Lesson One
What is Mediumship?
Beginnings
In some of my books I have spoken of the earliest beginnings of religiomagic and described the probable actions of Paleolithic peoples in their attempts to communicate with deity. Certainly we know that the earliest humans needed success in hunting in order to survive and, from extant cave paintings, carvings, and clay models, we know that “magic” was performed immediately before their all-important hunts.We also know from these sources that humankind called upon deity to bring success to this
magic, thereby making these hunts fruitful.
From the painting known as “The Sorcerer” in the Caverne des Trois
Frères, in Ariége, France (see page 2), it can be seen that a member of the
tribe would dress in the skins of a stag and wear the mask and horns, or
antlers, of the animal—playing the role of the God of Hunting—in order
to lead a ritual designed to bring success to the hunt that would follow. As
part of his role, the person playing the part of the Hunting God would
almost certainly have spoken as that deity, directing the hunters in their
pantomimed actions. So what he might well have been doing, whether or
not he realized it, was “channeling” the deity; actually allowing the Hunting
God to speak through him.
Channeling
Channeling is a phenomenon that has become popular in recent years, with
any number of people publicly going into trance and allowing “entities” to
speak through them to their audiences. In public halls, on television, on
video tapes, these channelers can be seen and heard. Though not claiming
to be a plenipotentiary for “God,” many of them do claim that they are
bringing the voice, and the teachings, of an entity who has never previously
lived on this earth but who dwells, or has dwelled, on some far distant planet or even in some other dimension. (I’ll speak more on this in lesson 15.)
Channeling can be found throughout the ages; from those early cave-dwelling days continuously through to present-day examples. The ancient
Egyptian priests would frequently play the part of one or another of their many gods and goddesses. Once again we have extant examples of the paraphernalia used (for example, the mask worn when representing Anubis, the jackal-headed god). The sibyls of ancient Greece were regularly consulted by a populace who desired to speak with their deities.
The Romans, too, had their soothsayers and seers, who passed on the words of the dwellers on Mount Olympus. In the Mayan temples the priests played the part of their gods, giving or relaying instructions and advice to the people. In the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, there are exhortations for all to use their gifts of prophesy and other spiritual gifts. Throughout the Middle Ages it was common to consult with those who had access to the land beyond death through the rituals of necromancy. In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Haiti, the slaves developed their own form of religion
to produce Voodoo, a combination of their native African beliefs and practices, mixed in with those of the indigenous Indians, and with what they
saw as the power of the Catholic Church. In Voodoo, the sole purpose of many of the gatherings is to speak to the deities, who “appear” by possessing one or another of the worshippers and speaking through them. In modern-day Panchmuda, India (northwest of Calcutta), similar rites are held each year at the Temple of Manasa for the Snake Festival, when the Serpent Mother takes possession of her worshippers. Writers, musicians, and artists have long composed through a process of channeling.
Wolfgang Mozart heard music in his head and simply wrote down what he heard, never changing or modifying it. In the mid-nineteenth century came
the birth of the present-day Spiritualist movement, with the Fox sisters of New York, in 1848, discovering a simple method to communicate with the spirits of the dead (see lesson 3).
A medium is a connecting link between this physical world and the
world of spirit. Anyone can learn to act as that link. Anyone can become
a medium.
Lady Ann M. Burdock
It can be seen, then, that there is nothing new in channeling, be it bringing messages from those who have died and passed on, producing advice from
extraterrestrial entities, or speaking the words of divinities. The channel is a medium through which the information is produced. (What that information
is, how accurate it may be, and from whence it comes, are questions we will address later in this book.) Anyone can act as such a channel, or medium. Some people seem more readily attuned to the position than
others, but we all have the capability.Most mediums and channels work consciously and have, indeed, spent time in training to achieve their results, yet some act completely spontaneously and unconsciously.
Possession
Mediumship is not the same thing as possession. In possession an undesirable spirit or entity takes over the body of a living human, forcing out and overriding that human’s spirit. It possesses and refuses to give up possession unless driven out . . . though there are actually far fewer cases of true possession than late-night movies and the sensational media
would have you believe. In mediumship the living human may voluntarily allow another spirit to make use of his or her vocal cords, hand and/or
arm muscles, or other parts of the body; but never giving up total control of the entire body . . . it is a mutual agreement that can be terminated at any
time. Under the proper circumstances there is absolutely no harm that can come to the medium, though it may be wise to use some precautionary
measures “just in case.” These I’ll deal with, in detail, elsewhere.
In many types of mediumship, however, there is no giving up of any of the medium’s organism whatsoever. For example, with clairvoyance and clairaudience the medium is simply seeing and hearing and then relaying what he or she sees or hears. It is only in such forms as direct voice, automatic writing, and the like that there is ever any degree of use of the
medium’s body.
In this book I will be dealing mainly with mediumship in the sense of obtaining information from the spirits of those who have died and passed on but, toward the end of the book, I’ll also look into channeling of other entities. Throughout the book I’ll address developing your own abilities in the various aspects of mediumship.Here practice will be the keyword.
But with practice, one thing needs to be borne in mind: don’t overdo things. Don’t try to do something —be it crystal-gazing, clairvoyance, or psychometry —and keep trying till you are blue in the face! Apart from getting discouraged, you’ll rapidly terminate your interest in that specific art, and perhaps the whole field of mediumship, and you’ll drag down your psychic defenses to the point where you could suffer both physically and emotionally. It is much better to take small bites on a regular basis; then you’ll progress, gain in strength, and much sooner reach the goals you have set for yourself.
Exercises
At the root of all psychic development is good breathing. In my book
Amazing Secrets of the Psychic World (coauthored with Hereward Carrington), I spoke of the life-giving property of fresh air and the fact that simply by breathing fully you contribute to living fully. Some of the exercises I gave were:
1. Stand before an open window, or out of
doors, free from all restrictive clothing. Exhale
forcibly, bending the body forward and relaxing
the muscles. Then stand up straight and
place both hands over your abdomen. Now
breathe as deeply as possible against those
hands, expanding the abdomen as much as
possible without allowing the chest or ribs to
expand at all.Again exhale forcibly.
2. After five or six such breaths, place your
hands on either side against your ribs. Now
breathe in deeply, pressing out the ribs but
without allowing either the abdomen or the
upper chest to expand more than a little.
3. After five or six breaths, place your hands
on your upper chest, just below the neck,
and breathe with this portion of the lungs,
without allowing either the ribs or the
abdomen to expand.
4. You will find that it’s not so easy to control
your breathing. After you have mastered it,
however, you can go on to the next step,
the complete breath:
5. Take a number of good, deep breaths, starting
with expanding your abdomen, then the
ribs, then the upper chest, one after the other
in the one breath. Try to control this intake in
the three stages, one after the other. Then, as
you become more accomplished, merge them
one into the next so that you have something
akin to a rolling motion as the breath moves
up the body. Breathe in through your nose
and out through either your nose or mouth.
From there continue with establishing a mental
image of the breath as you breathe it, in the form of
light. See it coming into your body and filling it. As
you breathe out, see the light forcing out all the
negativity in the form of dark colors: black, dark
browns, greens, and reds. You can imagine the light
entering from wherever seems most comfortable to
you—through the third eye; into the heart; up from
the ground through your feet . . . whichever you
prefer. Just be consistent and always see it entering
at the same place.
For the exit of the neg...
