Mediumship
Mediumship - the good and the bad.
Views on mediumship vary from those who will not accept that any communication with departed mortals is possible, to those who seem to believe all they read. There are of course yet others who if they are honest will admit there are instances in the Bible of Spirit Communication, but still chose to believe it is sin to channel spirits. But if you are open to spirit communication, it is as well to understand the mechanism, the sources of potential error, and the right way to discern Truth - which of course applies to any truth, not just channeled messages. We do advocate being careful. If you are concerned about what the Bible says, read this page.
Now that mediums like John Edward are gaining such widespread visibility, it may be sensible to comment on JE. JE has described how he receives information in his book - “One Last Time.” He says it is symbolic, and took him a long time to master this unique language. It seems to be a combination of some words received as thoughts, and mainly pictures. If you watch his show, or read his book, you will realise that he is never too sure what anything means. He uses the “mortal relative” to help him home in on what is being communicated.
This is certainly not how our mediums receive information. James Padgett received by automatic writing. These are complete written messages. They are often received as fast as can be written, and sometimes the medium has very little idea what is being written. They are somewhat hard to read, as there is no punctuation - the pen does not leave the paper to punctuate. In essence the spirit has sufficient control over the pen, that enables it to write. We are told that the information nevertheless did go through Padgett’s mind. Other mediums on this site receive by thought impression. These impressions are then committed to paper. While this may appear to be less accurate, we are told this is not necessarily the case. One reason is that the spirit is still present while thoughts are committed to paper, and helps with this aspect. Nevertheless one such medium often expresses great frustration in achieving the clarity of thought that he had in his mind, subsequently on paper. Some of our mediums receive in a light trance, and speak the message, which is tape recorded. Here is an image of a page of Padgett’s automatic writing:
J.E. naturally receives his information from a vast number of different spirits, almost all of which he will not contact again. This is certainly not to be taken as a criticism of J.E., but I have chosen to comment on his style, because many people will have had the opportunity to see him in action. And folks might think our mediums work the same way. In the case of our mediums it is not generally the case that they receive from many different spirits, and a period of developing rapport is often required. This generally means that our mediums improve as time goes by. Nevertheless they can enter periods when they have great difficulty connecting, and they are always encouraged to develop greater spirituality by fervent prayer.
It should be apparent that there is a significant difference between our mediums and JE. In fact, one well known medium, Linda Williamson, has even suggested that those like our mediums should be called “channellers” and all others simply “mediums.” It does seem to us that there should be different words, to describe these very different types of reception. In fact traditional mediums within Spiritualist Churches tend to call themselves “evidential” mediums. This is because their objective is to show a third party that life continues by sharing information that has come from a spirit known to that third party. In our case this is not our objective. Our objective is to obtain the highest spiritual truth we can and share that with humanity. On this page I cover the way in which we approach that task and I have coined the term “spiritual” medium to distinguish what we do from “evidential” mediums.
The earliest study of mediumship was carried out about 150 years ago, by Allan Kardec in a work entitled “The Spirits Book”, and another “The Mediums Book”. These remain masterful works, but subject to the same potential errors we describe here. They are recommended works if your interest extends to many different types of mediumship, and many excellent explanations of spiritual phenomena.
There are a number of sources of potential error, many brought about because mediumship, with the sole exception of Direct Voice, always involves the information passing through the medium’s mind and brain. And there it is limited to what that person knows, the words they have in their vocabulary, and it is frequently altered by their beliefs. Direct Voice has not so far been used for high level spirit communication, and it requires the spirit to materialise in some manner and speak in their own voice using a constructed voice box. It is very rare to find Direct Voice practioners, and in my experience none of those I have read about have been able to attract spirits with high level spiritual knowledge. So back to “normal” mediums:
- Firstly the medium can unwittingly insert his/her thoughts, as the mortal’s brain can interfere with the reception of the message, because of their current beliefs. This is a major cause of poor reception of advanced spiritual knowledge.
- Secondly, the spirit can be deceptive - i.e. deliberately deceptive. This may be for an apparently good reason, or to be disruptive. (See Footnote 1)
- Thirdly the spirit can be honest but lack the knowledge - possibly without knowing that this is the case.
- Fourthly, the mortal can lack the spiritual development to receive the spiritual knowledge. This is quite different to inserting his own beliefs, and is a very significant communication block.
- Finally of course, are these messages as displayed here the originals, without editing to the extent that the original meaning is lost? This issue is addressed at length on this page.
All of these issues are addressed in our messages and set out below. Every single one of us who has found these messages has gone through a similar process to decide if these really are Truth. I think it would be fair to say that there are few, if any groups with the knowledge we now possess about the conditions required to receive high level spiritual messages accurately.
We have in 2001 received confirmation of some subtle errors in Padgett’s mediumship - warning indeed of the difficulty, indeed almost impossibility of receiving without error. In the case of Padgett, it appears the angels were unwilling to correct his error regarding soul mates, primarily because the error was in their view not significant, and secondly because they thought it would upset him! It is certain that information about these errors could not have been communicated without the fundamental groundwork done by Padgett and Samuels, leading to a formidable spiritual framework on which current mediums have been able to build.
For how long have spirits communicated:
| Author | Title | Date of Message |
|---|---|---|
| Saul | Woman of Endor was not a wicked woman as many believe. | August 7th, 1915 |
| Elias (Elijah) | Transfiguration on the Mount a reality. | October 11th, 1916 |
| John | Why the churches refuse to investigate that spirits can and do communicate with mortals. | April 23rd, 1916 |
| Jesus | The efforts of spirits to show men the Truths of the Father. | July 8th, 1915 |
| Mary | On the gift of spirit communication. | August 5th, 1999. |
Controlling deceptive spirits:
It is sometimes suggested to us that these messages might be the work of “demons” in the disguise of angels. We really wonder how folks can seriously suggest that a set of messages that exhort us to pray directly to God to obtain His love can be seen as coming from “demons.” It is frankly, even more ridiculous than when Jesus was accused of using the power of Satan to cast out devils. Dark Spirits cannot “disguise” their appearance to other spirits, although it is true they can disguise their appearance to those mortals that have spiritual sight. But they can’t hide their energetic signature. Even though I do not have spiritual sight, I can absolutely discern the presence of a dark spirit. It’s a depressing sort of “weight” that you can feel. It makes you feel dreadful. Conversely the presence of what we call Celestial spirits can also be detected, because the presence of the Divine Love in their souls is so strong, and that feels wonderful. A dark spirit simply cannot manipulate its energy signature. Padgett was surrounded by a band of Celestial angels at all times, and they controlled who was allowed to communicate. In point of fact, James Padgett spent one day a week helping dark spirits, so he was quite familiar with their ways, and he even developed the power to prevent their writing. As always, by their deeds you will know them. There are a few cases within the messages where a deliberate attempt was made to deceive James Padgett, and which always failed. Added to that, a group was formed on the spirit side to prevent undesirable spirits from communicating. Finally on almost every single day, his wife was the last poster, and he was very familar with her energetic signature. She would typically confirm who had spoken.
The danger of mediumship.
The mechanism for mediumship:
Identifying Truth:
| Author | Title | Date of Message |
|---|---|---|
| John | Truth, knowledge and love. How to solve the problem of what is true and what is not. | April 7th, 1916 |
| Jesus | The importance of man cultivating the soul perceptions. | October 25th, 1915 |
| Mary | On mediums channeling untruth. | November 25th, 1998. |
| Mary | The Urantia and Mormon Text. | January 16th, 1999. |
| A high Celestial Spirit | Faith and How to Discover Truth | December 19th, 2000. |
| Jesus | Mediumship. | May 22nd, 2003 |
| Jesus | How can we discern Truth when messages from different mediums contradict each other? | January 30th, 2019 |
| Seretta Kem | Mediumship and the Law of Rapport | August 17th, 2020 |
Originals of the messages.
The Padgett messages all exist as originals, because the mechanism was automatic writing, and the original hand written pages have been carefully stored. These are in the process of being scanned, for the express purpose of confirming the degree of accuracy of the printed versions. There are however two schools of thought here, and this has lead to division amongst the followers of these messages. Some prefer to read messages where the grammar has been improved, and very minor structural changes made. Others absolutely reject this approach. As it is, one set of printed messages is very close to the originals, (“True Gospel revealed anew by Jesus”) and as of 2014 have new editions, while another set (“Angelic Revelations of Divine Truth”) has been “cleaned up” and an estimate of the question posed by Padgett, which has not been recorded, has been added in brackets to aid the reader’s comprehension.
If you study the copy of the original shown higher up on this page, you will understand that automatic writing is not that easy to transcribe accurately, as it contains no punctuation. Breaks in sentences are not obvious. However the style of the handwriting is unique, as is the signature of the spirit who wrote.
| Author | Title | Date of Message |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus | Volume Insertions. | December 30th, 1990. |
| Jesus | Presentation of the Volumes. | December 30th, 1990. |
| James Padgett | Editing Volume II. | March 9th, 1991. |
| Jesus | Editing Volume II. | August 11th, 1991. |
Why Padgett?
A commentary on mediumship:
| Author | Title | Date of Message |
|---|---|---|
| Jesus | On D.L.’s Mediumship. | February 17th, 1987. |
| Jesus | On Various Mediums. | June 10th, 1992. |
| Jesus | Dr. Samuels’ channelings. | August 1st, 1999. |
| Jesus | Dr. Samuels’ channelings and the importance of the reader’s own ability to employ the use of his or her own soul perceptions of these truths | December 25th, 1999. |
| Jesus | Jesus comments on mediumistic experiences | April 11th, 2018 |
| Professor Salyards | Professor Salyards Acknowledges Culture of Mediumship | January 19th, 2023 |
What does science say?
Well until very recently we could not point to very much. Unfortunately it seems no scientist was even prepared to prove that mediumship is false. They just wouldn’t get involved, or could not get funding. But now Dean Radin has stepped into the gap. See his book described here. Perhaps we will get a lot more research now that one has had a go. So hopefully we will shortly be able to list other articles. Of course this pioneering work does not establish anything more than the fact that some people are able to obtain information in a manner that science cannot explain. But at least the statistics show that this is the case. It does not prove that mediumship is 100% accurate. And, as we well know, it never will.
| Author | Title |
|---|---|
| Gary E Swartz | The Afterlife Experiments |
| Gary E Swartz | The Afterlife Experiments |
| Dean Radin | Entangled Minds |
What does the Catholic Church say?
It seems to have passed by a great many people, but this was published by the Vatican in 1995:
One of the most competent theologians of the Vatican, Father Gino Concetti, writing in the “Osservatore Romano,” the daily paper of the Holy See, says that:
“According to the modern catechism the Church has decided not to forbid anymore to dialogue with the deceased … this is as a sequel of new discoveries within the domain of the paranormal.” (November 1995)
Note 1 (Well-meant deception) In 2014 a good friend received a passing comment from his guide which is very pertinent when talking about the deception that may come from well meaning spirits. The book “A Course in Miracles” is extremely popular, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is popularly believed to have come from Jesus, and it is not surprising that during a trance meeting someone from our path would ask him about it, and whether he did author it. This meeting has not been recorded, but I was present. In effect Jesus laughed and simply said: “I am a popular guy.” I found this a very curious response particularly since he is not generally evasive at all, and it started me thinking that probably he did not author it. But to consider it may have been authored by a spirit who deliberately falsified who was the author seemed unlikely, given the book is a good book even if it does not mention anything along the lines found in the Padgett Messages. So it was thus not a total surprise to hear the following, in an aside about deception:
This is also influenced by the development of the ‘aerial-like’ qualities of the brain of the medium. It is important for the medium to be able to allow the reception to occur. Of course there is a great variation in the quality and accuracy of the information given. I assure you that we will not offer you untrue information in order to direct you in any direction. You must take that statement on faith and your experience with us so far. There are many well-intentioned spirits with a desire to assist people on earth but whose knowledge is incomplete because they do not as yet have full access to the complete knowledge. A good example of this is “A Course in Miracles” with which you are familiar and which you found valuable. This course as it is described contains much good information particularly with respect to perception in the world. However it does stray into error in many areas. The spirit purports to be Jesus and this is not so. The spirit (actually a group of spirits) who presented this material knew that this was a deception that he was using to give the material greater credibility but considered that was a justifiable act. Jesus is a wonderful brother and spirit whose contribution to the lives of all of us is so grossly misunderstood by so many on the earth and in spirit. This misunderstanding contributes greatly to delays in progress of very many spirits here and of persons on earth. Anything that deviates from truth will have this effect. Richard.
This is an extract from “The Richard Messages”.
Yet another work which falsely claims to have been authored by Jesus is “New Teachings for an Awakening Humanity” and in the linked message Jesus indicates this has happened several times. However in this case it seems the deception was by the mortal, not the supposed spirit. Please also note that Jesus said specifically in that case: “There is no need to disparage this work or its intent - only to recognize that the authorship is not my own.” I am sure the same should be our handling of A.C.I.M.’s authorship.
And a very different example of misinformation is the curious case of the source of the Urantia Book. Every paper is claimed to be authored by a very high sounding name of a discarnate. The entire book is almost arrogant in its statements, leaving its followers to consider it is inerrant.
But what is that source? It appears its not “discarnates” as we use that term, and certainly not beings “at-one” with God, what we call Celestials. Its living humanoids from a fourth density world in the planetary system of Andromeda. And this criticism comes from “The Founders” who do claim to be a very highly evolved and ancient set of discarnates. The source is in a few of Sol Rachele’s books, which I have to say I have found very informative and certainly contain some unknown (to the humans already interested in ufos) information that I already knew via private communications. This is what is contained in Earth Awakens: Prophecy 2017 - 2030 :
The Andromedan worlds have a lot of variety and offer a broad spectrum of levels and densities. The fourth density ones have highly advanced technologies on planets with billions of souls. They are great writers, poets, storytellers and actors, and are in touch with beings from all over the Universe. Although many of them are spiritually evolved and have a loving, compassionate focus, they have also overstepped their authority at times regarding Earth. One of their councils in the fourth density worlds is responsible for the Urantia material, which attempts to give a cosmology of the Universe from their perspective. While the hierarchical constructs in the early part of the material are basically accurate, a lot of the accounts of Earth’s history are inaccurate or are biased toward their early experiences visiting Earth. These Andromedans are governed by a central planet in one of the star systems mentioned repeatedly in the Urantia material, known as Nebadon in those writings.