I want to make it clear that I am a medium, but I may not be as good as some of the others out there. However, I have set high expectations for myself and strive to meet them. I have had the opportunity to watch hundreds of other mediums demonstrate their abilities and have learned many wonderful things from them. But I have also come across a few not-so-good ones in my journey.
It’s all too common these days that new mediums are quick to want to perform in front of an audience. Eager to demonstrate their newly found abilities. In times gone by, the circle leaders were always keen to hold their students back until they felt they were ready. But nowadays, the students are too enthusiastic to get up in front of people and demonstrate their mediumship, even if it’s not really good enough for a public performance.
As a medium myself, I understand that I should not criticise other mediums by comparing them for their abilities. But I feel that if the medium is prepared to stand in front of a gathered crowd (often paying to be there), then its performance is open to criticism if it warrants it.
Here are seven traits I absolutely hate seeing other mediums do. I most certainly work hard to avoid them myself, and I find it so annoying when other mediums bring these traits into their demonstrations.
📌 THE COUNSELLING MEDIUM
This is the medium that decides that the podium is a good place to counsel a recipient. They often use common phrases such as:
“ You need to go to the doctor about that . . . “
“You need to take more care of yourself . . . “
“ You’re not eating enough veggies, and you need to cut down on . . . “
The medium claims that the person’s guide is telling them. But that is not the role of our guides and people overlooking us in the spirit world. It is up to us how we live our earth life. It is not the duty of a medium to preach to a recipient, least of all in a public environment.
I have witnessed many mediums that seem to get off on telling someone what the recipient should and shouldn’t be doing with their life. We are mediums, not counsellors.
📌 THE GENERIC MEDIUM
Some of a medium’s communications with a recipient will naturally contain generalised statements, as we all do to each other every day of our lives. But too many times, mediums use these common statements as evidence of a continuing life when really, they’re just statements that would likely fit most people.
Medium speaking to a lady in her 60s in the congregation.
“I’ve got your gran with me. She’s been doing some baking. She’s got her pinnie on and I can see some tissues up her rolled up sleeves. She’s a warm and friendly lady with nice grey curly hair. Blah blah blah!”
Those statements have no evidence or proof of the continuation of life, they’re too generic. Probably everyone in an audience can accept those messages as descriptive of their own relations!
You’ll often find these mediums in the spiritualist churches. To me, it’s evidence that the medium has attended a weekend workshop or sat in a circle for a few weeks and has been told that they’re ready to ‘serve’. It’s often plain to see that they’ve not connected to the spirit world and are probably unable to anyway.
Generic mediumship is not always entirely from the new student mediums. I’ve witnessed experienced mediums that are obviously having a bad day and have reverted to shallow and generic messages that contain no evidence of value.
📌 THE LOCAL KNOWLEDGE MEDIUM
This medium is popular; they are invited regularly to serve their local church, often as frequently as monthly or as a backup. They live locally, and they are well-known to everyone. In other words, the medium knows most of the people and, therefore, has acquired much information about the regular people, as we all would, simply in the passage of life.
These mediums, with local knowledge, are able to quote postcodes, telephone numbers, addresses and even dates of celebration. This medium can also quote postcodes, telephone numbers, exact addresses and dates of celebrations – because they know them.
I watched a medium do exactly this in what, on the surface, appeared to be a spectacular demonstration. The medium quoted postcodes, road names and phone numbers. My partner was impressed with the demo, until I pointed out that the medium worked that church every couple of weeks and was friends with most of the congregation at some level.
📌 THE SHOWBIZ MEDIUM
The showbiz medium is the one that everyone likes. Everyone is keen to have a reading from them. When it comes to claiming who a message is for, these enthusiastic followers are less worried about the actual content of the message and more concerned with receiving a reading from the medium.
Then there’s the other sort of medium that ‘owns the platform’. They’ve perfected their stage-craft. The jokes, the one-liners, the amusing little phrases, the personal stories of triumph. But little or no evidence from them proving the continuation of life!
I recall buying tickets at a local church to watch a locally well-known and well-loved medium’s demonstration. The ladies loved him. He was funny and charming and was aware of his presence on the stage. His performance, for that’s what it was, was like something from a showbiz production.
I wasn’t interested in that side of his demonstration, only in his evidence of there being an afterlife. He didn’t produce one single piece all night.
📌 THE QUESTIONING MEDIUM
There are good and proper ways to ask questions during a demonstration of mediumship. I would suggest that the good questions could be considered as rhetorical or ‘after-the-fact. For example:
“Would you understand why your aunty ended up in hospital after the riding accident?”
The question isn’t about the evidence but the understanding of the incident. A perfectly acceptable way of using a question during a communication. This differs substantially from the questions I call direct. Questions that are probing and seeking information and clues from the recipient.
“How old was your aunty?”
“Did she have a sister?”
These are the kinds of questions the medium should be asking their connected source, not the recipient. Whenever a medium asks me a direct question during a demonstration, I reply, “You tell me!”
📌 THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED MEDIUM
There is a disconnect between a medium’s qualifications and their mediumship. I find it hugely satisfying to know that a medium has taken time (and money) to gain a diploma or certificate in the mediumship. These don’t come easily and show me that the medium has dedicated itself to betterment and excellence.
But these letters after their name and titles mean little when it comes to connecting to the spirit world and channelling good and solid evidence of there being a continuing life after this one.
It works both ways too. I’ve watched some of these qualified mediums demonstrate their mediumship, and although the presentation was polished, the evidence was thin. Equally, I’ve watched a few lesser-known mediums work, and their production of evidence has been mind-blowing. Yet they have no qualifications other than their time served as a medium.
📌 THE ARRIVED MEDIUM
This is what I call the medium that has learnt the basics of mediumship and knows some fancy lines to use during a reading because they’ve gained some experience and knowledge. But they spend little or no time on continuing to learn and to unfold their potential, instead relying on what they know without wanting to know more.
Frustratingly, some of these ‘arrived’ mediums teach local small groups of students, impressing their limited knowledge of the unsuspecting students.
Most of the well-known mediums in the UK that teach have either qualified to do so, or have enough experience to. Mediumship is about becoming an ambassador that represents this work with spirit. It’s about self-improvement, not about self-fame. The medium that claims to know everything knows nothing. It’s harsh but fair.
