Hints on Consulting a Medium

For those of you who have been following my work since joining Silent Voices last May, will know that I am a professional working medium and I’ve already written of the subject.

But what if you decide one day to visit a medium and have a personal one to one reading and what if especially you have never had a private reading before but feel you are at a point in your life where you would like to, whether that is due to a resent loss of a family member or friend or you are just plain curious. How do you go about it and what happens during that reading.

I know of so many people who would like to have a reading with a medium but who are just too afraid of what’s going to happen during the consultation, merely by a lack of understanding from it all. So this month I thought I would take the time and go through with you on how to approach a sitting with a medium and how to get the most from it!

So how do you find a good reputable medium! Word of mouth is always a good start, you may have friends or family who have visited mediums in the past and if they have enjoyed the sitting with the medium, will always recommend them to others. Another way is to visit your local spiritualist church or spiritual centre, they would be able to advice you further. But most importantly this is very personal to you so go with what feels right for you, many people say my website just seemed to jump out at them and they knew I was the right medium for them.

Much is written that endeavours to explain away how a medium works or how they receive their information, I’m not going to go into too much of the workings of a medium but focus more on how you as a recipient can get a good reading.

It is always wise to remember that you will be present at a difficult and delicate process. As much as you may not have visited a medium before, it may also be that the person in spirit may not be used to the process either and as much as the medium has to learn how to work in this way, often so does the communicator and from there both the communicator and the medium need to learn how to work in harmony

There will be times when yourself or the communicator themselves are not in harmony with the medium which may make the results hard to come by. Remember no matter how experienced the medium is coming together in this way should always be looked at as a form of an experiment. If the first medium consulted is not the right one for you then don’t be disheartened, take time to experiment in order to find the right one for you.
Some people who visit a medium expect something of a miracle; others go expecting that nothing could happen. Try to avoid these extremes and go with an open and receptive mind towards your time with the medium.

Some still think that consulting a medium is the little old lady with a crystal ball in a darkened room. Unlike the films of Hollywood there will be nothing magical or supernatural. It has been know during some of my own readings that the lights may start to flicker and they may be noticeable changes in the room. Occasionally a third voice has been heard agreeing with some of what I am saying when there has been no one else close by for the recording to pick up. However you will be facing a very complex and imperfect act of human communication. The medium is never wholly in command of the faculty and can be often intermittent and cannot be produced to order.

It may be that by visiting a medium you may be in a state of some emotional or nervous tension, try to let that subside as quickly as you can and allow plenty of time to arrive for your appointment, so as not to arrive feeling flustered or agitated.

As the medium starts the reading many sitters have what is known as psychic amnesia, this is where through nerves the mind goes blank. After all you can’t be expected to remember everything that has happened during our lives, yet we expect those in spirit to be all knowing and all seeing.

 I record many of my readings onto CD and welcome this as I know that very often a sitter may be saying no to the medium for many reasons, being either they have forgotten or the information being delivered is beyond their knowledge or it may be the spirit communicator is guiding them into their future. As a medium it’s always nice to have feed back to hear that even though my sitter was saying no, it was only after they went away and listened to the CD that information that couldn’t be verified at the time, could be later.

Once whilst I was working in California, I gave a lady a reading who had never been to a medium before and didn’t know quite what to expect, she said no all the way through, but wanted me to carry on. About two hours after the reading I received a call from her asking if she could come back and have another reading as when she played back the reading everything she has been saying no to made perfect sense to her and she felt as if she didn’t come with the open mind as she would like to have.

Be careful not to influence the medium into saying what you would like to hear the most. If you do so it is possible that you will unwittingly colour the unconscious mind of the medium. Also it is just as important not to stonewall, become impatient, or assume an inwardly suspicious or cynical attitude as the medium will quickly sense this.

It is very easy for any recipient to suppose that the persons they knew have a completely accessible grasp of all the details of a former earthly life, I often say to people, tell me what you did on September 14th of last year, unless the date has significant meaning to you, probably you are not going to remember, yet we expect our loved ones to. The evidence suggests that in order to communicate, it is often necessary to concentrate, wholly upon the memory of a certain part of the earthly life, temporarily losing touch with other parts.

It is a very natural mistake to make that the communicator only has to speak that all important proof for the medium to hear, who can then relay it to you, unfortunately things are far for that simple.

It is also important to remember that spirit communicators are limited to such parts of the mediums mind as they are able to reach, and of course this mind is no mechanical instrument, but a living thing, which sometimes adds its own comments and colouring. I often say it like this, for those of you who have seen the movie Jurassic Park will understand what I mean. In order to create the dinosaurs they needed their DNA, but some of the sequence was missing so they used toad DNA to fill the gaps which in turn added to the makeup of the dinosaurs, the same thing happens in Mediumship, the human brain can’t always grasp all of the information so sometimes if there are gaps then it is only natural that the mind will try to fill those gaps and it is down to the medium to understand when this is happening or as previously stated it adds its own flavouring to the communication.

When spirit communication is flowing freely, and there is harmony between the communicator, medium and recipient, excellent evidence can be given and from that the recipient can receive a good impression of the spirit communicator themselves, and the messages of love and guidance that they bring with them.

As a professional working medium I always endeavour to demonstrate Mediumship of a good standard, however psychic faculties fluctuate and I can only remind you that when consulting anyone to retain an open mind and independent judgment as sittings with mediums and other forms of sensitive workers can vary considerably.

 © Paul Cissell 2011
www.paulcissell.com