one for Jim

Your story is dated 2009 - I don't know if I was a member then but probably I was. That was quite a story, Jim!

 There used to be a time I'd be sceptical about such accounts but I've grown up and now see them for what they are - interventions by our friends unseen in spirit to help us.

I have had experience of my own.  In 2010 we were RVing in New Mexico when my wide became very ill very quickly.  We had arrived in Ruidoso only that afternoon and had no idea where we were but she needed to visit an ER double quick.  The nearby town seemed the obvious place but we were dissuaded from that by a kindly individual and on her recommendation I drove my wife to another centre 50 miles away.  That's not far but with my wife in extreme pain and both of us stressed out it might just as well have been 500 miles!  

From the point she became sick, however, to the point where she'd had emergency gall bladder removal surgery one thing after another fell into place in places we had never planned to be.  There was more treatment in Albuquerque after a very uncomfortable fifth-wheel-and-truck transfer to another campground only 12 hours after her discharge  followed by more treatment, more medicals, more of all kinds of unplanned things but also a whole bunch more of other things that we HAD planned - and all but given up on being able to complete - 'miraculously' began falling into place..... It felt like someone, somewhere was taking care of us.

Having said all that I think our friends unseen would not interfere - are not 'allowed' to interfere - other than to help us.  Maybe they can sometimes 'grease the cogs' so we actually get to do what we've planned/intended/hoped for before we entered this world.

I feel sure, though, they know they must not interfere in a way that would change our course in a way we would not approve of.

Hi Mac,

That to is an amazing story and like mine it does feel that those on the other side help when they can, or maybe more likely when they should.

Maybe they can sometimes 'grease the cogs' so we actually get to do what we've planned/intended/hoped for before we entered this world.

I suspect you are right about this in your case your involvement is sites has helped many people and I realise from our contacts how important your wife is in that. In mine had teh car crash been fatal then all my work since then (both the work saving and enhancing teh businesses I worked in teh voluntary jobs I have done and my work with Spiritualism) together with that of Lis not forgetting Sam would never have happened.

So it may happen but do not rely on it!

quote: "So it may happen but do not rely on it!"  amen to that!  

I try to avoid seeing 'the hand of spirit' (so to speak) in everything we do but there are certain special times when one can not help but wonder if our friends unseen are helping us more than we know.  

There's little doubt that for some individuals, those seen week-in, week-out at mediumship demonstrations, their loved ones are amazingly close and still wanting to be involved the way they used to be when alive in this world.  When listening to a medium delivering messages it's obvious certain seekers regularly expect and get communications from the same spirit family member.  

I regularly saw in recent online mediumship demonstrations the same individuals getting similar messages from the same communicator.  I don't usually get to see mediumship but the online sessions allowed me to visit various groups in different locations. I soon began to recognise the same few individuals who got messages from the same communicator a week earlier.  

For the sitter and their communicator it appeared to be a vital link they were maintaining across the dimensions.  I don't think that's how life is supposed to be though.

I agree with your thoughts Mac. Working at mainly one centre I love seeing fresh blood walk into the room a new challenge. It was getting I seemed to know the Spirit Communicators better than the people in the room.

Sometimes Lis and I will bring flowers top give away use them as teh focust to link to people in Spirit, what flower do you want to give to them. It stops us looking like we know everyone in teh same way.

One communicator had a challenenge from me; I will only give the message if you give me a new piece of evidence. He was a wonder sadly that life member passed last year, trustee and committee member we are fostering her dog now.

One of teh reasons I hate teh fishing net, throw it out is that I believe the message vampires steal messages. By grabbing them before a true connection is made and sending out strong images of their loved one's. Lis and I make a connection give a little information and then go straight to the individual teh spirit communicator wants to link with. After all if they do not know who they want to contact what chance does a medium have Alzheimers (and I had 3 consecutive messages to give from people who had passed suffering that confusion reined everywhere)

As a non-medium, but someone moderately knowledgeable about mediumship, I find it frustrating when mediums don't/can't go straight to the intended receipient for a message.  That applies to platform mediumship just as much as demonstrations via Zoom etc.

