Difference between revisions of "Mediumship" - New World Encyclopedia
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| − | + | In [[spiritualism]], the term '''Medium''' refers to a person with a psychic ability to produce phenomena of a mental or physical nature by [[channeling]] or communicating with a spirit. Mediumship involves cooperative communication between a human and one or more discarnate, [[spirit]] personalities, often during a [[séance]]. Information may be attained, paranormal activities may occur, energies may be channeled, or the spirit may manifest itself materially. Mediumship can generally be separated into two forms: physical mediumship, and mental mediumship (sometimes called "telepathic mediumship").<ref>http://www.fst.org/mediumship.htm "What is Mediumship/Channeling?"] First Spiritual Temple, 2001. Retrieved March 30, 2007.</ref> [[Trance]] mediumship, one of the more well known types of mediumship, often falls into the physical mediumship category. As with most [[paranormal]] phenomena, mediumship is often the subject of extreme controversy. | |
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==History of mediumship== | ==History of mediumship== | ||
| − | + | Man has attempted to contact spirits throughout most of history; shamans and witch doctors traditionally contacted spirits, but mediumship did not gain widespread popularity until the Spiritualist Movement in the mid-nineteenth century. The birth of modern spiritualism is often traced back to the experiences of the [[Fox sisters]] in 1848, when two young girls claimed to have made contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler in their New York State home. The Fox sisters would regularly hold [[séances]], and the popularity of contacting the "other side" spread like wildfire throughout the United States and parts of Europe. | |
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| − | + | From the mid 1800's through the mid 1900's, mediums and séances were extremely popular with the public. Notable figures like [[Andrew Jackson Davis]], [[Daniel Dunglas Home]], [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]], and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] helped give spiritualism a sense of authenticity, and séances were even held in royal palaces, the White House, and the homes of highly respectable citizens. Mediums were nearly ubiquitous throughout the United States and portions of Europe. | |
| − | + | As spiritualism grew in popularity, organizations were formed to investigate psychic phenomena like channeling. The [[Society for Psychical Research]], for example, was founded in 1882, and attempts to investigate paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way. The Society has mainly investigated phenomena connected with telepathy and apparitions, in the hopes of finding scientific explanations for various spiritualistic occurrences.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/65/sp/spiritis.html "Spiritism"] The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-2005. Retrieved March 30, 2007.</ref> | |
| − | + | ==Types of mediumship== | |
| − | Physical mediumship involves the manipulation and | + | In modern spiritualism, mediumship can be generally divided into two forms. Physical mediumship, where the medium is known as a "spirit communicator", generally involves the manipulation of energies and energy systems. Mental mediumship, where the medium is referred to as a "spirit operator", involves communication.<ref>[http://ghosts.monstrous.com/mediumship.htm "Mediumship"] Monstrous. Retrieved April 2, 2007.</ref> |
| − | + | ===Mental Mediumship=== | |
| − | + | Mental mediumship is communication from a spirit that takes place within the medium's consciousness, without the use of any of the five physical senses. Because mental mediumship often occurs through [[telepathy]], it is sometimes called "telepathic mediumship". The medium then relates what he/she sees, hears, or feels to the recipient, or sitter. The medium may use various states of [[trance]] to obtain this information.<ref>[http://ghosts.monstrous.com/mental_mediumship.htm "Mental Mediumship"] Monstrous. Retrieved April 2, 2007.</ref> | |
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| − | + | Mental Mediumship comes in three main forms: [[Clairvoyance]], [[Clairaudience]] and [[Clairsentience]].<ref name="SpiritLincs">Spiritlincs, [http://www.spiritlincs.com/mediumship.htm “Mediumship”]</ref> | |
| − | + | ====Clairvoyance==== | |
| + | Clairvoyance, or "clear seeing", is the ability to see anything which is not physically present, such as objects, animals or people. This sight usually occurs "in the mind’s eye," and some mediums say that this is their normal vision state. Others say that they must train their minds with such practices as meditation in order to achieve this ability, and that assistance from spiritual helpers is often necessary. While some clairvoyant mediums say they can see a spirit as though the spirit had a physical body and were physically present, others say that spirits appears as a movie, television program, or photograph in their mind. | ||
