Mediumship | CFOS

That person selectively writes down or otherwise records the medium's words, rarely does the assistant record the responding words of the sitter and other attendants. In the 1860s and 1870s trance mediums were very popular.

Spiritualism generally attracted female adherents many who had strong interests in social justice.

Many trance mediums delivered passionate speeches on abolitionism, temperance and women's

suffrage. Scholars have described Leonora Piper as one of the most talented of the

trance mediums in the history of Spiritualism.

Inspirational Speaking

This is when a medium channels

an address from a spirit though

not in a trance state.

It is said that the words uttered generally pop into the speakers

head just before they are spoken, which is considered to be

a form of clairaudience.

Automatic Writing

Also known as 'independent writing',

'direct writing' or 'spirit writing', and is

a process or product that does not come

from the conscious thoughts of the writer.

The writing is performed without apparent intent or conscious control to achieve spontaneity or uncensored expression. It

can be done in a trance state, but most

often the writer is not in trance and is

aware of their surroundings but not of

the action of their writing hand.

With automatic writing the medium will sit holding a pen or pencil and the spirit communicator will influence

the medium's mind and control his or her hand sometimes at great speed to convey their communication

onto the paper. The medium may be unaware of the content of the communication until he or she reads

it afterwards. Geraldine Cummins is an example of a famous automatic writing medium.

In my estimation of all the spirit communications that I have read the automatic writings of James Padgett

originate from inhabitants of the spirit world that occupy higher levels. The following is an excerpt from his wife Helen explaining the method she uses to write to her husband. "When you take hold of the pencil, I

exercise all my power to move the pencil so that it will write just what I think and in order to do that

my thoughts go through your brain. You do not do the thinking but merely allow my thoughts, and the

movement of the pencil is caused by the exercise of your brain in conjunction with the power that

I exercise on the pencil. So, you see, you do not originate the thought, but merely convey it to the your

hand, which I guide in accordance with my thought. You do not have anything more to do with

what is written than an electric wire has to do with transmitting a message from the

party at the end where the message is sent."

Trance Channelling

This is the modern commercial form of mediumship, where the channeller purportedly receives messages from teaching-spirits,

an alleged ascended master, from an angelic entity

or supposedly from God.

The information is thought to essentially come through the filter

of the medium's own waking consciousness or what is called

the 'higher self'. When in trance the medium appears to come

under the control of a spirit.

Some channellers open their eyes and remain able to walk and

behave normally while rhythm and intonation of the voice may completely change. A widely known channeller of this variety is

J. Z. Knight, who claims to channel the spirit Ramtha.

Other notable channellers are: Jane Roberts for Seth, Esther

Hicks for Abraham, and Carla L. Rueckert for Ra.

Physical Mediumsip

Defined as the manipulation of energy by spirits.

This type of mediumship is claimed to involve

perceptible manifestations such as: loud raps,

bell-ringing, voices, materialized objects, apports

(objects appearing), entire materialized spirit bodies

or just hands, legs and feet.

The medium is used as a source of power for such spirit manifestations, which is believed to be accomplished

by using a substance called 'ectoplasm'.

This material is said to be created from the cells of the medium's physical body and those of seance sitters.

Most physical mediumship is presented in a darkened

or dimly lit room, and a traditional array of tools and appurtenances (apparatus) are used including: trumpets, cabinets and levitation tables.

Physical Ectoplasmic Mediumship

A person whose level of ectoplasm allows for

the physical manifestation of non-physical

entities and non-physical objects.

Ectoplasm is a supernatural viscous substance

that is supposed to exude from the body of a

medium during a trance-state that forms the

material for the manifestation of spirits. It is

unstable and looks like: tenuous vapors,

spirals, threads, cords, webs or rays.

Usually, ectoplasm would ooze from the medium's body, mouth, ear, nose or any other orifice. The ectoplasm would sometimes look like gauze,

cloth-like material and would mysteriously take

the form of a face of a spirit that was invited, or

can appear as an entire semi-physical person.

During this process the people present can see the materialization and dematerialization,

so this phenomena can be witnessed during séances.

Direct Voice

Direct voice communication is when a spirit speak independently of the medium who facilitates the

phenomenon rather than produces it.

The role of the medium is to make the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds.

Trumpets are often utilised to amplify the

sound, and direct voice mediums are sometimes known as 'trumpet mediums'.

This form of mediumship also permits the medium

to participate in the discourse during séances,

since the medium's voice is not required by

the spirit to communicate.

Direct voice as it implies comes directly from

the spirit world and not from the medium's vocal cords, but is produced by the creation

of an ectoplasmic voice box.

Remote Viewing

The phenomenon of remote-viewing can also be technically called 'travelling clairvoyance'.

Therefore the remote-viewer can clearly see people, places, things and events happening at

long distances in the physical dimension or in the non-physical dimension.

The remote viewer can also describe with their eyes-open what is

being seen and happening in real-time.

