Mediumship and Channelling
What is Mediumship?
Mediumship is the process whereby a human instrument, known as a medium or channel, is used, with the medium's permission, by one or more discarnate, spirit personalities for the purpose of presenting information, channeling forth certain types of energies and even manifesting themselves. It is the ability to communicate with spirits. We all can and do communicate with and for spirits.
Mediumship can be performed through any and all of the following senses:
Clairaudience - this means "clear hearing". It is the psychic ability to hear the voices and sounds of spirits such as guides, loved ones, and angels not present to ordinary hearing. Such voices may be subconsciously generated and externalized in auditory perception, or they may be objective but pitched on such an auditory scale or vibration as to be inaudible to most people. Sometimes the voices can sound just like our own thoughts, when they are actually spirit messages.
Clairsentience - this means "clear feeling". It is the psychic ability to feel things and use our intuition. An example of this is, when conducting a reading, I would feel the way that someone has passed over. Another example of clairsentience is if one went to a certain place, they might feel that the energies of the place are either happy or sad. One can feel and pick up on the vibrations of energy emanating from something.
Clairvoyance - this means "clear seeing". It is the psychic ability to see things, either in the past, present or future. One may see images in the mind as though they are on a video screen (in the third eye), or they may even see energy forms externally, projected from their inner vision.
Clairambience - this means to taste and Clairalience means to smell. These are the lesser used senses in mediumship but by no means does this exclude them from the available ways for the spirits to communicate. A spirit might put the taste of a certain food, or the smell of tobacco smoke through the medium, to let their loved one know that it is them.
Claircognizance - this means clear knowingness. This is the feeling of just knowing something. This knowing comes directly from God and transfers down through our crown chakra. It is instantly given to us and is right inside our mind very quickly.
Two distinct types of phenomena can occur through mediums - communication and manipulation of energies and energy systems.
A spirit who uses a medium for the purpose of communication, either verbally or visually, is known as a spirit communicator. A spirit who uses a medium for the intent of working with and/or manipulating energies or energy systems is called a spirit operator. This distinction is very general, and it should be noted that a spirit operator can, and often does, communicate.
Thus, mediumship can be distinguished as two basic types - Mental Mediumship and Physical Mediumship.
Mental Mediumship involves the relaying of information, through communication, via the varied aspects of thought transference, or mental telepathy. Mental telepathy is the relaying of information via thought, without using any of the five physical senses. Mental mediumship takes place within the consciousness of the medium. The results are expressed verbally and must pass through the medium's mouth. Because of its telepathic nature, mental mediumship is sometimes referred to as telepathic mediumship.
In a demonstration of mental mediumship, it is the medium who hears, sees, and feels what the spirit communicators are relating. Furthermore, it is the medium's function to relate the information, with minimum personal influence and prejudice, to the recipient of the message, also known as the sitter. The medium receives this information under various states of control.
Physical Mediumship involves the manipulation and transformation of physical systems and energies. The spirit operators, in this case, are causing something to happen upon the Earth plane. What it is that actually happens varies with the style of mediumship involved, but the results can be seen and heard by others.
I personally only use Mental Mediumship.
Mediumship is natural. We are all spirits in a human physcial body. Before we come to live on the earth plane, we are spirits without a physical body and can communicate telepathically very easily in the spirit world. When in a physical body on earth, we can still communicate telepathically but it can be harder for some to do so, as the physical body is so dense.
A medium must raise their vibration to talk to spirit, and spirit must lower their vibration to meet the medium's vibration. Mediums usually find it easier than others to communicate with the spirit world, so until we all develop our gifts and raise our vibrations enough to communicate with the spirits ourselves, we may use mediums to connect with spirit for us.
Everyone has the ability to talk to spirit - really it is just like talking to our friends, except we have a physcial body and they don't. In the future, we will all be able to talk to spirit ourselves, and we won't need to use a medium to do so. One way to learn how to talk with the spirit realms yourself is to develop your psychic senses and practice your communication skills. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to meditate. There is more information on meditation and spiritual development on my Spiritual Development page.
What is Channelling?
Channelling is basically just the same as Mediumship.
Some people channel while still in an awake stake, where they listen to what spirit are saying, then relay it to their client. This is called Conscious Channelling (the same as Mental Mediumship). This can also be done via automatic writing using paper and a pencil or even typing on a computer.
Some people use Trance Channelling (the same as Physical Mediumship), where they let a spirit take over their body so that the spirit can then relay information to their client. The person who is channelling just steps aside from their body, lets the spirit in, then once the spirit has finished talking, the spirit leaves and the person steps back into their body again. The person usually has no recollection of what has been said during the channelling.
I personally just channel lightly, without being in a trance.
Other forms of channelling include spiritual healing and reiki healing. Here, the healers are channelling divine healing energy to their clients. Even artists, authors, gardeners, chefs, dancers and musicians channel the higher energies when they are working. Infact, we all channel energy daily without even realising it.
Please see my Spiritual Development page if you wish to try some exercises on developing your own mediumship and channelling abilities.