlag BoD - Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 3-943233-56-1 [5]
  5. ↑ a b Ulrike Müller-Kaspar (Ed.): The Great Handbook of Superstition, From Aal to Cypress , Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2007, p. 700.
  6. ↑ Entry on: Klassika - The German-language classical pages [6]