The History of Mediumship, by Shana Braff

A medium who serves up a reading well-done is rare. I thought I’d start off with a little psychic humor to break the ice. But seriously, mediumship is no laughing matter, so on to the meat of this brief compendium of the history of mediumship. While attempts to commune with the dead have been documented since the beginning of recorded history, and likely span much farther back, the first public demonstration of mediumship in the United States occurred in 1849. It was conducted by Margareta Fox in the Corinthian Hall in New York.
Communication with helpful entities on the other side is even detailed in the Old Testament in the story of the Witch of Endor, which tells of one who raised the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel to enable the Hebrew King Saul to question his former mentor in regard to an upcoming battle.
Mediumship is the ability of a person (the medium) to make contact with spirits of the dead. The role of the medium is to facilitate communication with spirits who have messages to share. Mediums, also known as psychics, mystics or spiritualists are able to listen to, and relay, messages from the other side, and engage in conversations with loved ones who have crossed over, as well as with spirit guides. Mental mediumship is the communication of spirits with a medium via telepathy. The medium mentally “hears” (clairaudience), “sees” (clairvoyance) and/ or “feels” (clairsentience) messages from the spirit realm. The medium then passes information to the person getting the reading known as the “sitter”. The messages received are often tremendously healing, life-affirming, and endow the sitter with closure, insight and confirmation of the soul’s immortality.
In the 1860s and 1870s trance mediums were very popular and attracted many female adherents, not unlike the priestesses at Delphi, many of whom had a vested interest in social justice. Several trance mediums delivered impassioned speeches on abolitionism, temperance and women’s suffrage.
Before we look at the modern state of mysticism let us go back in time to 1400 BC, when The Oracle at Delphi was the preeminent shrine in all of Greece. It was extremely venerated by the Greeks. Built around a sacred spring, Delphi was believed to be the omphalos, or center of the world. During antiquity people hailing from every walk of life made the pilgrimage from all over Greece and beyond to have their questions about the future answered by the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo. Her, usually enigmatic answers, determined everything from the most auspicious time to plant crops for a bountiful harvest to when an empire should declare war. The lack of strict religious dogma associated with the worship of Greek gods and goddesses also encouraged scholars to congregate at Delphi. It became a mecca for intellectual discourse, as well as a neutral meeting ground where rivals could negotiate for peace. In addition, Delphi became a breathtaking showcase of masterful works of art. All Greek states sent generous gifts to keep in good standing with the mighty oracle. This multifaceted treasure of spiritual enquiry came to an end in the 4th Century AD when a newly Christian Rome declared prophesying to be a heresy. Perhaps, the monolithic Roman Catholic Church didn’t want the competition. The nascent orthodoxy preferred sole dominion over the spiritual life and decision-making, as well as monetary support, of the people.
This would not be the last time mediumship came under attack. While the whole idea of mediumship has been publically derided by mainstream society and organized religion in the 20th Century, mediumship, psychic channels and alternate healing modalities have enjoyed something of a renaissance during the New Age Movement, a spiritual Western movement that developed in the second half of the 20th Century. Its central tenets draw from a wide array of Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions. In the aftermath of the hippie counterculture movement, during the 1970s New Age teachings became popular as a reaction to many feeling that both organized religion and secular humanism, or atheism, failed to provide a spiritual, and nonjudgmental, moral compass for the present, peace of mind about the past and loving guidance for the future. New Age concepts gained widespread notoriety beginning in the mid 1970s with the seminal publication of Linda Goodman’s best selling astrological books Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978) and Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical (1967) with its opening number “Aquarius” and its indelible line that ushered in a new epoch, “This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius”.
The American mass media further popularized the term, New Age, as a rubric for the alternative, spiritual subculture, that encompassed practices such as channeling, astral projection (out-of-body experience), meditation, yoga, tai chi and various psychic phenomenon. Several pivotal moments took place to increase public awareness of the New Age movement synonymous with the burgeoning Age of Aquarius, most saliently the broadcast of — proponent of reincarnation — actress Shirley MacLaine’s TV mini-series Out on a Limb (1986) and the movie Ghost (1990). In 1988, First Lady Nancy Reagan publically admitted that she had consulted an astrologer to assist in planning the president’s schedule ever since the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. By the 1990s the New Age movement had caught on like wildfire and was quickly being assimilated into the mainstream. Dionne Warwick’s The Psychic Friends Network, a telephone psychic service, became the most popular infomercial of all time and took in profits of over $100 million in just the first few years of operation. It was official the psychic revolution was a force to be reckoned with and showed no signs of stopping as the new millennium approached.
In the 2000s, the undeniable appeal of the subject matter is more visible than ever with movies such as The Sixth Sense and Hereafter as well as TV shows such as Medium, Ghost Whisperer and the reality TV show Long Island Medium.
In the latter half of the 20th Century Western mediumship developed down two divergent paths: one type involves psychics who speak to spirits and relay what they hear to clients while remaining fully cognizant of all that is taking place. This is how Cindi Sansone-Braff conducts her transformative readings. The other is a form of channeling in which the medium goes into a trance. He or she is temporarily, and with their permission, taken over by a specific spirit who proceeds to speak through them. This was the means of channeling used by the famed psychic Edgar Cayce.
While precognition is a window onto a possible future outcome, it is based on present circumstances. A medium sees the future, but offers guidance to surmount obstacles envisioned around the bend. It is likely that the future is not completely predetermined, but that free will plays a part in our ultimate destiny as well. Therefore, we can do much to steer our lives and relationships toward growth, prosperity, health and happiness.