Every Zoom meeting is a séance.

You’ve seen the memes, the gifs and the #canyouhearus? The "Hello? Are you there?" Offers to become the “Host”. Like the table-tipping, poltergeist activity and psychical research that surged in popularity during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, why not set up your next video call differently this lockdown?

Set it up so it’s not just you who appears on screen. Set out to reinvigorate the tradition in 2021; that is, give it new life.

The Society of Psychical Research, whose archive is housed in Cambridge University Library, was the “first society to conduct organised scholarly research into human experiences that challenge contemporary scientific models,” and it’s here that we find inspiration to keep us awake during the driest of lectures. But it involves some careful preparation, multitasking, and patience.

The psychics of the late 1930s were masters of all three. Alma Fielding, the subject of ghost hunter Nandor Fodor’s most famous case, managed to “make eggs fly through the air, mice run out of her handbag, and stolen jewellery appear on her fingers,” all while under the watchful eye of Fodor and his colleagues at the institute. Quite something, don’t you think?

Now it’s your turn.

Here are three ways to stay alive* (*awake) during that lecture:

The open doorway

You will need: fishing wire; patience; a willing lockdown partner.

Make sure the door to your home office is in the background of your video call (a wardrobe or cupboard will suffice). Arrange a time for a member of your support bubble to push open the door, slowly, and without being seen. Alternatively, send them a message at the most suitable moment. The one-hour mark is usually best. If you are in a solitary bubble, tie fishing wire to the door handle of your choice and pull discreetly to make the door open by itself. Windows are a suitable alternative.

The figure at the window

You will need: a window; a willing friend; game face.

Make sure you have a window in your shot. Draw attention to it by looking over your shoulder or having a friend throw something soft at it. Next, turn off your camera (an opportunity to share your screen elicits a more natural response). Have your game face on when returning to the call, as one by one your peers notice the hooded figure staring at you through the window.

Results may vary depending on the position of your window and the time of day.

The outdoors

You will need: mobile phone; a good scream; a willing friend.

You’re taking your one-hour exercise or you’re on the way to the shed (makeshift office) and answer the call outside. As you explain to your lecturer your need for the great outdoors, you don’t notice the figure creeping up behind you. Crunchy leaves and dry twigs make good sound effects here.

Drop your phone on the grass and leave the call running. Then SCREAM.

For the gruesome among you, ketchup can be used to add arterial spray over the lens (waterproof phones and hard cases only).

I also like to guess who will be the first to burst through the door to my lecturer’s home office. After the shambles that was 2020, I expect the innocent child, the nanny or the family pet to have the best odds, but what I’d love to see next is a ghost. Something to make me sit up and spill green tea all over the MacBook; something to make me rub my eyes and blink twice as I stare at the tall, black mass taking up the frame behind my lecturer’s left shoulder.

Alas, the ghost is yet to appear, but this hasn’t stopped me from taking matters into my own hands. Go on, give it a try.

Non-scary alternatives are available. But for the next six weeks at least, don’t let your study feel like an escape room.

Want to find out more about Alma? See Kate Summerscale’s The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story. Bloomsbury, 2020.