Spiritualism

Technically, Madame Sosostris would have been in breach of the Witchcraft Act of 1735, which was not repealed until 1951. This Act made it illegal to claim to have psychic powers. 

There was a huge rise in interest in spiritualism during and after the Great War, as grieving relatives sought the comfort of communication with the dead and missing. In his autobiography Good-Bye to All That, Robert Graves describes an incident at the home of Siegfried Sassoon, when he hears Sassoon's mother attempt to contact her dead son, Hamo:

 I was continually awakened by sudden rapping noises, which I tried to disregard but which grew louder and louder. They seemed to come from everywhere. Soon sleep left me and I lay in a cold sweat. At nearly three o'clock, I heard a diabolic yell and a succession of laughing, sobbing shrieks that sent me flying to the door. In the passage, I collided with the mother who, to my surprise, was fully dressed. "It's nothing," she said, "One of the maids had hysterics. I'm so sorry you have been disturbed." 

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