Authentic Mediumship – A Dying Art?

My dear father died suddenly in 1980 – three months after assuring me that we would live forever. The shock catapulted me into a state of impossible grief and an unwitting spiritual odyssey in search of answers. Tough gig for a seventeen-year-old. Having grown up in a family where love was our religion, I had minuscule knowledge of death and flatly refused to accept the searing finality of it all.

Back in the day, I lived in Adelaide, South Australia, where talk of death and mediumship was taboo and soothsayers were written off as crackpots. So was I, for a while.

My first beacon of light arrived in the form of a book called ‘Many Mansions’ – an introduction to the fascinating world of eminent ‘sleeping prophet’ Edgar Cayce. Several enlightening books followed, including Dr. Raymond Moody’s groundbreaking ‘Life after Life.’ Spiritual books became my elixir.

The profound healing experience that accompanies authentic, evidential mediumship, arrived some twenty years later complete with a sketched portrait of my father. It completely floored me. The grievous years in between were akin to a train wreck. The profound healing experience that accompanies authentic, evidential mediumship, arrived some twenty years later,

Fast forward to present day cyberspace and the burgeoning ‘psychic medium industry.’ These Google results paint quite a picture:

• ‘Psychic medium’ = 3.9 million results
• ‘Psychic medium google listings’ =6.5 million results
• ‘Authentic psychic mediums’ = 1.2 million results
• ‘Fake psychic mediums’ = 286,000 results.
• ‘Spiritual healing’ = 63.8 million results.

Who would have guessed that mediumship would morph from taboo to trendy? An emerging breed of ‘psychic glitterati’ starring in stage and TV shows, hawking weekend workshops and online certificate courses that have us believe anyone can be a psychic medium. Death has never been so glamorous.

Perhaps I shouldn’t write about such things. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spent time at the Arthur Findlay College (UK) where I witnessed highly-attuned mediums provide detailed, evidential information to perfect strangers, right down to the full name, address, and red-checked tablecloth in the deceased person’s kitchen. Where ego-driven students strutted their stuff on stage before being swiftly cut down to size and counseled about the art of true mediumship. Where an entertaining yet overtly cynical workshop tutor said: ‘Only 1% of students have the gift of mediumship – everyone else is wasting their money.’

In my experience, authentic, highly-attuned mediums have been few and far between. I’ve learned that psychic and medium are two separate things, and psychics are not necessarily spiritual. We are all born with psychic abilities that can be developed over time, while mediumship is a different ball game. A ‘wannabe’ can spend thirty years developing mediumship skills and still be ‘mediocre’. There’s no harm in trying.

I learned that an attuned, gifted medium provides detailed, evidential information from loved ones in spirit, while a ‘gift of the gab’ psychic medium generally snatches ‘snippets’ of information from spirit fleshes out the message with psychic and psychology skills. Predictive psychic skills can be impressive – but it’s not mediumship. How often have I heard: ‘Spirit is telling me…’ when in fact it’s often psychic impressions being ‘read’ from a person’s energy field.

Common personality traits also include humility, compassion, preference for private sittings and a respectful perception of their mediumship gift as essentially an instrument of healing; a personal act of service; a lifelong, evolving apprenticeship.

As I meandered through various spiritual circles and schools of thought, my unexpected foray into the local spiritualist church scene proved to be a captivating experience that provided deeply invaluable insights into mediumship and psychic phenomena.

Church services commonly included psychic flower readings and other demonstrations of clairvoyance and mediumship. Most of the demonstrators I saw, were predominantly psychic and used basic psychology to flesh out messages. Some were so underdeveloped that they shouldn’t have been on public platforms. Especially the ones whose blunt, insensitive delivery of messages did more harm than good to the bereaved who frequented these churches.

But then there were two ‘old school’ English mediums whose honed gifts left the rest for dead. I was continually amazed to see grief dissolve when detailed, evidential, deeply healing messages were conveyed from deceased loved ones.

In one memorable case, a long-time spiritualist said he had waited for 30 years to hear convincing, evidential information about his brother who was killed during WW2. And the most common message conveyed from the other side? ‘I’m sorry.’

