Mediums
Mediums : are
persons who claim they can communicate with and even rely messages from
deceased persons. These messages are thought to come from the beyond
the grave and are normally intended for the living relatives of the
deceased. Typically some mediums appear to be more
"accurate" than others and many mediums profess to seeing
deceased persons, or hearing their voices since early childhood.
Some mediums are associated with the Spiritualist Church and often claim
that they are in touch with the deceased loved ones of members of the
audience. Other mediums work on a one to one basis with their
individual clients who hope to make contact with their dearly
departed.
Often money changes hands and it quite commonplace for a
medium to charge a fee for his or her services. Depending upon the
belief system of an individual, and or religious persuasion, the whole
subject of mediumship can often invoke a wide range of emotions. The
alleged ability to talk or communicate with the dead does not generally
sit very well with the Church (except the Spiritualist Church that
is). Indeed certain passages in the bible warn directly against both
mediums and the use of their services. The overall view is that the
universe is a vast and mysterious place. The universe also contains
many things of which we are maybe not even aware, let alone hope to
understand, including both good and bad spirits. For this reason
many believe the subject as a whole should be avoided at all cost.
However this is cold comfort to the many thousands of newly bereaved
persons who struggle to come to terms with their loss. It is for
these people that a medium offers the longed for hope that their loved
ones, since departing the earth, are now continuing a happy existence in
the spirit world.
Many mediums claim that because of the joy they clearly
bring to the bereaved then their work is highly valid and offers the
grieving the proof they need that consciousness actually does survive the
death of the physical body.
However there are many sceptics who suggest that mediums are
little more than charlatans or fraudsters. They suggest that they do
little more than prey on the grief and misery of their bereaved clients in
order to secure quite hefty fees.
Can these mediums really communicate with the dead? Often persons on
leaving a session with their chosen medium recount how
"accurate" their medium was. It is not uncommon to hear
people talk of information that was only known to them and their deceased
relative being discussed at a session. This information is often
taken as proof that the medium really is talking to the dead.
However it must be stressed that these clients have a huge desire for the
medium to be correct, which naturally introduces a significant amount of
bias into the equation.
After observing a number of renowned and respected mediums at work, in
some cases it can be seen that quite a clear pattern of language and
question and answer dialogue often emerges. To illustrate the point
a quite extreme example is laid out below:
MEDIUM ASKS: "I have a father figure here who wants to come
through, can you tell me if that means anything to you?
CLIENT RESPONDS: Er, no
MEDIUM ASKS: I think is it definitely a man, could it be your
grandfather?
CLIENT RESPONDS: Er, well it could be
MEDIUM ASKS: Oh no the father and grandfather figures are receeding
into the background and a much stronger mother figure is coming
through. I think I may have your mother. Is your mother in
spirit?
CLIENT RESPONDS: Ah yes it's my mother I've been hoping to get in
touch with my mother.
MEDIUM SAYS: Your mother says you have been doing a bit to much
lately and you should slow down a little.
Although it may appear that the medium in the fictitious dialogue above
has made contact with the departed mother of their client; clearly they
have not. In the instance above, if the medium was genuine and real
contact had been established with the spirit world, it is highly unlikely
that any questions would need to be asked at all during the
conversation. Closer examination of the dialogue above simply
reveals that the medium is actually asking: is your father dead? if not,
is your grandfather dead? and if neither of those relatives are deceased,
then is your mother dead?
Once knowledge of which family member has been unwittingly extracted from
the client, the medium may then make some sort of generalized comment
about how the person may have died. One of the favourites appears to
be:
MEDIUM SAYS: Oh I feel this person had difficulty in breathing or a
pain in their chest.
Medical science will probably confirm that in someone who is dying, a
difficulty in breathing would normally accompany death. If this
draws a blank then another avenue is normally explored. For example:
MEDIUM SAYS: Did this person die suddenly? then could it be a car
crash?
All of the time language is cleverly and skillfully used to extract
information from a medium's client in order to convince the client that
the medium really can speak to the dead.
The hypothetical medium/client conversation above is extreme and an
obvious example of how information is extracted from the unwitting
client. In reality the language used is much less obvious, but works
on the same principle. There is even a technical term for this type
of unwitting information extraction, it is called: 'cold reading'.
Indeed for budding mediums a plethora of books and information exist about
cold reading techniques and the art of subtle information
extraction.
It is probably true to say that if enough generalised statements are made
during a sitting, then at least some of the information would be deemed to
be correct. For example:
MEDIUM SAYS: Your
mother/grandmother/sister/aunt/father/grandfather/brother/uncle left you a
watch or piece of jewelry?
or
MEDIUM SAYS: Your
mother/grandmother/sister/aunt/father/grandfather/brother/uncle says you
must keep that lock of hair safe.
or even
MEDIUM SAYS: Your
mother/grandmother/sister/aunt/father/grandfather/brother/uncle says you
have been tidying the house/garden lately - is that right?
Cold reading or the extraction of information from an unwitting client
that is then fed back by a medium, is certainly one plausible explanation
for the medium phenomenon. However there is also a belief that in
the more difficult to disprove cases, perhaps Extra Sensory Perception
(loosely, mind reading) is at work. In other words the medium is actually
unknowingly reading the mind of his or her client. Until the most
renowned mediums are tested under strictly controlled scientific
conditions it is difficult to evaluate either way.
When evaluating the performance of a medium, consider:
Did the medium give an accurate first name or better still surname without
guessing at a few names first?
If the answer to the above question is no, then it is probably unlikely
that the medium is speaking to the deceased. However, even if the
answer is yes; unless the session was conducted under strict laboratory
conditions, there are still ways information can be obtained without the
knowledge of the client. For example: background research can be
done on clients beforehand and sometimes conversations may be overheard
before a sitting, thus giving the medium prior knowledge about the
client.
In conclusion: mediums are persons who can allegedly communicate with dead
people. However as the messages they bring forth can be explained away by
a variety of means other than spirit communication, a degree of scepticism
and caution should probably be exercised.
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