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Many years ago I gave a demonstration of mediumship at a Spiritualist Church in the Midlands. I began by giving information from a spirit communicator to a woman near the front of the congregation. I mentioned that this lady’s mother was starting to communicate with me and that she was telling me how their relationship with each other was one of equal respect and friendship. Whilst giving this information I found myself suddenly overwhelmed by a deep love the mother felt for her daughter, which was one of authentic support and not a love that smothered or sought to control. The woman receiving this information agreed.

As this information was accepted, the love and presence of the mother intensified. Because of my inexperience in the art of mediumship at that time I felt that if the contact with the woman’s mother continued to affect me in the way it was, I would not be able to continue the communication.

What I realise now is that the love I had become aware of coming from the mother was simply her drawing close to me as the medium and expressing her desire to establish evidential communication with her daughter. After the demonstration the medium, Gordon Higginson, who had been chairing the meeting, spoke to me about the need to trust mediumistic communication and no matter what, to continue as best as I could to establish why the communicator had come, thereby strengthening my contact with the spirit world and working with those who sought to communicate with and through me.

Like any setbacks in our development there was of course a lesson to be learned through this, which was about trusting the spirit and realising that our contact with their world is an opportunity to explore mediumistic abilities instead of being defeated by beliefs that could hinder their communication. We need to remember that nothing happens by chance. It is by being open to numerous realms of mediumship that we open ourselves to different types of unfoldment and numerous realms of spirit communication.

I have found that as I have awakened to various potentials of my mediumistic abilities, it has opened up many doors to a wider understanding of life and of how the spirit world is a part of everything and everyone. This has happened quite naturally by not being too quick to conceptualise and categorize various experiences and phenomena into rigid frameworks that would set me apart from people with other beliefs and abilities, which would have limited the enriching paths of mediumistic unfoldment I have undertaken.

What follows are some central facets that I both feel and believe are important to consider in mediumship. But I would not wish you to take these on board without reflecting upon them and deciding for yourself their use and validity. Ultimately the responsibility for your growth lies in your own hands. Though any efforts you are prepared to make will put into operation the law of cause and effect, as well as the law of attraction and association and will bring about corresponding changes that will draw those of similar minds to work with you.

None of this implies achieving some kind of ego centred idealised perfection of mediumship or superiorness, it is about being gentle on yourself, patient with those you work with (sitters, spirit communicators, working colleagues, and friends and family that are close to you), taking things at a realistic pace and putting aside all inhibiting goals and unhealthy beliefs that separate you from other people and life. The following are some of the things I have found helpful for achieving this, starting with the notion of trust I mentioned.

Trust

It is often said in Spiritualism that we must trust the spirit world, that we must trust our guides and helpers and trust what emanates from beyond our normal reasoning and thinking capacities. While this may be true for us as we become more advanced in the unfolding of mediumship, this puts pressure on the beginner, on people who still have doubts and uncertainties as to whether or not spirit influences are true for them – even though they may be undergoing experiences that will eventually lead their awareness towards obvious spirit influences. Even so, their conscious mind may still be distrustful and doubtful, uncertain and questioning as to whether their experiences are real. It is only through constant exploration of any experiences that unfold and recognizing those that point towards genuine spirit communication will a maturity of growth and trust in the spirit begin.

An authentic trust in the spirit is about embracing the beginning of a deep friendship between yourself and the invisible world of those that work with you. This trust is an evolving experience that builds over time and through the experiences you undergo. But the most import ingredient of trust, is trust in yourself and your abilities.

Sometimes sitters can tell you that the information you have given them about a spirit communicator is wrong. It is at such times that you might need to work harder with your mediumistic abilities in order to double check if the information is trustworthy evidence of survival, or whether you have misinterpreted something. It can be that the information you have given is not actually known by the sitters at that moment in time, but they may be able to check it later. You as the working medium might be able to receive further communication from the spirit world about who the sitters could ask or where the sitters would find confirmation about the information.

Is it real?

I have always found it helpful to look deeply into the validity of things I have experienced mediumistically, as well as reflect upon the things that others may teach as fact about mediumship. To establish an authentic understanding of mediumistic unfoldment, I believe it is important to arrive at a realisation of what is true for us, so that we embrace a sense of reality that can be both lived and expressed in our daily lives and work. Through this we come to realise that the world of the spirit, which is a part of our true self and all life, is intelligent, and that everything the spirit world communicates to and through us is based on this intelligence.

Through building the foundations of our beliefs on what has proved itself to be true, we avoid claims about spirit communication that are not grounded in truth. It is important to realise that it is through both intelligence and clear insights that we and the spirit world can blend together and bring to the world rational demonstrations of mediumship based on facts and evidence of survival after death.

Discernment

I have so far emphasised the importance of trust and reality. We also need to look closely at numerous levels of mind that exist, both incarnate and discarnate, and how they influence one another. We need to be aware of how all things affect us on a mental level and how our awareness affects communication with the discarnate world of the spirit. It is of course important to look at how our mind and beliefs affect communication with the spirit and how their influence and thoughts affect us. We need to do this in order to discover what is genuine awareness of the spirit and to discern how much our own minds may be influencing spirit communication.

In the beginning stages it can be difficult to discern between the two. We must therefore continue to work with our thoughts, our minds and the spirit influences seeking to work with us, to establish a breakthrough where we come to know the difference and start building authentic communications with those in the spirit world…