Precognition

A person who has the ability to get information from a spirit who knows what the immediate future may

hold. The future may not unfold according to the prediction because people have freewill

and with it the capacity of choice to change their future.

Mental Telepathy

A person that can read the information

being transmitted from one person to another

in the physical or non-physical dimensions.

In the physical dimension, telepathy occurs when

the alpha rhythms of the two communicating

minds enter into synchronicity.

Psychometry

A person that can read information contained in the energy

of objects. The psychometrist can acquire information from the present or the past and details of the owner from an object.

If the owner is deceased, the time that he or she lived can.

be ascertained by reading the energy that is attached to

the object. One of the most positive applications of psychometry is the finding of missing persons.

Psychic Art

Psychic art is different from ordinary art because a spirit uses the medium's hand to draw the picture.

Psychic art can be expressed by the drawing or painting of the likeness of a loved one in the

spirit world or frequently a spirit guide is drawn.

Messages can be portrayed through psychic

art along with that drawings that offer evidence

of survival. Psychic art works on a similar

principal as automatic writing.

Precipitating Mediumship

This appears to be an American phenomenon, and is claimed to be a form of psychic

art whereby a spirit produces the drawing, not the mortal medium.

It is said that the process entails the spirit or spirits to dematerialize the paint, ink, chalk, crayon,

lead etc., and then rematerialize it either onto a canvas, paper or a 3x5 index card to create usually

a portrait. No brush strokes can be detected because the colour is laid down by the spirit artist,

which is evidence that the picture was made by supernatural means.

Psychokinesis or Telekinesis

The ability to move or alter objects without

them being touched.

Uri Geller became famous for demonstrating

on television what he claimed to be psychokinesis, dowsing, and telepathy.

His performances included: bending spoons, describing hidden drawings and making

watches stop or run faster. He is said to

perform these feats through his will

power and the strength of his mind.

Medical Intuitiveness

A medical intuitive uses psychic vision

to see into a person's body or by

reading a person's energy or aura

field to diagnose their

physical health.

People may see a medical intuitive

when they are unable to obtain a

diagnosis from traditional methods.

The interesting thing about

medical intuitives is that they can

often diagnose the root cause

of the ailment.

Slate Writing

This technique was used by mediums

that involved school slates and claim that spirits were writing messages on them.

Usually, a pair of slates are used and

shown to the viewer as clean then hidden, and then shown to the viewer again

with a written message.

Henry Slade (1840-1905) is credited with inventing slate writing, and incorporating

it into his act as a psychic medium.

Slade called himself a spiritual doctor and

is often referred to as Dr. Henry Slade.

Cross Correspondence

Used predominantly between 1901 and 1932 this form of mediumship

was a way to test and validate the powers of mediums who were being studied by psychical researchers. Although, no longer studied cross correspondences oﬀered worthwhile proof of paranormal powers.

The correspondences were made

up of information that was purportedly delivered to mediums

by discarnate entities while the mediums were either in a trance

state or through automatic writing.

The mediums were in diﬀerent locations, and in some cases diﬀerent continents.

There were three types of cross correspondences: simple, complex and ideal. In simple correspondences,

two or more mediums produced the same word or words, phrases or similar phrases that were connected

or related. In complex cross correspondences, messages are indirect and must be deciphered.

Ideal correspondences involved messages that were incomplete and had to be put together like a

puzzle. Some psychical researchers believed cross correspondences provided strong

evidence in support of survival after death.

Divination

The practice to gain insight into a question or situation by reading signs, events, or omens.

An omen (also called portent or presage) is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future often

signifying the advent of change. People in ancient times believed that omens were a divine message

from their gods. Omens include natural phenomena such as: an eclipse, abnormal births of animals

or humans, and behavior of the sacrificial lamb on its way to the slaughter. They had specialists,

the diviners to interpret these omens. They would expect a binary answer, either yes or no answer,

favorable or unfavorable. They did this to predict what would happen in the

future and to take action to avoid disaster.

Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination

into the following four groups:

Omens

Chinese history offers scrupulously documented occurrences of strange

births, the tracking of natural

phenomena and other data.

Chinese governmental planning

relied on this method of forecasting

for long-range strategies.

It is not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry began with this kind of divination, and Joseph Needham's work considered this very idea.

Sortilege (Cleromancy)

This consists of the casting of lots whether with: sticks, stones, bones, beans, coins, or some other item.

Modern playing cards and board games developed from this type of divination.

Augury

This ranks a set of given possibilities, which can be qualitative shapes or proximities.

Dowsing was developed from this type of divination, especially in the discovery of ores, springs of water, etc., by the means of a rod or wand.

Augury is also considered to refer to divination by the study of the flight

patterns of birds.

Spontaneous

An unconstrained form of divination free from any particular medium, and actually a generalization of all types of divination.

The answer comes from whatever object the diviner happens to see or hear.

Some religions use a form of bibliomancy, asking a question then riffling through the pages of their holy book taking the first passage their eyes light upon as the answer.

Other forms of spontaneous divination include reading auras and methods of feng shui.