Most of us have, at some time, watched a medium at work. They stand before their audience with no scripts or notes, just their mental abilities. You might be one of the audience members hoping for a message from a loved one in spirit.
There is a tangible feeling of excitement and nervousness in the room. The excitement comes from the hope of hearing a miracle, though that’s not how most people understand it. The expectation of hearing someone in the spirit world pass a message through the medium to someone lucky enough to understand it.
The true miracle lies in the fact that a departed soul can still communicate with their loved ones on earth. The nervous energy in the room is a mix of the audience’s fears and hopes, with a significant portion of it being generated by the medium, hoping to act as a pure vessel.
The medium hopes to demonstrate they are able to connect to the spirit world and through that process, prove that our loved ones’ personality continues to exist in their new world. The medium will strive to relay as clear and concise a message to someone present in the room.
Some mediums take a few minutes to explain how their process works. They might explain basically how they receive the messages. Often, a medium will bravely announce that if the message is for you, all you should say in return is either yes, no, or I don’t understand. They might suggest that you should not ‘feed the medium’ with additional information unless they ask.
Though those last requests are reasonable advice, they should not be fixed rules and there are occasions where breaking them is acceptable. Imagine if you took the same principle into a doctor’s room, for example. Imagine the doctor asking you what is wrong, and you replying, “I don’t know. You’re the doctor, you tell me!” Good communication involves two people, or three in mediumship.
Mediums should, in principle, avoid asking direct questions, though again, this is not a fixed rule. Questions from a medium that are phrased, “Would you understand…” or “Why am I feeling…” as two examples may be significant and acceptable. But questions such as this next example are not ideal. “Do you have a brother in the spirit world?” These are information-probing questions and are not advisable. An experienced medium might rephrase the question: “I’m feeling this person’s energy, and it feels like a brotherly type. Would you understand that?”
For the purpose of this lesson, let us consider there are usually two types of persons witnessing the medium work. First, there are those audience members who do not know how mediumship works. It may be their first time experiencing a demonstration of mediumship. Or they don’t know anything about the expectations, other than the medium is apparently going to connect to the spirit world for purpose of forwarding messages. These are the people the medium aims their opening address at. Then there are those in the audience that have some knowledge of how mediumship works. They may even be mediums themselves.
Due to time constraints, and bearing in mind what the people have attended the demonstration of mediumship for, the medium usually doesn’t go into great detail about his or hers methods. Often, those few moments are also being used by the medium to attune themselves to the spirit world in preparation for a connection. To fully explain how a medium receives communication would take too much time and would soon bore the audience! The proof, as they say, is in the pudding!
Our first type of audience member often doesn’t know what to expect from the medium. Naturally, they might believe that a message from their loved one in spirit would sound like the medium is repeating a conversation being heard during a phone call. If only it were that easy!
What should an audience member expect to hear, and what constitutes evidence? To answer those questions, we must first learn a little about the medium’s communication process. The following statements have been simplified to make them easier to understand in layman’s terms.
> Mental Mediums
Most mediums are better described as ‘mental mediums’. This means they use mind processes to receive and relay information from the spirit world. The information a medium relays is subjective, largely based on the medium’s feelings and interpretations.
> Mediums Are Channels
A good medium will be offering their imaginative mind to the spirit world to be used for the connection process. They should be making effort to act like an empty vessel as much as possible during a connection, though they still must interpret the message they receive.
> Mediums Techniques For Receiving Messages
Every medium has their own routines after receiving information from the spirit world. Some mediums see the information in their mind as pictures, others might hear the information as a mind-voice, while some might ‘see’ the person in the spirit world. This latter one is known as clairvoyance and, again, is always subjective. Many mediums will use a combination of all those techniques and combine them with their inner senses, feelings and instincts. No matter how the information is received, the medium has to interpret the message from the information they have at that moment. There are commonly at least seven methods a medium might be using to interpret information. These are known as ‘the clairs’, the most common method being claircognizance.
