Here is a Letter from a reader called Pam who tells of her experiences - my comments are below - Stella

It is three years since I wrote the "Visitors in the Night" [See 'True Stories'] for Stella, the world of spirit was so new and scary. To suddenly be told in my later years that I had a guardian spirit with me who had been with me all my life, and that I was now about to embark on a strange but inevitable journey was worrying, but exciting.

So much has happened since then, to bring me to where I am today - a fledgling medium and Stella has suggested I tell you about it.

BEGINNING

At the very beginning, I was told that I had a strong male spirit with me and with descriptions like 'He's looking at me through your eyes.', 'Your face has changed into a male face.', 'He's standing back but I can't see his face.', and 'I can see him but not his face.' (All these from different mediums without prompting from me) I was, to say the least, afraid.  However, the spirit world is clever; they sent me two small spirit children in order to make me feel comfortable with my newfound awareness.  I became relaxed with the whole spirit thing and began to enjoy them being with me.

MY FIRST INDICATION that they were around came over a period of three nights.  I would wake to the sound of running water.  Getting out of bed and going into the bathroom I found the hot tap running, only gently but enough to wake me.  Cursing myself for not turning it off properly the night before I went back to bed and to sleep.  The following night it happened again. 'I must get a plumber,' I thought, but again, unconcerned, I went back to bed.  This happened once more, the tap running harder each time and then one morning, whilst in the shower with my eyes closed and enjoying the hot water running over my body, the water suddenly turned icy cold.  I opened incredulous eyes to find that the hot tap had been turned on so hard the water was splashing over the sink. 

Realisation dawned - spiritual pranks.  As I was alone in the house, there was no other explanation; they had gained my attention, now there was only one-way to go.  Shortly after this two mediums told me the children were with me, and I was very happy…because children I could cope with.  I did not have them with me for long but they helped enormously with my transition.

I sensed the two of them many times, although I only saw the girl twice and the boy once.  The first time I saw the little girl I had fallen asleep on the sofa whilst watching the TV with my granddaughters.  I woke suddenly and she was sitting beside me also watching the TV.  She was a beautiful little girl dressed all in white in what looked like medieval dress and banded headscarf enclosing all her hair.  It was a beautiful moment and I was disappointed when she faded although I felt sure she was still there, watching the TV, even though I could not see her.  The little boy appeared one morning while I was snoozing in bed.  He was about 7/8 years of age and dressed in 30/40s clothes, i.e. short grey trousers, grey shirt and sleeveless Fair Isle pullover.  He was handing me a present and I reached out to take it.  He gave me a lovely smile and disappeared.  I never saw him again.

One night, shortly after seeing the little boy, I awoke to see a ball of pure light beside me within which was the figure of a little girl, hands together in prayer.  That was the last time I saw her and, with the little boy's present, I believe they were saying goodbye.  I've missed them but other children sometimes visited me, and I was always glad to see them, they are so much less intimidating than adult spirits.

THE FIRST AWARENESS GROUP I joined was not right for me at the time.  I could not understand or control what was happening to me and neither could the medium leading the group.  At one time I sat in meditation with the most uncomfortable and paralysing rush of energy spinning anti-clockwise around my body.  I shared this with her later and expected her to calm my fears with an explanation, however she dismissed my experience with, 'Anyone would be pleased to be in a vortex.' (In other words 'get on with it girl.') 

I managed three sessions but on the fourth, I saw something, which freaked me out and this time I did not tell her about it.  I saw something black, about the size of a man's fist, appear out of the wall above, shoot across the wall to the right and disappear about 25cms from where it had appeared.  I never went back.  A lesson to all novices, do not continue with a group if the medium appears to be pursuing her own ego at the expense of her group members.  (Now I know what this was but I will leave Stella to give you an explanation.)