Throwing out details but then having to tediously sort wheat from the chaff is not my understanding of how evidential mediumship should work.  Yes I know sometimes it must be hard to separate a specific recipient from another potential recipient close by but I mean in general.  

Those who have my greatest respect and appreciation are the mediums who DO go straight to a recipient, work to check they've found the right person and then work the message from there.

I'm not a medium though and I try not to be critical of mediums who work differently from the way I expect.  My observations are intended to present how unsatisfactory it can be from an onlooker's perspective and perhaps also from that of a sitter who may get confused when someone else - perhaps an experienced "message vampire" - hogs the medium's attention.

Direct mediumship shuts out the message vampire Ma. Lis was my first tutor, not surprisingly but with family took a while to get me onto platform) and at teh time she worked on platforms in the East London rotation (Ilford, Romford, Manor park, etc 28 churches) if you could not go direct and prove survival you would not be booked, I was also taught not to look for messages until I stood up to start work, bot, this is before the new fangled "Power" to set my intent and link to my guides to seek assistance before getting up.

When it all works it is a strange experince because, contrary to the loose teaching of many you do not get what you are given because some of that may be a symbol to trigger your mind to say teh right words also some communicators are far to blunt to allow their words to reach the recipient from the platform, suicide is not a good word tragic accidnet works just as well, swearwords really need avoiding and one communicator started with 12 words like it in a row, colourful language covers all basis or a little foul mouthed.

One of the strangest things was when I asked my guide, after teh sublime experience of seeing the Spirit objectively not subjectively (admitted the first was before the meeting started and two ladies appeared in the gap in the circle we used to work in, where people walked through to  take a seat, they sat down and in broad Northern English Adverts started to heckle me, is 'e the medium dont look like much reckon e can see us, the other replied nah sure he can't to teh surprise of all in teh room I burst in to laughter, meeting started they disappeared, only re appeared to the tune of Going Home, clairaudiently, at the end for the last message). When it stooped my guide with a typical sense of humour said we want you to be able to do mediumship at the
drop of a hat, unprepared and in any circumstances like guiding people off a sinking boat, to the image of the Tiotanic guiding some into boats and telling others there family are there for them, so if you go over ther they will be woith you shortly.

Its stood me in good stead ther have been Sundays where at the last moment the medium/speaker has dropped out and I have had to take over the whole service chairing, speaking, meditation and messages plus making it enjoyable for attendees and keeping teh energy up.

I've just noticed that against our names is the date when we became members here.....  It looks like you started this website in January 2008, Jim and I happened along in May the same year.  I don't have a clue how I found this place!  

The mediumship you've outlined is the sort I expected when I first experienced the message of survival and later learned more about Spiritualism.  

Looking back, though, it seems I arrived very much at the tail-end of our movement's best days.  Similar situations have happened to me in other walks of life and I've often speculated that I chose this period deliberately - I dont have any conscious idea why though!  

I find it interesting to hear from mediums how their attribute works in practice and yours, and that of Lis, were very interesting.  I expect the Spiritualism scene 'down under' has been very different from what you knew in and around the London area.

The very smallness of the UK probably makes the Spiritualism situation here unique.  There is, of course, a wide network of churches and most citizens won't be very far from their closest local one and often they have a selection of others within easy travelling distance.

How I wish all church committees applied the principle that Lis experienced, that of not booking a medium unable (s)he could go directly to the intended recipient.

Admin wrote:

When it all works it is a strange experince because, contrary to the loose teaching of many you do not get what you are given because some of that may be a symbol to trigger your mind to say teh right words also some communicators are far to blunt to allow their words to reach the recipient from the platform, suicide is not a good word tragic accidnet works just as well, swearwords really need avoiding and one communicator started with 12 words like it in a row, colourful language covers all basis or a little foul mouthed.

