The Persistent of the Soul - 1

By Mark Ireland

     Some contemporary mediums dislike the term “psychic” because they feel it carries a negative connotation, leading people to associations with crystal balls, tea-leaf reading, fortune-telling, or other stereotypes. Among many who practice or study mediumship, the phenomenon is most commonly considered a form of telepathy with the deceased. The abilities of some mediums are said to be facilitated exclusively through clairvoyance (clear-seeing), clairaudience (clear-hearing), and clairsentience (clear-sensing).

     But whether a medium’s abilities are tied to telepathy or any of the other noted faculties, it follows that the individual must be psychic in order to be a medium, as telepathy and all the aforementioned “clairs” are forms of psi. Ultimately, it’s about the transfer of information, and a variety of means exist by which mediums receive messages from those in spiritual realms.

     It’s been said that “All mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums.” This means that some individuals are able to garner information without use of their five physical senses—through psi—but connecting and communicating with discarnate individuals is a more refined and highly developed skill, requiring greater sensitivity and discernment.

     In terms of evidence, one of the most compelling cases involves renowned medium Eileen Garrett and the ill-fated British airship R101. Two days after the airship crashed in 1930, an entranced Garrett brought through the soul/personality of H. C. Irwin, the deceased captain of R101. While in this altered state, Garrett served as a mouthpiece for Irwin and furnished a highly technical account of the crash and its cause, which was submitted to the Air Ministry and was subsequently validated as accurate in every detail. Not only was the information beyond Garrett’s level of knowledge and understanding, but it had also been well guarded by the British Air Ministry for reasons of national security.

     I suggest that spirit communication is a sacred gift that has long been misunderstood. The field has been disparaged by debunker-type skeptics and damaged by fraudulent mediums; it’s time for the matter to be viewed in a new and positive way. To this end, I’ve furnished a body of evidence supporting the hypothesis that qualified mediums are capable of receiving and sharing accurate information from discarnate personalities.

     To learn more about her process, I spoke with renowned English medium Linda Williamson. Mediums often say things like “spirit tells me this,” or “they’re showing me that,” and the layperson may not understand exactly what is transpiring, much less gain a sense for what that medium is experiencing. So I asked her to explain what it means to “hear spirit.”

     “It’s an inner voice,” Linda said. “And I can tell if it’s a man or a woman or if they have an accent, but it’s really mental communication. Sometimes I get it as a definite voice, while at other times it’s an impression of the words or of a thought.”

     I then asked about the process by which she sees spirits. Linda explained: “My technique now is to take some quiet time in advance of when the sitting is scheduled. I then tune into the guides and ask them to bring to me the spirit communicators that the sitter wants to hear from. Then I concentrate and try to see them. I ask that they show themselves to me. I don’t see them as if they were flesh and blood. But I do see them—rather like a hazy outline—so I have an idea of the person’s height and build, for instance.”

     I’d often wondered whether mediums see spirits through their eyes, just like you would see another living person, or if they were detecting a strictly mental image. So I asked her.

     “I do see them with my eyes open—they are definitely there, outside of me. And although I’m not seeing them as if they were physically present, I definitely see them. I know that I’m looking at something outside of myself because if I close my eyes, I am unable to see them.”

     Linda said, “I find that the clarity varies. Sometimes I see things very clearly, sometimes I just get a mental picture, and sometimes I don’t see anything at all. But I need to explain that it works on different levels. I’m always using my inner senses, not the outer ones. I tune in, asking the deceased to show themselves to me. If you’re talking to someone, you look at them, and it’s the same with the deceased person. I need to look at them in order to establish a link. In my mind I say, Tell me who you are, what you want to say, and explain your relationship to the sitter. So I’m listening, but the words are not actually audible. I’m getting a sense of the communicator, feeling what kind of personality they have. I feel their emotion—if they’re very eager to get through or if they want to share an answer to a particular question. So I’m working with all three things—seeing, hearing, and sensing—all at the same time.”

https://www.markirelandauthor.com

Mark Ireland

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