What Do Mediums Tell Us About the Dead?
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Life on the Other Side:: A Psychic's Tour of the Afterlife
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Psychic Healing: Using the Tools of a Medium to Cure Whatever Ails You
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Messages from Spirit: An Open-At-Random Book of Guidance
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End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies About the End of the World
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Mediums get a pretty bad rap.
(No pun intended!)
A medium is a person who claims to be able to act as an intermediary between this life and the afterlife, between this world and the next, between the living and the dead.
Much of the bad rap attached to mediums is deserved. It has been earned over 100 years of bilking gullible people out of their money and snapping fake spirit photographs and producing fake rattling and whispering for cold hard cash.
No one is more vulnerable than the grieving survivor of a recently deceased loved one, and few things are more despicable than exploiting the grief of a suffering mourner for personal monetary gain.
Magician Harry Houdini was so disgusted with mediums that he famously promised to come back if indeed there was life after death, and then of course he never did come back, proving for many that indeed mediums are liars and cheats, period.
A related but equally egregious misuse of purported psychic powers is the intentional exploitation of persons who are drawn to the supernatural as an addiction; a way of avoiding their real lives and real problems. We all know a few people like this; people who would be better off getting help from a psychologist than a spiritualist, but get 'hooked' on expensive psychic readings instead of seeking help that would truly help them.
In fact, many moons ago, when I used to read tarot cards and palms for a laugh, I was driven off of it when I realized all too quickly how very many people there are who are like this. Solid psychological research has shown that when people are told 'personal information' that is general and abstract in nature, about 70% of them will swear it is 'fairly' to 'extremely' accurate and be quite amazed.
I can verify this phenomena firsthand. I never performed a single reading that didn't amaze the person seeking it, even when I said obvious things or things that were made up on the spot and tailored only slightly to what I already knew about that person. When I saw how easy it was to do this, to bowl people over while telling them things about themselves that were right out there in the open, I began to feel bad about reading and I quit.
I also did not want to have troubled people attached to me emotionally. That part of it was extremely creepy. Honestly, the living wounded have always scared me far worse than any ghost ever could. So I gave up my psychic hobby, not because of the dead, but because of real live people right here right now who have a big bottomless hole in their center.
Yikes.
Today's celebrity mediums like Sylvia Browne, James Van Praagh, John Edward, Lisa Williams, and others don't help matters when they offer up these readings at hundreds of dollars for 20 minutes a pop and arrange "psychic cruises" for thousands of dollars with a disclaimer that just because you plunked down big bucks to float around the Caribbean with a bunch of other traumatized survivors is no guarantee that your long lost Uncle Melvin is going to actually show up--and by the way, we take VISA, Mastercard, and American Express.
Not that I'm saying these mediums are fake. I don't if they're fake or not.
I'm just saying, it doesn't help the rotten street cred surrounding mediumship in general.
I do find it interesting though that so much of what mediums have to say is consistent and coherent. Mediums do seem to share a common system of beliefs, and while you can find differences between them, those differences tend to be on finer points of practice rather than major metaphysical principles.
What's more, mediums sometimes come up with incredibly specific information. In fact, often the first bit of information offered up by a good medium will be something that only the person visiting the medium could possibly know about the deceased. This sets the tone for the rest of the reading by establishing trust and belief that the medium is indeed in touch with someone who has passed on and is not just making stuff up.
So what's up with that? Is it all stage magic and show?
Or is there something to it?
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Talking to the Other Side: A History of Modern Spiritualism and Mediumship: A Study of the Religion, Science, Philosophy and Mediums that Encompass this American-Made Religion
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Spiritualism & Clairvoyance for Beginners: Simple Techniques to Develop Your Psychic Abilities (For Beginners (Llewellyn's))
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The Other Side of Salvation: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious Experience
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Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism
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Spiritualism and Ancestor Worship
Modern mediumship is rooted in a movement that took hold during the Victorian era called Spiritualism.
Spiritualism was a mishmash of various occult beliefs and traditions, the neopagan revival of magical practice, and a transcendental school of metaphysics known as Theosophy.
