Does occultism actually work? It seems like the answer is yes; If it is true tons of powerful people are occultists, and it looks as if many are.
I heard of a curious incident years ago, involving a murdered person's friend having her appear to her, spontaneously as far as I know, in a dream while she slept next to her husband, and give her enough clues about some jewelry stolen at the time of her murder to solve it. It should be in the Chicago Police records but I never thought to look for court records and can't find a reference to it now.
But I don't think so many would practice it if they didn't get results. That Episcopalian bishop from San Francisco fell away into it when his son committed suicide. He was looking for communication from him in his grief. He ended up in a divorce, remarried, a trip to Israel where he wandered into the desert and died of thirst while his wife or girl friend had gone for help. There's a message in there somewhere.
His name was James Pike. You can look it up; it's just one of hundreds.
As to rich, famous, powerful, I have read many accounts but can't verify the accuracy. I don't know if spiritualism was born in America or what, but it involved two sisters in Vermont or New York who claimed to communicate with spirits who tipped tables.
Evidently divination for water works. I've read many accounts of people having the "gift". Also read of some priests or monks doing it in South America to find where to dig a well. The church didn't seem to condemn them but I don't know how they would handle it now.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-04-22/features/9604220008_1_nurse-john-cosgrove-dead-woman
Says they've made a movie of it, didn't know that.
Chicago Murder Tale Is Retold
This is an April 1996 article, excerpt "The puzzling case of Teresita Basa was profiled on NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" as part of the show's "The Unexplained" segment. Now it has become a two-hour movie. "From the Files of `Unsolved Mysteries': Voice From the Grave" premieres at 8 p.m. Monday."
Never saw where it involved calling up the spirit; you never know exactly how or why it happened as it did.