Mediumship and Beyond

If you are a platform medium,  then working the open circle can be frustrating.  If you are a novice or a fledgling, you will find them good for practice.  Those of you who only work the open circle, will feel at home there and may not want to move on.

Really, the open circle is meant to be a step on the way to platform mediumship or to giving one to one readings.  You can practice to your hearts content there, provided the group leader allows you to.

The open circle, as with all psychic circles, is only as good as the leader allows it to be.  Sometimes, through lack of understanding,  the circle leader lets good communication fall by the wayside. It is so frustrating when mediums are waiting to get up and work (with a good spirit link), and the group leader spends time asking everyone else first, if they ‘have anything’.  All the while the medium is fast losing the link they had.  I am sure we have all been there.

In an open circle,  the leader usually opens in prayer and then tells the circle that it is their circle, and welcomes them to get up and work, saying the circle is now open.  In a good circle, one by one mediums then get up and give their communication, before sitting down again and making way for the next one.  This way there is continuous communication throughout.

There should be none of the interuptions, where the circle leader is spending  time trying to get blood out of a stone.  Yes, we all have to learn and we all have to start somewhere. But people either want to get up and give communication or they have none to give. What we don’t want to encourage is people getting up and making out they have communication, when actually they do not. This paves the way for cold reading and guess work.

I find there is a lot of psychic, and very little spirit  in some circles. And in lots of cases it is not even psychic. We need to have good mediums running these circles and running them properly and to a good level.   We must raise the bar and with it gain more respect from the public who attend our services.  You never know who is there listening and taking it all in!

You , as always, are welcome to comment and I value your shared opinions. Please contact me by email at the link on this page.

The best way to get to know your own guides, guardian angels, inspirers and helpers, is through meditation.  In fact it is the only way to get to know them and learn to work with them to the best of your ability.

During meditation you wll learn to blend together and get used to each others ways of working. In this way your guide learns to understand your meanings for things and learns to use them in the messages they relay.

For instance, your guide will get to know what meaning you put on colours. Then they will know that by showing you a particular colour will have a meaning and not just be ambiguous.

For instance: if a guide learns that your meaning for red is a strong love bond, they know they can bring you a red rose. This rose will be a memory but the colour will tell you more about the communicator and the sitter, and their relationship. After this you will know that whenever the guide brings a red rose it is for the same reason as before. This works with everything.

Once there is a good partnership twixt you and your guide, it all becaomes a bit easier. Giving clairvoyance can be simplified. Also, when a guide gets to know your familiarity with other  objects and places, they can use them in their communications.

The guide uses your own mind and what is in there. Meditation makes this easier for both of you to learn each others ways. You must try it if you have not already done so. You may sit in the quiet or play gentle music. Let yourself go and invite your guides to join you.

To follow on from my last post I want to add further information about your guides, helpers and inspirers.  There is a lot of misconception about guides and guardian angels. What is expected of them is puzzling too sometimes.

Guides are often expected to appear in outfits as though they are from a particular area of the planet.  Native American Indians are usually well represented here.  Nuns, or sisters of mercy and monks too.

I am not saying that none of these are guides, or helpers, but what I am saying is that they don’t always have to fall into this area.  They may not even appear to you in garbs of a particular nature. They may not have a uniform. They may just appear in white robes.  They may appear as white light.

It is always best not to assume. Wait and see and don’t try to pre-empt the guides appearance.  Spiritualist churches are famous for their pictures of American Indians.  It may not be because they have appeared as guides. It may be purely that their beliefs are so much like ours that they want to help and guide us.

You may well have a guide who is an American Indian or a nun or monk.  That is not a problem. What is a problem, is that so many of these said guides are given away from the platform willy nilly, at each service.  Mediums usually say I have this monk with you. If you don’t recognise he or she, the medium says ‘Take him with you’!  Have your carrier bag to hand.  Make sure it’s big enough to get them all in!

I am often amused by mediums who insist that their guide is White Feather, or Sitting Bull. They may say, Geronimo taps and tilts my table and brings me messages.  My thoughts are: how does he find the time to be at so many tables and circles at the same time. Surely he needs time for his own spirit to evolve too.

Take what you feel is right. Leave behind what common sense tells you is wrong.

More on this emotive subject later.

Guides are our teachers, our inspirers and our truest confidants.  They are with us from the moment of our conception and stay with us always, right back to our home in the spirit world.

We always have one main guide, the one who has been with us forever. This is often termed, door keeper, or as they call it now, the control. I am not sure I like this, as I believe we should always be in control, not the guide.  But here it just means that the door keeper will control who comes and goes with messages from spirit. They also make sure conditions are right for the event. Whatever that event may be, trance, clairvoyance or something else.

From time to time, we may need other guidance.  In this case, another guide will step forward to help. This spirit may be called a guide or helper, but not the door keeper or control.  This new guide may well be a spirit who is developing in preparation to be another  spirits door keeper. They will learn with you and leave when you are both ready.

Helpers too pop in from time to time. It may be that you need extra guidance for an event. You may need an inspirer to give you words for philosophy.  That’s where helpers and inspirers come in. They all work as a team with the door keeper in charge, so to speak.

If you are a medium and decide to become a healer, you will need another guide to lead you. A healing guide will come and be with you, but still under the door keepers control. In effect you will still work as a team.

When you are working mediumistically, and want help and guidance, you ask for your door keeper. If you do not know the name just ask for ‘my door keeper’. Its as easy as that. You may never know your guides name, but you will learn to know when you feel their presence. Though they will only step forward when it is spiritually necessary.

