It is with heartfelt gratitude that I thank you for being you and not believing in Mediumship and what it is I do.
You see, because you exist I strive to be the best Medium I can be. I strive for more accuracy, more detail and I strive to deliver my messages from the Spirit world with statements, not questions. I also strive to keep my awareness of the non-believing public high at all times, for my fervent wish is that one day Mediumship will be accepted for what it is.
For when it is, we humans will all know that we are Spirit within a Soul, living a human experience, and recognizing this about ourselves will see the world change to a more loving, more compassionate world with no war, no hunger or homeless and no animal cruelty.
Before the collective consciousness does evolve to this understanding however, let’s discuss a few points about Mediumship and the industry I care deeply about.
Right now at this point in time your view of Mediumship on the world stage is influenced by a select few and namely Mr John Edward. Your view is that John and many more like him are using cold reading techniques, not Mediumship.
John has proven himself time and time again and you only need to read the book, The Afterlife experiments, a concise scientific experiment on Mediumship conducted by the university of Arizona, to see this. This is one of the many experiments carried out around the world on Mediumship, yet it seems this fails to impact your thinking.
I personally do understand that for you to accept Mediumship, or in particular a belief in the afterlife this means your whole reality and view of life needs to shift, and for some that can just be too painful. A lady I came across a few years ago, who had lost a baby son 40years prior and a husband not to long ago was a prime example of this. She had made sense of the death of her son, in whatever worked so she and her husband could get through life. To change that now by accepting Mediumship and the fact there is an afterlife, was too painful and could mean her needing to question her whole life. We, as Mediums get this, yet we also know in these instances no Medium will ever be good enough to convince a skeptic.
John’s Mediumship ability aside, he deserves the utmost respect from Mediums worldwide, myself included for how he has represented Mediumship and the Spirit world all these years. His message is consistent, he doesn’t waver from who he is and what he believes and he does make a difference for a lot of people. Plus he deserves a friggin medal for all the bullshit your skeptic brigade throws at him. Keep fighting the good fight John!
I personally completely understand how you see a lot of Mediumship as cold reading. Many, many mediums with all levels of ability, some you’ll even know, develop a habit of delivering their Mediumship with leading questions. For example: “Who is Fred?” or
Medium: “What does a blue car mean to you?”
Recipient: “Oh I just bought a new one”
Medium: “Oh great, cos Fred was just telling me that”
To me, its not cold reading, it’s just lazy and a Medium who actually has a weak link to Spirit. They got the Fred and saw a blue car, but that’s it! They can’t tell you any more about Fred, such as is he alive, dead, is it the Spirit’s name or the name of someone in the living the Spirit communicator wants to acknowledge. Nor can they tell you, what the Spirit communicator wants to say about the blue car.
A good Medium with a well developed link can and will elaborate, even extending upon the information. This style of Mediumship does lack in a lot of ways, and is fine when one is developing Mediumship, yet because we have no set Mediumship standard or governing body, Mediums too easily accept their current level of ability and get comfortable with what they know and how they do it. Preferring to stay here and allow the ego to rule, instead of walking with Spirit and going through the personal and spiritual growth it takes to keep extending and growing our Mediumship. Which can at times be confronting and painful.
This however, doesn’t leave Mediumship in a good light though when it comes to how the general public perceives Mediumship, and I am the first one to say we as an industry often do not do ourselves any favours when it comes to presenting Mediumship to the mainstream. Whether it is Mediums working professionally way before they should, TV shows and 1800 phone lines trying to make a quick dollar, and Paranormal shows which are in no way authentic, we mediums need to be thinking more about the message and being ambassadors for Spirit, than we do about our individual profiles and the recognition when it comes to the opportunities and work we do.
So yesterday when Chrissie Swan said to me on twitter “My behind the scenes experiences have been abysmal 9 times out of ten. In my opinion the majority of psychics and mediums do not have a ‘gift’. I believe people must be very cautious. From what I have seen.” And “If you had seen what I have seen you would be dismayed.” I believe her. Chrissie is a radio announcer and former host of the Australian TV program The Circle, which has seen many of the well known international mediums appear on her show, including James Van Praagh, John Edward and Lisa Williams. We do however, have different views as to why this happens. Chrissie sees Mediumship as fake, while I see inexperience and ego as a much bigger concern.
Which then leads me to question, what can we as Mediums do about this? For Mediumship to even to begin to be accepted more widely, we need to firstly stop making it out to be something special. It’s not a gift, it’s a talent that we nurture and develop just like anything else you aspire to be good at. Personally, I was not born with any noticeable psychic ability. I didn’t see dead people as a child or make psychic predictions, yet 18 years after discovering my spirituality and mediumship, I am proficient at what I do because of years of dedicated training, attention and just doing it.
Secondly, I believe we need to go about setting some global quality standards and regulate the industry in some way. Currently, the only organization with some standing and good quality practices is the Arthur Findlay College in the UK, but this is only recognized from within the Mediumship arena. You could say, what about the International Psychics Association, but last time I looked their standard was sending in three statutory declarations concerning my psychic ability. Sure, I’ll get my three best friends to do that for me now. Personally I think you, the general public and I deserve a better standard than that. Slowly, individual Mediums who care about quality training such as myself and Lisa Williams are working towards introducing certified training programs, which will and is having a small impact.
Overall though, a change such as this needs to come from within the industry. Right now the industry is too fractured a community for many to work together in harmony for one common purpose. So, having tried more than once myself, I know it will take someone with a profile and reach like John’s or Lisa’s to affect this kind of change.
In the meantime, we can do more by ensuring we commit to training and seek out working under the guidance of a mentor, creating our own Codes of Ethics, offering money back guarantees and ensuring that first and foremost we are personally in alignment with Spirit, not ego.
We can also keep striving to improve our Mediumship abilities and the information we are able to receive, and this is where you come in. I ask you as non-believing skeptic to let me know what it is you need from us Mediums to believe. I invite you to comment, offer your thoughts and opinions. All serious comments will be considered, so just humour me and for the sake of it, pretend for a moment Mediumship is real and take the chance to have a constructive say.
Being a Medium for over 17years and a coach and mentor for over 10, I know Mediumship is largely defined by our intentions, as is all of life, so in broadening our view with an open dialogue you could be helping to evolve Mediumship to new heights. Come on! I know that a lot of you skeptics are highly intelligent people so your genuine input is valued.
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