One of the major proponents of Spiritualism in the United States was Madame Blavatsky, a Russian emigrant who founded The Theosophical Society in New York City, NY in 1875.
The initial purpose of The Theosophical Society was to explore claims of mediumistic phenomena and contact with the dead; a topic that fascinated the Victorians and was one of the driving areas of inquiry that eventually led to the modern science of psychology.
Later, disagreements over what many of the more scientifically-minded members of The Theosophical Society saw as Blavatsky's tendency towards flim flam and hokum led to schisms within the movement and separate communities and organizations.
In time Theosophy came to include many traditional Hindu teachings, especially those of modern guru J.Krishnamurti. In 1931 Krishnamurti disavowed Theosophy altogether and spent the rest of his life teaching his own ideas about metaphysics, separate from the Spiritualist tradition and closer to traditional Hindu beliefs.
Spiritualism and Theosophy may seem strange and even frightening to our modern minds, but in fact both are an expression of what is more commonly known in the rest of the world as ancestor worship. Ancestor worship is a major component of many, many Eastern religions, and most premodern cultures include some form or this ancient belief system.
Ancestor worship in all its various forms pays homage to those who have died and gone before us, and sees their spirits as active in the lives of people on earth in a very dynamic and very intimate way. In other words, ancestor worship tells us that our loved ones do not disappear when they die; they just change form. They continue to influence our thoughts and actions, and can be petitioned for help with various issues in our daily lives.
The modern West is actually unique both historically and culturally in giving no credence to this way of thinking; and in seeing death instead as the end, period. While it is true that most Christian religions include life after death as part of their metaphysical belief system, very few Christians condone the practice of communication with the dead, and many actually see the practice as dangerous or evil.
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Unfinished Business: What the Dead Can Teach Us About Life
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Talking to Heaven: A Medium's Message of Life After Death
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Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side
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Meditations with James Van Praagh
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What Mediums Believe
I put together the following list based on general impressions gleaned from reading popular books by modern mediums, and from talking with them in person, and seeing them on TV.
These are general principles, and keep in mind I'm not saying that all mediums believe all these things; just that the following major themes do tend to run through most of their writings:
- Death is the separation of spirit from the physical body, and spirit lives on. If mediums didn't believe in life after death, what would be the point of trying to contact dead people? Most mediums say that people have an etheric (or energy) body and a physical body composed of matter. At death, the etheric body sheds the physical body much like a snake sheds a skin when it outgrows it. The dead body is not the person anymore than the shed skin is the snake.
- Ghosts are just people who are pretty much the same in death as they were in life. In the movies, ghosts are horrifying and scary, but most mediums say ghosts are people who linger near earth after death, for whatever reason. Some mediums distinguish between ghosts or 'earthbound spirits' and 'spirits of the light', which are people who have passed over into the afterlife. Earthbound spirits might stick around because of trauma at death, attachment to a person or an object, or unfinished business. Some psychics, like Mary Ann Winkowski, specialize in helping earthbound spirits let go and move into the light, thus cleansing a place or person of the haunting.
- There is no hell, but there are different levels of existence based on how evolved a spirit is. In other words, people do get trapped in dark places spiritually, but not as punishment. Most people die and are instantly in a better place, not a worse one. If someone led a horrible, evil life, they might not feel that great when they die either, because they haven't learned much, but if they just suffered, the suffering ends at death.
- People choose who their families will be. This is an odd one, but a recurring belief among mediums and spiritualists is that people agree to certain lives and incarnations, and they often do this in groups. So people you know in this life you have in all likelihood known in many lives, and its all voluntary. You agree to come here, to be incarnate, and its always for a specific purpose or lesson.
- Karma isn't what most people think it is. Karmic debts can run through generations, and sometimes a spirit will agree to be born incarnate and die of some disease or have some other seemingly negative outcome specifically for the purpose of 'burning out' a generational karmic debt. This is hard to grasp but it's a recurring theme and it does help to make sense of irrational suffering, whether it is true or not.
- All children can see spirits, but learn to stop seeing the around age 5 to 7. 'Imaginary playmates' are often the spirits of relatives or others who are attached to a home or an object.
