Yes Charlie, There is Such a Thing as a Psychic Medium
You are not ready yet. Turn around.
As I slid seamlessly from sleep into wakefulness I was still in the midst of a conversation and responding to someone, “That makes me claustrophobic”.
We show you the most beautiful truth that there is and that is your answer?
I felt my late husband, Ken, laughing somewhere in the distance, “Don’t worry, I thought the same way when I first heard it”.
What had I seen in my dream state that had felt so small and narrow to me?
I hadn’t carried the full memory with me from the dream world to the physical one, but there was a foggy remembrance of being shown that everything that exists is within me. The universe, reality, everything. And yes, the concept was too small for me at that moment in time. This little frail physical body cocooned in grief could not possibly hold everything within it.
I was not ready yet to begin to unwrap the concepts of both how large and how small our own personal universes are and to understand that ‘within me’ was not referring to my physical form.
The chorus of “You are not ready yet. Turn around” continued in my head.
Each of us must comprehend reality in the way that makes the most sense to us. In a way that corresponds to where we are on our journey through this lifetime.
But sometimes we carry our version of truth as a spear, a weapon to wound and injure those who have the audacity to not believe as we do. As if our universe with all its biases and beliefs should be the only one that exists.
Or we carry it as a shield, a way to protect ourselves from the danger of someone else’s reality blowing its seeds into our personal landscape. We certainly wouldn’t want those other ideas planting themselves in our well-established garden and forcing us to confront them.
Ken had developed a love of magic from a young age. And he was enthralled by the life and illusions of Harry Houdini. When we first started dating, I borrowed a book from him about the magician’s life and I found myself puzzling over Houdini’s quest to expose as many fraudulent psychics and mediums as possible. At the time there was nothing personal in it for me, I just felt a need to understand.
In more recent times, magicians Penn and Teller have followed along the same path of trying to prove how psychics and mediums are utilizing illusion to take advantage of unsuspecting people. In order to prove how fraudulent those claiming to ‘reach beyond the veil’ are, Penn Jillette conducted an experiment where he asked his then girlfriend, an improv actress, to set up a booth with a sign offering free psychic readings. She had never given a reading before, didn’t consider herself psychic, and had no training other than a single book read in preparation.
Around twenty clients show up for these free ‘readings’ and all of them were impressed by her abilities. Even those who regularly visited other psychics were amazed and stated that these were the best readings that they had ever had. Some even ended up in tears because they were so touched by what she brought forth for them.
This skepticism about psychic mediums became personal to me a couple of years ago when a boosted Facebook post advertising an intuitive class of mine was graced with the presence of an internet troll.
The man, let’s call him Charlie, thought that a well-placed comment, “What do you call a psychic medium……oh that’s right a fraud”, was what the post was missing.
After my initial emotional reaction, the comment triggered my early fascination with why some people were so insistent that there is no validity to psychic mediums. And because I now work as one, it was apparent to me that I was meant to try to wrap my head around this subject and that I had been being led to it for a long time.
Ironically (or not), as I began to write I was guided to channel a message through automatic writing and I am going to share pieces of this message with you. The energy that I worked with identified herself as Lillian and I will begin with the words that first appeared when I stepped back and allowed Lillian to speak
Witches and warlocks. Peasants and seers. Billions of people throughout time have had the ability to move beyond the guise of the everyday body and move into a connection with eternity. Classic spending. Classic Spending. Without which we would be nothing more than animals. What brings us beyond the beasts? The ability to speak to each other without words, [from a place of love]. The ability to speak to those without a form as easily as we speak to those who travel beside us. It is our birthright and will bend with us always. Thin membranes are all that separate us. As in the cells of our bodies, the veil is the same. Flows through what is needed, retains what should be held back.
Benches begin within. What are the expectations? If we cannot see it then it cannot be, can it? Lesson is we see not air. We see not emotions. We see not the movement to and from our hearts. Lesson is that very little of ‘what is’ is seen. Very little of ‘what is’ exists in a form that can be viewed through the lens of the human eye. Faith? Or form?
Begin with the beginning. First in the bodies heard the voice of god. Move forward. Mystery schools indeed. Throughout time immemorial have been the voices, the visions, the words, the deeds reflecting the divinity within. No more, no less.
Let’s stop here for a moment.
“First in the bodies heard the voice of god”.
Most of us know the story of Adam and Eve, Genesis from the Old Testament. Adam and Eve, cast from the Garden of Eden but they continue to hear God speaking to them and feel the presence of the Divine in their lives even after being removed from Paradise.
Seers, prophets, oracles are mentioned throughout recorded history. There have always been stories about people who had the ability to communicate beyond the ‘seen’ world.
As we developed as a species, that ability to interact with the unseen continued and the knowledge and understanding of it was passed along from generation to generation through oral traditions, and later through sacred texts. The knowledge was often given in the form of mythology, fables, or parables that would begin seeding some of these ideas in the general population in a form that they could accept.
An example from Greek mythology; Cassandra was a Trojan priestess, the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. The god Apollo gave her the gift of foretelling the future and then tried to sleep with her. When she rejected him, he cursed her so that she would always utter true prophecies, but never have anyone believe her. I wonder how much of this myth was a way to explain humanity’s inability to believe in a connection that could not be quantified or proven?
Those who were open and ready to delve further into the mystical side of life received this ageless wisdom and esoteric knowledge from secret or underground schools. Ancient records show that these mystery schools may have originated in Egypt and were a way to pass along timeless knowledge that the general population seemed to have forgotten. The training in mystical knowledge and methods of remembering and reactivating innate divinity had to be secretive as there were many who saw the teachings as sacrilegious or dangerous. Often the initiates feared for their lives.
The mystery school traditions continued through the ages and we still see them today in secret fraternities like the Freemasons. And so too, continues the fear and belief that this knowledge is fake, dangerous, evil, or just plain wrong.
Even organized religions addressed the ability to access the mystical connection to the Divine. For example, the Catholic tradition speaks about the Charismatic Gifts, or what they define as the gifts of Spirit. The Charismatic Gifts were abilities that regular everyday people received directly from the Holy Spirit. They included the Gift of Prophecy, the Gift of Healing, the Gift of Tongues, the Word of Knowledge and the Word of Wisdom.
The first three; prophecy, healing, and the ability to speak in tongues are pretty self-explanatory. The Word of Knowledge was about knowing something that you had no way of knowing. Those of you who have heard of the clair senses may recognize this as claircognizance; clear knowing or knowing things that you really have no way of knowing. The Word of Wisdom was even more important. The gift of understanding how you were meant to apply that knowledge you received. It wasn’t just about receiving information, but being wise enough to understand what you were meant to do with it.
These beliefs are not just from some archaic version of Catholicism from thousands of years ago.
In June of 2016 there was a letter sent by the Vatican to the bishops of the church, Iuvenescit Ecclesia (The Church rejuvenates). The letter discusses these charismatic gifts and how they can be recognized and integrated into the modern church.
Let’s return to the words of Lillian as she addresses Charlie:
Magic indeed, science in theory. We ratchet up to the next notch of time and space within eternity. No more able to decipher than we were before? Different explanations is all. No difference in the foundational truth only in the way that it is expressed.
Belief in always? Or trapped in through time no? What would be the point? And if we are eternal, if we continue, then our impact is endless and our stories are printed upon time itself….to be read by anyone who is so included in the gifts that have been given.
Do all have the ability? Yes. Do all have the desire or the belief that is necessary? No. And it is okay. It is okay not to believe in any but what I can see.
But if one does not believe in telepathy, in energy, in the ability to reach forth through the membrane…….then there are many answers that make no sense do they?
Where do we come from, Charlie? Where do we go? To dust, to dust, to dust. But what kind of dust would that be…why stardust indeed and where did it come from? That dust? Is it the egg or the chicken that crossed the stars?
I am interrupting again!
“Magic indeed. Science in theory”.
Many people question these abilities because they only believe in the concreteness of science, that which can be proven. But what is science besides our human way of trying to make sense of the magic that is all around us? Scientists have figured out ways to capture the unknowable, the unseeable, the unquantifiable and know it, see it, and quantify it.
In Houdini’s time the world was stepping into such discoveries as automobiles, the radio, the pop-up toaster, and even the first robot; all of these would have been viewed as magic only a hundred years before.
Where does the line between magic and science exist? And is there really one, or is it just a human construct?
Let’s think about mediumship.
I had a dream once where I opened a fortune cookie and the message inside it read, “The only way to prove the other side is to ask our loved ones”. You can go to a medium to ask your loved ones for evidence of the other side, or you can tune in yourself.
There is science behind it.
Really? You say.
Well, I believe so.
One only needs to look at our DNA strands to know that those who came before us are intrinsically wrapped into who we are. The science of DNA originally discovered by Fredrick Griffith in 1928, can it explain our ability to easily communicate with those who came before us and prepared our path?
Don’t like that example? While how about this one?
Quantum Entanglement, originally theorized by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, states that when two particles become entangled, they remain connected even when separated. So this scientific theory might explain our ability to communicate with our loved ones in spirit, and it might also explain our ability to reach out to each other telepathically. Once we are connected to or have made a connection with someone; we are always able to reach through that connection to touch that person, no matter how far away they seem to be.
Okay, enough from me, let’s listen to Lillian continue to explain the difference between magic and science.
The now understanding is closer. Is it different? We have just replaced magic with science. Two different words for the same concept. It is magical that our bellies rumble. It is magical that we can connect to each other on a machine that has no wires, no visible means of showing how it functions.
Human is what? Breathing? Is that not magic? Loving? Is that not magic? Can you see breath? You see the output. The movement of the chest. You feel the flow in and out, but do you see it? Can you prove that breath exists? Where does love begin and end? What is love? Is it an emotion? A feeling? A physical reaction or a calculated response? What color is love? Is it smooth or rough? Do you see it as it approaches you? Maybe then it doesn’t exist at all if it cannot be seen.
Your thoughts, Charlie, what are they? Can you see your brain cells firing up? Oh, there are machines now that can track where the electricity flows…..but, can you actually see the movement of a thought that comes from another, flows to you and is fed and embraced and birthed?
There is no visible track that marks its coming from the book or newspaper you have read, or that maps what paths your thoughtless comment takes on its journey. But like a yawn it is suddenly there, now a part of you as your comment is now a part of us.
If we only believed in what we can see, then we would still be living with the beasts in caves. Trust. Community living required us to trust in something that couldn’t be seen. The kindness and compassion of others. Something that cannot be measured.
Somewhere in the magic that is, we exist. Not as the dust that you believe we will return to, Charlie. If we began as dust, if we return to dust, then what is it that happens in between those two dusty moments that created us? That makes our uniqueness? That allows us to be more than just animals? What do you define that as, Charlie? The us-ness. If we are only dust than why are we ‘we’ at all?
Birds fly automatically. They do not question why they go from one spot to the next. They follow the flock and move with the wind. But where does that instinct come from? Can you see it, Charlie? Can you see what force it is that leads a bird to move from a place of cold to a place of warmth?
Okay, so back to Renee’s voice for a moment. Let’s look a little closer at Houdini. What started him on his quest to seek out and expose fraudulent mediums? Houdini had a very close relationship with his mother. When she passed away in 1913, the loss devastated him and he remained grief stricken for a long time.
About seven years later, he agreed to allow the wife of his close friend, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to contact his mother through automatic writing. Lady Doyle was able to channel Houdini’s mother and receive a message for Harry. But Houdini was convinced that she was a fraud, and the message was a fake.
Why?
Because the automatic writing that flowed through Lady Doyle came across in perfect English and each page had a cross drawn on it.
Cecelia Steiner Weiss, Harry’s mother, had emigrated from Hungary and spoke only in broken English and was unable to write in that language at all. She was also Jewish, not Catholic. Therefore, the fact that the writing was in perfect English and had a cross as a symbol, was apparently enough to convince Harry that Lady Doyle had made the whole thing up.
Personally, I listen to this story and shrug my shoulders a little. I know that Spirit communicates with us in a unique way and often in a unique language. What is received does not always come across the way we might expect it to. Often what we, as mediums and psychics, receive is communicated to us in a way that we will easily understand so that we are better able to pass it along. Additionally, even in trance states our messages are running through our own filters and our subconscious will translate a feeling, an image, or a sound into a word that we can articulate even on paper.
Lady Doyle’s receiving her message in perfect English does not mean to me that she was not in contact with Houdini’s mother. It just means that she was subconsciously transcribing the information in the manner with which she was most comfortable.
And the cross?
When communing with Spirit, metaphor and imagery are pivotal. Is it possible that the image of the cross was sent to represent something other than a symbol of Christianity? Could the cross have actually been a plus sign meaning the message would continue? Or a metaphoric representation of heaven connecting with earth?
These questions are not truly mine to answer. I recognize that my path was not Harry Houdini’s path. I may understand things differently than he did, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t important for him to view things through his own lens and lead others to question the validity of what was being sold to them.
What about Penn Jillette’s girlfriend being able to deliver those amazing messages without any formal training?
There is something that is believed by many of us who teach and practice psychic and mediumistic work. The more you can step away from an expected result, the easier it becomes to deliver a powerful message.
In an interview Penn mentions that not only was this woman an improvisational actress, but she was also extremely empathetic. I have never studied improvisational acting methods, but I believe that one of the skills developed is the ability to speak intuitively without having to stop and think about a response. And by seeing through empathetic glasses, she would have been able to feel out a conversation and flow with those feelings to deliver a powerful message. Not much different than what we do as trained psychics and mediums. The more that we can step away from our logical mind and run with what we are sensing and feeling; the better we can do our job.
Does it surprise me that this girl was able to deliver powerful messages?
Not at all. It is just that neither she nor Penn realized that this doesn’t disprove psychic ability, it just proves that the ability is not really supernatural. To me it is proof about how natural this ability really is.
Now I am not saying that there have not been and will not continue to be people who do this work in a fraudulent way. In Houdini’s time much of what was being practiced by the Spiritualists was physical mediumship. Trying to access the energy of spirit, blending it with the energy of the medium and the gathered group, and ushering it into the physical world through physical manifestations. Things like table tipping, spoon bending, levitation, the appearance of ectoplasm, objects materializing out of thin air, sound phenomena. And these types of mediumistic displays were very difficult to achieve. Physical mediums often work for years with closed groups before physical manifestations happen. And even then, they rarely happen on-demand. So it may make sense that the mediums of Houdini’s time often ended up working more like illusionists and sometimes used methods that were not truly above-board when running séances for the paying public.
Modern mediums more often work within the flow of mental mediumship or within the overlapping space between mental and physical mediumship that is trancework, like automatic writing or channeling.
Mental mediumship is just that, mental. It is fueled through a telepathic connection of mind to mind and is much more difficult to prove. Although science does study psychic phenomena and is beginning to understand that there are physiologic changes that happen when we do this work. And honestly, just like in Houdini’s time, there is still an element of entertainment and showmanship within the field today.
Do I believe that the Long Island Medium and other ‘tele-psychics’ have psychic gifts?
Yes, I do.
But I also realize that often when creating successful television shows, the producers will edit, or dramatize and script pieces of the program, all in the name of making a good show. Not so different than the Spiritualists and their séances!
Let’s let Lillian finish up her message to Charlie.
Sometimes the road is dark, sometimes well lit. Either way the road is still leading you to the same place. Shall you take the road that is dark? Or the one of light? You may feel as if you have no choice and maybe that is so, but within you is the light that you need to always follow a well-lit path. Turn it on, Charlie, it is there for you. No you cannot see it; but if you quiet the volume of your voice and reach for it with your heart, you can find it. Always.
Thank you so much Lillian for allowing us to hear your words of wisdom.
If I had one message for the Charlies of the world, it would be the one that I myself received:
“You are not ready yet. Turn around”.
Turn around. There is nothing to see here for you.
Not yet. Just keep moving.
Keep living your life the best way that you know how.
Don’t wield your beliefs as a sword because you may find that those beliefs will change as your journey in this human realm evolves.
Or not.
Either way, you are where you are meant to be, as am I.
And on that note, I end my ramblings with a quote from one of my favorite books ‘Illusions’ by Richard Bach
“You know, mister, I think you’re a fake,” said the next caller.
“Of course I’m a fake! We’re all fakes on this whole world, we’re all pretending to be something that we’re not. We are not bodies walking around, we are not atoms and molecules, we are unkillable undestroyable ideas of the Is, no matter how much we believe otherwise.”