Over time, captivation gradually turned to disillusionment when well-meaning yet under-developed ego-driven ‘pop up’ psychic mediums began to appear. Everybody wanted to be a medium, it seemed. Some frequented church platforms, while others began charging money for public shows – with family or friends the common targets of messages. It became clear that the majority of ‘pop-ups’ spent more time on self-promotion and harvesting Facebook likes, than mediumship development and self-awareness.

I parted company with the local spiritual scene several years ago, choosing to relocate to the east coast of Australia and focus on my shamanic healing path instead. My faith in mediumship was also restored thanks to connections with international groups and organisations dedicated to protecting authentic mediumship from drowning in the commercial quagmire. They also provide vital education resources about this fascinating, yet increasingly exploited healing realm that vulnerable, grieving souls often turn to when seeking solace.

As fate would have it, a recent newspaper ad headlined ‘Psychic Reality Show’ captured my attention. The psychic medium promoted herself as being on par with US celebrity medium John Edward. This I had to see. Turns out the bubbly, ‘gift of the gab’ style psychic was a former corporate high-flyer whose dreams about her colleagues led to a demand for readings.

Her psychic ‘fishing expedition-guessing game’ delivered predominantly predictive psychic information, a few names of deceased loved ones and fewer accurate evidential ‘hits.’ She also confessed that she didn’t know much about the ‘other side’ but was looking into it.

As the psychic bade us farewell with a special gift of thirty-minute readings for just $100, the fluoro light directly above my head began to flicker loudly. People glanced at me with strange looks, including the psychic.

I laughed. That was just my dad…again…a wildly humorous, electrical engineer in his earthly life.

Inspired to seek out higher standards of mediumship, I ventured out to several ‘alternative’ style expos promoting ‘amazingly gifted mediums’ – as they do. Six psychic medium demonstrations later, only two fit the ‘attuned, evidential’ bill but I was pleasantly reminded of the joy that a ‘seasoned’ medium can bring. I laughed out loud when a gorgeously gifted medium brought through a woman’s father who ‘wouldn’t be seen dead at a mediumship show during his earthly life.’

These days, I don’t believe in death. My mother died a decade ago and I handled the grief with strength, grace and understanding. A gifted medium also helped me and my mother resolve seemingly irreparable differences. Sweet relief! And I love her more than ever. Powerful stuff.

An attuned, evidential medium can certainly be a conduit to help us heal our grief, access hidden reserves of strength and inspiration, motivate us to embrace the gift of life. I also believe that our loved ones have a ‘life’ to live on the ‘other side’ until it’s time for us to reunite once again – and am happy to leave them to it.

 

Linda Summer

Scribe @ Lost For Words

© 19 April 2017

 

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Linda Summer

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Is Spiritualism Losing It’s Roots?

It is but a fact that when we speak of the birth of spiritualism we think of the Fox sisters and start of the spiritualist movement. But we forget that spiritualism as its roots since the dawn of mankind the same as mediumship.  There are many instances of mediums within many of the world religions and Christianity being a prime example.  In the Hebrew Bible, the Witch of Endor was a medium who apparently summoned the Prophet Samuel’s spirit, at the demand of King Saul of the Kingdom of Israel in the First Book of Samuel, chapter 28:3–25.  A prime example of an early Séance.  The argument also now amongst Scholars that Moses was a medium who had the ability of automatic writing in connection to the Ten Commandments. These being just a small example. So mediumship and spiritualism as deep rooted roots in the history of mankind. So really we should look at the Fox sisters as the birth of just Modern Spiritualism and the spiritualist organisations that exist today which in its self opens up another area of debate.

