The majority of Henry Sara's lantern lectures focus on aspects of history and politics, usually drawing from his Communist beliefs; this talk is an exception, as he uses his platform to debunk ideas of magic and spiritualism which had grown in popularity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Subjects of the slides include seances, escapology (including Houdini, from whom Sara had a signed photograph), manifestations of spirits and fairies (including the Cottingley fairies), and levitation. Unfortunately Sara's notes for this talk have not survived, making it difficult to know what is going on in some of the images.

Fuzzy marks on some of the slides have been caused by manifestations of the fungal rather than spiritual type - in some cases mould has attacked the glue which joined the two glass plates of the slide together.

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[Document reference for this set of slides: MSS.15B/5/1/4]