Somewhat like the seeker in Harry Potter’s game of Quidditch, a seeker is any person who is looking for something from the spirits, most commonly in the form of a message or reading. Here is a nice little article about how you as a seeker should approach a reading. It refers to readings by phone, but it essentially applies to any type of reading. Some of it applies to messages as well.
Archive for the ‘Readings’ Category
Doctor, heal thyself
Thursday, March 12th, 2009You might wonder, do mediums go for readings? Why would they, especially when they talk to the spirits all the time?
Generally speaking, it’s rare for us to go for reading, but we do. Remember that mediums are seekers too. We can benefit from the services of another medium, even though we already talk to the spirits more often than most people. Sometimes “hearing it from someone else” is good.
People think mediums (or psychics) know everything, or should know everything. When people sneer at us for not knowing everything, including the winning lotto numbers, it makes me laugh a little inside. While they’re in the middle of sneering and looking down at us, what they’re actually doing is proving is that we’re human beings, (prettymuch) like everyone else.
Don’t they think that if mediums could consistently turn up the winning lotto numbers, that every one of us would be rich? Sure we would, so why do they look at us like we’re foolish? It’s not a failing of ours, it’s an unrealistic expectation of theirs, a failing of theirs to think we can do such things! Usually, the most we say is that “it doesn’t work that way”, which is true, but doesn’t improve their understanding much at all.
Ok, time to climb down off the soap box. Anyhow, truth be told, we don’t want to do lotto numbers. If we could, all kinds of bad things might happen. We would be hunted down and held at gunpoint to provide numbers. If we made a mistake, we’d be killed. There would be State, Federal, and police investigations to determine if we somehow got insider information and/or “fixed” the proceedings. And if we did it consistently, there would be no more lottos, as people would scream that it’s cheating. I think they’d scream louder than they are about Mr. Madoff’s $68 billion Ponzi scheme, as this type of swindling, as unethical and illegal as it is, is more commonplace.
Good thing that “it doesn’t work that way”, but if it ever did, I would hope that we would spend our mega-millions on making the world better, in some positive and spiritual way. Too bad we don’t have the Madoff billions to do exactly that.
Mediumship and quality of content
Saturday, January 31st, 2009In my previous post about the goodness of the medium, I said that the quality of the content (of messages or readings) was an interrelationship of many things. Without inventing a whole new branch of metaphysics, let’s ask Phaedrus’
With mediumship, things are rarely black and white, so it’s better to put them on a continuum, with black at one end and white on the other. Here are a few important continuua to think about when it comes to quality of content, and to some extent, quality of mediumship.
Positive to negative
Positive content is always good, but negative content is not always bad. For example, you can get a real ass-kicking in a reading or message. This is true, and I’ll vouch for it, because it’s happened to me. My life was botched up, and the spirits gave me the kick in the ass that I needed to get me going in the right direction. And it is not an open license for a message or reading to mean, disparaging, condescending, or contemptuous. Basically, a good-old-fashioned kick in the ass is still good, as unpleasant as it may be to get it when you need one.
Wisdom to gossip
Content that provides wisdom and guides you in your life is good stuff. Gossip is exactly what it is, gossip. It’s junk. Spirits don’t have time to gossip. Neither should you. You shouldn’t be looking for gossip in the first place, let alone from the spirits. Wisdom is on one end of the continuum, and gossip on the other. Things that fall closer to the wisdom end are better than the ones that don’t.
Evidence to fakery
An evidential message or reading is one in which there’s clear evidence of the continuity of life, that is, you know who the spirit is that’s communicating from the other side. Not all messages are highly evidential, nor do they have to be. But generally speaking, the closer it falls to the evidence side of the contiuum, the better it is.
The source, spirits to the medium
Messages from the spirits are what seekers want, most of the time. It’s better than a message that comes from the medium personally, which is sometimes called a head message. My experience is that head messages usually aren’t very good, but I allow the possibility that the content of one could be the same thing the spirits would have said anyway. Determining a head message from a spirit message is whole discussion in and of itself, and is anything but black and white.
