have any of you had any truly, truly convincing experiences with Spirit Mediums?

[Douglas Carpenter]

I ask this because a friend of mine has convinced me to make a telephone appointment for next week with one that he absolutely swears by. He is an intelligent and talented professional who has a reasonable amount of critical faculties. Now, I will be honest and admit that I am a bit of a skeptic - not in the skeptics.com sense. They are not skeptics at all. They have already made up their minds before hand and have already dismissed any possibility whatsoever of the so-called supernatural or paranormal. I'm a bit of skeptic in the sense that I am genuinely open minded. But recognize the psychological need on the part of many people to want to believe that they are genuinely communicating with the dearly departed. I want to believe it too. But intellectual honesty is very important to me. I have believed lots of things before that I later became convinced were not true.

What is the right way to approach such an experience?

[Ricochet21]

1. I have had a lot of experience with "mediums"

In my experience, most of them are highly self-deluded. I have, however, been with several who were very real and good.
Most of them default to the old stuff of "someone from the other side says they love you and their ok"

well

Use your heart, don't FEED THEM any information. Mediumship (I tried it for years) is very hard to do. But, I have seen authentic ones in my opinion. Good luck and may they give you comfort. My 2 cents.

[AC_Mem]

2. Yes

I worked for and traveled with a true blue, honest to God, gifted psychic-medium-Angel Channel. She was an is on national and local radio, we have done television segments, and at one point she and I co-owned a spiritual intuitive cruise business, and traveled all over for speaking and teaching engagements. It was a very exciting time of my life, traveling with my extremely gifted and yet complicated friend.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I saw things and experienced things that validated her gift. I have so many stories, witnessed so many blessings that people received from the spirit world, delivered by my friend Tina.

Not only could she connect with those who crossed over, but they would "draw themselves" using her hands and her pencils and pens and markers. Angels also drew themselves through her hands.

We went our seperate ways a couple years ago for personal reasons. I still recommend her above all others when someone is looking for a legitimate, reasonably priced, gifted psychic/medium. We once traveled with James Van Praagh on one of her media events where she presented with him and did readings. The majority of people who came to either JVP or the other medium and then came to Tina - the majority of them said that Tina was better than both of them, hands down.

If anyone would like me to speak some more about her gifts let me know, or if you have any questions about her gifts, feel free to ask and I will tell you the truth.

Because I think everyone needs to have a truly gifted psychic, medium, channel if they want one, and you should be able to know that they are genuine. I can help with this as I know ALOT of well known intuitives through my past businesses.

Namaste,
Annette

[murielm99]

3. A couple of my friends had an odd experience

many years ago.

My first husband died when I was 27. One of my close friends lost her mother about the same time.

Another of our friends brought the now motherless girl to a medium. The girl who had lost her mother agreed to keep an open mind.

The medium was someone I had never met. I still have never met her. The spirit she contacted ended up being my deceased husband. No one expected that at all. The things the spirit said made it clear to my friends, and later, to me, that it was him. The medium spoke about how well prepared for death he had been and how quickly he had crossed over. Our pastor has said that my husband faced his death bravely. I saw it, too.

The spirit referred to me by name, and asked them to tell me that he was all right. My name had not come up in any other context.

My friend who had lost her mother was a bit disappointed. She had hoped, even though she was not quite convinced of the veracity of all this, that she would speak to her mother. They were stunned and shocked to speak to my husband. They almost didn't tell me. I am glad they did.

[murielm99]

4. Your post makes it sound like you are already going

into this with a good attitude. Try not to give out too much information, and please keep an open mind.

I would be interested in hearing the outcome of this. I want NOT to believe in this, but if you have read my previous post, you can see why I believe there may be some genuine mediums out there.

[teenagebambam]

5. I've had two readings with mediums,

years apart. I didn't go in with many expectations, just curiosity mostly.

In both cases the mediums were able to relay details about me that there's really no way they could have known otherwise.
The first experience, especially, was odd in that the medium said she was communicating with a relative that was not so recently passed, and that I hadn't been especially close to in life.

In both cases, however, the "advice" such as it was was very general (Don't worry so much, be nice to yourself, that sort of thing) and to the extent that they made "predictions" about anything, they tended not to come true.

[OneGrassRoot]

6. ASAHers, what is the name of the ASAHer who was launching her...

radio show a while back, perhaps six months ago?

I'm HORRIBLE with names. :blush:

Oh, wait, Ecumenist?! I think that's it!

She is a medium and she is WONDERFUL. I'm skeptical, too, Douglas Carpenter, but all I can say is that, even in hindsight, she was magnificent and was able to tap into things that there is no way anyone could have known.

:)

[SheilaT]

7. My personal experience with mediums is that they

never give information that isn't readily guessable, or the kind of thing that in a "cold reading" they just throw out enough stuff and something is bound to be similar enough that people just glom onto it as if it's genuine. Heck, I've done palm reading as a minor hobby, and I know enough about doing cold readings that I can impress people.

