Seance table tattoos windows#

One chooses Marilyn Monroe, another Alan Turing. Then he asks them think of a famous person who is dead and who held some meaning for them. “See and remember.” They return to their seats, but remain standing. With that, he spreads a deck of cards face-up on the table, then picks 10 audience members, one-by-one, to look at the cards, pick one mentally - but not touch it - and remember it. “Let’s be courteous enough to invite Sarah into this room tonight,” he says. “Some people come to this house to learn of an amazing woman, who was interested in architecture and art, who built stairs oddly because of her health. Winchester, heiress to the Winchester Repeating Arms gun fortune, who never really got over the deaths of her husband and infant daughter. He pauses for a beat and a raised eyebrow: “Unless you do.” The Winchester Mystery House is hosting Victorian-style seances this summer. “You will not leave here haunted or possessed by demons.” He’s low-key, but has a quick-clip delivery that keeps the audience lingering on every word. “Some of the things presented for you this evening are tricks. Rather, apropos of the mansion’s era, the stage is a simple platform with a small draped table and two chairs – a quiet setting one might have encountered at a spiritualist gathering at the turn of the last century.

It’s a magic show, but not the kind with water-tank escapes, feather-boa’d showgirls or people sawed in half. Assistant Rebecca Knight gets in the proper spirit for a performance by illusionist Aiden Sinclair called “Illusions of the Passed, a Theatrical Seance” at the Winchester Mystery House. Indeed, this mansion with its byzantine halls and stairs to nowhere make the perfect backdrop for this summer’s “Illusions of the Passed - A Theatrical Séance,” with illusionist/mentalist Aiden Sinclair. What does that mean? Only Sarah knows for sure.

Seance table tattoos windows#

Faux candles flicker, illuminating the wood-paneled ceiling and twinkling off cryptic sayings in the stained-glass windows that flank the mirrored mantel: “Wide Unclasp the Tables of Their Thoughts These Same Thoughts People This Little World.”

Victorian-gowned ushers escort us into the great beyond of the ballroom, where everyday tour visitors ne’er dare step past the velvet ropes. But on this warm June night at San Jose’s legendary Winchester Mystery House, it feels as if we’ve been invited by Sarah Winchester herself. We step through the front door and into enigma, which is not unexpected given the setting. CLICK HERE if you are having trouble viewing these photos on a mobile device