Mediumship and Beyond

Clairsentience is a gift which is often overlooked when discussing psychic subjects.

As you know there is clairvoyance, the gift of clear seeing, clairaudience, the gift of clear hearing, and clairsentience is the gift of sensing, smelling & feeling.

Clairsentience is often the first one which comes into play when developing mediumship and psychic ability.  It would seem that it is not used to its full potential though, as there is apparently a lack of these readers.

When giving a reading, smells and emotions are usually communicated from spirit, but a lot of mediums don’t seem to pick them up. They need to learn to develop this gift.

The sense of the pain when a loved one was passing over, is often relayed from spirit to help prove who they are.  They also try to make the medium feel the emotions they were going through and may still be if it was a very recent passing.

It takes skill, time, and above all patience, to learn how to get this communication over correctly.  It also has to be treated with kid gloves, as it is so easy to hurt a sitter by being clumsy with the communications.

The medium has to let their own feelings flow whilst allowing the other feeling to be sensed.  Not easy but well worth the extra effort.

Readings can be given with clairsentience alone, but used in conjunction with clairvoyance and clairaudience, it becomes much more of a soul to soul affair.

It may be worth finding out which gifts a medium has before going for a sitting.  Even so, believe it or not, some mediums don’t know which gifts they have!  There is a lot of ignorance out there. This is what my blog is for. 

To educate, both sitters and readers alike.

I was asked how mediums see spirits, yesterday via my blog.  If they were asking about mechanisms, then it is hard for me to explain, but I will tell you how I actually see them.

When I am working with spirit and I have tuned in to my higher consciousness, I start to get visions of spirits and pictures like a jigsaw puzzle which seem to make up a full picture after a while.

I see the images as though there is a television screen inside my brow.  The images come and go very quickly on the whole but sometimes they seem to stay a while.

When I have tuned in to my sitter’s loved ones there is usually a particular one that stays for most of the reading, whilst others come and go briefly.

Whilst I am seeing the images come and go I also get feelings and emotions which seem to go together.  There is also sometimes a scent or odour and the sense of pain the spirit felt when on the material plane.

I am lucky in that whilst all this is going on I also get thoughts impressed upon my mind, which I relay to my sitter.

There are also voices.  Some call their own name.  Others may call my sitter’s name.  It is sometimes the name of a third person which they call.  It is up to me to sort it out.  They also tell me things.  I here about places and things they used to do.

Often the communicator will tell me what is going on in my sitter’s life.  They offer advice too.  Of course it is up to the sitter if they want to follow that advice!

I usually find that most of the information comes together eventually.  It seems to go full circle and make sense to my sitter if not to me.  That’s the important thing.

There is a combination of clairvoyance, clairaudience and clairsentience going on.  This is in my case. I cannot speak for others.

It is all about proving life after death and giving the living a reason to live life to the full.  All in the knowledge that we all meet up again in the Spirit World.

A fully developed sixth sense brings this gift within your capabilities. Clairaudience is the ability to hear clearer, or to hear things that those without the developed gift cannot hear.

Clairaudience occurs when the sixth sense is developed to such a degree that allows thoughts and words to be heard within the head. This is subjective, as opposed to the objective sounds that the average human ear picks up from outside the mind.

The thoughts and sounds seem to just be there and the receiver suddenly appears to know the information as though it were imprinted within the head. A clairaudient may say to you ‘I hear a man saying,’ but they do not hear it objectively. A Spirit does not have a physical body with which to make audible sounds.

A clairaudient medium will gather all the information which comes into their head and relay the message to the sitter.  Lots of information can be gleaned in this manner and it is popular with sitters who sometimes think that the medium is actually listening to the voice of their loved one. This is not so, but the message is still in fact given to the medium by their loves one.

Clairaudience is not used for fortune telling. Remember, the future is not a medium’s responsibility: the past and the present are.

I had an email from a lady who tells me she is hearing voices and wants to know if that makes her clairaudient.

If you are hearing voices, and what the voices are telling you makes sense, then it is likely you are clairaudient.  The voices most often are subjective, which means the voices seem to be inside the head, rather than outside as in normal conversation.  Though there are those physical mediums who hear it objectively.

Often the spiritual guide is the voice you will hear, but also you can often hear the voices of other spirits. 

My advice is for you to sit in a development circle to help develop your gift and to enable the voices to become clearer.  You can use the circle to communicate with your guide and ask them for their help.  It is often a two way communication and sometimes a three way communication.

Clairvoyants often hear as well as see, but there are a lot of mediums who just hear.  These are the clairaudients.  The gift is a great one to have as you can sometimes have real conversations with spirits, but not being able to see spirit when you are giving a message is a very different way of working.

We cannot choose our spiritual gifts but we can choose to make the most of them by developing to the highest standard you possibly can.  I wish you luck and offer my guidance and assistance as usual.

