Has Elvis Really Left the Building? History of Celebrity Seances [Dr K.Cherrell]

Has Elvis Really Left the Building? A Short History of Celebrity Séances
Dr Kate Cherrell, Writer and broadcaster

Since the creation of the modern celebrity, séance and the supernatural have been unhappy bedfellows, allowing audiences to incite or imagine interactions with their idols. Mediums and psychics have built careers on the backs of dead celebrities, with many long-dead pop stars unknowingly spurring an entire subsection of psychic memoirs and after-death experiences. Neither Elvis, John Lennon nor Princess Diana have had restful afterlives, but have experienced decades of public appearances and sightings, captured on film, vinyl and countless paperback books.

Para-social relationships are an inherent part of the celebrity/consumer cycle, but they do not finish at the point of death. Rather, they transform and elevate, where personal ideas, beliefs and senses of self can be projected onto a spectral blank slate. Looking at popular culture within the history of celebrity séance, we can learn more about ourselves and our societal needs than what Oscar Wilde and Michael Jackson had for breakfast. This lighthearted talk takes a sideways look at the weird world of celebrity seances in western history, from Elvis’ spectral adventures in Watford to Mark Twain’s post-mortem literature.

Dr Kate Cherrell is a writer and broadcaster specialising in paranormal history and popular seance. Her academic interests include 19th century gothic, periodical culture and modern spiritualism. She is the author of Begotten (2025) and Buried England (2026) and writes commercially on supernatural history. As a paranormal historian, she has co-hosted Haunted Homecoming (Discovery, 2022, 2024) and Unexplained: Caught on Camera (Discovery, 2023), and has provided historical expertise on upcoming television shows for major broadcasters. She has edited the blog Burials and Beyond since 2017 and can usually be found in some dark, dusty corner with a big glass of wine and a good book.