table rapping

noun

variants or table-rapping

ˈtā-bəl-ˌra-piŋ 

or less commonly table tapping or table-tapping

ˈtā-bəl-ˌta-piŋ 

: spirit rapping

The best Sherlock Holmes stories were written before 1916, when Arthur Conan Doyle officially converted to spiritualism and took to table-rapping.

—Ian Thomson

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined above