“Being a medium who can communicate with souls isn't the same as one who can interact with them. It's the difference between listening in on a conversation and changing the subject.”

 S. Kelley Harrell

Mediumship

Mediumship is the claimed ability of an individual to experience contact with “the spirit world” (spirits of the dead, angels, demons or other incorporeal entities).  A “medium” is the term used to refer to a person who claims to communicate with spirits of the deceased and passes on information from the spirit world or Heaven to people on Earth; information which the medium had no way of knowing without the intervention of “the spirits”.

Many mediums claim that spirits of the dead communicate with them directly, while other mediums claim the use of a “spirit guide”. 

Some mediums define a “spirit guide” as a highly evolved spirit with the purpose of helping the medium or their clients develop their personal skills and assist in the person's following a spiritual path. Other mediums define a spirit guide as one who brings other spirits to a medium's attention or carries communications between a medium and the spirits of the dead.  Many mediums claim to have specific guides who regularly work with them and "bring in" spirits of the dead. 

Modern mediumship defines two distinct types of phenomena that can occur through mediums:

1. Communication, or mental mediumship,
2. Manipulation of energies and energy systems, known as physical mediumship.

A spirit, who communicates with a medium, either verbally or visually, is known as a spirit communicator. A spirit who uses a medium to manipulate energy or energy systems is called a spirit operator.  The role of the medium is supposedly to facilitate communication with spirits who have messages to share with non-mediums. Mediums claim to be able to listen to, relay messages from, and relate conversations with spirit, to go into a trance and speak without knowledge of what is being said and/or to allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it.

Mental Mediumship and Physical Mediumship

Mental Mediumship -- Communication of spirits with a medium by telepathy, either directly or while “in trance”.  This may manifest directly to the medium (direct voice) or by “channeling” in which involves mediums who speak to spirits and then relay what they hear someone else

Mental Mediumship has six different manifestations:

1.  Clairvoyance or "Clear Seeing" -- The ability to see anything that is not physically present, such as objects, animals or people. Some clairvoyant mediums can see a spirit as though the spirit has a physical body. They see the bodily form as if it were physically present. Other mediums see the spirit visually, or it appears as a picture like a photograph in their mind’s eye.
2. Clairaudience or "Clear Hearing" -- The ability to hear the voices or thoughts of spirits.  Some Mediums hear as though they are listening to a person talking to them and other mediums hear the voices in their minds as a verbal thought.
3. Clairsentience or "Clear Feeling" -- The ability to have a physical impression of what a spirit wants to communicate, or to feel sensations instilled by a spirit.
4.  Clairalience or "Clear Smelling" -- The ability to smell a spirit. For example, a medium may smell the pipe tobacco of a person who smoked during life.
5. Clairgustance or "Clear Tasting"-- The ability to receive taste impressions from a spirit.
6.  Claircognizance or "Clear Knowing" -- The ability to know something without receiving it through normal or psychic senses. It is a feeling of "just knowing".

Physical mediumship -- The manipulation of energies and energy systems by spirits.  Physical mediumship may involve perceptible manifestations, such as loud raps and noises, voices, materialized objects, materialized spirit bodies, or body parts such as hands, and levitation. The medium is used as a source of power for such spirit manifestations. By some accounts, this is achieved by using the energy or ectoplasm released by a medium. Most physical mediumship is presented in a darkened or dimly lit room. Most physical mediums make use of a traditional array of tools and appurtenances, including spirit trumpets, spirit cabinets, and levitation tables.

The Paranormal Links:

Part 1  "The Paranormal"

Part 2  "Hauntings"

Part 3 "Gremlins"

Part 4  "Mediumship"