When my coworker Chris dropped “Anyone interested in a seance?” in our staff group chat, the first thought that came to mind was exactly what you’d think: Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramirez in a cheetah headscarf. My second thought was “yes.” Oct. 31 may have already come and gone, but that doesn’t mean that spooky season has to end. If none of this is familiar to you, a seance is a meeting or a ceremony that’s held with the intentions of connecting with the spirits of the dead. Do you have the chills yet?
Once we had recruited a substantial conjuring crew, we created a separate group chat, appropriately titled “Spooky Seance Squad,” where we began to work through all the details like what we were going to wear. If I was going to get possessed by a spirit, it would be in something cute. Luckily, there’s plenty of writing detailing exactly what you should wear to a seance!
On a more serious note, Chris had done some research and, in order to perform this seance right, we needed supplies to attract the spirits and to protect ourselves. In theory, Chris told us that, in order to be cleansed, we were supposed to take Epsom salt baths before and after our seance. Additionally, we would need candles and bread to entice the spirits who would be looking for warmth and sustenance. More specifically, we needed white or pink candles because they bring love and any other color had the potential to attract demons, which was something we were trying to avoid. We headed to the friendly neighborhood Dollar Tree since we’re all college students ballin’ on a budget, and picked up a pack of white candles and some Hawaiian rolls.
Our game plan was simple. We lit the candles, joined hands and tried to focus our energy on welcoming some friendly phantoms. Another one of my coworkers, Liz, even brought crystals to enhance the good vibes. After this gained no apparent response from the other side, we tried using Liz’s crystal necklace as a pendulum for the spirits to answer yes and no questions with. Unfortunately, that attempt also failed. We joined hands once more, after about an hour of trying to communicate, and repeated a simple chant to let the spirits know that we were open-minded and ready to talk. Although haters might say it’s fake, we did notice that, while all our candles shined bright through the entirety of the seance, the center candle did seem to dim itself at times for no apparent reason.
We may not have actually connected with the dead, but we gave it a good college try. Plus, I think it’s a win in itself that none of us got possessed. We already have a Ouija board on order so next time we can get really spooky.