| − | + | The term "clairvoyance", when used in a mediumistic sense, is often used to refer to seeing spirits and visions instilled by spirits, or, more colloquially, to refer to fortune telling. This definition is different from the official definition used by parapsychologists, which defines clairvoyance as "paranormal acquisition of information concerning an object or contemporary physical event" that derives "directly from an external physical source..., and not from the mind of another person."<ref>Thalbourne, Michael. [http://parapsych.org/glossary_a_d.html#c "Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology"] Parapsychological Association ,2003. Retrieved March 2, 2007</ref> | |
| − | + | ====Clairaudience==== | |
| − | + | Clairaudience, or "clear hearing", is referred to as the ability to hear spirit voices that are not audible to other people. In some cases, mediums say they hear the spirits' voices as though a person were sitting next to them. Others claim they hear spirit voices within their head/mind as more of a thought or a verbalization of a thought. In both cases, the voices are inaudible to others, even if they are seated in close proximity to the medium. The medium may also hear music or singing, in addition to spoken thought. | |
| − | + | ====Clairsentience==== | |
| − | + | Clairsentience, or "clear feeling", is said to be the most commonly experienced form of mental mediumship. Clairsentience is the ability to sense physical attributes of a spirit presence. The medium may feel the presence of a spirit through a touch, a smell, temperature, or a slight breeze.<ref>[http://www.spiritlincs.com/mediumship.htm "Mediumship"] Spiritlincs, 2001. Retrieved April 2, 2007.</ref> Some mediums say that they will feel the ailments the spirit had while alive.is usually felt through touch, temperature, or slight breezes. | |
| − | + | ====Additional Categories of Mental Mediumship==== | |
| + | While the previous three types of mental mediumship are the most common, many spiritualists break down types of mental mediumship even further, including categories such as "clairalience" ("clear smelling"), and "clairgustance" ("clear tasting"). Smells and tastes of the deceased person's life or environment may be experienced through these types of mediumship. Mediums will sometimes examine a person's [[aura (paranormal)|aura]], a subtle field of luminous multicolored radiation surrounding a person or object as a cocoon or halo.<ref>Thalbourne, Michael. 2003. [http://parapsych.org/glossary_a_d.html "Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology"] Parapsychological Association Retrieved March 4, 2006</ref> By noting variations in the hues of a person’s aura, a medium can describe his personality, needs, and illnesses. For example, the "shriveling" of the aura is considered a sign of impending death. | ||
===Physical mediumship=== | ===Physical mediumship=== | ||
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| − | + | Where mental mediumship generally involves communication experienced only by the medium, physical mediumship is evident to all those around the medium. Involving the manipulation of physical systems and energies, physical mediumship can include [[levitation]], [[automatic writing]], the moving of tables or other objects, as well as ectoplasmic activities. Physical mediumship was an important part of the Spiritualist Movement in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries, where table rapping, materializations, and object manipulation were common occurrences during séances. Mediums would often [channel] a spirit, allowing the spirit to control their physical body to communicate to the living, a process different than [[possession]], where control by a spirit is involuntary and generally unwelcome. | |
| − | + | There are various manifestations of physical mediumship. Some of the more common types are: | |
| + | ====Raps==== | ||
| + | Raps, also known as "percussion", were one of the first and most common types of physical mediumship, starting with the [[Fox Sisters]] in 1848. Raps and knocks could be heard coming from anywhere in the room, and were used to answer yes or no questions, or to acknowledge letters of the alphabet and laboriously spell out messages. | ||
| − | == | + | ====Ectoplasm==== |
| − | + | [[Ectoplasm]] is a substance taken from the medium's body and mixed with an etheric substance, which enables a spirit to affect physical matter. Ectoplasm is often light sensitive, and many séances were held in low light or total darkness to better observe ectoplasmic manifestations. <ref>Upton, Steven. 2005. [http://www.s-upton.com/spm/physical.htm "Physical Mediumship"] s-upton.com. Retrieved April 3, 2007.</ref> | |
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| − | == | + | ====Levitation==== |
| + | Levitation, or the movement of objects without normal means of support, is said to occur due to either [[telekinesis]] or through the use of ectoplasm.<ref>Upton, Steven. 2005. [http://www.s-upton.com/spm/physical.htm "Physical Mediumship"] s-upton.com. Retrieved April 4, 2007.</ref> While inanimate objects are the most common subjects of levitation, mediums have also been known to levitate. [[Daniel Dunglas Home]], a Scottish medium, was famous during the 1800's for his feats of levitation. During one séance, Home appeared to leave through one third story window and levitate himself outside to enter through a second window. | ||
| − | + | ====Materialisation==== | |
| + | Séances have often been accompanied by the materialisation of spirit hands, faces, or entire bodies, particularly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the most famous materialisations was that of [[Katie King]], a spirit manifested during the séances of a young English medium named Florence Cook. During Cook's sessions, Katie would materialize, hold conversations, and even allow herself to be photographed. While a scientist named William Crookes was investigating Cook's phenomena, he was able to cut off a lock of Katie's hair. | ||
| − | + | ====Automatic Writing==== | |
| + | When using [[automatic writing]] to communicate with spirits, the medium generally holds a pen or pencil and, through a lack of conscious control, allows the spirit to communicate through their hand. [[Ouija boards]] may also be used. There are a vast amount of writings that claim to be spirit written, including plays, poetry, essays, novels, and music. While some, like a novel allegedly written by a posthumous [[Mark Twain]], appear to have little validity, others have the potential to be genuine. | ||
| − | + | ==Famous Mediums== | |
| − | + | *[[William Stanton Moses]]: Moses, a medium from the late nineteenth century, would hold séances during which psychic lights would appear. He also had experiences of levitation, and the appearance of scents like musk and newly mown hay. Musical sounds would often be heard with no musical instruments in the room, as well as the materialization of luminous hands and pillars of light. Moses also produced a great number of automatic writings, including his most well known scripts 'Spirit Teachings' (1883) and 'Spirit Identity' (1879). | |
| − | + | *[[Fransisco (Chico) Xavier]]: Born in 1910, Xavier was a famous Brazilian medium, often appearing on television. He produced his first automatic writing in grade school, where he claimed that an essay was given to him by a spirit. He went on to amass an enormous number of automatic writing scripts in various scientific and literary disciplines, and is one of the world's most prolific automatic writers. | |
| − | + | * [[Edgar Cayce]]: Cayce was an American medium during the early twentieth century. He gave an estimated 22,000 readings during his lifetime, a large portion of which dealt with requests for advice on physical health. Cayce performed readings while in a [[trance]] state, and claimed to have no knowledge of what he had said while in a trance. He also performed a number of philosophical readings, where he discussed [[Atlantis]], reincarnation, and made predictions for the future. | |
| − | + | * [[Daniel Dunglas Home]]: Home was one of the most well-known mediums of the nineteenth century. Scottish born, he performed a number of séances for royalty and other well-respected people. He was most famous for his levitations, one of which took place outside a third story window. Though many, including [[Houdini]] accused Home of trickery, he was never once exposed as a fraud. | |
| − | + | In more recent times, mediums like [[John Edward]] and [[Colin Fry]] have hosted television programs instead of more traditional séances, claiming to help audience members contact deceased friends and family. Others, like [[Allison DuBois]], use their psychic abilities to aid law enforcement in the capture of criminals. Many more modern mediums, such as [[Esther Hicks]] and [[Jane Roberts]], have written books describing the spiritualistic material they have received during their sessions. | |
| − | == | + | ==Mediumship: Fraud or Genuine?== |
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| − | + | While many scientists and skeptics simply deny the existence of genuine mediums, arguing that individuals who claim to possess this ability are either self-deluded or charlatans who engage in [[cold reading|cold]] or [[hot reading|hot]] reading. Using these techniques, purported mediums ask vague questions in an attempt to elicit information from an audience member. By saying something like, "I sense a chest problem. Was there someone with a chest problem in your life?", the "medium" stands a good chance of getting "yes" for an answer.<ref>Nickell, Joe. [http://www.csicop.org/articles/19990608-vanpraagh/ "Review of Psychic Medium Van Praagh on CNN's Larry King Live"] Committee for Skpetical Inquiry. Retrieved Apris 5, 2007.</ref> | |
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| − | + | From the early days of the Spiritualism Movement, there have been individuals and groups of scientists interested in determining the validity of paranormal phenomenon like mediumship. Some, like [[William Crookes]], who investigated [[Florence Cook]] and [[Daniel Dunglas Home]], became convinced that such phenomenon were genuine. The famed magician and escape artist [[Harry Houdini]] worked fervently to expose fraud in mediumship. Groups like the Veritas Research Program at the University of Arizona have studied mediumship in controlled laboratory conditions, and claim that research supports the authenticity of some mediums, as well as the existence of life after death.<ref>[http://veritas.arizona.edu/v_faq.htm "Frequently Asked Questions"] The Veritas Research Program. Retrieved April 5, 2007.</ref> Others argue that Veritas' studies have provided no evidence of survival of consciousness or mediumistic abilities, claiming that research methods were crucially flawed and deviated from accepted norms of scientific methodology.<ref>Hyman, Ray. 2003. [http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-01/medium.html "How Not to Test Mediums: Critiquing the Afterlife Experiments"] Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved April 5, 2007.</ref> | |
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| − | + | It is indisputable that mediumship has a long history of fraud, aided by the human desire to contact loved ones who have passed on. Some frauds, like that of [[Eusapia Palladino]], an Italian medium studied in 1908, have even fooled seasoned psychic investigators familiar with fraudulent mediums' techniques. Despite numerous instances where Palladino was caught in fraud, investigator Hereward Carrington remained convinced that those performances that could not be proven fraudulent were still genuine.<ref>[http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Palladino,%20Eusapia.html "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural "] James Randi Educational Foundation. Retrieved April 5, 2007.</ref> | |
| − | + | Despite the fact that many mediums have been successfully proven to be frauds, one cannot argue that 'all' mediumship is a hoax. Parapsychologist Ciarán O'Keeffe says that "no definitive evidence has been presented that proves with absolute certainty that we are facing genuine mediumship ability", but that "nobody can tell you [if mediums have genuine abilities] for sure, and that many who try to convince one of the existence or fraud of mediumship have a vested interest (often financial) in doing so.<ref>O'Keeffe, Ciarán. 2003. [http://www.theparapsychologist.com/media.php?id=sec441 "Ciarán's Chronicles"] Parapsychologist.com. Retrieved April 5, 2007.</ref> | |
== References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 19:51, 5 April 2007
In spiritualism, the term Medium refers to a person with a psychic ability to produce phenomena of a mental or physical nature by channeling or communicating with a spirit. Mediumship involves cooperative communication between a human and one or more discarnate, spirit personalities, often during a séance. Information may be attained, paranormal activities may occur, energies may be channeled, or the spirit may manifest itself materially. Mediumship can generally be separated into two forms: physical mediumship, and mental mediumship (sometimes called "telepathic mediumship").[1] Trance mediumship, one of the more well known types of mediumship, often falls into the physical mediumship category. As with most paranormal phenomena, mediumship is often the subject of extreme controversy.
History of mediumship
Man has attempted to contact spirits throughout most of history; shamans and witch doctors traditionally contacted spirits, but mediumship did not gain widespread popularity until the Spiritualist Movement in the mid-nineteenth century. The birth of modern spiritualism is often traced back to the experiences of the Fox sisters in 1848, when two young girls claimed to have made contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler in their New York State home. The Fox sisters would regularly hold séances, and the popularity of contacting the "other side" spread like wildfire throughout the United States and parts of Europe.
