The Archive
What used to be premium-only is going public in weekly stages. Past posts are being updated regularly, so check in.
The Ghost Hunters Effect: How Paranormal Reality TV Reshaped What Audiences Expect From a Séance
December 5, 2023
A sitter walked into a private event in the Louisville area a few years back already holding her phone up, recording for what she called...
Reading the Room in Real Time, Adjusting a Bizarre Magic Set Without Breaking the Frame
November 10, 2023
A room lies to you before the show even starts. The promoter tells you the crowd skews older, reflective, ready for slow reveals. Then forty...
The Camera Didn’t Lie: Spirit Photography, Double Exposures, and the Modern Performer’s Use of Visual Evidence
June 2, 2023
The photograph arrived in mourning families' hands weeks after the sitting. It showed what they'd hoped for and hadn't dared name out loud: a translucent...
After the Curtain: Managing Belief, Discomfort, and the Conversations That Happen When the Show Refuses to End
May 13, 2023
The show ended forty minutes ago. Everyone has their coats, there's laughter near the door, and she's still standing near the edge of the room,...
Light as Language: A Working Performer’s Guide to Atmospheric Illumination
April 13, 2023
Most performers think about lighting the way they think about tablecloths. Something to have, not something to use. They dim the overheads, put a candle...
The Body in the Dark: Physical Phenomena and the Case for Bringing Manifestations Back to the Modern Seance
March 27, 2023
I've sat in rooms where a table moved and nobody wanted to leave. Not because the show was especially polished. Because something had changed in...
Routining the Séance: How to Architect a Complete Bizarre Magic Experience From First Effect to Final Exit
January 21, 2023
I don't claim there's a formula for this. I'm skeptical of anyone who does. But I've sat through enough séances, as a performer and as...
The Ethics of Belief: Simulation, Responsibility, and Where the Line Actually Is
November 7, 2022
I don't claim to be psychic. I want to be clear about that up front. But I've watched people leave a performance room with something...
Spirit Trumpets, Slates, and Ectoplasm Cabinets: Collecting the Physical Artifacts of Fraudulent Mediumship
September 2, 2022
Spirit Trumpets, Slates, and Ectoplasm Cabinets: Collecting the Physical Artifacts of Fraudulent Mediumship Why This Category Rewards Serious Attention The physical apparatus of fraudulent mediumship...
The Collector’s Eye: Authenticating, Sourcing, and Valuing Antique Occult Instruments
August 7, 2022
Most collectors learn the hard way. They buy what looks right, trust a seller's word on age, and discover six months later they've paid a...
Sound Design for the Séance: How Audio Architecture Shapes Belief and Sustains Atmosphere
July 23, 2022
In Part 1: The Architecture of Dread: Building Atmospheric Tension Before a Single Word Is Spoken, the focus was physical: room arrangement, sightlines, the deliberate...
The Séance Table as Mise-en-Scène: Designing Environments That Break Skeptics
July 2, 2022
By the time your first participant sits down, the séance has already been running for twenty minutes. The work happened while they were in the...