Mediums, unique individuals considered to be especially open
to the subtler realities of the world and therefore particularly capable of
interacting with spirit beings, have historically been central to the
Spiritualist movement. “A Spiritualist is one who believes, as the foundation
of his or her faith, in the communication between this and the spirit world
through mediumship, and who endeavors to mold his or her character and actions
in conformity with the highest teachings devised by such communion,” the
National Spiritualist Association of Churches declares in its Declaration of
Principles.
The radio, which operates by receiving waves of energy that
vibrate at different frequencies, has been used to explain mediumship. As a
result, a medium was described as someone who was receptive to the spirit
world's higher vibrations. As a result, mediums may function as a conduit for
spirits that spoke with or through them. Any mediums relayed material they
perceived from their interaction with the spirit world while in a slightly
disturbed state of consciousness.
Others worked in a deep coma, allowing what they thought
were spirit beings to gain hold of their bodies and communicate through their
vocal cords. When trance mediums went into trance, it was normal for one or
more control spirits to arise first, then serve as master of ceremonies for
other spirits to appear and communicate.
AUTOMATIC WRITING is a type of mediumship in which the
medium allows the spirit agent to regulate his or her motor activity to write
messages with pen and paper. Spiritualism arose from the very primitive
mediumship of the young Fox sisters, Kate and Margaret, who encountered rappings
in their home, but the trend advanced quickly with Andrew Jackson Davis'
full-trance mediumship.
He not only served as a conduit for people to collect
fleeting messages from departed loved ones, but he also provided extensive
treatises on divine teachings from reputedly advanced spirit beings, a
phenomenon now known as channeling. Materialization was a particularly
contentious concept applied to mediums.
During the last decades of the nineteenth century, scores of
mediums appeared, claiming to be able to not only interact with the deceased,
but also to enable them to manifest in a ghostly state for a fleeting period.
Mediums mediated several tangible embodiments of ghosts, including the materialization
of spirit beings at small meetings for spirit contact known as séances.
Other mediums, for example, used cameras to photograph those
that visited them. Mediums can also perform a series of “impossible” physical
feats, such as the levitation of items held in the séance room's core or the
teleportation of tiny objects from other places to the séance room.
Overwhelmingly, the physical phenomena associated with
mediumship has been shown to have been produced by fraud, a fact that has
called appropriate reprobation on the movement. Today, with few exceptions,
Spiritualism has been content to fall back on the basic verbal communications
from the spirit world that gave the movement birth. Mediumship is a phenomenon
by no means limited to the Spiritualist movement. Analogous religious
functionaries, special people who have access to information and contact with
different spirit entities, operate in a variety of religious traditions, and
include shamans from indigenous religions and those who speak with angels in
modern Christian churches.
Mediumship itself expanded in the last generation because of
the New Age movement. Spiritualists did not positively relate to the New Age
movement, but integral to the New Age were channelers. Through the 1980s
literally thousands of channelers emerged, offering New Age believers the
information they received from a variety of spiritual beings. That Spiritualism
tended to distance itself from the New Age accounts in large part for its lack
of growth while related movements were rapidly expanding during the 1980s and
1990s.
The majority of the physical manifestations associated with mediumship have been shown to be the product of deception and has brought appropriate condemnation upon the movement as a whole. Spiritualism has been content, with few exceptions, to rely on the simple verbal messages from the spirit world that gave rise to the movement. The phenomenon of mediumship is not confined to the Spiritualist movement. Similar ritual functionaries, such as shamans from indigenous faiths and others who communicate with angels in western churches, practice in several religious practices and have access to wisdom and communication with various spirit beings.
