As I was contemplating today’s blog, I came across a book by Harry Edwards called A Guide for the Development of Mediumship. Edwards became a spiritual healer in 1936. His early attempts at spiritual healing were met with some success. Gradually, his fame spread. He moved to Surrey just after WWII and used the front room of his house as a healing sanctuary.
In his book, he wrote that it’s not necessary for a person to have an extensive education or training, or to be versed in psychic science, to become a medium. There are many instances of simple folk becoming outstanding mediums and healers.
He does insist that mediumship be approached with the right goals in mind. Many people wish to become mediums to speak with the spirit people in order to obtain counsel, to heal the sick, to help the bereaved, or to give advice and assistance to those who are in need. Others wish to become mediums to satisfying their own egos, to be different from other people, or to command respect. Self-promotion and aggrandizement should be prevented at all costs. The medium is not there for their own goals, but to demonstrate the existence of the spiritual world.
Edwards reminds us that Spiritualism came into being to reveal to man that he is not just a physical being. Man is a part spirit and life is an apprenticeship for a greater and fuller life that commences with physical death. It is by receiving spiritual knowledge that mankind will receive and adopt an enlightened code of values that will lead to the end of war, poverty and the other troubling trends in our present world. The medium’s true motive is a spiritual one. If this is not the case, then it is fruitless for spirits to use humans as instruments for the progression of all souls.
Students of mediumship should possess an inner yearning to be used for the higher purpose, and to view mediumship as a means to help others. It should be a denial of selfishness and a giving of self to a spiritual purpose. A true medium becomes a participant in the divine plan for the furtherance of good. Mediumship needs a mind that is strong, purposeful and capable of self-discipline.
Mediumship was born as an exact Spirit Science, but it cannot be assessed by analysis or material values; it cannot be put under the microscope. Because of our inability to fully comprehend the science of mediumship, an air of mysticism has surrounded it, and this has at times given rise to questionable practices and opinions. It has been attacked, ridiculed and opposed, but still survives. As understanding of the process evolves, it becomes more respectable and acknowledged by scientists, religious leaders, and the press.
Today, there are a great number of classes being held in Spiritualist churches and in home circles. The mediums who conduct these are sincere, good people, but it is understandable that all sorts of practices have arisen. These practices have been handed down from medium to medium, and have become accepted as being true, when in fact they may not be. The overlap between mediumship and psychic readings has also increased, leading to a blurring of goals and expectations.
One must remember that a medium’s true goal is a spiritual one, to be a conduit between the physical world and the spiritual world, to stand as an example to others and to be proof of man’s spiritual nature. Without that goal, one is neither a Spiritualist nor a medium.