Archive for the ‘Law of Cause and Effect’ 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 »

Taking three steps backwards

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

I thought we were past the killing of doctors who provide abortion services, but apparently not.  Today, Dr. George Tiller was killed in Wichita, Kansas while he was at church serving as an usher, presumably because he provides abortion services. It looks like we stepped right back to 1988, when Dr. Barnett Slepian was murdered in Buffalo, New York, because he was an abortion doctor.

Sad.  Very sad.

I can’t stand it when a person is so passionate about their particular issue that they step over the line and impinge on somebody’s (or everybody’s) world and demand that things be done their way.   Killing a doctor because you’re against abortion is one the most extreme examples of it.

My prayers go out to the people around and about Dr. Tiller who are now suffering due to their loss.

My prayers also go out to the murderer, whoever he or she is.  Not prayers of compassion or sympathy, but prayers of action.  This person needs help, desperately.  They already have a lot of problems coming their way, courtesy of the Law of Cause and Effect, whether they know it or not.  I hope they are caught well before they murder another doctor and cause even more suffering for everyone else, and in the long run of eternity, themselves.  I pray this person wakes up and realizes the consequences of their actions, and then turns themselves in peacefully.

Posted in Abortion, Law of Cause and Effect, Murder, Prayer | No Comments »

Not liking, but accepting

Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

Do people have a right to be “evil”, possessed, or otherwise negatively influenced?  It’s an interesting question.  Lately, I’ve been working with someone who has a family member that seems to have slid into some type of negativity.  Some of the indicators are a personality change, being withdrawn, fascination with darker types of things, and some possible physical phenomena.  Nothing very clear-cut, but there might be something going on.

Put yourself in this person’s shoes for a minute.  It’s your family member, what do you do?  Talking to her doesn’t seem to work.  She says that she doesn’t care about your concerns.  You confront her on her behavior and recent behavior changes, and she says she’s happy the way she is.  You can’t take control against her will, as she’s an adult who’s capable of making her own decisions and appears to be otherwise functioning normally.  She’s not breaking any laws or doing anything else that might bring enforceable action.

Tough spot to be in, no doubt.  I’d call it a hard lesson in not-liking something that you have to accept.

My view is that people are “allowed” to make choices, including ones that I might consider to be negative or evil.  I may want to talk them out of it, and the Law of Cause and Effect may take care of it in the long run, but ultimately, they make their own choices, no matter what I say, or how I feel about it.  And it’s me that has to let go and “allow”, more than the person of concern.

“People can choose what they want.”  It is very easy to say this about people in general and think nothing of it.  It’s lip service, just a cliche.  But when you apply it, a new reality surfaces.  You discover that the more you care about the person, the harder it is to maintain this type of detachment and acceptance.  And when it’s family, it is harder yet.

Posted in Law of Cause and Effect, Possession | 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 »

Prejudice, intolerance and hypocrisy are still alive and well

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

Andy, the person I did the reading for last year, describes the area he lives in this way:

People here are mean spirited and will use anything they can to put people down and I don’t need that. Recently a tree fell across the road and the only way to get it moved was for me to do it myself – I asked the locals about it for about a week, they would not help and the county would not do it because the road crews are locals and I am an outsider.

For a very long time the locals would not grade the road by my house. It became like a deer trail with deep ruts and overgrown brush, and at times we could not get through it, and it is our only road out of here. Regardless of often we asked them to do it, they would joke with each other and laugh about it in my face…. these people all go to church and are good Baptists. We got the road graded by calling the county judge and telling him we were going to contact our attorney if they didn’t do it. It was done that day, he seems ok, but he was not happy about the situation.

A few days later someone shot up our mail box. I think it was done by one of the road crew because the only way they would grade the road was for us to contact the county judge, and they didn’t like that at all. We can’t see the mail box from the house and it was shot with a shotgun at close range, I think it was between 10 and 11pm on a Saturday night. The locals meet down the road from us and drink beer on the weekend.