When I first came into mediumship eleven years ago I faced then, like many do now but I feel at a greater disadvantage, the lack of good mentors (teachers) and development circles. The circles I did attend I never felt something was right, of course at the time I could not put my finger on it mainly because I realise now it was the lack of knowledge around the subject that I did not have.  I decided to do what many of our great pioneers did in the past and find the direction with spirit the old ways. This arose especially after being taken onto the rostrum by a medium far too soon which I now find is an ongoing occurrence within the movement today.  This incorporated putting into place the time to study, read and research especially the many great literary works that were written by Maurice Barbanell through his guard Silver Birch, Ivy Northage and Chan, Arthur Findley and the list goes on. Setting up a Home Circle which still going strong today and because the group as put so much time and effort into this we have developed Trance and Physical. Sitting with spirit and sitting to build the power which is an area I find today is not carried out by many within the movement or not relayed by tutors to their students. The importance of attending Open Circles and not just at the your regular church or centre but further afield because it is within these you will gain valuable experience by working in a different environment

The teachings that were once presented to us all by many of the mediums of the past have now either been forgotten or watered down to the point that true mediumship is but a shadow of its former self. Stardom and fame seems, to many, more important than proving the continuation of life through concreate evidence. I am seeing that a message now is more important, instead of evidence, which itself can open up a quagmire of difficulties. For example time and time again counselling is being witnessed during demonstrations by mediums who usually have no, or very little, knowledge around this area.  We have personal responsibility to other people, ourselves and of course spirit.  The time of self-development, unfolding and understanding ourselves and the spiritual side of self seems to be a forgotten part of being a medium or developing to be a medium Like Gordon Higginson once said “development should be split into three areas, theory, getting to know one’s self and then the spirit world. “ It takes time, effort and discipline to nurture such qualities.  This should be pointed out by all tutors to their students.

But look also how we have brought into mediumship what my team called “newisms”. Or in lay man’s terms new age practices and rituals. Look at the mediums of the past and you will find that things such as grounding, chakras and protection were not mentioned all of which started in the early to mid-90’s.  Chakras are connected to Eastern practices and especially Reiki. The term grounding just means bringing yourself back from the spiritual side of your work to your physical life which can be achieved by participating in normal every day activities, such as watching tele, housework, going out with friends to name a few. But to say you have to put roots etc. really means nothing at all. Yet this is still being taught in many development groups.

One area which seems to cause a lot of controversy is the idea of protection. But what are we truly protecting ourselves from? Being a highly advanced species the question is why we still revert to bygone practices created by mankind during their infancy of evolution.

If we were to look at the spirit world around science instead of religion we would start to understand more about energies and the creation of energy. Like electricity, which is energy, there is a positive and a negative. Our actions, thoughts and words create a vibration or energy in other words. If we are positive in such things we create a larger amount of positive, or good energy, and vice versa when we are negative in such actions. These negative energies can be picked up by sensitive, mediums, but then the problem arise where some see this as a negative, or evil, spirit.

This negative energy can often be felt in buildings where some trauma or past event as created this negative energy and it is really easy to disperse by counter acting this energy with positive energy.

Many people were aware of the existence of Spiritualism even before it was generally discovered, but they could not explain it scientifically. Now, however, with our deeper knowledge of the constitution of matter and our increasing knowledge of wavelengths and vibrations, we can, in the main, do so. We can show that the claims of Spiritualists are more and more confirmed by every advance in our knowledge concerning the nature of matter.

Of course the finger of suspicion can be pointed at orthodox religion which created evil, demons and hell. But can it not be argued that we make our own heaven and hell here on the physical plain. We talk about spiritualism being a religion? This comes once again from man and not spirit. In fact Silver Birch states “Spiritualism means nothing in the spirit world for it is but a name”.

If you walk into many spiritualist churches and centres crosses, bibles and Christian artefacts adorn walls and corners of such places. We have adopted Christian scriptures and hymns.  Not to mention the new thing where some are wearing Christian uniforms such as dog collars and vestments.  We see the spiritualist movement following the same path as the Christian Church branching off into sub groups and following Christian ideology or their own ideology.

Look at how new age practices, created again in the early to mid-90’s, have ingrained themselves into mediumship. Crystals and Angels to name two. They have nothing to do with mediumship and the development of individuals and should be kept separate. There were many great spiritualists that were scientist and carried out some amazing and fantastic work around the whole subject, such as Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge and Arthur Findley. But the scientific areas of research is not highlighted like it once was. For example the great scientific work over a five year period by Arthur Findley with John Campbell Sloan (Where Two Worlds Meet) brought so much information to the fore front in regards to spirit and the spirit world.

