Phasmagorica, A Séance Experience Reimagined as Art, Opens in Santa Fe

An immersive paranormal installation sold out in Los Angeles — featured in the Los Angeles Times and Forbes — relocates to New Mexico, establishes flagship residence.

SANTA FE, N.M., Aug. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Phasmagorica, the immersive séance experience, has relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it opened on August 1, 2026. Created by composer, magician and Academy of Magical Arts member BC Smith, Phasmagorica is a thirteen-guest paranormal experiment staged inside a purpose-built chamber — part museum installation, part social salon, part séance where the guests become the medium.

Guests enter the Chapter House in small groups, received by the Archivist. The evening begins with attunement — a quiet preparation of attention, clairvoyance testing, and collective intent — before guests pass into a chamber shaped by sacred geometry, evolving spectral light, and a thirteen-speaker Dolby Atmos system.

Inside, instruments of spirit communication are placed directly into guests' hands along with haunted trigger objects from the Phasmagorica collection. There is no medium, no cast of actors, no jump scares, and no theatrical illusion — the guests themselves become the instruments of the experiment. Conditions are carefully constructed and the sequence precisely guided, but what occurs within cannot be prescribed; every experience is entirely the guest's own.

"Santa Fe has long had a paranormal gravitas woven into its fabric — spiritual, artistic, historical, and entirely its own," said BC Smith, creator of Phasmagorica. "It felt like fertile ground for Phasmagorica… the right place to establish its first permanent home."

The company's motto — Belief Optional. Experience Inevitable. — is also its design brief, avoiding horror tropes and haunted-house machinery in favor of esoteric Parisian salons, paramusicology, and the American spiritualist movement of the late 1800s.

"I'm not a medium, and I don't claim to be one," Smith said. "My role as an artist is to construct the conditions for the experiment, then remove myself from it… Guests frequently report extraordinary occurrences that defy explanation."

The Los Angeles run — spanning a downtown studio, Heritage Square Museum, and Petit Ermitage Hotel — sold out consistently through word of mouth alone, drawing coverage from the Los Angeles Times (September 2025) and Forbes (October 2025).

How to Attend Phasmagorica opens select nights each month, timed to lunar alignment, historical correspondence, and chance. Each block of dates is called The Conditions of Release; seatings are limited to thirteen. Additional offerings include The Salon (a post-experiment gathering), The Society of the Séance (membership for graduates), and private buyouts (inquiries: [email protected]).

Event Details

• What: Phasmagorica — an immersive séance experience
• Where: Location revealed at ticket purchase, Santa Fe, NM 87505
• Schedule: Up to 13 nights/month, 1-3 seatings/night
• Runtime: ~90 minutes, plus Salon
• Capacity: 13 guests per seating
• Tickets: $108-$125: phasmagorica.com
• Ages: Adults only

About Phasmagorica: An immersive séance experience and paranormal installation created by BC Smith, now in permanent residency in Santa Fe. Belief Optional. Experience Inevitable. phasmagorica.com: @phasmagorica

About the Creator: BC Smith is a composer, magician, and Academy of Magical Arts member, with film credits including Smoke Signals, Tobe Hooper's Djinn, and Edge of the Unknown (National Geographic). Produced by David Skinner of ShadowCatcher Entertainment, Anna Darrah & BC Smith.

Media Contact: [email protected]: 505-490-5029

Audrey Nadia Rubinstein
Publicist
METTA Agency
505-490-5029
[email protected]

SOURCE Phasmagorica