I do understand where moderating what's being communicated mentally is needed for the benefit of the recipient and anyone else listening - such as when a communicator uses swear words.  Having said that there might be value in saying what's given verbatim under certain circumstances to make the point that after death - contrary to what some might believe - folk don't automatically become angels!!     Moderating harsh language is one thing but I do dislike too much 'interpretation' of what's being given.....

One example is how some mediums appear to 'pick up' a message via symbols but then have to interpret what the symbols mean to get to the detail of a message.  It can work fine but it can also completely smother the communicators intended meaning.  During one sitting the medium repeatedly asked the sitter if a succession of very different details meant anything based on the symbols, sounds and impressions coming through.  The answer was no every time.  Eventually she asked if the sitter had a connection to Ireland and again the answer was no.

In exasperation the medium said something like "Well I'm hearing what sounds like an Irish folk song!" to which the sitter immediately responded "Yes that's a song my grandma was always singing to me!"  Instead of the medium simply saying what she was hearing she was "interpreting" the music and looking for an Irish connection.  But there wasn't one.  It was simply that the tune was special to both communicator and sitter and was actually highly evidential.  Frustratingly the evidence had almost been missed because the medium did not pass on exactly what she was getting and had instead tried to interpret it.  

That particular instance has stuck in my mind but the medium that evening had been doing similar interpretations for all her other sitters. I felt frustrated at the wasted potential opportunities to help the hopeful sitters there that evening.  

By total contrast another medium I greatly respect, one who helps a group of developing mediums to build their confidence, encourages them to say exactly what they're seeing/hearing/sensing or whatever.  He also encourages them to ask the communicator for more details until the medium is sure she's got the right recipient.  He doesn't let them go further until they've 'worked the case'.  

I 'stumbled' on this guy one bleak winter day when I was feeling disillusioned at the standard of online mediumship I was encountering online during the pandemic lockdown days.  I sat with him and his group and it was a delight to observe.  Somebody looking out for me perhaps?

Now the pandemic is over, Zoom is just a memory and I don't get to sit in with them any longer.

Understand Mac, but what I meant to say is give what you get, but what you get needs to be worthwhile, to often the mediums are to imprecise because they are excited about what Spirit are telling them (without even proving they have connected to Spirit).

I would have given that Irish Folk Song because it could well have meant something gut much of what gets given has little precision. When, in a private reading the message recipient was deliberate;ly testing me to get to 100% and asking for more and more detail the clincher was the Golden Door the communicator gave me. I passed it on and it was the club they met in whre they both worked. I was relieved because if I had to use it for symbology I would have been done for.

I also hate the I see a golden star and that always means for me:!!! In honesty I hate symbols although a good street scene helps massively. The Hovis going home ad two up two down straight onto the pavement with a Northern accent tends to be pretty good. You need teh accent though ther are two ups in all parts of the UK and the homely Hovis advert was not filmed up MNorth despite the sound.

I'm heartened to hear your dislike of isolated symbols in your own mediumship, Jim, although I suppose some mediums get nothing else and they simply have to work with what they get.

My guess is that accents must be tricky for a medium to decipher as it's often difficult to identify someone's accent in this world let alone hearing one clairaudiently!

It's understandable that inexperienced practitioners can be over-excited when they're picking up information and this all goes back to the desirability of having help and support for developing mediums hoping to work on the platforms of SNU Spiritualist churches. (and independents who follow SNU protocols)

Independent churches / centres have to determine their own protocols and there will always be mediums who aren't affiliated to any organisation, church or centre. Mediumship standards in such situations may be just as good as, of course, or even better than those found in an affiliated church. A very mixed picture in the way it probably always has been....

I rarely get any messages for myself but the reality is that I don't go looking and by now I hardly need persuading about survival anyway! The one person I would love to hear from though is a very special one but someone whose identity could not be authenticated - our son lost during his birth.