- God is real whether you believe or not and doesn't punish you if you don't put it together correctly. When spirits come into physical form, they usually forget everything as a condition of incarnation. God, Light, the Universe, whatever you care to call the force behind all this, is real whether you believe or not and getting belief right isn't all that important. (No wonder this way of looking at things seems evil to modern religions!)
- Spirits have real lives and real work, so it isn't healthy to bother them constantly. In other words, just because nothing ever dies it doesn't mean that people who have passed on have endless time to chat about nothing. They have their own lives in the afterlife, and if you keep bothering them, it can be annoying to them and unhealthy for you. The reason people get such ugly responses from Ouija boards is often because they are talking to partial negative thought forms that are always hanging around--'good' spirits have better things to do than answer dumb questions about your love life.
- Death is a transformation, not a final ending. In reality, there is no death. This is not far off of what many religions teach, but of course it's taken much more literally in Spiritualism.
Do I believe these things?
I don't know. I think it's all interesting. I will say that seeing spirits is something that runs in my family, so that piques my interest even more. Most people have had at least one experience of this nature. I have had many, as did my mother, and as has my eldest daughter.
I thought it would be interesting to write a series of hubs on the phenomenon in preparation for a lecture I'll be attending September 18th by Mary Ann Winkowski at a town near me. I promised to attend and write it up for the Examiner, where I write three columns a week on Michigan paranormal news.
So I'll be back with more.
Feel free to share your own views and experiences in comments if you wish.
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Comments
Hi dohn--Yes I think 90% of psychics are scammers ESPECIALLY the ones at 900 numbers! lol! But I also think some of it is quite amazing and I'm reserving judgment because some of it, to me, rings true. I've met a number of professional psychics and mediums, and many of them strike me as pretty earthy, normal folks, which isn't what you'd expect.
I agree also that karma is badly misunderstood by MANY people. The word is often used to mean something like, "What goes around comes around!" (Which doesn't make a lot of sense either, now that I think about it.) That is, if you smack somebody, then you will get smacked, and so on, but really it's more complicated than that. At its most basic meaning it's simple cause an effect--every action causes another action and another and so on--and in families, there's this idea of "the sins of the father are visited on the son" that is basically a Western expression of karma. Maybe you smack somebody and it never seems to affect your life but maybe your son has problems because of you and his sons and so on. People use the word in a wrong way I think all the time. Thanks for commenting. :)
parapsychology has confirmed many of the facts regarding to sixth sense of humans and the possible super-natural abilities that one can posses. But the use of tools like tarot cards , which are part, witch-craft i think, are still unbelievable to me. However I am great believer of human power and life hereafter
Hi khmoshsin--Tarot cards aren't witchcraft, they're just a tool, a form of divination. When you use the cards it's like a prop. It's like a psychic reading with props. But you're right, they do freak a lot of people out. Thanks for your thoughts. :)
This is really cool - I had often wondered what exactly mediums believed or saw... and you listed everything out wonderfully - thank you :D
Pursuing the skills of a medium or fortuneteller is a sure fire way to make a direct connection with Demons.
Sure some mediums have inside information, that little tingle they feel is an evil spirit, whispering in their ear.
There are no such things as ghosts. But the same fallen angels that were affected by the great flood are now banished from heaven, and though unable to materialize in human form, they have great power over mortal men.
Those who play with these wicked spirits are playing with fire. They may seem to be a good source of entertainment, and revenue but the price they exact in return is High.
The Bible tells of these rebellious angels and how they came to be, it also speaks of the consequences for cavorting with them. King Saul, sought the services of a fortune teller, and lost his throne to David.
In this instance the warning is be careful what you pay for.
Thanks Luciendasky--I'm glad you found it interesting.
Jeromeo--I think what you say here is how many people feel about it, and certainly the Bible does warn against such things, which is why Christians do tend to see this kind of thing as evil. The rest of the world though (people who do not believe the Bible is the final word and the only one) see it as another part of life, and that view is more common.
I personally don't like the big threats that Christianity is always making--don't do this because it's evil, don't do that because you'll burn in hell, fallen angels here fallen angels there--why always the big guns? I don't like that, but maybe that's how it is, I don't know.