Too often now it comes down to money within mediumship, stardom and fame which are the architects and building block of materialism. We no longer explore the spiritual nature of ourselves. The time to spend with those who work with us from the spirit world. Those invisible friends who never judge us and who unconditional love for us at all times.  Let us get back to how spiritualism and mediumship was first presented to us in its simplest and purest form. We just need to remember it is about Dedication, Discipline, Commitment and Perseverance which were the words spirit gave to me when I first started.  There was a line in an old book about spiritualism I will never forget ‘Spiritualism is not a religion, it is a discovery of an actual fact in nature. Like other facts in nature it always existed and operated, even before it was discovered.”

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Aiden Hall

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Founding the Noah’s Ark Society To Save Physical Mediumship

It was back in 1990 (nearly 30 years ago now) that I personally founded the Noah’s Ark Society in order to help save Physical Mediumship which – at that time – actually looked set to potentially become totally or partially extinct.

 

One of the prime reasons for this was that many of the few remaining physical mediums who were demonstrating in public at that time were elderly; mostly deteriorating in health and therefore undertaking less and less work as their mediumships ‘wound down’. For instance: within the next four years, two of the best known physical mediums – Gordon Higginson and Leslie Flint both passed to Spirit. Several other well-known physical mediums, such as Maud Gunning and Geoffrey Jacobs had already passed to Spirit a little earlier as well. Some genuine physical mediums such as Rita Goold (who was working in a different energy-based way) had been forced to discontinue their mediumship due to alarming threats (including death threats) from anonymous ‘Arch Sceptics’ who – without any proof – accused them of fraud. Some excellent physical mediums like John Squires of Romford simply gave up because of health issues.

 

With the public’s increased general lack of access to séances and demonstrations of physical mediumship, therefore, and the lack of any exciting reports regarding encouraging contemporary results in this unique field of mediumship, it was perhaps inevitable that public interest in the subject would fade away. Instead of witnessing available demonstrations of physical mediumship (the publicity of which, naturally, would have generated considerable interest from scientists and the public), anyone seeking more knowledge and information (and since practical experience was sadly lacking), was forced to go to the history books for answers! I remember more than one person at that time remarking to me: “Physical Mediumship – isn’t that something that happened way back in time – but is no longer being practised?”

 

In 1989, my wife Sandra and I moved into a rented Church of England Rectory at Postwick – just a few miles East of Norwich. For many years, we had run our own home circles for the development of physical phenomena in the Romford area and had – in fact – actually met in a physical circle at Romford where the medium – John Squires – went on to develop the Independent Voice phenomenon (of an excellent quality) to almost rival that of Leslie Flint. My own interest as a researcher of physical mediumship goes back to 1972.

 

Once at Postwick, it was not long before I began to miss the home circles we had run and, although we did ask around the area, we never discovered any physical home circles locally who were looking for sitters at that time. Consequentially, a little later, we did once again start our own home circle at Postwick – but that is another story.

 

However – in the meantime – in March 1989, an advert for sitters in a physical circle at Ilkeston, Derbyshire appeared in the ‘Psychic News’. I replied, and agreed to meet the trance medium of that circle – Stuart Hellen and his wife Valarie for a chat. Although the circle was 130 miles away from Postwick, they had been asked by their Spirit Team to start a physical circle, running just once per month on the Saturday closest to the new moon. The travelling was therefore not too frequent and when asked – I was happy to join the circle.

 

In April 1989, I was present at their first proper physical phenomena sitting. Several raps occurred, together with psychic breezes, and ‘whistling’ was clearly heard over the singing of the group. Later in the year, after a few more sittings, I was able to arrange for the circle members to visit Leslie Flint, who I had known for several years. Through his Independent Voice mediumship, the group received confirmation of the work they were doing to develop physical mediumship, and much evidence concerning the circle. The well-known Victorian Novelist and Spiritualist Florence Marryat also became a regular communicator in the Ilkeston Group. Her book ‘There Is No Death’ is one I can highly recommend!

