Mediumship

Séance conducted by John Beattie, Bristol, England, 1872

Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Louisiana Voodoo, Shambala and Umbanda.

While the Western movements of Spiritualism and Spiritism account for most Western news-media coverage, it is likely mediumship is practiced more widely among other than European-based cultures; for instance, a majority of African and African-diasporic spiritual traditions include mediumship as a central focus of religious practice.

Concept

Mediumship is the claimed ability of a person (the medium) to experience what he/she or others believe is contact with spirits of the dead, angels, demons or other immaterial entities. The role of the medium is supposedly to facilitate communication with spirits who have messages to share with non-mediums. Mediums claim to be able to listen to, relay messages from, and relate conversations with spirit, to go into a trance and speak without knowledge of what is being said, to allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it, perhaps using a writing instrument (automatic writing).

Mediumship is also part of the belief system of some New Age groups. In this context, and under the name "channelling", it refers to a medium (the channel) who claims to receive messages from a "teaching-spirit". In some cultures, mediums (or the spirits they claim are working with them) claim to be able to produce physical paranormal phenomena such as materialisations of spirits, apports of objects, or levitation.

History

Main article: Spiritualism

Attempts to communicate with the dead and other spirits have been documented back to early human history. The story of the Witch of Endor, tells of one who raised the spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel to allow the Hebrew king Saul to question his former mentor about an upcoming battle, as related in the First book of Samuel in the Jewish Tanakh (the Old Testament).

Mediumship became quite popular in the 19th-century United States and the United Kingdom after the rise of Spiritualism as a religious movement. Modern Spiritualism is said to date from practices and lectures of the Fox sisters in New York state 1848. The trance mediums Paschal Beverly Randolph and Emma Hardinge Britten were among the most celebrated lecturers and authors on the subject in the mid 1800s.

Allan Kardec coined the term Spiritism around 1860.) Kardec claimed that conversations with spirits by selected mediums were the basis pf his The Spirits' Book and later, his five-book collection, Spiritist Codification.

After the exposure of the fraudulent use of stage magic tricks by physical mediums such as the Davenport Brothers, mediumship fell into disrepute. The practice continued among people who believed that the dead can be contacted and tried to do so.

From the 1930s through the 1990s, as psychical mediumship became less practiced in Spiritualist churches, the technique of "channelling" gained in popularity. Books by channellers who claimed to relate the wisdom of non-corporeal and non-terrestrial teacher-spirits became best-sellers amongst believers.

Terminology

Spirit guide

Main article: Spirit guide

Some mediums claim a spirit guide is a highly evolved spirit with the sole purpose of helping the medium develop and use personal skills. The mediums claim the spirits assist in the person's following a spiritual path. Other mediums claim a spirit guide is one who brings other spirits to a medium's attention or carries communications between a medium and the spirits of the dead . Many mediums claim to have specific guides who regularly work with them and "bring in" spirits of the dead. Some mediums claim that spirits of the dead will communicate with them directly without the use of a spirit guide. The relationship between the medium and the guide may be providential, or it may be based on family ties.

In 1958, the English-born Spiritualist C. Dorreen Phillips wrote of her experiences with a medium at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana: "In Rev. James Laughton's séances there are many Indians. They are very noisy and appear to have great power. [...] The little guides, or doorkeepers, are usually Indian boys and girls [who act] as messengers who help to locate the spirit friends who wish to speak with you." Then, describing the mediumship of Rev. Lillian Dee Johnson of Saint Petersburg, Florida, she noted, "Mandy Lou is Rev. Johnson's guide. [..] She was, on earth, a slave to Rev. Johnson's grandmother."

Spirit operator

A spirit who uses a medium to manipulate energy or energy systems.

Demonstrations of mediumship

In old-line Spiritualism, a portion of the services, generally toward the end, is given over to the pastor, or another medium, who receives messages from the spirit world for the congregants. This may be referred to as a "demonstration of mediumship."

A typical example of this older way of describing a mediumistic church service is found in the 1958 autobiography of C. Dorreen Phillips. She writes of the worship services at the Spiritualist Camp Chesterfield in Chesterfield, Indiana: "Services are held each afternoon, consisting of hymns, a lecture on philosophy, and demonstrations of mediumship."

Today "demonstration of mediumship" is part of the church service at all churches affiliated with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches {NSAC). Demonstration links to Declaration of Principal #9. "We affirm that the precepts of Prophecy and Healing are Divine attributes proven through Mediumship."

Mental mediumship

Main article: Seance

"Mental mediumship" is communication of spirits with a medium by telepathy. The medium mentally "hears" (clairaudience), "sees" (clairvoyance), and/or feels (clairsentience) messages from spirits. Directly or with the help of a spirit guide, the medium passes the information on to the message's recipient(s). When a medium is doing a "reading" for a particular person, that person is known as the "sitter."

Trance mediumship

"Trance mediumship" is often seen as a form of mental mediumsh