From the mid 1800's through the mid 1900's, mediums and séances were extremely popular with the public. Notable figures like Andrew Jackson Davis, Daniel Dunglas Home, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and Arthur Conan Doyle helped give spiritualism a sense of authenticity, and séances were even held in royal palaces, the White House, and the homes of highly respectable citizens. Mediums were nearly ubiquitous throughout the United States and portions of Europe.
As spiritualism grew in popularity, organizations were formed to investigate psychic phenomena like channeling. The Society for Psychical Research, for example, was founded in 1882, and attempts to investigate paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way. The Society has mainly investigated phenomena connected with telepathy and apparitions, in the hopes of finding scientific explanations for various spiritualistic occurrences.[2]
Types of mediumship
In modern spiritualism, mediumship can be generally divided into two forms. Physical mediumship, where the medium is known as a "spirit communicator", generally involves the manipulation of energies and energy systems. Mental mediumship, where the medium is referred to as a "spirit operator", involves communication.[3]
Mental Mediumship
Mental mediumship is communication from a spirit that takes place within the medium's consciousness, without the use of any of the five physical senses. Because mental mediumship often occurs through telepathy, it is sometimes called "telepathic mediumship". The medium then relates what he/she sees, hears, or feels to the recipient, or sitter. The medium may use various states of trance to obtain this information.[4]
Mental Mediumship comes in three main forms: Clairvoyance, Clairaudience and Clairsentience.[5]
Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance, or "clear seeing", is the ability to see anything which is not physically present, such as objects, animals or people. This sight usually occurs "in the mind’s eye," and some mediums say that this is their normal vision state. Others say that they must train their minds with such practices as meditation in order to achieve this ability, and that assistance from spiritual helpers is often necessary. While some clairvoyant mediums say they can see a spirit as though the spirit had a physical body and were physically present, others say that spirits appears as a movie, television program, or photograph in their mind.
The term "clairvoyance", when used in a mediumistic sense, is often used to refer to seeing spirits and visions instilled by spirits, or, more colloquially, to refer to fortune telling. This definition is different from the official definition used by parapsychologists, which defines clairvoyance as "paranormal acquisition of information concerning an object or contemporary physical event" that derives "directly from an external physical source..., and not from the mind of another person."[6]
Clairaudience
Clairaudience, or "clear hearing", is referred to as the ability to hear spirit voices that are not audible to other people. In some cases, mediums say they hear the spirits' voices as though a person were sitting next to them. Others claim they hear spirit voices within their head/mind as more of a thought or a verbalization of a thought. In both cases, the voices are inaudible to others, even if they are seated in close proximity to the medium. The medium may also hear music or singing, in addition to spoken thought.
Clairsentience
Clairsentience, or "clear feeling", is said to be the most commonly experienced form of mental mediumship. Clairsentience is the ability to sense physical attributes of a spirit presence. The medium may feel the presence of a spirit through a touch, a smell, temperature, or a slight breeze.[7] Some mediums say that they will feel the ailments the spirit had while alive.is usually felt through touch, temperature, or slight breezes.
Additional Categories of Mental Mediumship
While the previous three types of mental mediumship are the most common, many spiritualists break down types of mental mediumship even further, including categories such as "clairalience" ("clear smelling"), and "clairgustance" ("clear tasting"). Smells and tastes of the deceased person's life or environment may be experienced through these types of mediumship. Mediums will sometimes examine a person's aura, a subtle field of luminous multicolored radiation surrounding a person or object as a cocoon or halo.[8] By noting variations in the hues of a person’s aura, a medium can describe his personality, needs, and illnesses. For example, the "shriveling" of the aura is considered a sign of impending death.
