Archive for the ‘Ethics in mediumship’ Category

Mediumship, credits, and debits

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

I previously blogged about  the UK’s television medium Derek Acorah, who was going to hold a televised séance to try to reach Michael Jackson. It aired on November 9th.  The feedback I found around and about the Internet was less than positive, and here’s a short segment of the show on youtube.  Acorah responded to his critics, saying he conducted the séance “in the most honest, truthful way.”

My view is that I have little to say about it.  I know I wouldn’t have done the séance, at least not on television.  And I won’t judge Acorah’s authenticity or lack thereof.

But I will say that nothing outrages a medium more than a faker.  I absolutely hate it.  Fakery brings down the legitimacy of what everyone else in the mediumship community is doing.  It’s vile and unethical.  It’s playing dangerous mind games with people.  It’s an open opportunity for the cynics to rip mediumship apart, and do so legitimately.  It’s many things, all of which are bad.

But no matter.  The Law of Cause and Effect is a good bookkeeper.  If you acquire credits on your books through unethical means, you will receive a corresponding debit to your account.  It may happen sooner, or maybe later, but either way, the books will be balanced.

I hope that Acorah is legitmate, for his sake, and the sake of anyone else he has affected through his mediumship.

Posted in Cynic, Ethics in mediumship, Law of Cause and Effect, Mediumship, Michael Jackson, Seance | No Comments »

Mediumship in the spotlight

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Is it ethical for a medium to hold a session to contact a world-famous mega-star on the Earth plane who is now in the spirit world?  That’s very recently deceased?  On TV?

It’s something to think about.  According to Paranormal Review, it appears that Derek Acorah, a television medium, is going to be doing exactly that, in November, regarding Micheal Jackson.  Two shows, Michael Jackson: The Live Séance and Michael Jackson: The Search For His Spirit.

I think that courting the millions of fans around the world who want to hear from Michael Jackson this way, particularly since he is so recently deceased, brings a lot of pressure that no one should want to deal with.  Pressure from a lot of different sides.  Pressure from TV people to ensure it’s successful.  Pressure from fans, particularly if it fails.  Pressure from skeptics and the cynics, whether it succeeds or fails.  And we haven’t talked about pressure on the medium to establish contact.  In the world of mediumship, very few if any mediums can simply “get anybody they want” in the spirit world.  It just doesn’t work that way.

Trying to contact Micheal Jackson at this point, especially in a very public way, does not cast a good light on the subject of mediumship.  If you want to see mediumship in a better light, read yesterday’s post .

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Mediumship, Seance | No Comments »

Two sad stories in one

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

The Winchester house is famous for having been built due to spirit influence.  The owner of the house worked on the house non-stop for many years to appease herself and the spirits regarding the invention of the Winchester rifle.  This article discusses some of the details, which you may find interesting.

This is sad.  It’s unfortunate that a medium would tell a seeker negative things and thereby affect the seeker in a negative way for the rest of her life. While people often “hear what they want to hear” and interpret things the way they expect them to be (even when it’s negative), in my mind, the lion’s share of the blame still goes to the medium.

When you think about it, if the desire was to do something good to make amends for having invented the rifle, how does building a house non-stop for years accomplish it?  It doesn’t.  It’s a waste of resources.  And I doubt any of it made her feel better.

Not only is the story sad, but the article is too.  It paints things-spiritual as dark, and then dredges up the classic Christian objections to mediumship, which are quotes from their bible.  Deuteronomy is the one I see most often, and I’d say it’s their favorite. How tiresome.

Cities all over the world have beautiful things to see and do.  Art, music, architecture, museums, and other special places, for example.  Many things.  But they also have places that are dangerous and should be avoided.  The “bad parts of town”.

Would you avoid all cities on this beautiful planet of ours just because they have “bad parts of town”?  If so, you miss out on a lot of wonderful things.  To me, the classic Christian objections suggest you do exactly this, on a spiritual level.

It is wise to be careful and aware of what you’re doing when it comes to things-spiritual, so that you don’t run into the “bad parts of town”.

But don’t miss out!

Posted in Christian objections, Ethics in mediumship, Mediumship | No Comments »

Mediums 1, Pedophiles 0

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

A pedophile is now in jail, primarily due to a spirit who came through a medium and brought the issue to light.  Patrick Hutchinson was the medium.  Ethically speaking, he handled it well.  He received the information during a public event and spoke with the individual afterward, privately.  The medium who got herself thrown out of her church should take lessons from him!  

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Mediumship, Spiritualism in the UK | No Comments »

About Medical Advice

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

This article discusses James Van Praagh’s experience on the talk show The View, where he gives Barbara Walters a message (off camera) that she should check on her white blood cell count. She checked it out and nothing was wrong, so she told her audience the day after that it was ridiculous and what he did “was dangerous”.

Barbara Walter’s white blood cells are fine right now, but it does not invalidate the message. Time is a funny thing, it could happen later, or it might be someone she knows, rather than herself – things like this can happen in the context of mediumship, and it’s not necessarily a reflection on the medium’s capabilities.

As a medium and/or healer, you have to be very careful to not appear to be diagnosing, as the medical community, the seeker, or audience members could get you in trouble, depending on the laws in your area. It seems that Van Praagh directed her to her doctor, which is what a medium should do with this kind of information, which neatly avoids the issue.

At the same time, I can relate to Barbara’s statement that it’s dangerous. The danger comes from mediums who are either unaware, or don’t care about the consequences. As a medium, there are (at least) three considerations to keep in mind. The law, as what you’re doing may be, or could be construed to be, illegal. Ethics, because mediums should have high ethical standards, and appearing to be something you’re not violates that. Unintended consequences, as the “advice” you have may actually hurt the seeker more than it helps.

By the way, the article also covers some background on Van Praagh that you might find interesting.

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Healing, James Van Praagh, Medium, Readings | No Comments »

Mediums behaving badly

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

When it comes to message work and readings, mediums sometimes receive information that they should think twice about before letting it out.  Here is an article about a medium in the UK who didn’t do that, and does not understand why she’s been ousted from her Spiritualist church.

Mediumship is about respect, confidentiality, and integrity, and not just blurting out whatever you’ve received as “the truth”, regardless of the consequences, especially in a public setting.

Mediumship has an ethical component to it, whether you are aware of it or not, and whether you acknowledge it or not.   I would say that she’s not aware of it.  Let’s hope she learns, before she hurts anyone else.

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Mediumship, Spiritualism in the UK | No Comments »

Sex and spirituality

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

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.

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Law of Cause and Effect, Sex, Spiritualist | No Comments »

Lessons learned from fake message work

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

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.

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Law of Cause and Effect, Mediumship, Message work, Readings, Spiritualism in the UK | No Comments »

On being a medium – what NOT to do

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Becky and Debs’ experiences are object lessons in what NOT to do as a medium. Heaven forbid any “medium” say stuff like this to anyone, even if it’s true. My view is that beginners or inexperienced mediums may get negative stuff because they’re new to it, and they pass it on because they think they’re doing the right thing. It’s NOT. Don’t go telling people that they might die, or say things that would scare anyone. It’s bad enough that people associate mediumship with Halloween and other scary stuff, so let’s not go about perpetuating it with these types of comments. Mediumship should not be about that type of thing.

Posted in Ethics in mediumship, Medium, Mediumship | No Comments »