MY SECOND AWARENESS GROUP was lovely, calm and comforting.  Although I suffered physically from the pain, anger or depression silently emanating from others in the group, I could talk to the medium about everything that happened to me and she showed me how to control these experiences.  I have found myself in a vortex in a few situations since but I just sit quietly and ask spirit to help me through.  Although it is still unpleasant, I'm no longer afraid, although it can give me an almighty headache.  I was a member of that group for nearly twelve months and I learned so much.  It was there that I started taking messages and most importantly, learning how to deliver them.  I remember being horrified by a medium on the platform that approached a young girl and demolished her with a message from her grandmother.  He told her strongly that she was in a relationship that she knew was not right for her.  There was drink involved and the man would be violent.  'You must get away from him now.' The girl collapsed in a quivering heap and sobbed for the rest of the demonstration.  Even early on in my development I knew this could not be right and since then I have heard mediums say 'I have an important message for you.  Please wait for me after the demonstration and I will talk to you in private.'  The message would have been the same but, with a little more compassion, the effect would have been lessened.  We mostly learn from good mediums, but we can also learn how not to do it.

MY THIRD AWARENESS GROUP was with a beautiful and kindly man.  I did not progress much but the experience was wonderful.  Steve was the first to see my guardian spirit whilst we were all in meditation.  He said he was a big man, standing at the back of the room, a cowl over his head so that Steve could not see his face, with clothes like a monk but better material.  Steve remarked that at one point my spirit came across to me and then returned to his position at the back.  I joked with Steve that he was leaving me to it but I was able to tell Steve that I had again been uncomfortable and had become tearful, I had asked my spirit to give me a hug.  It was wonderful to hear that Steve had actually seen this happen.

FOURTH GROUP: I left that group because I had the opportunity finally to join a closed circle with a very experienced and respected medium.  I have been with him now for twelve months and have received some beautiful messages in many ways.  Although all are significant, I adore the ones I call my video messages.  They don't happen very often but I hope I may expand this side of my mediumship.

To explain:  The first happened when I held an envelope in which was an unknown object belonging to an unknown person  (even the medium did not know the owner or the contents).  I saw what appeared to be an Air Force Hospital.  There were beds around the room occupied by young men and I could see planes taking off outside the window.  The occupants of the beds were laughing and joking and the whole atmosphere was happy.  In the foreground stood a young nurse who appeared to be the spirit who had brought my "video" images through.  When I researched the uniform later on the Internet, it appeared to be from Queen Alexandra's Nursing Corps who were seconded to the military during WW II.  She was smiling and wanting to tell me what it was all about. She showed me in pictures that she had married one of the men after the war and that they were very happy.  The owner of the envelope later explained that there was a photograph somewhere of such a lady and they would search for it with renewed interest.

Another experience happened when I held a wedding ring belonging to a man in the group (although I did not know it was his until after the reading).  I saw a wonderful moving scene between a man and a woman.  She was heavily pregnant and he was holding the ring, hanging from a thread, over her bump in the ancient way of determining the sex of the baby.  They were laughing and obviously not taking the exercise seriously and the whole scene was beautiful.  When the young man confirmed everything later, I felt very privileged to have witnessed their private moment.

These are two examples of psychometry of course, which is a very useful training tool for the fledgling medium.  Another "tool" early on in the second awareness group was spiritual writing.  Each week I would sit with pen poised over a notepad on which was written a word chosen by our medium as the subject of that week (homework) and wait for the flow of words that would enter my head at rapid speed and then write and write until the words stopped.  Each week my writing  (messages from spirit) would be wonderful but sombre and at this time I called my guide the Philosopher.  My group companions would read out their wonderfully flowery offerings, which sounded as if they had come from the angels themselves.  On this particular week the word was "Sympathy" and as I sat in silent meditation before lifting up my pen I asked for a prettier piece to write.   The words came as before at an even faster rate and spirit had to pause more than once for me to catch up.  When they had finally finished and I looked at what I had written I cried.  The spirit had done something, which no other had done, she had given me her name, Annie, and it appeared to be Annie's story of life on the streets.  I was overwhelmed then as I am now thinking about it but delighted months later when a medium from the platform said 'Annie says hello.'  This has happened again and I always reply 'Hi, Annie'.

