Contrary to popular belief mediums are ordinary people who do have a special gift. Not all mediums dress in long dresses with turbans! Mediums provide a link between us and the spirit world. We are all born with the capacity to be mediums; however, some people develop their skill more than others.

Psychic predictions have been documented throughout history, but the first professional mediums were documented in 1848. The Fox sisters of New York were visited by many spirits who wanted to show them that there was life after death. The sisters started to travel around the country to show others their abilities. Then groups started to form around the country and this started the Spiritualist movement.

Not long after this a trance medium from England moved to America to work. From there she toured around America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. However, during this time Medium’s were ridiculed. The first medium to operate in Britain was Mrs Hayden, who held many séances in London. Not long after this in 1882 a group from Cambridge University founded the Society for Psychical Research which made mediumship more widely known. They made it their mission to investigate phenomena without showing any prejudice.

In these early days the séances were very dramatic with lots of table tipping and physical action. Whereas modern day mediumship is less dramatic who work as a receiver to pass on information from the dead to the living.

There are three types of mediumship, mental mediumship, trance mediumship and physical mediumship.

Mental Mediumship

This is where a medium use their psychic ability to communicate with those that have passed over. There are different types including:

Clairvoyance.  This translates as clear seeing and is where the medium can see pictures, people and places in the mind’s eye. Some mediums need to train their mind’s to do this and others say it is like their normal vision. Some mediums with clairvoyance can also see spirit in its whole form as if it were present. There are others who see events playing out as if they are watching it on a television.

Clairaudience. This translates as clear hearing. It is the ability to hear the voice of a spirit or its thoughts. Some mediums hear the voice in their head, like a thought where as other clairaudient mediums here the spirit as if it is next to them or nearby.

Clairsentience. This translates as clear sensing. This is where the clairsentient medium can sense what the spirit is trying to communicate or feel any sensations instilled by a spirit.

Clairsentinence. This translates as clear feeling. This is where the mediums takes on the feelings of a spirit including the feelings and physical problems they had before they died.

Clairalience. This translates as clear smelling and is the ability to smell a spirit. For example, if a spirit wore a certain perfume when they were alive the medium may be able to smell it.

Clairgustance. This translates as clear tasting and is when a medium gets an impression of taste from the spirit.

Claircognisance. This translates as clear knowing and is the ability of knowing without receiving it though the physical or psychic senses. A claircognisant medium will just know if a situation or message is right and wrong.

 Trance mediumship

Trance mediumship is where the medium surrender’s themselves either partly or wholly to a spirit by going into trance, so that the spirit can communicate with them. If a medium goes into a full trance the medium passes into an unconscious state and all of their movements and processes are controlled by the spirit. In part trance the medium is still aware during the communication. Whilst they are in trance the medium will be aware of the spirits around them and will be able to communicate everything they are told without their own thoughts interfering.

 Physical Mediumship

Physical mediumship is where the medium uses physical means to communicate with spirit. This could be things like Ouija boards (which should be used safely and by those who know what they are doing).

Materialisation. This is where a spirit uses the energies within the room to manifest. However, they are not ghosts or apparitions, as they do not need the energy of others to appear. Sometimes people use the same room at the same time every week so that they can build the energy within the room up enough for a materialisation.

Transfiguration. This is where the spirit’s face or features can be seen etched on those of the medium. You need to make sure that they lighting you use is correct so to rule out shadows. Apparently the spirit’s face can be so clear that the medium’s face disappears!

Direct Voice. This is where a conical trumpet with a hole at both ends is used for the spirit to communicate through. The trumpet is placed in the middle of a circle and the energies of those in the room allow the spirit to make it float and use it for communication. They can talk through it because an artificial voice box is made using ectoplasm.

Apports. This is a physical object that has been bought through by spirit. Things such as watches, jewellery, coins, flowers, etc have been bought through and not always for those that are in the sitting.

As part of WOLF all staff are currently developing their psychic ability to allow them to become mediums for spirit. It is a process which we are all enjoying and it allows us to ‘feel’ more on investigations and be more in tune with the spirit world.