 

Stuart Hellen’s mediumistic development continued apace and – early in 1990 – at the request of the Spirit Team, Stuart’s chair was moved into a cabinet and, during this first ‘cabinet’ sitting, the circle were taken unawares when the initial attempt at Independent Voice took place. This phenomena continued to develop during the further sittings in 1990.

 

In late 1989, another advert had appeared in the ‘Psychic News’: for sitters to attend another physical circle – this time in Hove, near Brighton. Again (and I shall never know quite why!) I replied, despite the fact that this circle was actually 140 miles away from our home – in a totally different direction. This group was run by John Austin – a veteran Spiritualist – and his wife Gerry. They too knew Leslie Flint well. Although this was a weekly circle, I joined this group too. After sitting with the circle for a number of months, John and Gerry decided that they needed a new carpet for the lounge in which their sittings took place.

 

The manager of a local carpet warehouse called to measure up the room, and instinctively made the comment that he knew what that room was used for. ‘Seances!!’ There was no way he could have known this by normal means, so John and Gerry chatted to him about their interest. The result was that the young man – Colin Fry – was asked to join the circle. He agreed, and history was born!! It was not long before Colin’s physical mediumship took off, and he started to go into deep trance. In terms of physical phenomena, his development was quite rapid. Within months, advanced examples of physical phenomena were taking place and – by mid 1990 – it was apparent that he was going to be an excellent physical medium. I personally witnessed one of the first instances of his phenomena, when a coin was suddenly apported into the centre of the circle from the medium’s solar plexus. Later, when levitation of the medium became commonplace, he was once levitated – complete with chair – through a wall into the next room!

 

Meanwhile, back at the Ilkeston Circle in May 1990, it was on the anniversary of the inaugural meeting of the ‘Link of Home Circles’ (held in 1931 and attended by its founder – Mr Noah Zerdin) that a spirit personality communicated with us in the Independent Direct Voice. This was no less than Noah Zerdin himself, who had been a mentor to Leslie Flint in his early days, and many other mediums besides. He specifically asked us to “Start a Society which would educate the public about physical mediumship – ensuring its safe development, demonstration and practice – as well as generally promoting physical mediumship and its phenomena to the public”.

 

This, for us, was a very exciting development, and we quickly realised the significance of such a message, and the importance of actually implementing Noah Zerdin’s request. After the sitting, we sat round discussing the possibility of starting such a society. Since I had more experience in this specialist type of mediumship and its phenomena than the others, I agreed to take over the responsibilities and practicalities of putting the Society together, and badgered the other circle members to join me on the initial committee to help with the basic work (which involved an awful lot of diplomatic persuasion!!)

 

At that time, I was in a reasonable position financially and was able, therefore, to fund the society in its early days out of my own pocket. I came up with the name myself – The Noah’s Ark Society (I guess with a little help from Spirit), and commissioned an art studio in Norwich to produce a suitable logo. The name was suitable for three reasons:

 

1)  The ‘Noah’ referred to Noah Zerdin, who had been the spirit communicator who asked us to start the Society.

 

2)  Biblically speaking, ‘Noah’s Ark’ was a vessel that saved many species of animals

     from their ultimate extinction. The Noah’s Ark Society aimed to save a particular formnof mediumship – physical mediumship – from extinction too.

 

3)  The ‘Ark of the Covenant’ – biblically speaking – was a repository for psychic power and spiritual knowledge. That seemed particularly appropriate here too!

 

Over the next few weeks, I placed adverts regularly throughout the psychic press to notify the public of the new organisation. We sent out information sheets to interested people, detailing the aims and objects of the new Society, and inviting them to join the NAS. There was to be a monthly newsletter starting in August 1990 with issue number 1 and, although much preparatory work had been done before that date (including the rapid recruitment of members), it was generally accepted that the Society would be officially formed in that month.

 

The very first member – number 001 – was Stewart Alexander. He agreed to join the committee, and to be the ‘Archive Officer’. However, it was to be quite some time before he actually admitted to me that he was a physical medium himself! I started the Newsletter as planned, and edited it. In those early days it was produced by me on a photocopier (initially at my workplace, starting at 5.50am!!)

