Mediumship is the practice of certain people—known as mediums—to purportedly mediate communication between spirits of the dead and living human beings. Attempts to contact the dead date back to early human history, with mediumship gaining in popularity during the 19th century. Investigations during this period revealed widespread fraud—with some practitioners employing techniques used by stage magicians—and the practice started to lose credibility. The practice still continues , with high-profile fraud uncovered as recently as the 2000s. Scientific researchers have attempted to ascertain the validity of claims of mediumship. An experiment undertaken by the British Psychological Society led to the conclusion that the test subjects demonstrated no mediumistic ability. Several different variants of mediumship exist; arguably the best-known forms involve a spirit allegedly taking control of a medium's voice and using it to relay a message, or where the medium simply “hears” the message and passes it on. Other forms involve materializations of the spirit or the presence of a voice, and telekinetic activity. The practice is associated with several religious-belief systems such as Vodoun, Spiritualism, Spiritism, Candomblé, Voodoo, Umbanda and some New Age groups.