Life here wouldn’t be much fun if they knew I was into Spiritualism. People go to church several times a week but how many of them are ready for heaven or even God, not many.

You would think that in the year 2008, with all this impressive technology, political correctness, and modern culture, that you wouldn’t hear about such petty, primitive behavior, but sadly, that’s not the case. You might shrug it off, saying “that’s human nature”, and I suppose that’s true to an extent, but why should we accept it so blandly? It’s ridiculous. This person never did anything to them, and he only wanted that which was reasonably and rightfully his.

The sad part is that these people undoubtedly think it’s ok to treat others this way, particularly when the other has done them no harm in the first place. The Law of Cause and Effect ensures that what goes around, comes around. Another version of the Law is to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — the Golden Rule. Since these individuals go to Baptist church several times a week, you would think they have heard the Golden Rule time after time, right from their Bible, right from Jesus Christ (according to their belief system). I strongly suggest they practice what their religion preaches.

Precisely during the moment that I was writing the above about Cause and Effect, this tune started playing on my youtube playlist…how appropriate! The message of Cause and Effect is exactly the same, whether it comes from the Christian Bible or from a pop song.

Posted in Law of Cause and Effect | No Comments »

Verification – the medium’s treat

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

I did a reading for Andy about a year ago. He contacted me recently and had this to say:

I don’t know if you will remember me. One thing you said was to move the computer near the window because everything would be better if I did that. I eventually got around to doing that and in the process I found that there was a short in the power supply which was burning and would eventually have set on fire.

By the way, when I switched the computer back on it started smoking, no joke. That is how close it was to setting on fire. If the power had gone off and come back on when I was away it would have set on fire. It was caused by a component next to the fan inside the power supply, so it would have blown flames out of the fan vent on the back of the computer on to the wall which is made of wood. Well done Joe and thank you for that, you probably saved my house if not me as well.

The medium’s role is one of service. Service for seekers who want or need contact with the Spirit World. Service for spirits who wish to communicate with seekers. Beneath it all, at the core, lies a sincere desire to be an agent of goodness, for seeker and spirit alike, in harmony with God-as-you-define.

From a medium’s perspective, verification from the seeker is a rare treat, and is always appreciated. Verification can affirm or reaffirm our faith in our mediumship, its positive benefits, and its ability to help others. Getting verification can be considered an expression of the Law of Cause and Effect (“what goes around comes around”) in a positive way.

Thank you Andy.

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Posted in God, Law of Cause and Effect, Medium, Mediumship, Readings, Spirit World, Verification | No Comments »

Quality of service for Mediumship in the UK

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

In the Times Online, there’s a draft of a new law in the UK that affects Spiritualist activities  and services such as healing, readings, and other things people typically charge money for.  According to Professor Gary Slapper, the draft of the new law will affect anyone who charges for readings, healings, and the like, and protects consumers against unfair business practices such as “harassment, coercion or undue influence”.  An example of scams in the UK include a mailing told consumers that the place that they were living in was “a zone which has been ‘booby-trapped’ by negative waves”, and it offered a solution for a payment of £29.

While some Spiritualists are up in arms about it, it still sounds like a good law to me, only because there are people who are expressly focused on taking unfair advantage of people via mediumship and healing.  Being a spiritual provider of any kind is a big responsibility, and high standards of ethics are very-very important.

You would think that the Law of Cause and Effect (“what goes around, comes around”) ought to be enough to keep any medium on the straight and narrow and make laws like this unnecessary, but sadly, that’s not the case.  Actually, the Law of Cause and Effect ought to be enough to keep EVERYONE on the straight and narrow, but it’s abundantly clear that people-in-general just don’t work that way, and behave otherwise.  The problem is that we don’t believe on a truly personal level.  We may agree that Cause and Effect is true, but we don’t think it’s really about us, so we go about our ways as if it didn’t really exist. It’s about time that people stop giving Cause and Effect lip service and start behaving in positive, productive ways.  Keep in mind that the law works in the positive direction too!

Posted in Law of Cause and Effect, Mediumship, Spiritualism in the UK | No Comments »