Physical mediumship
Where mental mediumship generally involves communication experienced only by the medium, physical mediumship is evident to all those around the medium. Involving the manipulation of physical systems and energies, physical mediumship can include levitation, automatic writing, the moving of tables or other objects, as well as ectoplasmic activities. Physical mediumship was an important part of the Spiritualist Movement in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries, where table rapping, materializations, and object manipulation were common occurrences during séances. Mediums would often [channel] a spirit, allowing the spirit to control their physical body to communicate to the living, a process different than possession, where control by a spirit is involuntary and generally unwelcome.
There are various manifestations of physical mediumship. Some of the more common types are:
Raps
Raps, also known as "percussion", were one of the first and most common types of physical mediumship, starting with the Fox Sisters in 1848. Raps and knocks could be heard coming from anywhere in the room, and were used to answer yes or no questions, or to acknowledge letters of the alphabet and laboriously spell out messages.
Ectoplasm
Ectoplasm is a substance taken from the medium's body and mixed with an etheric substance, which enables a spirit to affect physical matter. Ectoplasm is often light sensitive, and many séances were held in low light or total darkness to better observe ectoplasmic manifestations. [9]
Levitation
Levitation, or the movement of objects without normal means of support, is said to occur due to either telekinesis or through the use of ectoplasm.[10] While inanimate objects are the most common subjects of levitation, mediums have also been known to levitate. Daniel Dunglas Home, a Scottish medium, was famous during the 1800's for his feats of levitation. During one séance, Home appeared to leave through one third story window and levitate himself outside to enter through a second window.
Materialisation
Séances have often been accompanied by the materialisation of spirit hands, faces, or entire bodies, particularly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the most famous materialisations was that of Katie King, a spirit manifested during the séances of a young English medium named Florence Cook. During Cook's sessions, Katie would materialize, hold conversations, and even allow herself to be photographed. While a scientist named William Crookes was investigating Cook's phenomena, he was able to cut off a lock of Katie's hair.
Automatic Writing
When using automatic writing to communicate with spirits, the medium generally holds a pen or pencil and, through a lack of conscious control, allows the spirit to communicate through their hand. Ouija boards may also be used. There are a vast amount of writings that claim to be spirit written, including plays, poetry, essays, novels, and music. While some, like a novel allegedly written by a posthumous Mark Twain, appear to have little validity, others have the potential to be genuine.
Famous Mediums
- William Stanton Moses: Moses, a medium from the late nineteenth century, would hold séances during which psychic lights would appear. He also had experiences of levitation, and the appearance of scents like musk and newly mown hay. Musical sounds would often be heard with no musical instruments in the room, as well as the materialization of luminous hands and pillars of light. Moses also produced a great number of automatic writings, including his most well known scripts 'Spirit Teachings' (1883) and 'Spirit Identity' (1879).
- Fransisco (Chico) Xavier: Born in 1910, Xavier was a famous Brazilian medium, often appearing on television. He produced his first automatic writing in grade school, where he claimed that an essay was given to him by a spirit. He went on to amass an enormous number of automatic writing scripts in various scientific and literary disciplines, and is one of the world's most prolific automatic writers.
- Edgar Cayce: Cayce was an American medium during the early twentieth century. He gave an estimated 22,000 readings during his lifetime, a large portion of which dealt with requests for advice on physical health. Cayce performed readings while in a trance state, and claimed to have no knowledge of what he had said while in a trance. He also performed a number of philosophical readings, where he discussed Atlantis, reincarnation, and made predictions for the future.
- Daniel Dunglas Home: Home was one of the most well-known mediums of the nineteenth century. Scottish born, he performed a number of séances for royalty and other well-respected people. He was most famous for his levitations, one of which took place outside a third story window. Though many, including Houdini accused Home of trickery, he was never once exposed as a fraud.
In more recent times, mediums like John Edward and Colin Fry have hosted television programs instead of more traditional séances, claiming to help audience members contact deceased friends and family. Others, like Allison DuBois, use their psychic abilities to aid law enforcement in the capture of criminals. Many more modern mediums, such as Esther Hicks and Jane Roberts, have written books describing the spiritualistic material they have received during their sessions.
