From TinWiki.org
Mediumship
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Mediumship is a practice in certain religious beliefs which is claimed, by its adherents, to be a form of communication with spirits. The religions which practice mediumship include Spiritualism, Spiritism, Candomblé, Louisiana Voodoo, Espiritismo, and Umbanda.
The Western movements of Spiritualism and Spiritism account for most Western media exposure. In most traditional African and African diasporic traditions, mediumship is a central focus of religious practice.
Concept
The term "mediumship" refers to the claimed ability of a person (the medium) to apparently experience contact with spirits of the dead, angels, demons, or spirits of immaterial entities. The medium generally claims to attempt to facilitate communication between non-mediumistic people and spirits they claim have messages to share.
A medium may:
- Listen to and relate conversations with spirit voices
- Go into a trance state and speak without knowledge of what is being said
- Allow a spirit to enter his/her body and speak through it
- Relay messages from the spirits to those who wish to contact with the help of a physical tool, such as a writing instrument
Mediumship is also a part of the belief system of some New Age groups. In this, and under the name channeling, mediumship refers to a medium who claims to receive messages from a "teaching spirit".
In some cultures, mediums (or the spirits that are working with them) claim to be able to produce physical paranormal phenomena such as:
- Materialization of spirits
- Apports of objects (transference of an article from one place to another or an appearance of an article from an unknown source)
- Levitation
- Physical phenomena such as weather changes
History
Attempts to communicate with the dead and other spirits have been documented back to early human history. Mediumship became popular in the US after the rise of Spiritualism as a religious movement in the late 1800s. After the exposure of the fraudulent use of stage magic tricks by psychical mediums, mediumship fell into disrepute; it never ceased being used by people who believed that the dead can be contacted.
From the 1930s through the 1990s, as psychical mediumship became less practiced in Spiritualist churches, channeling gained popularity. Books by channelers who related the wisdom of non-terrestrial and non-corporeal teacher-spirits became best-sellers among believers.
Terminology
- Spirit Guide
- Highly evolved spirit with the sole purpose of helping the medium develop and use their skills
- Assist in following spiritual paths
- One who brings other spirits to a medium's attention or carries communications between a medium and the spirits of the dead
- Relationship between medium and spirit guide may be providential or it may be based on family ties
- Spirit Communicator
- Spirit who communicates with a medium, either verbally, visually, or emotionally
- Spirit Operator
- Spirit who uses a medium to manipulate energy or energy systems
- Demonstration of Mediumship
- Mediumistic church service
- In Spiritualism, a pastor or medium receives messages from the spirit world for congregants
- Today, "demonstration of mediumship" is part of the church service at all churches affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches
- Mental Mediumship
- Communication of spirits with a medium by telepathy
- Medium mentally hears, sees, and/or feels messages from spirits
- Trance Mediumship
- Form of mental mediumship
- Mediums remain conscious
- Spirit or spirits using the medium's mind influences the mind with the thoughts being conveyed
- Physical Mediumship
- Manipulation of energies and energy systems by spirits
- Medium is used as the source of power and substance for such manifestations
- Loud raps and noises, voices, materialized objects, apports, materialized spirit bodies or body parts, levitation
- Presented in a darkened or dimly lit room
- Channeling
- Non-physical mediumship
- One type involves psychics or sensitives who can speak to spirits and then relay what they hear to their clients
- One type involves the channeler going into a trance or leaving their body and becoming possessed by a specific spirit who then talks through them
Psychic Senses
In Spiritualism, psychic senses used by mental mediums are sometimes defined differently than in other paranormal fields.
- Clairvoyance or "Clear Seeing"
- Ability to see anything which is not physically present
- Sight occurs "in the mind's eye"
- Some mediums claim:
- This is their normal vision state
- They must train their minds with such practices as meditation in order to achieve this ability
- Assistance from spiritual helpers is often necessary
- They can see the spirit as though the spirit has a physical body
- They can see the spirit like a photograph in their mind
- Clairaudience or "Clear Hearing"
- Ability to hear the voices or thoughts of spirits
- Mediums hear as though they are listening to a person talking to them outside their head or in their minds as verbal thought
- Clairsentience or "Clear Sensing"
- Medium takes on the ailments of a spirit
- Medium feels the same physical problem the spirit person had before they died
- Clairalience or "Clear Smelling"
- Ability to smell a spirit
- Clairgustance or "Clear Tasting"
- Ability to receive taste impressions from a spirit
- Claircognizance or "Clear Knowing"
- Ability to know something without receiving it through normal or psychic senses
- Feeling of "just knowing"
External Links
Relevant discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com
