Mediums - The Special Craft

To begin with, it should be pointed out that psychic medium, the commonly used term, is actually rather misleading, as it infers that there may be a non - psychic variety, so to speak. As it is, although not every psychic happens to be a medium, every medium does have psychic abilities.
So what are mediums and what do they do? They will use their ability to communicate with spirits, most frequently those of deceased persons (although on occasion a spirit claiming never to have inhabited a living body will attend a session), for a variety of reasons.
One reason is to assure an individual who has lost a friend or loved one that there is indeed life after death or that the deceased has settled into this life comfortably. It serves as a reassurance and comfort for those left behind, helping them to cope with their grief.
Providing a link between a living person and a spirit in order to convey messages or question and answers from one to the other (it’s a two way link) is another possible reason for a session.
The way in which messages are received varies from individual to individual and from spirit to spirit. The most commonly used ways of communication are either clairvoyance, where messages are received in the form of visual perception, for instance images of individuals or places; clairaudience, where sounds or voices are transmitted or clairsentience, sometimes just a sense of a presence or a perceived touch or breeze or at times the transmitting of particular physical sensations or feelings the spirit may have had during their life. Other, much rarer, methods of communication are clairgustance, where a particular taste is transmitted and clairalience, a sense of smell.
All of these methods are referred to as mental phenomena. Physical phenomena, usually only occurring in face to face, private séances, involve a variety of sounds or visible apparitions perceived by everyone present.

During a session, the medium can be either fully conscious and totally in control of proceedings; in a light trance, where they are seemingly aware of what is happening but may not remember everything later or a deep trance, where a spirit is allowed to more or less take over. This, however, is less frequently done as it involves a certain amount of risk to the individual. This, again, depends on the individual's personal ability and/ or preference.

Whichever way or method of communication is chosen, one thing must be clearly understood - a medium is not a fortune teller. They use their gifts to provide a link enabling communication between two plains of existence and will convey messages in a caring, sensitive way as they were received without adding any kind of personal opinion or attempted interpretation. It is then left to each individual to examine, interpret and if necessary verify these messages for themselves, bearing in mind that not all messages are clear or immediately recognisable as relevant, but may turn out to be so later.