I've also noticed that when someone tells me something like, Oh, this psychic once told me I had such-and-such a past life, I'm higly skeptical. For past life information, in my opinion, go to a good past life regressionist and access the information about your own past lives yourself.

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. I've only had one specific "past life" reading and it actually helped me a great deal

regarding understanding and beginning to clear some truly horrific issues, things at a depth that could not have come from this life, even considering its own ugly circumstances.

I'm glad that I was guided to something beneficial and hope that this is the only experience that others may find should they wish to investigate.

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. let me add that I have had two previous experiences - both utterly hokey and unconvincing

The first was when I was only seventeen-years-old and right after the death of my older brother. The mediums were an elderly local librarian and her husband who were known in the area as spiritualist mediums.

The other was a seance in about 1980 at the home of a San Francisco State art professor. The group at that gathering was very sophisticated, educated and artistic. The medium, so I was told was somewhat famous in Spiritualist circles.

It both of these cases - I was told by people that I would have an incredibly convincing experience. In neither case did I witness anything the least bit convincing.

But like I said, I will go ahead and spend one hundred dollars and the cost of a long distance phone call to Australia and hope that I can with an open mind and rational faculties experiences something a bit more convincing than my previous two experiences.

[Myrina]

9. Yes, although she was very "hit and miss"

and I could tell when I was getting the "standard bill of fare" as opposed to the moments when she got real nuggets from the other side.

First, I would NEVER do a phone appointment.
Second, give as little info about yourself ahead of time as possible - the internets are very powerful when it comes to 'psychic research (dead relatives' names, recent deaths, your origin city, marriage/divorce, kids' names/ages etc etc).
Third, don't 'feed' him/her information - just affirm or deny what they bring to you. ie - don't respond to "I'm getting a vision of an elderly man" with "omg that's grandpa, we were very close, he used to take me swimming" ... because then the medium will key off those cues and keep fishing.

Finally, and this is just my personal peeve - authentic seers refer to themselves as clairvoyants, not mediums or psychics.


Good luck! :hi:

[AC_Mem]

12. The Medium I knew

Actually preferred the phone. She connected through the voice and felt that doing it over the phone took away any way to "read" the emotions or physical appearance of the individual being read. She didn't need to ask questions - she had you say your name slowly and then slowly say the alphabet. That was all she needed. She does most of the talking and you just let her know if you understand. At the end, you get to ask questions for as long as she can hold the energy with the spirit.

As for being called a Medium, Psychic, Angel Channel, Clairavoyant - she didn't care what she was referred to. She was all of them, depending on the need of the client.

Blessings,
Annette

p.s. her name is Tina Michelle

[MorningGlow]

10. Yes, I have

And then again, I've had readings done that left me unimpressed. Several factors are involved--first, of course, the reader has to be truly talented. There are a lot of fakers and scam artists out there. Second, an element of trust has to exist between you and the reader. If the client closes him- or herself off (as a coworker of mine did at a reading with my former elder, who was normally fantastic), the reader isn't going to get anything. Third, you and the reader have to "click". My former elder has been known to return the money if she just can't "get" anything.

I've been led to really good readers on the recommendations of people I trust, and the bad readings have been done on a whim (at a psychic fair, for instance). Just like hiring any independent businessperson, do your homework before making an appointment.

Good luck, DC, and thank you for being a true skeptic, not a closed-minded person. :hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Yes. If you find the right one.

[WolverineDG]

14. Like the one who asked if I knew someone named "insert my mother's maiden name here"

something that, obviously, I don't have tattooed on my forehead & isn't something all that many people know anyway since she died over 25 years ago?

She was pretty darn accurate. Unfortunately, I lost her card & only ran into her at a half-price book store where they were having a psychic fair that day. :(

on edit: the kind of "medium" you would look for is NOT one like Allison Dubois. O.M.G. It was *pathetic* watching her on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, trying to ferret out information she needed (but hadn't been spoon-fed by Camille). Might be worth it to watch "Dinner from Hell" on demand just so you know what a bad medium is like. :)


dg

[findrskeep]

15. I've sat in a mediumship circle for years

and I can assure you that it's very, very real.

[Howler]

16. Define "Spirit Mediums"

Are you referring to those who say are talking to loved ones who have passed on or are you referring to all kinds of mediums?

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. I don't actually know how this women defines herself.

My friend refers to her as a psychic. But I don't know if that is his word or hers or both. I understand from my friend that she uses a combination of astrology and tarot as guide post during her readings. However, during the readings she talks of Spirits who are usually departed relatives but might also include guardian angels who she believes she sees in her minds eye who may have messages to pass on to the client.

[Howler]

18. Well then Douglas Carpenter

I can honestly say that YES! I have had very real and very good readings from a psychic.
One of the BEST readings I ever got is from ASAH's own Mystical Chick.
She is truely the real deal and if you are looking for confirmation that psychic ability is real and does exist I suggest you book a reading with her.She empowers and encourages you to use your own intuitive feelings as well as guide you with information that no one should know about you.
:hi:

I would trust your friend and approach the whole experience with an open mind and heart. After all your friend only wants the best for you so just let go and see what happens.What do you have to lose but the experience?