The new series of the Ghost Whisperer has begun on Living , Sky TV’s popular channel. For those of you who are not familiar with this programme, here is a little info for you.  It is screened at 9pm tonight.

Newlywed Melinda Gordon tries to help the dead communicate with loved ones, ‘but sometimes the messages she receives are confusing.’ Most of  Melinda’s  efforts involve resolving conflicts that are preventing the spirits from passing over. Once she has helped them they move into the light.

This popular sentimental drama is ‘inspired by medium James Van Praagh.’

The Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt: Melinda Gordon
               David Conrad: Jim Clancy
               Camryn Manheim: Delia Banks
               Christoph Sanders: Ned Banks
               Aisha Tyler: Andrea Moreno
               Jamie Kennedy: Eli James

I have enjoyed the first three series.  The new series 4 has begun and it promises to be very controversial.  There are big upsets in store for all the devoted fans of the series.  Some of it will be hard to take and some of it will make the regular viewers of the Ghost Whisperer very unhappy, not to mention frustrated.

What interests me in this new series, is the inclusion of the latest recruit, who happens to be a clairaudient medium. It makes it a little more interesting to have someone who just ‘hears’ the ghosts, rather than see them like Melinda does.  He and Melinda work well together to help those ghosts pass through the light and on to their spirit home, where they belong.

Some of the story lines are quite inspired and I can see where the writers are coming from.  The latest series though, makes the imagination stretch perhaps a little too far.  Let me know your thoughts.

We all have physical senses which we use all the time: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling. We also have other senses with which you may not be familiar just yet, psychic senses. It is these psychic senses which you need to develop in order to become a psychic reader or a medium.

A clairvoyant medium ‘sees’ most of the communication he or she passes on to a sitter. A medium is not a fortune teller, mediumistic clairvoyance is not used to tell the future, but to pass on communication from the spirit world to prove there is life after the physical death.

A clairaudient medium hears most of the communication he or she passes on to a sitter, although there might be other gifts at work here too. It is not unusual for a well developed medium to have more than one psychic sense working during readings.

A clairsentient medium senses and feels most of the communication from the spirits, which he or she passes on to the recipient of a spiritual message, the sitter.  I consider myself to be very lucky as I am clairvoyant, but also have different levels of sensing and hearing as well as seeing. This comes in very handy when receiving and passing on communications which may seem a bit like a jig-saw puzzle.

These are the senses which have to be developed if you  wish to use them as a psychic, or as a medium. In order to use the senses, you must first learn to become aware of them and how to open and close them, as with the previous post on chakras.

You have to be prepared to be a dedicated sitter in order to develop your psychic abilities. It is not something that can be done in a hurry and certainly not overnight. You need lots of patience, as I have said before.

You also need a good heart and the desire to help people. Without compassion, it is unlikely that you will attract the kind of spirits who are able to work with you and help you develop your gifts.

To understand someone else’s pain, you have to know what pain is, and therefore be able to empathise with your sitter.

Personal responsibility is an important part of being a medium. We are all responsible for our own personal good and bad deeds during our earthly life. Others cannot be blamed for our own failings.

Some of you may be forgiven for thinking that the psychic on the platform at your local spiritualist church, or hall, is an actor or actress.  Sadly this comes with the territory.  Some are just that, or at least use a bit of that.

You sit in your chair hoping that the medium speaking today will come to you and pass on a message from your loved ones in the spirit world.  One to make you believe that they are still watching over you.  You really want to believe there is life after death and a message would help you to make up your mind.

You expect the subject to be taken seriously, if not by the general public, then at least by the spiritualists.  Most spiritualists do take proving life after death very seriously.  That does not mean that they cannot be happy, or laugh and smile whilst they give proof.  There are some who can give proof whilst still be entertaining and amusing, without acting.

What you do not expect, is for the person on ‘stage’ to behave in an unseemly manner and appearing to put on some sort of act.  This though is sadly sometimes what you get.

Sometimes, though not all times by any means, the medium on the platform will affect a stance that is not their usual.  This may take the form of implying that spirit are making them behave oddly.  Some will affect a limp or hold their hand and arm at a funny angle and say that their guide has a disability.  Their guide may well have had a disability whilst on the earth plain but certainly not in the spirit world.  They have no physical body once they have passed over.

Use your own intelligence here.  If it seems to you that a spirit would not make a medium look foolish by ‘making’ them hold their body in an odd way, then do not accept it.

You have to understand that spirits do not have physical bodies.  Therefore, they cannot possibly make any able bodied physical person do anything with their body.  It is purely showmanship.

Shockingly for me, I have witnessed the leader of an open circle behaving as if drunk.  She was falling around, swaying and flinging her arms about, whilst saying that the spirit who was coming through was forcing drink down her.  She insisted that the spirit was drunk and now she was drunk too because the spirit was giving her whiskey.  What a load of codswallop!  Whiskey in the spirit world!

