The narrator offers late-life recollections of encounters with spirit-rapping and related phenomena, describing experiments, table-turning, and investigations into alleged communications. Anecdote and analysis are combined to weigh explanations such as mesmerism, fraud, and supernatural agency, and to expose tricks and theoretical gaps. The account situates the phenomena within contemporary philanthropic and reform movements, suggesting links to social and political enthusiasms. It closes with reflective conclusions and a personal religious conversion that informs the author's final judgment.