I don't attend the church I was born into because I didn't like being constantly threatened and scared into believing things that way. Perhaps I will end up paying a terrible price, if so, so be it. Thanks for your thoughts on this, I know you speak for lots of folks. :)
Great Hub. This sums up the worldview of most mediums well. I don't agree with all points of it for various personal reasons including spiritual experiences, especially on karma. That view of life's misfortunes is a good bit of specious logic for looking down on people who are just unlucky enough to be poor or sick or abused, it doesn't hold their abusers or oppressors responsible for their actions and tries to turn anything bad that happens in life into a "Deserved Punishment."
When punishment only serves any purpose to educate if it's swift and fair like a child's spanking. You can't go on for weeks and then out of the blue spank the kid on the first day of school for what they did last summer -- they don't get it and learn nothing from it. So the idea of karmic retribution sets up a much nastier universe than I think they realize they're espousing -- one where vengeance never rests and any good is swept away in the force of vengeful malice.
Karma in day to day life seems a bit more direct -- a bit more immediate and often closely connected to the habits that brought it on. Cumulative small kindnesses do come back three times from unconnected, unrelated people.
It's arrogant to presume that all misfortune is deserved punishment and it's mostly an argument that supports ignoring or oppressing those in need because they deserve those horrors. Focus too much on afterlife and it's too easy to walk all over the living.
Finally, I've got no real interest in talking to the dead. I've met people I knew in past lives and renewed the connection if it was a good one, resolved past conflicts if it was a bad one now that I'm way outside the context and so are they. That seems to be the most use of it -- quiet, practical, undramatic.
What a lot of people forget is how different the worldviews of previous generations were. Even today's most conservative people are horrifying to those only a generation or two earlier, so if these ancestors are carrying on their previous attitudes, they are likely to be outraged and horrified rather than kindly and lovey-dovey.
The mediums' view of churches and dogma in relation to good and evil or afterlife and so on is a step in the direction of a religious view for a multicultural world -- one that abandons the whole "join or die, join or burn" idea that there's only one right religion for everyone. I can see how that came up historically around Madame Blavatsky's time and maybe a bit earlier just in comparing that to the history of Unitarian Universalism.
Ideas that hold together on their merits do. Others are speculations. I'm not interested in meeting my ancestors other than the one I honor every Samhain, who's probably the only one who doesn't loathe me categorically.
Your point about psychics and mediums as therapists is well taken. As a former professional psychic I pretty much did that, treated that need as part of my practice and it was also some of how I discussed the results with diehard materialists. I pointed out to them that the images in the tarot are archetypes and they respond to them like any human being, so they can learn something about themselves and their inner life from the reading whether or not they think there's anything supernatural about it. That always shocked them because the materialists would come in determined to prove to me that nothing about what I did was supernatural -- and I didn't deny the possibility, just pointed out that it could also work by causality and observation and be darn useful in a psychological sense. Took the wind right out of their sails.
Hi robert--Your point about karma is well taken. I feel the same way about the Law of Attraction or whatever it is, whereby like attracts like and you get what you put out. The horrifying corollary of that kind of thinking is that anything painful, negative, or unfair comes to people through their own fault and through their own negativity, so as you say, we get into blaming the victim. People ARE victimized. Unfair things DO happen. It isn't necessarily because a person is sending 'negativity' out into the universe. That's just mean to even imply such a thing. Mean is too nice a word for what that is.
But, as you say, I don't think that's the intent of that philosophy, I think it's just the latest New Age spin on positive thinking, which never hurts--but they haven't really thought through it very deeply. Where it breaks down for me is in reality testing. If you ONLY put out positivity at some point you end up delusional. I mean, a dog pees on your leg. What are you going to put out that's positive about that? Or are you going to say, "well, I brought that dog pee on myself through my negativity!" See, it gets ridiculous.