> Mediums Interpret Information
The person in the spirit world communicating with the medium isn’t doing it directly to the conscious mind. Instead, the information is being received in the medium’s subconscious mind, where it then moves to the conscious mind of the medium. Through the use of one of the medium’s clairs (see graphic below), the medium interprets the information. The spirit communicator often relies on the memories and information in the medium’s mind, knowing that the medium’s bank of memories should interpret the message.
Considering those four statements, it should be easier to understand why mediums are, more often than not, a little or a lot off with their forwarding of the message. As stated earlier, the medium is not receiving a clear-line phone call. The better the medium is, the better their process of interpreting the information becomes, and the more accurate the message appears to the recipient. But always remember that even the most excellent mediums will get it wrong more often than they’d wish to.
Let’s take a look at a few examples that show how the medium has received a communication, but has misinterpreted it, or filled in too many details that led to a misunderstanding.
“THE OVERLY INTERPRETED”
The medium is connected to the person in spirit. The medium declares,
“Why is this person making me feel a pain in my lower left leg?”
That is the medium’s interpretation of a communication thread. It could be that the medium once broke their leg at the very spot where the pain is being felt now. Because the original pain is embedded in the medium’s subconscious memory, the spirit person draws on that memory for this piece of communication. But it doesn’t make sense to the recipient.
Perhaps the person in spirit was trying to relay something similar, using the medium’s memories. Perhaps the person in spirit used to have a pain in their upper leg, on the opposite side, at the back. So, to the recipient, the medium’s interpretation appears wrong.
Several things might happen now. The medium might apologise and continue with other threads within the conversation. Another medium might ‘strip back’ the original thread and try again, such as;
“Ok. But would you understand why this person is giving me pain in a leg?”
This should be enough for the recipient to recall the spirit person’s upper back of leg pain. Bingo – message received!
“THE MISHEARD MESSAGE”
The medium suggests that there’s something to do with ashes around this person they’re connected to.
“I hear the word ‘ashes’ being spoken. He’s showing me a shop, and I don’t recognise it. Would you understand why he is talking about ashes and showing me a shop?”
The recipient looks mystified and declares it means nothing to them. But they had forgotten that the spirit man had liked to occasionally smoke hashish at his local Turkish restaurant. The medium was that close to a perfect piece of gold nugget evidence.
“THE MISTAKEN DETAIL MESSAGE”
The medium glances at a bunch of yellow chrysanthemums nearby on the stage. The person in spirit had brought the medium’s attention to them.
“She’s telling me she loved these flowers. Would you understand that?”
The recipient replies with a no and a statement.
“No, she hated chrysanthemums. They’re too false for her.”
The lady in spirit had loved sunflowers, yellow sunflowers. That was what she was trying to relay. Again, the medium was so close, yet so far!
-||-
From those three examples we can appreciate that the medium actually did a reasonably good job with the connection to the spirit world, but failed in their interpretation and wording. Every medium will be able to share many similar stories and incidents where this kind of interpretation occurred. It’s a common occurrence.
Many experienced attendees to a mediumship demonstration will know that a medium’s interpretations can contain seeds of accurate information. They’ll respond more positively to the medium’s suggestions with responses such as; “I sort of understand that.” or “could you clarify that a bit more please?” or “I understand where you’re coming from, but that is not quite correct”. These replies allow the medium for the person in spirit to rephrase and represent the information in a better form.
The greater the depth of the medium’s connection to the spirit world, the more clarity the information will be, often accurate on the first attempt. But mediums of that calibre of working are less common, particularly in the training arenas, such as churches and local workshops.
It can often appear that there is a fine line between feeding a medium with information and assisting them with a communication. But communication require two people, or in the case of mediumship, three. The strength of the medium’s connection is always in relation to the power of the energy. Positive energy is powerful. Negative energy is draining and depleting.
As a member of the audience, learn to encourage the medium with positive responses wherever possible. Make them loudly heard, clear and concise. Word your no’s differently. “I’m not understanding that.” or “I’m not sure.” or “could you rephrase that please.”
To conclude, here is a communication through a medium from someone in the spirit world that the medium has interpreted and presented.
