Coincidences are little taps on the shoulder from God.

- Yitta Halberstam
 

So ... you're thinking about becoming a Medium?

It is the best job in the world, [but it's also rather a serious one too.]

Fun does come into it and we are supposed to enjoy the work, but it is work, make no mistake!

Spirit helpers are so pleased to find a new partner in spreading the truth - that there is no 'death' - and will work you as hard as you wish. This can be a bit of a problem if you have difficulty striking a balance in your life already.

Those who decide to continue psychic and mediumship development will have to be ever aware of their words, and recognise any inferences that could be taken from them, yes, even when not working, because they represent all other Mediums and Spiritualism as a belief system – just like the traveler abroad, s/he represents their country.

PATIENCE

People developing mediumship must have patience. It is so easy to complain that things aren’t moving quickly, and want mediumship to happen instantly. Patience and concern, loving care, sincerity and a steady slow growth is far better because all soul growth is slow, and the results are far stronger.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

When talking to clients, in many cases, I have found, they will want the medium to solve their problems, and it is natural to want to help. Mediums should remember that personal responsibility is the key here, and realise that only the client themselves can solve their own problems. Mediums should only give a counselling service if they skilled, trained and are qualified to do so.

An adage here – the road to hell is paved with good intentions! Leaving a gap in the conversation where an answer is expected is difficult for some people who are used to not disappointing a client, and I too have had to learn that silence is golden here!

This is even more important when they have the helping, advising, counselling or giving messages to people who are in grief or searching desperately for something. In addition, mediums should not blame spirit if things go wrong. It’s a good idea to recognise our own shortcomings before blaming the spirit world!

HUMILITY

Mediumship carries a great deal of responsibility. Everyone who wishes to develop their mediumship should examine their motives. They need to take a long, hard, critical look at themselves, decide what they are, and where they want to go. Can they meet the needs and requirements of being a responsible, caring, sensible person who serves because of love for people, or are they glory hunting? They need to be certain because motives will show up as time goes by.

It is essential that mediums have humility. If they become full of their own self-importance then the mediumship will suffer; they will receive and give out poor messages that are inaccurate and they will turn to psyching and become a fraud. I have seen this, a friend decided that they would give up work and depend on spirit to provide, you guessed it, no go!

HONESTY

Mediums have to be sincere and honest both with themselves and with their clients. If mediums are not honest with their clients, they will be cheating them and also giving spiritualism a bad name. If they cannot be honest with themselves they will have problems. To face the self with truth and honesty is not always easy we all have an ego, but issues can be dealt with as and when they come up, you might find that your emotions link in with the psychic atmosphere and your feelings become sometimes overwhelming, gentle healing from spirit friends come in here because we are open to the love.

An example, a friend started a medical course and after some time started to get very upset about things that had not been an issue since childhood. She remembered that I had given her a communication from her mum regarding the healing course but had not taken it in at the time, and it being on her mind she phoned to ask what it was all about. The message was given at the beginning of that year when the problems started for her. Conclusion –spirit was

putting in place the mechanism for help to be there when needed.

TACT

Platform training should give Mediums the firm idea that they must be very careful in choosing their words when giving message links from the spirit world. The language and content are to be thought through seriously, “give what you get" is not a literal piece of advice! Dealing with vulnerable people who hold what they say in great esteem, they must be careful not to cause offence or embarrass people.

COMPASSION

Mediums are dealing more often than not, with vulnerable people, their emotions and lives. It is obviously important to remember this and use a great deal of self-control and discretion. Many people who come to see mediums or seek comfort in a spiritualist church are seeking comfort and can get very emotional. This places a tremendous responsibility on mediums, which can, by words, create a feeling of well being in a person, or intense feelings of extreme fear.

It is important to be non-judgmental, people who come to church or private sittings might have very different lifestyles to those of the medium, and we are dealing with people who are in various states of mind, maybe in grief and in need of help, so we need to be compassionate too.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Mediums will receive a lot of confidential information; it may be from the clients who give such information about their personal lives or about ailments when having healing, not just from the legal point of view either. Also they may receive information from spirit that may be sensitive, too sensitive too give out in an open meeting and best reserved for a private meeting afterwards.

DON’T BE EGOTISTICAL

Mediums should not try to satisfy their own ego by gaining public attention and center stage limelight position because of any psychic abilities they think are special, reading about other mediums in the past puts things in perspective! Even the most dedicated have fallen into this trap because it is so easy to do.

OBJECTIVITY

The medium should have the ability to stand outside of a situation and view that situation with a clearly, without showing emotion or any personal feelings. To control this is a big key to keeping healthy in body and mind, and we have to overcome our own feelings in order to be of service to others. If we are too wrapped up in our

own needs, problems and ambitions, we cannot truly serve others. Mediums need to be detached, which does not mean ‘uncaring - it indicates a certain objectivity and control of personal emotions.

