About Mediumship
Mediumship is for Everyone, NOT, just a chosen few !
How Mediumship Started - Brief Overlay:
Psychic predictions and phenomena can be traced back throughout history. People were tortured and burned at the stake for being 'Witches or Warlocks' when in fact all they were, were mediums, healers or psychics.
The first professional mediums date back to 1848. This was of course the Fox family from Hydesville, New York State, USA. This family was visited by the spirit of a peddler who had been robbed and murdered by the previous occupant of their house and claimed that his body was still buried in the cellar. It was proved some time later, when they dug the cellar floor up and found his remains as their spirit visitor had stated in his communications. This was the first proof, beyond doubt, that life did continue beyond that veil that we call death.
The two daughters, Margaret and Kate, realising their talent for this type of communication, hired a hall to demonstrate their abilities. They also traveled around further to demonstrate what was then a unique talent. But it wasn't long before other groups sprang up across the country. This single event is what Spiritualists consider to be the start of the Spiritualist Movement.
There were in fact, long before the Fox sisters, others who had taken up the gauntlet of studying psychic phenomena. Emmanuel Swedenborg, holds claim to being the Father of the discovery of supernatural powers. Others before the Fox sisters were Edward Irvine a Scottish Presbyterian Minister and Andrew Jackson Davis.
During the 1850's a new ambassador emerged in the form of Emma Hardinge Britton. Born in England but moved to America to work. Emma became famous as a trance medium. She toured America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand spreading the message of Spiritualism. It was through her mediumship that spirit dictated the Seven Principles of Mediumship which are still used by the Spiritualist National Union today.
Mediums of this era were subjected to ridicule not only from the church but also the scientific community and other sceptics.
The first medium to operate in Britain was Mrs Haydon, who took up residence in England and held seances. But it was a group of Cambridge scholars who, in 1882 founded the Society of Physical Research and pushed the subject further into recognition. The aim was to investigate debatable phenomena without prejudice, even though that claim in itself was debatable.
Early demonstrations of mediumship were all very physical, rapping's, table tilting, materialisations etc. Over the years these have declined in popularity to be replaced by the type of mediumship that we see today. Nowadays modern mediums work by using the mind as a receiver and relaying information to those who need it.
How do Mediums Work?
First, if we can accept that dying is not the end of our existence, and it might be the end of the physical body which, was just a vessel that carried our consciousness, our Soul/Astral or Spiritual Body, and that this is the part of us that survives death and exists somewhere else, then it might be possible to make contact with that consciousness and all the memories and emotions that made that person what they were during their life on this Earth Plain.
So where are they? Not so far away as one might think! The world of spirit exists all around us but just out of reach of our physical eye and vibration. It might be better to think of it as a Dimension, rather than a place. Most understand and believe that this spirit world exists on a different vibrational level than that of our own. From this point of view it might be easier to think of it as a frequency, much the same as that of your radio which has different frequencies. The medium learns how to adjust and tune themselves into these frequencies and raise their vibrations to meet those in the spirit world who in turn lower their vibrations to tune into our frequencies. It is always a two way agreement between the medium and the communicator.
So when a medium site with their clients, or stands for a church service, they put themselves into a receptive state by raising their vibrational level to meet that of spirit who are in turn lowering theirs to make the link or contact possible. The contact is given by means of thought, these thoughts are transmitted by the communicating spirit person to the medium. Although mediums in the main give the messages that they are given, it is possible for the medium to ask the spirit questions and receive an answer. After all it is a live communication. It should also be remembered that spirit people, as we all do, have freedom of choice as to whether they communicate with us or not. A medium can in no way force a communication with a spirit person to make them known.
The initial contact is referred to as 'Making the Link'. The medium makes a request, by thought, to their spirit guide or helper for a communicator to come forward. Just how successful the communication is depends on the experience of the medium, although other factors can come into play. Once a link is established the spirit person will want to establish their identity. The spirit communicator will transmit thoughts about themselves to the medium. The medium should then be able to interpret these thoughts and describe the person back to the client.
As previously stated, to interpret any information a medium must ;earn how to attune and link to the spirit world. While some mediums have grown up with this ability, others have to learn to train their minds to accept the information in this way. This is often done by means of meditation, a process of calming the body and allowing the mind to become receptive. This can to some extent be taught to anyone, but not all who try will become mediums.
Scientists who have studied the human brain, insist that we see more with our brain than we do with our eyes, the eyes being just a window. This might help explain how mediums can 'see' our friends, the data has simply arrived in an alternative way, the brain processes the data and 'sees' the information.
Mental Mediumship
What is 'Mental' Mediumship?
It is what is received through the mind of a medium from a spirit entity while the medium is in a receptive and altered state of mind. Try to liken it to a telephonist. A telephonist picks up her phone line and there is a person asking her to connect them to another person. So let us place the medium as the telephonist receiving a message from the spirit (the person making the call to the recipient). The medium then tells the person (The recipient) what the mediums is receiving from the spirit person. The only difference is, that the medium does the talking and depending on how good he/she is at making their link depends on the clarity of the message being given.
Mental Mediumship falls into a number of categories, but there are mainly that the working medium uses.
a. Clairvoyance (Seeing what spirit are communicating to you)
b. Clair-sentience (Sensing what spirit are communicating to you)
c. Clair-audience (Hearing the spoken word from spirit)
These descriptions are brief and we will try to explain them to you in more detail in the following paragraphs.
There are other forms of mental mediumship that could be mentioned, such as psychic art or inspired writing, but generally these adopt or fall into the three categories mentioned above.
Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance or Clear Seeing - A vision in the mind in picture form.
The dictionary gives the following description of Clairvoyance:
1. The supposed power to perceive things that are out of the natural range of human senses, attributed to certain individuals. 2. Acute intuitive perceptiveness.
I can only say that there is no supposed about it. Mediums are able to adjust their minds to a state of reception whereby they are able to see, sense and hear things far beyond the audible range of the normal human being. Clairvoyance is the ability of being able to see pictures, places, objects and colours sent from the spirit world. It is this particular gift that allows the spirit, through the medium, to describe things to those they wish to communicate with. This also includes symbolism. Images, which are in fact visual clues from the communicating spirit.
Clairaudiance
Clair-audience or Clear Hearing - Hearing the voices of spirit people.
Clair-audience is the mediums gift of hearing spirit voices. Remembering of course that this is still an interpretation. The Medium for example, hears a voice in their ear, (but it is also possible to hear a thought,) they then tell the person who is being read, the recipient, what has been said. The medium is able to detect accents, age, tone and speed.
Clairsentience
Clair-sentience or Feeling - The ability to sense feelings.
Clair-sentience is the art of being able to sense feelings and impressions from spirit, especially of letting the mediums know how they passed. For example; they may sense a painful sensation around the heart area to show a heart attack. Pressure or breathing difficulty to the chest to show a lung or breathing problem, even joint pains can often be felt. They can also include how the spirit person felt, emotions like euphoria, fear, panic or well-being can be interpreted.
Under this category, i think we can also include what some call as Claioma, smell, scents that are associated with people in spirit. Spirit will quite often place a smell about the medium which could be associated with their place of work, their favourite perfumes or even their favourite flower. All which help to establish identity.
