Readers of this blog may have noticed a certain psychic/spiritual theme to many stories. Well, I think I’ve always had an interest in things supernatural, but recently I had the opportunity to join a ‘development circle,’ so I thought I would share my experiences, for those with an interest in such things. In the ‘spirit’ of my Madeleine McCann article, I’m going to keep it short, to 750 words in this case, otherwise it could easily go on to ten times that!
Well, I’d heard the term ‘sitting for development’ and ‘development,’ but never realised what it meant. In a nutshell it means developing the ability to communicate with the dead!
I’d been to some demonstrations of mediumship in the last three years. It was all new to me then.
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“I feel I’m with the lady in blue over here. Can you take the name, Alec?” The medium, a youngish man, asks attentively, whilst caressing a large crystal.
“Yes,” replies the lady, about sixty, smartly dressed and large in size. I’ve found women at these things always seem to be fairly massive.
“He’d be about five foot eleven, is that right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m feeling a sharp pain in my chest. I believe he’s showing me he died of a heart attack. I think it’s your father.”
“Yes,” the lady dabs her eyes with a tissue.
The medium smiles in his best sympathetic manner. Inside he knows he’s onto another successful ‘reading.’ All in a day’s work. Job done.
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It was at one of these demonstrations when the (same) medium gave detailed information about a young lad who had lived next door to some friends I’d gone to the meeting with, a husband and wife, when they lived in France. He named the boy as Etienne, saying he had always been sick and died of cancer at the age of six. ‘But he says he’s well again now.’
My friends confirmed the account as being completely correct. So that was the turning point for me. Irrefutable evidence of life after death. How could he possibly have known about that lad, never mind all the other accurate ‘readings’ given that evening?
I felt quite a bit happier after that, knowing I was never going to die! Well, I’ll leave the ‘Earth plane’ for a sojourn in the wonderful world of spirit, but, as Arnie says, ‘I’ll be back’!
One surprising thing I’ve learnt is that recently-departed spirits haven’t changed much, if at all. If they were argumentative and swore a lot, well that’s what they’re still like. It presumably takes a few more lifetimes to ‘purify’ them.
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So nearly three years later I’m sitting in a [literal] circle with a medium and several students, wondering what’s going to happen! The medium, a ubiquitously large lady with a down-to-Earth manner and pleasant demeanour, says we’re going to work psychically. As opposed to ‘with spirit.’ I don’t even know the difference but go along with a ‘guided meditation’ (“The sky is blue and the sun is warm and you are walking along a country road. Then you spot an old antique shop and decide to explore …”) and an exercise based on ‘scanning’ my partner, trying to keep my mind still, and desperately hoping for some kind of ‘impression.’ Suddenly, as my hand reaches a point on the lady equating to an age of 45, I visualize a penguin! Feeling foolish I say, “Did you have anything to do with penguins when you were about 45?!”
To my great surprise, she says, yes, she visited an island in Australia covered with penguins!
My first ‘result’!
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Ah, but now I understand what it’s about. ‘Psychic’ means using the mysterious powers of the mind (psychometry, remote viewing, precognition etc.) – ‘ESP’ – but Spiritual, in the mediumistic sense, means contact with actual spirits.
But who are these spirits you may well ask? Well, they are spirit people who have reincarnated enough to learn what they needed to learn to now act as guides to newer ‘passed-over’ spirits and to mediums and hopeful wannabe mediums.
So, ‘development’ in the sense of ‘development circles’ is all about making contact with these ‘higher beings.’ In fact, we learn that some of them have always been with us, we just didn’t know it. But after months and years and decades (depending on initial talent or lack thereof) you can learn to quiet the mind and let ‘spirit step in’ and make contact with them.
This is done by receiving ‘impressions’ through the five ‘clairs,’ Clairvoyance (‘clear seeing’), Clairaudience (‘clear hearing’), Clairsentience (‘clear feeling,’) Clairgustance (‘clear tasting,’) and Clairalience (‘clear smelling’).
By learning to correctly interpret these impressions on the ‘mirror of the mind’ (to quote Harry Edwards) the higher beings or ‘guides’ can then connect with you and impart ‘spiritual’ information as well as organising the departed to communicate through you, when/if you reach a high enough level of ability.
Anyway, early days right now. I’ll post an update in a year’s time – when hopefully I will have made the acquaintance of a guide or two!
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Recommended Books
Gordon Smith: Developing Mediumship: Down to Earth and anecdotal advice.
Doris Stokes: Voices in my Ear: Biography of a famous medium, quite harrowing in places.
Michael Newton: Journey of Souls: Brilliant analysis of the afterlife and its processes, obtained by deep hypnosis.
Harry Edwards: Life in Spirit: Advice about all aspects of mediumship and healing.
Gina Brealey: The Two Worlds of Helen Duncan: mind-boggling story of an amazingly talented ‘physical medium,’ and her trial and imprisonment for witchcraft in 1944.
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Wow! I loved this and thank you for the follow up readings 🙂
Hi, thanks for reading and commenting!
The follow-up readings are all great, but I’d also recommend Gordon Smith’s three audiobooks, Developing Mediumship, An Introduction to the Spirit World, and The Healing Power of Mediumship. You can get them on CD or download from Audible or iTunes.
They consist of one hour of live talk, and three meditations of ten minutes each. I’ve not listened to the meditations of THPOM yet but the other meditations are great and I listen to them a lot. Generally, they are to raise spiritual awareness, to assist in making contact with your spirit guides, and sending healing to people.
The talks are variable, my favourite is AITTSW, my least favourite is THPOM.
Another I’ve just ‘read’ (on audiobook) is Keys to the Spirit World by Jennifer O’Neill, it’s a short and to-the-point work on contacting your spirit guide(s) with some useful exercises.