CO-OPERATION OF THE SPIRIT WORLD

He different definitions of a psychic and a medium are a fine distinction that most of the public are not aware of - so they lump all into one group. However it is generally accepted that most mediums are genuinely trying to help people. Among the psychic world however, there are people who are in it for the cash i.e. tarot reading, crystals, palms, etc. The SNU has for this reason made rules that these ‘aids’ are not used in their churches. Spiritual communication needs no such support, although as a beginner they might be used in early training to assist, as long as they are quickly out grown.

GUIDES/CONTROLS AND HELPERS

All mediums have spirit people helping them when working. The controls/helpers are drawn to you by your MOTIVE to your spiritual ethics to your character. If you wish to relay / communicate messages, you attract a certain kind of mind to you to help with this. If you wish to heal, another sort of person – and obviously if you are the opposite we describe … like attracts like…

In the beginning of development you will be greatly aided by controls who will try and work with you to strengthen your mental contact with spirit, but ideally you should develop your spiritual ‘muscles’ so that you will work direct with the communicators, only they can give you a true sense of their presence and how they feel; their emotions; their love, anger, etc.

MENTAL CO-OPERATION

You should seek a conscious co-operation with the spirit. Avoid domination of your mind, unless you are seeking very deep trance states under a trained instructor.

For the giving of a talk, or philosophy as they call it in some churches, medium and guide/control should blend their minds and personalities so that the union is strong enough for the medium to be able to register the thoughts of his/her control. As the control receives the information, so they will be registered by the medium, because the two are in a state of attunement. This is the key to all successful mediumship.

Some churches have an open circle after the service and invite the congregation to offer communications to the medium. Or when on the platform if you are fortunate in having mediums sitting in the congregation they might tell you of the spirit lights or persons that have been ‘stepping’ in and out of your aura after the service. This building up of a love-link, a friendship between two worlds takes time, patience, love and effort. You have to earn the love of your controls, and always treat them with the respect you should wish them to treat you with.

COMMITMENT

The job of a medium requires a great deal of commitment; it is a way of life. It is not that the medium will be required to give messages all day, every day, [and to be so ‘tuned in’ is not good for you,] but that the medium must have a selfless attitude to all others; be aware of those in need of help and be prepared to meet those needs by such means as listening, healing or giving spiritual upliftment – and counselling as I said where appropriate. Even when the medium’s ego bruised, they should not give up. By loving people enough they will be able serve them and only by putting service first, and ego last.

PAYMENT

The job of a medium requires hard work with the main reward being satisfaction in a job well done. It is NOT a glamorous job or one that pays well. The medium should instead be prepared to give freely of his/her time with little or no payment.

It is widely thought that to earn money by mediumship is morally wrong.

Any professional person, who gives their working-life over to a cause, needs to live and pay bills and eat the same as anyone else. Mediums are not exempt from these natural laws. Within spiritualism, many of its adherents are living in the middle ages, when men believed God would provide regardless of our own efforts!

We are living in a materialistic, capitalistic society and certain monies must exchange hands to keep mediums well and living in a reasonable comfort. The whole question is this: Is the medium really trying to serve humanity and help people in a genuine manner? If so, then their payment is ethically sound.

However, if fraudulence is suspected, or mediums operate dishonestly and without care or concern for people or what they say to them - then the chances are that they might be making a reasonable living off the backs of the vulnerable, the ignorant and the sensation-seekers. The last principle of compensation and retribution needs careful thought here!

So, in conclusion what is the best approach to all this?

Learn to trust the spirit guides and helpers, but use your common sense, we develop a much better ‘sixth sense’ of intuition over time, and are able to avoid trouble when paying attention to it. Don’t live in fear!

Each day talk to your spirit friends, get to know them – by name if you can - even a few comments inside our own heads, for example  “Well, what do you all think of that?"  is just keeping in touch with the spirit world and holds that friendly link. The balance I mentioned in the first paragraph is essential – i.e. don’t let the enthusiastic ones wake you up in the middle of the night for a chat!

Balance your life, this means making use of our freewill and saying “No!" when we are tired and fed up, as will happen from time to time. Being a medium does not mean we have any special ‘get-out’ from the day-to-day irritating little things, but it does mean that we are able to cope better seeing the bigger picture from a spiritual stand-point.

Continue to read all you can about the subjects that interest you, all is stored in the unconscious memory and that is where the spirit people will draw from for their communications.

We are privileged to have the opportunity to help our fellow travelers on the path to greater awareness.

So I say to one us and all ... God speed our steps …

Amen, let it be so.