How Dostoevsky Communicated with… GHOSTS!

It was especially popular in Moscow circles. Scientists, officials and writers alike all spent their time "table-turning" and otherwise communicating with the other world. One of the most famous spiritualist séances took place 150 years ago, on February 13, 1876, in St. Petersburg at the home of publicist Alexander Aksakov.

Aksakov invited both supporters of spiritualism, such as chemist Alexander Butlerov and zoologist Nikolai Wagner, and skeptics, including writers Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Leskov, to this séance.

The participants communicated with spirits by means of knocks. An experiment was conducted to guess the names they had in mind. Dostoevsky stepped aside, secretly wrote down the name ‘Theodore’ on a piece of paper and clutched the note in his hand. When Aksakov pronounced the name, three affirmative knocks followed. Leskov conducted a similar experiment.

According to the recollections of those present, the table rose into the air twice – by 25-30 centimeters, hovering for several seconds. Dostoevsky placed a handkerchief under the table and, after a few minutes, declared himself "pulled to one side". The séance was interrupted by a joke Dostoevsky made, which the medium (the evening's host) found offensive.

Leskov left a detailed account of this evening, which ultimately divided society into supporters and opponents of spiritualism. The main opponent was chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, head of the scientific commission studying "mediumistic phenomena".