How did Victorian table-turning sessions work?

Victorian table-turning, also known as table tipping, was a popular physical phenomenon featured in 19th-century séances where participants sought to communicate with the dead. During these sessions, individuals would place their hands on a table, which would subsequently tilt, rotate, or move in ways that attendees interpreted as evidence of spirit presence.12

While participants often believed these movements were caused by spirits, researchers attribute the phenomenon to the ideomotor effect. This is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual’s thoughts, expectations, or beliefs trigger involuntary muscular movements without conscious intention. In the context of a séance, the collective expectation that a spirit might move the table leads participants to exert subtle, unconscious pressure with their hands, resulting in the physical movement of the object.1

This effect is also used to explain other practices involving perceived supernatural guidance, such as dowsing, pendulum divination, and the use of the Ouija board.1