Sessão Espirita (Seance)

The séance—communication with and channeling of spirits—plays a major role in the Umbanda religion. Leal was a pai-de-santo, a priest in the faith, and the ritual he depicted here may have been based on both observation and experience. The seated individual at the right undergoes an intense psychic experience, locking eyes with the white-suited man, probably the priest and facilitator of the interaction. Leal’s image emphasizes the spiritual over the material through transfixed gazes and gravity defying hair that help to convey the presence of an other-worldly being.