So where am I now?  My greatest successes have been on a one-to-one basis.  My most heart-warming was with a young man who I had never met before.  I held his hands for only seconds and was quickly joined by a young man in spirit.  The spirit joked and chatted about himself; all I this relayed to the young man in front of me, who said nothing.  Finally the spirit told me that the young man was not with him when he passed over but that he should not feel guilty about his death, there was nothing he could do to change things.  I had no idea that everything I had passed on from spirit had been 100% accurate until the young man to the group confirmed it.  I never saw him in-group again and I like to think that I had given him closure on his friend's early passing.

This and other experiences have lead me to believe that spiritual counselling is the way the spirits want to use me.  Meanwhile I am progressing toward platform mediumship as the way to go.  Fear of the platform looms large of course but I know I won't be put on platform until I am ready and I know that when it happens my spirit guides will be there for me, especially my large, strong male whose face we are yet to see and whose name I do not know.  He will never let me down. 

Comments from Stella.

This is why I am so thrilled to put onto the site other peoples experiences, a lot of this also happened to me when I started all those years ago. I too thought that I was a bit old to be embarking on a new venture! I too had similar spirit helpers – two teenage spirits – my door keeper was a surprise to me too … I could go on and on …

INDICATIONS: The Appearances of ‘odd’ things happening is very common, but people don’t always get the ‘hint’! Often in church when giving communications I confirm to folks this IS what is happening.

FIRST AWARENESS GROUP Pam says that this wasn’t right for her, I am so glad that she saw this and moved on, sometimes we think that the other people must know more than we do and so stick it out - not a good idea. The thing is this ... A medium who has not protected the group is irresponsible - "ALWAYS START WITH A PRAYER" ... As to my experience of malevolent spirits that's on "Rescue Work" here on True Stories.

SECOND GROUP: Healing: Feeling the pain, anger, or depression from others in the group; it is so important when sensing on the psychic levels the very real need for healing, that we let it pass through quickly and observe the sensation on a ‘disassociated’ way - as if it’s happening to the ‘other me’.

Communications / messages are a very important part of the Mediums job, and it is very sad that we sometimes learn through the mistakes or unkindness of platform speakers, I can’t call that person a spiritual medium as the spirit would never say anything like that to hurt a loved one.

THIRD GROUP: I would say here that ‘progression’ is learning through experience and what Pam describes is fantastic!

FOURTH GROUP: Psychometry is a good way of developing the ability to ‘link in’ with another person – spirit or earth people [aura reading]. Don’t forget we here are spirit too, and when we learn to communicate with other spirits HERE the lessons are similar to learn communications with spirit ‘THERE’.

Pam describes the usefulness of psychometry:

Step one: she links into the envelope

Step two: she links in to spiritual i.e. moves up a step / 'looks' about for spirit friends. 

 Step three: gives the communication from the spirit world.

WHERE NOW…

The connection of shaking hands with a young man - Pam doesn’t say where she is when this happened  - and getting ‘messages’ can be thrilling, but if it’s on the steps of the local shops, or we wake up in the middle of the night to hear spirit chattering to us … yes, that used to happen to me … we need to learn close down / disconnect, because it’s not good for us to be always ‘on call’ it drains our energies, and spirit people would not want that for us, would they?

Platform is the way to go?! Good, I’m so pleased. Every medium loves to hear this. I bet there was a party in the spirit world when she decided that one!

With regard to the counselling side, I would always advise anyone to train in the earthly methods, whatever the subject, because I know from experience the spirit guides need both kinds of knowledge to work through us … and anyway it’s not fair to expect them to do all the work.

If you are thinking about this kind of thing - training - and maybe it’s difficult to see how to go ahead, please, ask your guides and helpers to provide, and they will. It happened just like this to me.

Kindest regards

Stella

P.S. Can you relate to any of this? Would you like to share? Jot me a line on the Email, and I'll be happy to write up your story for you if you don't have time.