Exploring Physical Mediumship: Psychic Photos, Spirit Voices, & Materializations

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King David, for instance, was not above putting Uriah, one of his top generals, in the heat of battle where he was sure to be killed, leaving the way open for David to seduce his widow, Bathsheba! Mediums, no matter what their skill, are no better or worse than the rest of us. Because mediumship can be used for good or ill, Spiritualists develop it in a spiritual context. a) they must be filmed with infrared cameras. It would be invaluable if the AFC invested in a video system that uses multiple cameras that could be linked not only to a recording device but also to a monitor outside the seance room.

Firstly, the subconscious mind takes over, manufacturing a secondary personality, or, a genuine spirit intelligence can speak through the medium. You can only distinguish this by the quality of the teaching, which only comes with experience. Many of our most eloquent teachings came via this type of mediumship.These manifestations of transfigured or materialised spirit forms in ectoplasm are what many sitters want to see. They want to see these images to appear before them to communicate with as it is the clearest form of physical proof of the Social functionSpirit possession usually performs important social functions, including, for example, enabling marginal groups to protest, and for making important community decisions. It’s easy to get carried away with mediumship. It’s a natural gift and subject to laws and limitations, not all of which we understand. It’s therefore important to subject everything to the test of reason. According to Maurice Barbanell, the medium of Silver Birch, “You should never put a psychic explanation on an event, if a normal explanation fits the facts.” In other words, keep your feet firmly on the ground, but be open to many possibilities. We fully accept that every medium works in a different way and are sensitive enough to the demands of the spirit world to wish only to invest in equipment which is going to be fit and suitable for purpose. With this in mind we sought to work closely with Scott to ensure we selected equipment which both met the requirements of the protocol and had been fully tested by Scott in his home circle with advice sought from his spirit team. Scott’s decision to withdraw completely as a guest tutor at the College is to my mind a lost opportunity which could act only to further the cause of physical mediumship.

Entry and exit to and from the room should be monitored at all times as someone entering or leaving without permission can have detrimental effects on the medium. Delorme, A., Beischel. J., Michel, L., Boccuzzi, M., Radin, D., & Mills, P. J. (2013). ‘Electrocortical activity associated with subjective communication with the deceased.’ Frontiers in Psychology, No. 4, p. 834. Skultans, V. (1974). Intimacy and Ritual: A Study of Spiritualism, Mediums and Groups. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Castillo (1994) has argued that pathological approaches to the study of spirit possession in anthropology have traditionally tended towards one of three dominant perspectives: Freudian psychoanalytic theory, Pierre Janet’s dissociation theory and the generic non-pathological altered states of consciousness perspective (see below). When the new protocol had been read, I said I could fulfil over 85 per cent of it but knew from past investigations that I could not fulfil the filming or night vision goggle requirements, due to the vibration that is emitted in infrared. By contrast, in the parapsychological literature the term ‘spirit possession’ seldom refers to mediumship, as it carries connotations of involuntary and demonic possession, while mediumship is usually held to be a voluntary and deliberately initiated activity. This is why the decision was made, under the guidance of the spirit world, for us to return to the darkness of the séance so that they can develop my mediumship, allowing my body time to get used to this form of phenomena.I tried to express this in the meeting but it fell on deaf ears. Yet it is interesting to note that, despite Tylor’s public dismissal of spiritualism, he was nevertheless perplexed by the phenomena he witnessed with some of the Victorian era’s great Spiritualist mediums. 5 Other Approaches

Cross-culturally, spirit possession practices share a distinctively somatic component. 65 The body is the physical means of expression for non-physical entities, and as such must be used in a variety of very specific ways. Methods for recognizing the presence of spirits within mediums vary across cultures, with each culture having its own distinct means of discernment. 66 Consciousness and its Alteration Functionalist analyses of spirit possession in this vein have been popular among anthropologists, applied to numerous societies worldwide. 9 These include accounts of the Zar possession cult of Northern Sudan, 10 spirit possession amongst the Digo in Southern Kenya, 11 the case of spontaneous epidemics of involuntary spirit possession in Malaysian factories, 12 and even in a Spiritualist home-circle in 1960s Wales. 13 Indeed, this is where the contribution of Spiritualism lies. For the weekly repetition of healing activities and the exchange of messages ‘from spirit’ constitute a ritual of reconciliation to a situation which does not permit any radical alternatives to itself. 23Kehoe & Giletti suggest that spirit possession cults represent ‘institutionalised recognition of class endemic symptoms of nutrient deficiency’. 44 However, the idea has been subject to much criticism, as it is easy to see instances where the hypothesis fails to stand up to scrutiny, for example within the modern Euro-American Spiritualist tradition. Bourguignon et al. (1983) have provided several counter-arguments to the nutrient deficiency hypothesis; for example they highlight:

Its development can be long and arduous, requiring enormous dedication. Many seeking to develop it have sat for years before even ‘minor’ phenomena, such as the levitation of objects, have occurred. Many more sit for a lifetime in hope of development and nothing whatsoever occurs.

This article consults The Donning International Encyclopedic Psychic Dictionary by June G Bletzer PhD, 1986, a copy of which is in the College library.