I have no special interest in talking to the dead or 'reading' people psychically, but sometimes the dead come to me and I get info I don't want from people ready or not. I think it's actually not unusual, but who's going to talk about it? People tell you you're nuts, so you learn to keep your mouth shut. About 10% of all people are very sensitive and pick up extremely subtle information without trying--it's just in their nature. Then the task becomes learning to manage your environment so you don't feel assaulted by unwanted info and other people's thoughts and feelings, living or dead.
I used to do readings for fun when I was much younger, and then I realized it isn't really 'fun'. Not really. It's hard, and it's work, and then you have to shake it all off afterwards. So I quit.
Thank you, pgrundy, for a very interesting and informative hub.
pgrundy, I found your hub on mediums very intriguing. I don't believe in a lot of the paranormal, but I do know some of it has been proven to be true when it comes to haunted buildings and houses...or some may swear by? I use to think I could see the ghost of my great-grandfather sitting on one of the guest bedrooms in my grandmas house. But then as I got older, I realized I always did have a wild imagination, so I use it in my writing.:) Perhaps life after death is real...do any of us really know other than what is said in the Bible? Which by the way, I grew up under its teachings, and like you...was afraid of all that 'hell and damnation' talk! I would like to believe there is life in the after world, so that we can see loved ones or pets again someday. As fanciful as it may seem. I do know others live on through us, as ancestry, etc...who make us whom we are today. Example: if so and so hadn't met so and so, would I be whom I am today, scenario? DNA...you know...or so they say. :) But, I try to be open minded to be fair to all I read on important issues to others and myself. I'm glad you shared your thoughts on the subject and brought out the chance for the rest of us to do so too! Thanks!
no comment lady
hi gwennies pen--thank you for sharing your thoughts on it. I appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to comment.
gusripper--but you just did comment. 'no comment lady' is a comment. Why on earth would you comment and say you're not commenting? That makes no sense.
There is no sense anyway in the theme we are discasting for.
Hi Pam! Although I've written many articles on such topics, I always find yours refreshing and more detail oriented. I might have mentioned this many times in the past but I'll say it again that you have a great gift of infusing life in words. God bless.
I think mediums tell us more about the living than they do about the dead. Especially this new generation of TV/cruise ship mediums - ready to take your money with hoards of gullible desperate folk handing over their cash. As you rightly pointed out the bereaved person is extremely vulnerable. I found it interesting to hear about your experiences reading Tarot cards and how ready people are to believe anything. Thanks for a good interesting read.
All very interesting and fascinating. Whether one believes in paranormal occurences or not, it is obvious that we are all curious and some secretly want to find out more. Most of us are torn because of our Christian beliefs; some are trying to seek out answers to unanswered questions. For those who are very clear, kudos th them...
Thanks for such a well researched and well written hub...
I love this hub! When my 18 year old nephew Omar passed away, my sister turned to mediums to help her cope. She went to see George Anderson who charged $500.00 for a 15 minute reading. She didn't like him very much as she found him aloof and rather cold, but we think its shyness as he is known to be shy. He told her how my nephew passed away (water in the brain), gave her names and details that he or his staff could not have looked up ahead of time as she didn't provide any information. She went to see another medium who not only had Omar pass a message to me, but actually gave my name; she also relayed a message to one of sis' customers whose mother passed away; gave her the name of a song that they as a family liked to play in the piano. Now sis had NO idea about these details, so when she related them to her customer, the customer was visibly shaken, turned pale, but due to her Catholic upbringing did not wish to pursue this.
So, yes, in the midst of the quacks, there are genuine mediums that can floor a skeptic as sis was before the passing of her boy.
I wonder why some close their minds when they haven't experienced it? Best to doubt, but keep the mind open.
Thanks for writing about this topic!
Fascinating topic, well presented. Somewhere amongst the clutter some verity exists. But whether it is the ability to "read" people or really communicate from beyond is another question. I wrote a hub about my own "supernatural" experience a child, which I still remember vividly.
Thanks Anjali! I appreciate you taking the time to read this and comment. It's always so good to see you. :)
Catherine R--Yes there's no shortage of flim flam, that's for sure. I do think there's a genuine side to it and something real there, but pinning it down is like trying to nail butter to a wall.
