Can Mediums Really Talk to the Dead?

Can Mediums Really Talk to the Dead?
by Julie Beischel, PhD and Dean Radin, PhD

Dean Radin: I want to ask you a question that you likely get a lot. How did a nice young lady with a doctorate in toxicology and pharmacology end up doing mediumship research?

Beischel: I do get asked that a lot. It’s a long story, but the short version is that when I was in graduate school, my mom committed suicide. I was twenty-four at the time. Science is my religion, and I turned to science to see what it had to say about the afterlife. Although there were some things being done, I found science did not have very many answers.

I had a reading from a medium, and from my personal experience, I recognized that there was clearly something going on there. I have a strong sense of justice, and it angered me to know that there are people in the world who have this innate gift of what they experience as communication from the other side, which they want to use to help people, yet most scientists were just dismissing the whole thing outright, without any information about the reality of it. So I got on my soapbox and began my scientific investigative pursuit.

Can you see the ghost in this picture? Spirits haunt derelict asylum

    Can you see the ghost in this picture? Spirits haunt derelict asylum

THEY are haunting images of bedlam - an Australian lunatic asylum that opened more than 170 years ago.

An exhibition by photographer Yvette Worboys titled Ghosts has captured eerie images of the former Gladesville Mental Hospital, in Sydney, which opened in November 1838 and closed in 1997.
Worboys, who has lived in the area most of her life, said she was drawn to the partly derelict hospital by its residual energy.
"There is quite a presence, an energy, there," Worboys said.

More than 1200 patients are buried in unmarked graves on the property. Ms Worboys said psychics asked to analyse her photos believed there was a presence in them.
"Mediums have looked at the images and seen a presence there," she said.

Read the full story in the Herald Sun

Scots medium Gordon Smith gives a demonstration

Scottish medium Gordon Smith giving platform readings in San Francisco. Mediums in the USA and the UK tend to work differently to Australian Spiritualist churches. They usually do not give a reading to every person in attendence, rather go to where they are directed by Spirit.

In our local churches which mainly operate by visitors bringing a flower, everyone in attendence gets a short flower reading. The general feeling especially in the English churches is that they like people to attend on a regular basis to "build up the energy" and will get a message from Spirit when it is needed.

How can a psychic or medium help people?

James Van Praagh:


James Van Praagh is one of the world's most famous mediums and the producer of the popular TV series 'Medium'.

What Is Mediumship/Channeling?

What Is Mediumship/Channeling?


Mediumship can be defined as follows: The process whereby a human instrument, known as a MEDIUM or CHANNEL, is used by one or more discarnate, spirit personalities for the purpose of:

Presenting information, verifiable or otherwise.
Causing so-called paranormal activities to occur.
Channeling forth certain types of energies.
Manifesting themselves for objective examination and/or identification.
From this definition, we see the following:

Mediumship involves a cooperating effort between a person on the Earth plane (the medium or channel) and a person in Spirit (the communicator).

There are several objectives behind the manifestation of mediumship.
In addition to this, we see that mediumship is used by those in Spirit for the following purposes:
To present information, which may or may not be verifiable.
To cause certain types of paranormal activities to occur.
To channel forth certain types of energies.
To manifest themselves materially.

Therefore, mediumship involves the cooperation between at least two individuals:
An Earth-plane channel or medium
A spirit communicator or operator.

You will note that we distinguish between a spirit communicator and a spirit operator.
If you look at what has been said, thus far, concerning mediumship, you will see that two distinct types of phenomena can occur through mediums:
Communication
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

Physical Mediumship
Mental mediumship involves the relating 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.