spirit rapping

noun

variants or spirit-rapping

ˈspir-ət-ˌra-piŋ 

: communication by raps held to be from the spirits of the dead

Mr. Buell was quite accustomed to reaching his wife in the "spirit world" and the couple frequently communicated through sessions of "spirit rapping," the vehicle being a table.

—Mary Byers and Margaret McBurney

… while the public responded to the discovery of magnetism and electricity with mystical awe, phenomena such as spirit-rapping were thought possible thanks to the medium being tapped into a source of as yet unknown energy.

—Bozenza Kucala

Examples of spirit rapping in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The middle sister, Maggie, publicly denounced spirit rapping in 1888. —Brandy Schillace, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined above