Mediumship Development: How to Connect with the Other Side
As a Spiritual Medium, I spend most days with one foot in reality and the other in what many would term “the other side.” I connect people with loved ones who have transitioned, their spirit guides, and their own soul to bring peace and clarity about their personal life lessons.
It is far from a conventional career, but I’d like to think that this is changing. As our religious ideals soften and we continue to tap into our inner being, we help to lift the veil between the physical and non-physical. The recent trends in yoga, meditation and new age spirituality are encouraging people to go within and tap into their own divine identity and intuition. TV shows about mediums are quickly reaching millions across the globe and causing people to ask, “Is mediumship real?”
Let’s start by defining it.
Mediumship is the ability to connect and communicate with the departed and the metaphysical realm using the energy that is felt beyond the five physical senses.
The Nature of Psychic Abilities
Perhaps it is most helpful if we discuss the nature of psychic abilities for it is within these that mediumship abilities are derived. We all have some psychic intution . It’s a survival tool. We’ve all had times in our lives when we clearly “know” something in our gut. Have you ever experienced having an immediate connection with someone when you first meet? Or have you ever just known when someone was lying to you? These unexplainable inclinations are a part of the psychic realm and the metaphysical connection; the energy between things that we don’t experience with the first five senses.
The truth is, everyone has some psychic ability but we’re just not accustomed to using it.
And in some, like with any skill, it’s more developed than with others.
Mediumship Misconceptions
I came into the world quite psychic. I wasn’t raised with any religious influence but by the time I was 4 I had gathered enough vocabulary to talk about God, the angels, why I came to earth and why I chose my parents in this life. I saw things that others weren’t seeing so as a child I learned quite quickly to cut off my intuitive sight. Fear promptly capped these abilities until later in life as an adult when I decided to open them up again, but it didn’t happen over night. I had to get over a lot of fears, doubts and misconceptions about developing mediumship abilities and what it meant to communicate with “the dead.”
People have been taught to fear the ethereal, mostly because we don’t completely understand it and partly because so many religions have taught that it was evil. By changing our perspective about “the other side” and simply considering our eternal nature, we inadvertently open ourselves up to link the bridge between heaven and earth Like anything in life, moving past fear enables us to discover new aptitudes and reach higher levels of consciousness.
As we detach from old societal paradigms, and welcome new ways of seeing our “reality,” it creates space for us to connect with the ethereal.
Because of our collective shift in consciousness, many are becoming more sensitive to receiving messages from the other side. I can’t tell you how many times a client’s suspicions of their loved ones visiting them in the physical have been confirmed. Usually if you feel like they may be visiting you, they indeed are.
I may not be able to give you the scientific expertise that you might be looking for, but I have witnessed the incredible shifts that take place within my clients by communicating with loved ones who have passed over. I have seen the light in their eyes as their beloved offers irrefutable confirmation that it’s them. We’ve had gut busting laughs over the departed’s new-found perspective and take on things from the other side.
I’ve seen incredible weights lifted from clients leading to profound change in their own lives after making peace with a family dynamic by communicating with a loved one has passed.
Even if mediumship wasn’t real, doesn’t it feel better to think that someday we’ll be reconnected to those who have passed? Doesn’t it bring comfort to think that they are at peace and relieved of their suffering? Opening yourselves up to this idea stimulates the feelings of being connected energetically and eternally, and the profound lesson that love has no walls.
We often need our own experience to really know something. So are mediumship abilities real? I encourage you to test the waters with these simple exercises. Acknowledge your ability to receive, recognize your connection to all things, and express gratitude when you do get intuitive “hits.”
Mediumship Development: How to Access the Other Side
Here are some ways to begin to open your intuition and bridge the gap between the physical and non-physical:
Meditate
Meditation is the quickest route to strengthening your intuition because it is from this place that all messages come through. You don’t have to be a yogi or guru to meditate. Simply finding quiet solitude through intentional breathing, a guided meditation or even a moving meditation like yoga or waking in nature helps to open your pathways to your intuitive communication.
Relax and Enjoy the Present
Find time to relax and enjoy the present moment. When we’re busy with our thoughts and continually responding to the physical conditions, it’s hard for us to receive information. When we can slow down the pace, when we are not chasing after things, we are more present, awake and aware. We are also more able to meet the vibration of the other side, which is based in love, peace and gentleness.
Release Sorrow
Release sorrow and the misconception, that they are “dead.” From my experience I have witnessed them being them more alive, rejuvenated and vibrant than ever before.
Our perception that they are unattainable blocks our ability to receive their messages. There are many ways they can come in to communicate with us and we can open the doorways by recognizing their eternal self and our infinite connection. We often think we have to hold sorrow in order to honor them, but this can keep us blocked from feeling them. By feeling the eternal love we share, we create more space for us to feel their presence.
Honor Signs
Honor the signs you receive. Pay attention to your dreams, they often visit us this way because we’re in a state of utter relaxation and receiving. Don’t bat these experiences away. They can even reach us through the physical. Pick a sign for you and your loved one to share, maybe a symbol or a word, and watch to see how quickly it can appear. You will be surprised of the ways they can reach you if you open up your heart and have fun with the process.
Create Connection, Find Soul
Creating this connection is easier than you think. After all, we are more soul than anything. We tend to be so focused on the physical. It just takes a little redirection in noticing the infinite ways that life is woven together, the perfect ways solutions are provided, and the seemingly coincidental ways you meet people at the right time. Have you noticed that when you look on back at life, it all makes mores sense? That there always seems to have been a reason for the events that have taken place even if you didn’t se it at the time? It doesn’t hurt to believe that things are working out for you and that somehow this beautiful tapestry of life is woven together through and with love.
If you are curious about the afterlife, there are plenty of books out there on past lives. There are confirmed studies of children remembering their previous lives and personal accounts of mediumship that are soul rocking. The studies are endless, but it has to resonate with you.
About the Author
Scientist Explains What Happens When People Channel
When you hear the word channeling, what comes to mind? Many of us would think of Bashar, Seth, Barbara Marciniak, Edgar Cayce, etc. In other words, most people think of trance channeling, where a person allows a supposed entity (deceased spirits, aliens, angels, higher self, etc.) to use their body as a vehicle to communicate.
I am a trained clinician, naturopathic physician, and Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. I also happen to come from a long line of trance channelers and received a BIAL grant for researching the physiological effects of full-trance channeling:
As someone who bridges the worlds of scientific inquiry and the esoteric, I have a more encompassing definition for channeling:
“Channeling is the process of revealing information and energy not limited by our conventional notions of space and time that can appear receptive or expressive.” – from The Science of Channeling
One of the most confusing things about channeling is its name. Many people associate it with trance channeling. Others use it interchangeably with terms like psychic, medium, psi, ESP, etc. When I first engaged in conversation with people about these phenomena, I found that the terms meant different things to different people.
For example, as a naïve new researcher in the field, I formally reviewed the literature to understand the terms used for trance channeling. There were 29 different terms used to describe this form of channeling and the people who do it.
Multiple research studies show that channeling is experienced on a spectrum. On one side, you have widespread experiences like intuition and gut hunches. Telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition lie somewhere in the middle. Rarer experiences like trance channeling and out-of-body experiences are on the far side of the spectrum. Channeling comes in so many forms.
At IONS, we call your unique way of channeling your Noetic Signature™. There is no right or wrong signature. All are beautiful and unique. Just as each snowflake is different yet equal in its exquisite beauty, each person’s Noetic Signature™ has inherent value.
An Overview of Channeling
In my book, The Science of Channeling: Why You Should Trust Your Intuition and Embrace the Force That Connects Us All, I share about the IONS Channeling Research Program and what we’ve learned by investigating these research questions:
- How common is channeling, and what are its characteristics?
- How does channeling work?
- Are there defining characteristics of someone who channels easily?
- Can we verify the information?
- Is the content useful?
In this blog post, I’d like to share an overview of these findings with you. You can also watch a video about some of our findings here.