(This example is only for purposes of adding to this article. In reality, a medium is unlikely to state so many statements without getting occasional validations. On average, a medium would aim for no more than three pieces of information is one statement. )
“I’m sensing this lady in the spirit world is small and is showing herself to me as a person with a caring nature. She loved to go out a lot. She’s talking about a name that I think sounds foreign and although I can see it in my mind, I can’t pronounce it. She’s saying she was a church goer, though wasn’t a believer in the after life. This lady is happy and full of smiles. She doesn’t have any wrinkles and loves to go for long walks. She’s holding an important ring that meant so much to her and wants you to know it’s as glittery as it ever was. She says she passed away on a Thursday and the first thing she did on getting to heaven was have a drink. I’ll leave her love with you.”
The recipient hears all of that from the medium and is confused by it all. They are not convinced and leave the venue doubting the medium’s words. But then later that night, they listen to a recording they made of the medium’s conversation and realise how accurate the medium had been. Here’s their after-thoughts:
- The medium was six feet six inches and had suggested the spirit lady was small. In life, the lady had been five feet six inches which is not small for a lady, but is smaller than the medium by 12 inches.
- In life, the lady hadn’t been exceptionally caring where humans were concerned. But she had loved the outdoors and nature (caring nature).
- Yes she had loved to go out – when she was wheeled outside in her wheelchair for fresh air, not in the sense of going out at night!
- Her name had appeared as foreign to the medium because her name was Siobhan, a name spelt entirely differently to its common sound and not a name the medium had experience with.
- The lady was not a church goer, though made a point of questioning people that did go. Now in the afterlife, she a believer!
- In the last few years on earth the lady was in constant pain that left her extremely miserable, never seeming happy. But now, in the spirit world, she is free of pain and always smiling again.
- She doesn’t have any wrinkles, because as soon as she got to her new world, they didn’t exist any more!
- She never went for walks on earth because she was wheelchair bound. But now free of that burden she enjoys walking the beautiful fields and landscapes around her.
- The ring was her first ring ever bought her when she was young. It contained diamonds. But she lost it and always missed it. In her world, she has been reunited with it and holds it with such pride.
- She passed away on a Sunday. She was in hospital and was constantly pleading for water to drink, but the nursing staff wouldn’t allow her any. She was thirsty (not Thursday).
You see! The communication was filled with ingredients that nailed the conversation. The issue lay with a) the medium’s interpretation of the information and b) the recipient’s literal interpretation of the words.
Mediumship is not an exact science. Connecting to the spirit world is relatively straightforward. Correctly interpreting the thoughts and feelings during the connection is another matter.
The next time you think a medium is wrong in something they relay to you, take a moment or two and consider how the main ingredient of the communication might have been misconstrued by the medium.
Of course, there will be mediums that claim they are never wrong, or insist you ‘take a message away with you’. But those traits are not important in the bigger picture. The goal is for the person in spirit to relay a message to someone on earth by whatever or whoever they can. The medium is just the vessel.
READER’S FEEDBACK
The following comments were received via email from ‘Jon’ in Dorset:
“Thank you for this excellent TIS article. This is what sets you and your website above the rest. Everyone reading this article should be able to learn something from it, and now it can be re-read as often as needed. Your website is a place where your readers and students can put their hands up to ask questions and you take the time to answer in a clear and concise way. You are creating a handbook covering all aspects of spiritualism that all can enjoy and understand.”
2 responses
Hi Trevor
What an excellent article, full of useful learning points for the aspiring mediums. It clarified many of the problems faced when doing readings, many of which I have faced in my path towards becoming a competent medium. Readings in front of an audience where I struggle to deliver a coherent message leaves me feeling like a real failure. Thanks to this article I can see that not getting a message quite right is an occupational hazard where mediumship is concerned. The medium hasn’t failed because there are a number of ways the message may reach the medium and then there can be a number of possible interpretations of the message. But then nobody said being a medium was going to be easy!
Thanks for the article.
Thank you Bill. Kind words. You’re on a path with your mediumship that is healthy and real. Thank you.