Dynamic S--Yes I think people are curious, even when they are afraid and say they don't believe in it, they still come around and read about it. How can it NOT be interesting? We all die, we all know we will die--it has to be on our minds! Thanks for your thoughts!
Violet Sun--I thought you would like this! My interest isn't totally detached either. I do have experiences myself in this area and I never know for sure what to do with them. I don't think I'm crazy, and I don't like "it's the Devil!" explanation either--although I think it can indeed be dangerous to poke around in this stuff if one's intentions are frivolous or shallow. I've met psychics and been told things they couldn't possibly have known. I once had a psychic tell me scene by scene about a dream I had--I hadn't told ANYONE about the dream, and she recounted it perfectly and then said it was a past life and I had to release it, just let it go. That was VERY weird. Sometimes I get detailed information about people who have died from places--just from being in the places. It just comes to me. Then I think, why is this happening? Does my imagination have diarrhea or something???? Right now I'm researching a couple of 'hits' I got off the place we live now--trying to find out if any of it is real. Thanks for your comment. I do think there is genuine phenomenon at the heart of it, but then people exploit it or outright lie.
sixtyorso--I'll have to come by and read that! Thanks for stopping by here and sharing. :)
Another good article Pam. Love the way you scoop out the crud and call a spade a spade. Gives people a greater opportunity to be discerning.
Thanks Jewels!
Excellent and informative article Pam, I loved it. I have been to about four Psychics in my lifetime, one who was awful and one I went to twice about 8 years apart who was brilliant and also gave completely unique information. I got my money back from the first one when I threatened to go to the local papers about her obvious fraudulent activities, (I mean she asked a question of me every sentence). The one I went to twice one was great and a sweet older lady who lived in a small cul de sac in a little house. She even literally started to experience all the symptoms my Father had shown prior to his death, coughing, wheezing etc, and told me stacks of stuff she could never have known. I hadn't even told her my Father had died, and as I was quite young to have lost my Father it is unlikely she would have guessed. All in all I am a believer and most of my experiences with both Mediums and Tarot readers have been positive and impressive, but like you I am well aware there are many fakes out there too. Certainly I don't believe it is "evil", but a gift to be able to pass on messages from beyond. I would imagine God would not grant such gifts if he didn't want them utilised by the recipient.
Thanks for the fab article.
Hi Misty! Yes, I agree--I think it's one of those situations where both things are true--there are fakes and there are people who are the real deal. I kind of reserve judgment on all of it, but like you I've had some pretty impressive experiences both with psychics who seemed to be quite genuine and with weird personal experiences. Thanks for reading this and for sharing your own experiences! :)
Hi Pam, as you might expect, we're both broadly in agreement here, and I love the way you've laid this hub out. Having had psychic experiences myself, I would never doubt that there are genuine mediums out there, but of course it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. Your comment to Violetsun about getting readings or feelings off of places reflects my experience too. I've also had very strong images associated with people who I have seen reported missing on the news, or in newspaper stories. It can be very disconcerting sometimes, and I mostly ignore it, or sometimes I might mention it to my husband. Anyway, it all goes towards making life more interesting!
Hi Amanda--That's how it is for me too. I call it my "dysfunctional clairvoyance" because as far as I can tell it seems to serve no real purpose. I'm not able to DO anything with this information, and often it just seems off the wall. That's why I'm trying to learn how to investigate historical records and such to see if I can verify any of it.
I suspect that when I was doing readings some of the stuff I 'made up' was me actually reading that person. I know it can be done, but I also know you can fake your way through it so well that it seems as real as the real thing. I found the little video clip on cold, warm, and hot readings and put it up here to show how it can be done even without any psychic ability, so it gets muddy for sure. :)
Great hub! Excellent infotainment!
Great stuff! Here's one I wrote about Karma: http://hubpages.com/hub/Karmaorweakness
I'm a believer; as a matter of fact I'm sure that my house is haunted, by good spirits though.
It irritates me when the so-called mediums go into their schtick.
“I sense someone near you,” the medium begins, “they had, I think, a bad back…”
“Oh, Uncle John,” the unsuspecting victim exclaims, “he had a bad back.”
Now come on, I’m sure everyone knows somebody with a bad back.
