“Taps” On The Spirit Trumpet

“Taps” on the Spirit Trumpet by Alessandra Koch 

By the mid 19th century, the Spiritualist movement was in full swing! The harmony of all present at a seance proved itself through the collaboration of rapping on tables, levitating objects, and direct voice phenomena magnified through the spirit trumpet- all of these phenomena were believed to be performed under the conductorship of Spirit through the presiding medium. We will explore the history of this instrument and its uses in a seance, which continue to capture its audience through the ages.

The Spirit Trumpet is a cylindrical cone with a narrow mouthpiece that usually expands in three parts into a megaphone not unlike the plastic cones yelled into at sporting events. Originally made of cardboard or metal, the demand for sleeker, more expensive material like aluminum or tin quickly grew businesses like that of Everett Atwood Eckel of Indiana. E.A. Eckel sold trumpets for $2 to $3 in the 1920s publications of Spiritualist periodicals like “Psychic Power.” Not unlike the Ouija board and its rich history, the Spirit Trumpet was originally created by Spiritualists to magnify the whispers of Spirits present in a circle- this is why some describe it as the original “hearing aid” or “ear trumpet” to the voices of beyond. In his interview with Collectors Weekly of “Ghosts in the Machine,” historian Brandon Hodge infers that the spirit room in Athens, Ohio, of Jonathan Koons, and the mediumship of his eldest son, Nahum, was the birthplace of the speaking trumpet. While the original trumpets were simple devices, about 2 feet long and 4 inches diameter at the bell end, the trumpet modified with the times into more portable and retractable segments that telescope out into 2 to 3 foot length. Some trumpets may be ringed with luminous paint that create glow-in-the- dark rings within the dark room of a seance.

But how does the Spirit Trumpet actually work? Well, according to Spiritualists, the act of trumpet mediumship is actually better termed direct voice mediumship. According to Maxine Meilleur in “Great Moments of Modern Mediumship Vol. 1,” Voices [of the spirits] speak through a voice box of ectoplasm, a substance taken from the medium’s body, or through a megaphone known as a trumpet,” These voices or sounds may be anything from whispers of departed loved one to the barks of a wolfhound, and they may come from any part of the room. Usually the trumpets will be placed in the center of the people present and when the atmosphere is brought to the right harmony, the spirits may make the trumpet float in the air and fly to stop at a person they want to talk to. The hearing device takes over at that point and messages are made clear.

Besides the direct voice phenomena given by the mediums, the trumpet may also gift the sitters with apports. Derived from the French word, to bring, an apport may materialize within the trumpet as it did for Estelle Roberts and her mediumship circle. Through the trumpet, her spirit guide, Red Cloud, addressed the audience in direct voice and then ended the demonstration with “an avalanche of a dozen or more apports gushing from the trumpet like water from a tap...Many of the gifts were much too large to pass through the narrow neck of the trumpet- as was clearly demonstrated at the end of the seance- yet pass through they did, and without any outside help.” (Pg 32-33)

Heralding the presence of Spirit, the trumpet could also levitate to swing around the room or even tap the sitters and be rapped on itself by Spirit. The Spiritualist Clifford Bias also described in his book on trumpet mediumship of how the trumpet becomes an artificial larynx for the spirit to speak within or through. In his New York City apartment, Mr. Bias also kept regular time with his students to conduct seances using the trumpet. In his masterclasses, the trumpet itself kept rhythm, and the presence of harmony grew as raps and table movements generally preceded direct voice phenomena. Once tapping on the trumpet itself has become a regular occurrence, Bias noted, it is usually moved about and, finally, levitated. Many times before levitation is accomplished, faint voices, whispers and whistling sounds can be heard issuing from the trumpet. (Trumpet Mediumship Pg 34-35)

The composer of the seance, and most active instrument him or herself, is the medium in the center of this performance. In order to herald these activities, the spirit trumpet was created to ring out loud direct voice phenomena and also hold apports for the audience. The history of Spiritualism would not be as harmoniously rich today if it were not for the spirit trumpet.