Bumps in the darkness. Speaking in tongues. Séances. It sounds like some sort of remake of The Craft, but it really describes Spiritualism in Victorian England and America. Spiritualists were usually hucksters, but rich people would hire them to perform private séances and poorer folks would flock to public halls to commune with the dead and watch other supernatural rituals to communicate with dead loved ones. Spooky stuff.

Victorianism, for the most part, was pretty staunch. People wanted things solemn and conservative. They were extremely considered with morality and upholding its standards. Except when it came to communicating with the dead. Victorians really wanted to know where people went after their left their earthly bodies and went on to another life. That was where spiritualists came in.

Spiritualism began in New York state in 1848. The Fox sisters were allegedly the first mediums and could communicate with the dead by tapping on various objects. The sisters came to their communication organically, they say—their home had a number of disturbances and they wanted to communicate with the spirits that were creating the problems. Famed circus man P.T. Barnum took the sisters to New York City and made them stars.

By 1852, spiritualism had spread to England. Most often, the dead would communicate with the medium by rapping or tapping, but some spirits communicated with the living by materializing or levitating the medium.

Many spiritualists were performers, playing off of people’s emotions and money during their performances. Often, these performers, billed as mediums, would hold gatherings in big halls or rooms. People would pay a little bit of money and watch the spiritualists make vague guesses about the first letter of the first name of an audience member’s dead uncle or the cause of a death of a beloved friend of the girl sitting in the front way.

Upper class people would typically hold private séances in their own homes. Seances typically consisted of a group of people holding hands and sitting in a circle in a room. The medium was sometimes tied to her chair so she couldn’t produce the ghostly phenomena that would happen in the room. The medium would sometimes be compelled to talk in various voices, small objects would appear and disappear or furniture would fly around the room. Occasionally, mediums would bring spirit horns to talk with the dead or take spirit photography.

However, some spiritualists, regardless of their actual ability, truly wanted to help people talk to their dead loved ones. Some writers and critics said that spiritualism corresponded well with the Victorian belief in morality, saying that there was an afterlife that required good behavior in the earthly world. Some people also believed that some people were gifted with the talents of a medium and just had to harness the communication styles preferred by spirits. Spiritualist societies grew around the globe and even some members of the Anglican Church supported its methods.

Spiritualism has died out for the most part, but many of its methods are still employed by psychics, mediums and spiritualist groups today.