Of course this also works with bad hearts, headaches, etc, and so on.
Wonderful post, thank you.
We have a very small branch of the Theosophical Society here in Johannesburg South Africa. Every now and then I pop in and usually find some treasure of inspiration.
What do you feel is the difference (if any) between those who present themselves as psychics versus mediums? Is it just a difference in focus for their business?
Thanks,
Juliet
Hi Percy--I agree. I just finished a couple of books by James Van Praagh. The books were a good read, and he sounded very amazing, the way he portrayed himself in the stories. So I looked up some videos of him online and I was SO disappointed--they were very lame. He was like, "I'm sensing a name beginning with J. Do you know a John? Jim? James? Maybe it's a T. How about Tom? Timothy? Terrance?" And on and on. I thought oh good grief. In the book he comes out with all this detailed stuff effortlessly and it's all correct. But you watch him in person and it's 20 questions and 18 of them are wrong.
Juliet--Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've got a hub cooking about Spiritualism. There's lots of interesting historical stuff there. Thanks for stopping by. :)
WE HERE IN THE U.K.HAD OUR OWN "MEDIUM"CALLED DORIS STOKES.ONLY AFTER SHE DIED WAS IT DISCOVERED THAT SHE WAS A CROOK WHO USED PEOPLE TO PLANT QUESTIONS IN THE AUDIENCES.
Hi khoustello--They do that. Doesn't shock me at all. :)
Hi there,
I do love your posts because they are refreshingly different and show your personality so well - you are not afraid to have a belief and put it out there
I don't know if mediums speak to the dead or not, but I do know that they give some people a lot of comfort, especially in times of grief. Now whether this is done as a scam or not, I don't know, but to me going to a medium to hear that your departed loved one is all right is no different that praying or lighting a candle for them in church - it gives comfort.
As for me I don't talk to dead people, but they sure hang around me a lot :) Maybe that is because I am closer to death than I should be - who knows.
Can't wait for your next hub
Lisa :)
Hi Lisa--I have the same problem! I think they hang around people who are aware of them. I know what you mean though about the comfort--I see nothing wrong with that part of it. It just bothers me if they're soaking bereaved people. I mean, some mediums charge $500 or more for a reading. I think that there are real mediums and showpersons, and it's hard to tell the difference sometimes. But some of them are genuine. Thanks for your comments!
Very interesting information! Particularly the belief that the spirits are busy and it's not such a good idea to bother them!
I always found it rather interesting when some of these TV mediums would tell the people in their audience that one of their loved ones was standing beside them. Hey, if I'm in the afterlife, the last thing I would want to do is to hang around one of my weepy relatives here on earth! I'd rather be surfing through wormholes, or visiting distant galaxies!
Excellent and informative post!
I enjoyed reading your hub very much. I believe that some people are capable of tapping into that inner sense that brings reality to the idea. As we grow older, we clog our minds and souls with every day living, which tends to cloud our abilities to feel that which we can not see.
Thank you for this wonderful post.
Pam, this hub is great and you've covered so much information. I especially like the part about what mediums believe.
Thanks Disturbia. :)
I am getting so smart reading all your hubs! Will book-mark this and read it again and check out some of the books.
lol! Thanks eonsaway. :)
I love reading your hubs about the paranormal. You make it all seem so... well... normal and very matter of fact. My wacked out world and strange experiences seem much less weird after reading your hubs and I start to think, well maybe we're not all that crazy after all. Just like the ADHD we all seem to have, maybe we're just a little bit differently wired in other ways too.
Thanks Disturbia--I'm glad the articles have that effect. It's what I shoot for, even if I miss sometimes. :)
dohn121 says:
3 months ago
This is so fascinating Pam! That's great to hear that you were a "psychic." Back in the early 1990's, during the big 1-900 era when everyone was calling the psychic hotline, my neighbor asked me if I wanted to "work" with him and I turned him down. What BS! I do have a few psychic stories, but I think I'll save them for another time. I can't wait for when you go to the convention. I'm anxious to see what you'll find! Oh, thanks for explaining what Karma is! It's one of the most misconstrued notions, as so many people use it so loosely.