I’m so excited! I’ve got my new six-monthly medium rating and I’ve moved up to 60% approval. I’m 5% better than I was in the last period and means I can now charge a little more for my mediumship services.
Under new laws passed last year, all mediums have to acquire an approval rating for participating as a medium. Again, I had no idea when the OMEI (Official Mediumship Evidence Inspector) attended one of my demonstrations. I didn’t know who it was, or even whether it was someone I did a private reading for. It was only when I received the new certificate through the post that I found out. I also found out that their acronym ‘OMEI’ comes from the Japanese word for reputation.
What do you mean, you’ve not heard about this? You must have, if you’re working as a medium. It’s part of the new conditions of working as a medium. The secret inspector, like a mystery shopper, attends one of your demonstrations, or books a private reading with you, and measures how successful your readings were. It’s based on your accurate evidence hit rate.
Apparently, after a demonstration the inspector questions someone you have given a reading for and calculates what your accuracy rate was. Occasionally they don’t need to do this when you have unwittingly given them a reading.
The annual fee I pay to the approval committee is money well spent. As a medium, I know how well I am doing with my communication with the spirit world, based on hard evidence acquired by the covert OMEI
When I attend churches or do demonstrations, whether public or privately, like all mediums since the laws were passed, I must show my certificate as part of the conditions of seeking a booking. My new one, with 60% approval on it means I could charge an approved minimum fee for my service. The certificate shows the period of time it covers. This scheme has also resulted in the need for spiritualist churches to book mediums with a minimum 50% approval rating, or publicise what the medium’s current assessment percentage is. Those that attend for their demonstration, therefore know what to expect from the medium.
The community of mediums are split over whether they like this new system. Some are complaining that their approval rating seems lower than they expected and are now having difficulty finding work. Others are delighted that they know where they are with their mediumship, and are enjoying the challenge of improving.
There have been a few shocks revealed too. A few of those household name mediums have received very low approval ratings and therefore believe the scheme is flawed. At the same time, a few unknown mediums have received high ratings (above 80%) and are now working from full diaries.
I’m releasing this article on April 1st and okay okay, enough, I hear you say. I confess everything you just read was nonsense. But what are you thinking now? I’ll bet you’re wondering what approval rating you might earn under such a utopian scheme. Even my estimation of 60% for myself is probably way too high.
Of course, all I’m doing here is presenting a thought-provoking argument for a way to improve the standards of mediumship. I’m sure we’d all agree that such a rigid scheme would never work and would upset more people than it would help.
Some might suggest that we have such accreditations in place already, such as the awards earned through the Spiritualist National Union education systems. I’m not qualified, but I admire those friends of mine that have gained certification after putting years of work and study in to gain their awards. But lets be honest, does having such an award guarantee the medium’s evidence hit rate in their mediumship?
I have attended many demonstrations where high profile mediums have filled the venues, based on their public profiles and their professionally presented mediumship. All too often though, the actual hard-hitting gold nugget evidence of an afterlife has been missing.
A few years ago I went to watch a church demonstration from one of the most well-respected and loved mediums in the UK and beyond. I will refer to them as they, for the purposes of this story and to protect their name.
They had a reputation and following, that guaranteed the church was heaving with no spare seats. There was excitement around the venue and when they came to the podium, there was a rapturous welcome. Even I was excited to see them for the first time.
For the following ninety minutes I watched them, listened and waited to hear those gold nugget pieces of evidence that had earned them their reputation. As far as I could make out, there were none. The person I was with was fortunate to be picked for a reading. At the end of their reading, I asked if the evidence was accurate. They said it was not. I asked why they said yes to so many pieces of evidence then. My friend replied, “I felt I had to say yes, because of who the medium was.”
Getting back to my proposal of an evidence based qualification scheme, in my world, where the OMEI existed, broadly speaking, there would be two camps of thinking. Those that would like to be judged in how good or bad their mediumship is, and those that would hate the thought of it. I put myself in the former camp.
I know I’m just an average medium, when it comes to producing evidence of an afterlife. But that in itself doesn’t bother me. I know my abilities and I know what I am doing, and need to do, to reveal my potential further. I’m in awe of some other mediums abilities. I’m also disgusted with the standards of a few.
Perhaps that is the answer for all of us mediums that are seeking to become better at our craft. That is, focus on ourselves and our abilities. Commit to becoming better at what it is we do. Control our egos, stop trying to gain fame from the role, and always remember what is at the heart of the work we do. To provide evidence that our personalities survive, in some form or dimension, after our body comes to an end of life.
In finishing this light-hearted approach, let’s imagine the OMEI are going to assess you in the next few weeks. What do you believe your percentage certificate would reveal? What could you do to make it better for the next assessment? Do it anyway.
2 Responses
Hi Trev
Really like the website and it’s ease of use. As regards the article, I think it’s a great idea to have real-time assessments. Bits of paper saying one is a wonderful at a certain discipline go quickly out of date. I used to belong to a professional body called the Project Management Institute which allowed me to put the letters PMP (Project Management Professional) after my name. But in order to keep that designation I had to amass a dedicated number of professional development units over a 3 year period. Points were awarded for carrying out project work, attending courses in project management or related disciplines and writing and publishing articles on related subjects. Failure to achieve the desired number of professional development units resulted in losing the PMP designation. I’ve always felt that something similar could be of value to the Spiritualist movement.
Thank you Bill. Yes, although there was the ‘April Fool’ theme on the article, I was making a valid point regarding mediums’ standards as a whole. I couldn’t really find anything too silly about the idea, though I knew it would never be adopted. Too many big egos would get in the way! Thank you for your comment Bill, and the first of the new website!