I’m not sure you’d ever see an “American Medium” talent show like American Idol here in the US, but in the UK, they had a similar type of event that drew 340 entrants.
My view is that mediumship is not something that should be portrayed as a competition or pageant. It makes me feel commoditized and cheap. Mediumship should aspire to higher things.
Buffalo (NY) got itself on an episode of Ghost Hunters, and the episode ran tonight. Some people really like phenomena, but for me as a medium, I don’t watch these shows. For me, the question of whether the shows or the evidence is “real” or “legitimate” is not particularly relevant. It’s enough for me to know that phenomena exists, no doubt in my mind, whether they’ve actually recorded it on their show or not.
I have more interest in the things that indicate intelligence and communication, as opposed to being provided evidence that spirits exist.
Spirits have as much right to exist in a place as we do, but when the situation becomes threatening (to either party) things need to be done. It’s commonly called “ghostbusting” or spirit removal, but I think that’s a little limiting – it gives an image of exterminators coming to rid your house of pests. Unlike pests, it’s fairly possible for spirits and Earth plane folks to coexist peacefully, as not all “hauntings” are negative/nasty/evil.
It seems to me that shows of this type often have mediums come in and say “yep, you’ve got ghosts”, but they don’t do anything to solve the problem – they just walk away. I’ve done some work in this area, and it is possible to make improvements and “solve” the problem.
Let’s take a moment to send a thought of peace and harmony to all spirits and Earth plane folks who are living together in disharmony….
Buffalo
Have you ever been on a haunted history ghost walk? I have, and it’s interesting. It’s a tour of an area with discussion about the history, culture, architecture, and psychic, spiritual, or haunting aspects of it as well. The Spectrum, the newspaper of the University of Buffalo (UB), recently wrote a great article you’ll want to read.
In Buffalo and Western New York, you’ll find Mason Winfield offering these tours. He’s the author of several books on the subject, including this new one:
Being that I live in both Buffalo and Rochester, I’ll have to check it out when I get a chance. Not only is Mason Winfield a good tour guide, he’s a pleasant guy. I remember talking with him about people we know in common, Paul & Peggy Spencer, who were mediums and also my teachers. Paul & Peggy were killed in a car accident some years ago. I mentioned that they sometimes stop by, and my reference to them in the present tense intrigued him a bit.
Having people you know in the spirit world come to visit is one of the great benefits of mediumship, and if you knew Paul & Peggy, you’d appreciate it all the more. They were great folks, and I learned much-much-much from them. Their son Ron, another good medium and teacher that I learned from, was also killed in an accident around the same time, and he stops by on occasion. I’m sorry they’re not still with us here on the Earth Plane, and I wish them the very best in their lives in the Spirit World.
Sex and spirituality, as wonderful as they are, are best enjoyed separately. It keeps the confusion down, and helps avoid problems with sex in the name of spirituality.
In my mind, taking unfair advantage of someone is one of the most unethical things you can do. It’s bad when it’s done from a position of power, and under the guise of religion, even worse. Combined with sexuality, worse yet. Here’s an article about a couple of guys in Australia who think it’s just the thing to do – they pretended to be Spiritualists, purported to cast evil spirits out through sex with their client/victims, and made a lot of money in the process.
I’m feeling like a broken record here, but I have to say it – the Law of Cause and Effect is always working, affects everyone equally, and operates in both the positive and negative directions. Needless to say, this one’s negative. As the Aussies might say, “No worries mate, it’ll come around to them.”
Thank goodness that they weren’t actually Spiritualists, only pretenders! The last thing we need is yet another slur on our good name.
Here is a video about message work. Derren Brown, a popular skeptic in the UK, says that the message work he’s about to do is fake, then proceeds to give messages to members of the audience. During the messages, the seekers acknowledge that a number of items provided by the “medium” are accurate, and one seeker cries. At the end, the seeker who cried says he was astounding.
I tend to think that the whole thing is contrived/faked. Perhaps he researched the seekers beforehand or otherwise got information about them prior to the session. Or they’re actors performing a script. I suppose the very-remote possibility that he happened to do some legitimate message work despite his claims that he’s fake exists, but I’m not holding my breath.
I find it a little strange that the seekers were happy to have the video published. If I were one of them, I’d be mad as hell about being taken advantage of, perplexed about how the “medium” got the information, since he’s professing to not-be a medium in the first place, and then wonder if any of it was still valuable anyway, despite it being contrived/faked. I’d also be embarrassed, and probably not want it published.
For mediumship to take place, a genuine connection to things-spiritual needs to be present. Saying the same things a medium might say (without that connection) does not make you a medium.
The existence of fake mediumship does not invalidate all mediumship, no more than counterfeit money invalidates all money. And the ability to produce a counterfeit, whether it’s mediumship, money, or anything else, really doesn’t mean much, other than it’s something to be aware of and avoid.
A good medium’s motivations for doing message work and readings is (or should be!) more noble than than faking people out or otherwise taking advantage of them. If your intentions are not noble and good, and your ethics are not equally noble and good, you should not be practicing mediumship. Stop right now, before you hurt people. The money you can make isn’t worth the pain you can cause, and that pain will come back to you courtesy of the Law of Cause and Effect.