You must always use your own intelligence to help you realise when you are being had.  Some do this on purpose and it is obvious as it is a regular occurrence.  Others are deluded into thinking they have to affect these positions.  What utter nonsense!

Spirit would never, ever make a medium look foolish.  The only person who can do that is the supposed ‘psychic’.  Please be discerning.  You should be able to spot when showmanship is happening if you just use common sense.

When you hear the crowds coming out of church or the theatre, saying things like ‘Oh what a laugh, wasn’t it good’.  Ask yourself was it music hall type good or was there really good evidence of survival of the spirit.  Remember, laughter can, and often does, go hand in hand with spirit work.  This is acceptable.  Showmanship is not.

Physical mediumship involves the use of ectoplasm taken from the medium’s body via any orifice.

Physical mediums spend years of dedicated ‘sitting’ for spirit.  In other words they sit within a circle, usually a private one, at least one day per week evry week for years, in order to build up their relationship with the spirit guides.  Whilst building up this relationship they also develop the ectoplasm.  This is not the medium’s choice but the choice of the spirit world.  The medium though has to show their dedication by being a faithful sitter and proving themselves worthy.

There are not as many physical mediums around now as there used to be in say the Victorian era.  People nowadays are far too busy with their material life to dedicate themselves as much as is needed.  It is a sad fact that working for spirit is not financially rewarding and therefore most people cannot afford the necessary time.

There are several gifts a physical medium can develop.  One is Trance. This is where the medium goes into a deep trance and with the help of their spirit guide they allow others to communicate through them.  This is often used for philosophy in church and private circles but can also be used to bring forth evidence of survival.

Transfiguration is another physical gift.  This is different from trance. The medium goes into a deep trance as above, but this time it appears as though their face and sometimes hands etc begin to change. The medium appears to have someone else’s features and is often recognised by a sitter.  A red light is usually shone onto the mediums face so that the features show up.  The rest of the room is usually kept in darkness.

Direct voice is, I think, the most coveted of all physical mediumship gifts.  It is the one, given the choice, that I would choose to have.  This is because the medium’s voice box is used by the spirit, so that their (the spirit’s) voice is the one that is heard and recognised by the sitters.

What greater proof of life after death than to hear directly the voice of a dead loved one!

The medium has to use a ‘cabinet’ in which to sit and harness the ectoplasm so that the spirits can use it to form the visions or voices.  And, in the case of the table phenomena, the endoplasmic rods for moving the table and tapping out messages.

We will discuss some of these topics and gifts in later posts.

In response to the questions submitted by Kirsty (see Ribbon Readings), here is a little more information about ribbon readings.

Kirsty asked how many ribbons are needed to give a reading.  The answer to this is as many as you like;  I personally have about 22 ribbons because I like to read colours of varying shades.  To me a bright red means something different to a very pale red; a dark pink has a different meaning to a pale pink and so on.

If you are just starting out it is enough to have one ribbon for each colour of the rainbow or one for each chakra colour (remember, chakras are the psychic centres).  You can always add more as you become more expert or even as you see a colour which you are inspired to add.

I have seen people with dozens of ribbons and I do not feel they need them all, but it is a personal choice.  My only stipulation is that it is a waste of time having patterned ribbons, as the patterns can get in the way of the sitter’s choice of colour.  Some have so much pattern on them that it can be a distraction for the reader.

I usually ask my sitter to choose four ribbons but it can be two or three, again the choice is a personal one.  I personally ask for four because this gives me plenty of time to begin my communication with my guide and therefore with the spirit world.

Kirsty also asked if other things could be used for reading, such as flowers.  Again, the answer is yes they can.  Flowers are often used as part of a spiritualist church service.  In fact they sometimes call it a ‘Flower Service’.

Flowers can be read in at least two different ways.  One way is to use a flower for psychometry.  The sitter brings along a flower and hands it to the medium, who proceeds to read the vibrations left on it by the sitter.  This is a popular way but it is very important in this instance to make sure the flower has not been handled by anyone else, or there can be very mixed vibes on the flower.

The alternative way to read a flower is to study the flower and and foliage on it.  Some mediums look at the stem and say what they feel the stem show, before moving on to the flower head and counting the number of petals and looking at their condition.  A story can be told by piecing it all together.  For instance, the stem can be straight, but covered in thorns.  This can have it’s own meaning to the medium and the number of leaves can mean the number of children or the number of loved ones who have gone to spirit.

Any object can be used for psychometry, as all the psychic needs to do is read the vibrations left on the item.  These psychometry readings, though, cannot in themselves prove life after death. For this proof you need a medium to link with the spirit world.

Thank you to Kirsty for posting the question.