Mediumship: Fraud or Genuine?
While many scientists and skeptics simply deny the existence of genuine mediums, arguing that individuals who claim to possess this ability are either self-deluded or charlatans who engage in cold or hot reading. Using these techniques, purported mediums ask vague questions in an attempt to elicit information from an audience member. By saying something like, "I sense a chest problem. Was there someone with a chest problem in your life?", the "medium" stands a good chance of getting "yes" for an answer.[11]
From the early days of the Spiritualism Movement, there have been individuals and groups of scientists interested in determining the validity of paranormal phenomenon like mediumship. Some, like William Crookes, who investigated Florence Cook and Daniel Dunglas Home, became convinced that such phenomenon were genuine. The famed magician and escape artist Harry Houdini worked fervently to expose fraud in mediumship. Groups like the Veritas Research Program at the University of Arizona have studied mediumship in controlled laboratory conditions, and claim that research supports the authenticity of some mediums, as well as the existence of life after death.[12] Others argue that Veritas' studies have provided no evidence of survival of consciousness or mediumistic abilities, claiming that research methods were crucially flawed and deviated from accepted norms of scientific methodology.[13]
It is indisputable that mediumship has a long history of fraud, aided by the human desire to contact loved ones who have passed on. Some frauds, like that of Eusapia Palladino, an Italian medium studied in 1908, have even fooled seasoned psychic investigators familiar with fraudulent mediums' techniques. Despite numerous instances where Palladino was caught in fraud, investigator Hereward Carrington remained convinced that those performances that could not be proven fraudulent were still genuine.[14]
Despite the fact that many mediums have been successfully proven to be frauds, one cannot argue that 'all' mediumship is a hoax. Parapsychologist Ciarán O'Keeffe says that "no definitive evidence has been presented that proves with absolute certainty that we are facing genuine mediumship ability", but that "nobody can tell you [if mediums have genuine abilities] for sure, and that many who try to convince one of the existence or fraud of mediumship have a vested interest (often financial) in doing so.[15]
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ http://www.fst.org/mediumship.htm "What is Mediumship/Channeling?"] First Spiritual Temple, 2001. Retrieved March 30, 2007.
- ↑ "Spiritism" The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2001-2005. Retrieved March 30, 2007.
- ↑ "Mediumship" Monstrous. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
- ↑ "Mental Mediumship" Monstrous. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
- ↑ Spiritlincs, “Mediumship”
- ↑ Thalbourne, Michael. "Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology" Parapsychological Association ,2003. Retrieved March 2, 2007
- ↑ "Mediumship" Spiritlincs, 2001. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
- ↑ Thalbourne, Michael. 2003. "Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology" Parapsychological Association Retrieved March 4, 2006
- ↑ Upton, Steven. 2005. "Physical Mediumship" s-upton.com. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
- ↑ Upton, Steven. 2005. "Physical Mediumship" s-upton.com. Retrieved April 4, 2007.
- ↑ Nickell, Joe. "Review of Psychic Medium Van Praagh on CNN's Larry King Live" Committee for Skpetical Inquiry. Retrieved Apris 5, 2007.
- ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions" The Veritas Research Program. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
- ↑ Hyman, Ray. 2003. "How Not to Test Mediums: Critiquing the Afterlife Experiments" Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
- ↑ "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural " James Randi Educational Foundation. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
- ↑ O'Keeffe, Ciarán. 2003. "Ciarán's Chronicles" Parapsychologist.com. Retrieved April 5, 2007.
External links
- The Spirits' Book codified by Allan Kardec (PDF file, use Adobe Reader); or click here with you want to see the book in a common web page
- The Book on Mediums by Allan Kardec (PDF)
- Florence Cook and Katie King. The story of a Spiritualist medium
- There Is No Death. Reports by unimpeachable sources
- After Death Communication Research Foundation, Jody A. Long, J.D. and Jeffrey P. Long, M.D.
- The Scientific Proof of Survival After Death
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