spirit rapping
noun
variants
or spirit-rapping
: 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
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
Bozenza KucalaExamples of spirit rapping in a Sentence
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The middle sister, Maggie, publicly denounced spirit rapping in 1888.
—Brandy Schillace, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2021
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Brandy Schillace, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Spirit rapping.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spirit%20rapping. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
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