To find out who your guide is, or to know when it is them who is close, is trial and error. You should carry out your own tests.  Is that you?  If its my door keeper please do that again! Please stop tickling my chin if you are my door keeper.  And so on until you find out as much as you need.

In my opinion it is not always necessary to know what your guide is named or what they look like. It is wonderful to feel their presence though.

More on guides later.

I often discuss my own theories about ghosts and apparitions. Here I air the more traditional theories.

In traditional belief, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely: The mode of manifestation can range from an invisible presence to translucent or wispy shapes, to realistic, life-like visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a dead person is known as spiritism as a seance.

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to ancestor worship. Certain religious practices, funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic, are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of the phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals and numbers have also been recounted.

I have been asked if you must be clairvoyant in order to be able to see spirits.  Well, no you don’t actually.  Sometimes a spirit may show themselves  to a  loved one shortly after they pass over.

If you have loved ones who have gone to the spirit world, you are still connected by love.  There will always be that bond. Therefore, if they want to show themselves to you, they can.  You will see them because the spirit wants to let you know that the link is not broken. They are still close to you.

Also, a spirit may decide to show themselves to a loved one shortly before the passing of another. This is to let you know they are waiting to meet  and greet the person taking their transition.

It is well documented that when a person is very ill and about to pass over, they call out the names of their spirit loved ones who have come to meet them and help them cross over.  They can see them plainly.

In these cases clairvoyance is not needed. But in other circumstances it is. Clairvoyance allows you to see the spirit. Clairaudience allows you to hear the spirit. Clairsentience allows you to sense and feel the spirit.

This is when you may need a medium!

At the end of every circle I sit in, I give up the left over energy as a healing gift.  It is simple to do and stops the energy giving you a headache.

As you may know, when mediums sit they build up energy with which to work.  This energy is used whilst in the circle or giving private readings. But, especially if there are several of you sitting, sometimes not all the energy is used.

In the past I have gone home with a headache or something else which has taken on the energy.  Why waste it?  Use it to give the gift of healing.

At the end of your sitting, when giving your closing prayer, ask Spirit to take any left over energy and use it as healing for someone in need.

You may either just send it out or name someone specific for who it should go to.  You may have a healing list and can then ask for it for everyone on the list.

You will feel so much better afterwards. Giving healing has its own rewards, and it is not monetary.  Above all enjoy your sittings and giving out of the absent healing.

Mediums use altered states of consciousness in order to work and communicate with the Spirit World.  They work at different levels depending on what it is they need to do.

The first state helps the medium use clairvoyance, clairsudience and clairsentience.  This is normally what the medium uses when giving messages and communications during the open circles, platform and private sittings.

In order to allow a better communication twixt the spirit loved one and the sitter, a medium may decide to go into a different level of consciousness, in order to allow the spirit more input into the reading.

When in this state all the information the medium gives will be correct and for the one person only.  As opposed to the first level which does allow the mediums mind to work and sometimes interfere with the communication.  Unless we are dead, our mind never stops working.

At a different level, deeper, the medium will be in trance and the spirit may use that opportunity to come through and give philosophy. The words are usually above the level at which the medium normally talks.  Still using the mediums own voice, but with spirits words coming through. There should be inspiring words coming through in this state.  Not the mediums own words.

Unless you are going to give something different, there is no need to go into trance. Why would spirit waste the energy!  Anything else can be given through a lighter state and by clairvoyance.  Some mediums think they are in trance when they actually are not. It is the communication which always proves it.

The ultimate of course,  is a far deeper state which allows physical mediumship.  The medium, as always, is still aware, but spirit has more control. In fact most of the control.  This is when the communication is far more direct.  But of course the medium will still be aware.

There is not as much physical mediumship around as there used to be. It takes a lot of time and dedication and most people don’t have it.

More on this topic in later posts.

I find it good to sit in a circle. Either for development or for advanced mediumship.  There is also the opportunity to develop trance or physical mediumship if you sit regularly.

Long ago people had more spare time than they do now. There was more opportunity to sit for spirit. If you were dedicated enough you could sit several times per week. That would help you develop your gifts and advance them.

I have sat in many circles over the years. Some just to give clairvoyance and proof of life after death.  Others I have sat in were to help other mediums develop physical mediumship.

Physical mediumship is good proof for the public as everyone can see the same thing with physical eyes. You don’t need to be mediumistic in order to see changes.

Transfiguration is a physical gift. Spirit use ectoplasm, taken from the physical mediums body, to mould a mask around the face. This is so the spirit can show the sitters what they looked like when they were on the physical plane. What a wonderful gift.

Direct voice, allows the spirit to use the medium’s voice box in order to let the loved one hear their once physical voice. How fabulous for the loved one hearing the long remembered voice once more.

Physical mediumship can also use trumpets to direct a voice to some one in the circle.  The voice comes out of the trumpet after the trumpet has floated across the circle to them. A sight to behold!

The main reason mediums sit for physical, is in the hope that they will develop ectoplasm enough to be able to produce a whole figure. The figure of a loved one is now in the spirit world. That really is proof that the spirit lives on after physical death.

What is most important here is not the gifts, but the dedication it takes to develop them.  Whether it is clairvoyance, clairaudience, physical mediumship, or trance and transfiguration, it all needs dedication.

If you are going to develop, start as you mean to go on. Be a dedicated sitter in whatever circle you sit. It is for your own good as well as for those with whom you are lucky enough to sit.

For more information on this topic or for advice: email me at the contact link on this page and I will do my best to help you.

In the very near future I will be starting a circle for those wishing to advance their mediumship to a level suitable for platform.

The venue, to be announced,  will be in Sheffield

If you are interested, please email me and I will put your name on the email list for information and full details.

It is not suitable for beginners.