mediumship and charged-for services

[Bella]

This is true. I am not sure which aspects of this you think are part of the "new age" approach. This is why I asked Roberta about the 19th century accounts. Thanks so much for reading and posting this helpful response.

[mokandi]

This is speculation I believe.

[mac]

This is true. I am not sure which aspects of this you think are part of the "new age" approach. This is why I asked Roberta about the 19th century accounts. Thanks so much for reading and posting this helpful response.

I mentally associate the words 'light beings' with New Ageism, wrongly or rightly.....

You could throw in 'channeling' and 'ascended masters' too as other examples of new age terms. (just for illustration, not from the thread.)

[Bella]

I am using this very useful thread to ask your advice (Carol and RA especially) and would love the input of anyone who has experience of knowledge on this topic. I have questions about my husband's and my the soul contract, or soul agreement, and was wondering if this is the kind of thing that can be better done in person or on the phone. I read that RA said, after seeing a medium in NY, that she could have had a phone reading and it would have been the same. I am considering traveling one hour and have very little time right now. I could have that reading with a wonderful spiritual medium one hour away, and the benefit of this is that she seems knowledgeable about the afterlife and may be able to give me information about what my hubby is doing. On the other hand, might CJ Sellers be just as able to do this on the phone? At this point, I really need this reading and do not want to bother my hubby without getting a result that will give me some peace of mind. What do you think? Phone or in person reading?

[mac]

"I have questions about my husband's and my the soul contract, or soul agreement, and was wondering if this is the kind of thing that can be better done in person or on the phone."

My immediate reaction to this enquiry is to ask if such things exist in the first instance and then to ask how a practitioner could find out about them and finally how you'd feel confident what you'd been told was the real mckoy.....

I'm a simple-minded soul and this notion of a soul contract or agreement to me sounds like a wacky New Age notion. BUT let's assume for a moment that it's not and is a reality.

If a practitioner told you something which you'd already thought or wondered about, something you'd had in mind before, how would you know your 'information' wasn't simply provided by psychic reading - lifted from your mind/psyche - and regurgitated as information?

But if the 'information' was unlike anything you'd ever thought of, something that you couldn't fathom or reconcile, would you then accept it without corroboration? And if someone told you any of this stuff over a telephone....????? Would you buy goods you'd never seen, from a source you didn't know, over the phone? Would you buy such important issues as soul contract details in that way?

The basis of sound evidential mediumship is being able to authenticate the information. In practice that should involve testing the medium, testing the information, testing the identity of the communicator of that information. Would you expect any less when seeking information as personal and important as you are seeking?

Always assuming that such information is actually available through anyone.....

[Bella]

I am responding briefly to just one thing: I would never accept that kind of information without first having verification that things said to me by the medium previously were true indicators that this was a valid communication. Mediums first have to validate that this is the person. I thought that was understood. If that can't be done, then none of the important information can be taken seriously. Regarding telephone readings - I had two and they were among the most specific validations that I have ever received. I was told personal things. Yes, someone can be reading my mind, but they can also do that in person. Only if we are told something we don't know and can prove later, can it be proven that the medium is not reading our minds.

[mac]

I am responding briefly to just one thing: I would never accept that kind of information without first having verification that things said to me by the medium previously were true indicators that this was a valid communication. Mediums first have to validate that this is the person. I thought that was understood. If that can't be done, then none of the important information can be taken seriously. Regarding telephone readings - I had two and they were among the most specific validations that I have ever received. I was told personal things. Yes, someone can be reading my mind, but they can also do that in person. Only if we are told something we don't know and can prove later, can it be proven that the medium is not reading our minds.

OK, then, you are already familiar with the necessary precautions so there's only my concern about the notion of life contracts which is the sticking point. How are you going to get that information validated?

[Bella]

OK, then, you are already familiar with the necessary precautions so there's only my concern about the notion of life contracts which is the sticking point. How are you going to get that information validated?