 

The first committee consisted of just the members of the Ilkeston Circle, together with Stewart Alexander. I did not want to take on the mantle of ‘President’ myself, preferring instead to remain as ‘General Secretary’, which allowed me to quietly get on with the building, expansion and running of the Society. It was agreed by all that the first ‘President’ would be the medium – Stuart Hellen. The first ‘Treasurer’ was Denise Lacey, another Ilkeston sitter. Apart from Stewart as ‘Archive Officer’, the rest of the committee was made up by: Stuart’s wife Valarie Hellen; Michelle Hackett; Mark Stanley and Jaquie Turner.

 

The psychic press reported and trumpeted the details of the new Society. Because of that; our adverts, and ‘word of mouth’ generally, the NAS membership grew rapidly over the first few months. Physical Circles from all over the world joined as well, together with dozens of individual interested people and researchers. We quickly surpassed the significant benchmark of 100 members, and approached 200. All of a sudden, it became clear that as well as the committed physical circles and researchers already involved in our specialist subject, there was also – amongst those who had never come across physical mediumship themselves before the advent of the NAS – a new, and massive interest in physical mediumship and its phenomena from the general public, many of whom were totally lacking ANY knowledge of the reality of physical phenomena. The NAS, therefore, provided a rallying point for interested people. We set out a programme of education so that everyone could learn the basic facts – and so that members who had not previously done so could witness demonstrations of physical mediumship themselves on a regular basis.

 

I wrote an NAS teaching guide on the ‘Development of Physical Mediumship and its Phenomena’, based on the traditional use of ‘ectoplasm’ (at that early stage, nobody knew that excellent phenomena could be produced using only ‘energy’. The ‘Scole Experiment’ and its work came later!!) This, like the Newsletter, was produced in large numbers by me on my works copier machine, with a copy of this teaching booklet being sent out free to all members – together with Newsletter number 2 in September, 1990.

 

Over the next few months, the NAS continued to grow at a rapid rate, and the contacts that we made through the Society proved to be most useful. At a general meeting in January 1991, veteran medium and researcher Alan Crossley was elected as the new ‘President’, and I became ‘Chairman’ of the Noah’s Ark Society – a position I held until Sandra and I withdrew from the NAS in September 1994 (at the specific request of our Scole Spirit Team), to concentrate on our work with the Scole Experimental Group, which was producing some really amazing and exclusive Physical Phenomena – working in a brand new ‘energy-based’ way.

 

At a residential Seminar in Leicester in May (with almost 100 people present), the very first NAS demonstration of Physical Mediumship took place, using medium Colin Fry (at that time identified simply as ‘Lincoln’). It was a huge success and – Stewart Alexander (who was present) recognised the importance and full impact of such a public demonstration. He was immediately motivated to offer to undertake similar public demonstrations for the NAS in the future so – for many years, members were able to witness demonstrations of physical mediumship by these two superb mediums.

 

Stewart Alexander later took over as ‘President’ of the Noah’s Ark Society. The last ‘President’ – the late George Cranley – engineered the closing of the NAS in 2004. The ‘Vice-President’ at that time was the late Colin Fry – a really superb Physical Medium.

 

It is quite clear today that there is now a massive interest in Physical Mediumship and its Phenomena all over the world. Newer (and often younger) physical mediums are developing and coming on to the scene in so many different countries. I have no doubt personally that the work of the Noah’s Ark Society and the later work of the Scole Experimental Group have contributed tremendously to that interest, and motivated a large number of those emerging physical mediums to develop their own mediumship and phenomena.

In conclusion, therefore, I think I can justly claim that the ‘Noah’s Ark Society’, which set out to ‘save’ Physical Mediumship and its Phenomena achieved (in part) exactly what it set out to do. The subject (and practice) of PM today is thriving; continuing to expand constantly. Therefore it is far more commonplace (and available to the public) than it used to be. Interest in this specialised subject indeed continues to grow at a rapid rate.

 

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Robin Foy

Robin Foy is best known for his work with the Scole Experiment and is considered one of the original pioneers in physical mediumship using new energy based methodology. He is the author of several books on physical mediumship and is a true expert.

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