Ethical to unethical
This continuum is more black and white than most, but still has some gray area. Telling a seeker that they have demons or devils. Holding back content as a mean of demanding more money for a message or reading. Manipulating the content for secondary gains, such as sex with the seeker. Mean, disparaging, condescending, or contemptuous content.
Form, good to poor
This is more about how the content is delivered than the content itself. But it’s related, because the delivery affects the perception by the seeker. For example, many of the things that cynics pick on mediums about is simply poor form. A quality message or reading should not be delivered in a way that makes people think you’re doing cold readings and the like.
My personal pet peeve is when a medium doesn’t know where the message is supposed to go, starts polling the audience to see who responds, finds the right one, and then goes from there. Even if the message eventually lands in the right place and has good content, it’s very poor form. It also gives cynics the soap box they need to stand on. If I had my way, I’d outlaw it. If the spirits can’t find the right person to deliver the message to and communicate it clearly to the medium, then the message shouldn’t be given. Period. You can bet I won’t stand for it with my guides. I’d rather shut my mouth instead. No message is better than one with poor form.
The medium as a person, good to bad
A good person is more credible than a bad one. Even if the message is one hundred percent true (“the sun will rise in the morning”), I’d rather hear it from a good person as opposed to a bad one. This continuum can also affect the quality of the content, through the Law of Attraction, i.e. bad spirits can provide bad messages.
The medium as a spirit communicator, good to bad
This is the capability of the medium to clearly receive and clearly convey content from the spirits. While the idea of mediumship is as simple as handing a message from one person to another, who then hands it to the recipient, the reality is more multifaceted. There are various things that impact the message as it goes from the spirits to the seeker. And just like it is with our languages, things can get lost in the translation as well.
About Medical Advice
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008This 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.
Verification – the medium’s treat
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008I 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.
Spiritual Inspiration and Perception
Monday, May 19th, 2008Benderochka discovered that while you’re in the middle of doing something good for the seeker by having the spirits communicate through you, you may also get inspired or uplifted.
Hearing things-spiritual (Clairaudience) is the primary way that spirits communicate with me as a medium. I’m happy that they communicate this way, as it seems to work very well with me. Seeing things-spiritual (Clairvoyance) is all well and good, and that works for me too, but I think people have it waaayy overrated. Essentially, no one mode of communication is necessarily better than another – it’s a question of what works, and what works best.
The seeker’s role in messages and readings
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008The seeker (recipient) is an important part of the message or reading. Leo has some interesting things to say about your role as a seeker and how to get the most out of a reading.
Leo says that “It is essential that you prepare for the sitting by being calm, in a quiet place if you can– you would be surprised how many call with screaming kids in the background”.
Whether it’s a reading by phone or by any other means, the point is that the surroundings should be “peace and quiet”. Part of those surroundings include you, and if you are relaxed, i.e. “peace and quiet”, it helps us as mediums.
Leo also mentions that “you need to understand that we cannot “call up the dead.” Mediumship is somewhat like a phone call to the spirit world, but it isn’t quite that simple. It’s more of a “party line” or an open connection, as opposed to being able to dial a single number and get exactly the same person every time. Even if we could connect with the same exact person every time, we couldn’t guarantee anything anyway, as that person may not want to “answer”. Despite these issues, mediumship works rather well.
It is a good idea to not-ask us (mediums) a whole bunch of questions, as it’s distracting. A little here and there is fine. Conversely, we don’t usually ask you a bunch of questions or want a lot of information from you, because it too is distracting. We do need to know if you’re following along, hence our occasional questions to you, but that’s about the extent of it.
As for what to make of a reading or message, I think Andrew Jackson Davis has a phrase that sums it rather well – “above all else, keep an even mind”.