Thanks, Mac. If I give as little information as possible and then I am told something that the medium could not know about the situation, then it would validate that it is coming from Spirit, no? I have learned to give out very little information. At this point, I am reconsidering the phone reading, despite the good experiences I have had. I don't know. I'm still undecided.

[mac]

Thanks, Mac. If I give as little information as possible and then I am told something that the medium could not know about the situation, then it would validate that it is coming from Spirit, no? I have learned to give out very little information. At this point, I am reconsidering the phone reading, despite the good experiences I have had. I don't know. I'm still undecided.

That's partly correct for evidential mediumship - spiritual mediumship as you likely know it - but it isn't infallible. The thing is, though, you're not looking for evidential mediumship and I've already hinted at my doubts about the contracts or agreements you're trying to find out about.

I'm sure there will be members who say they exist but that doesn't make it so or at least not in the form you might be expecting. But even if they do exist in some fashion, how would you go about authenticating any claimed details given in connection with them? Even if the source of the information is truly a discarnate (spirit) one, how does one know that source has got it right?

Please don't let any of this stop you but maybe my points will make you consider what you are hoping for.

[Roberta Grimes]

Dear Roberta and Ravensgate,

Thank you so much for these great responses. This is why I love the forum. It makes sense that my hubby would need a period of adjustment. Ravensgate: He transitioned in early May from cancer and he had not been well since September 2011, gradually getting worse. I have often thought of the fact that some souls need rehabilitation, but I had never read about sports being rehabilitation. Roberta, I am going to have to find and touch soft alabaster to see what you mean, but I am so thrilled that he would feel that his body there is as real to him as his body here was. No wonder he is so happy.
I had heard that my husband had a gold aura, but he still is working through his earthly needs, apparently, because he loved to eat and cook, and showed the medium an ice cream sundae. Is it possible to be in a high level of heaven and still have to work through rehabilitation for earthly pain due to long illness?

I am curious, Roberta, about the voicebox. Is there something left of the earthly accent in the spirit world? How is it that we get a message in a voice that is distinctly theirs?

I have Michael Newton's book, Ravensgate, but I had begun to read it prior to my hubby's passing and will have to reread it now. I had read differing sources regarding eating and earthly preoccupations. The thing is, that I took care of my hubby's food and other needs and wanted to make sure that he had what he wanted, so I wrote these questions, about food and how he felt, in a journal. After writing these, the mediums, and my son's dreams, would confirm that he was getting what he needed. It puzzled me, Roberta, about the sports, because I had never read of team sports in the afterlife. Which source(s) provide this information?

Once again, thank you so much, Roberta and Ravensgate.

To try to answer your questions, beloved Bella:

1) I don't think that "soft alabaster" actually exists on earth. But those who are in spirit say that their bodies are made of a pure, very slightly translucent material that reminds them of alabaster, yet it is soft to the touch in the same way that your body is soft. They seem to inhabit their bodies with the same ease and comfort that we feel in inhabiting ours, except that their bodies are young and beautiful and they can look however they choose to look - and they never become ill, and never tire.

2) As our dear Mac says, our bodies don't need to exercise in heaven. But some of the dead enjoyed team sports on earth, and they want to play them there as well - so there are reports in the afterlife literature that some of the earthly team sports have been adapted to seem familiar but to be cooperative instead of competitive. I haven't seen more detail than that!

3) Those who have been very ill on earth sometimes have initial trouble thinking of themselves as altogether well, so they spend some time in a hospital there, recovering at their own pace. Since time there is so different, I tend to think this doesn't much interfere with their communicating with us; but it may, to some extent.

4) Yes, when we on earth hear the voice of a loved one, it sounds more or less as it did on earth, although often it is distinctly higher in pitch. This seems to happen because they are at a higher vibratory rate than the earth. It often irritates the dead person communicating, and to some extent if they communicate enough they can learn to adjust for it and sound more usual to us.

I hope this helps, dear beloved friend!