Communicating with the dead-how do we know

Skye thank you for this. I will need to read it over a few times to understand everything and get back to you with more questions.

For me the issue of whether there is a different process/feeling for a medium/psychic such as yourself when communicating with the deceased as compared to doing psychic readings for the living is crucial in trying to understand whether a medium is really communicating with the deceased, or "simply" using psi abilities to obtain info on the deceased from living people. Windbridge Institute is doing a scientific study of the process to determine whether there is a perceived difference (perceived by the medium/psychic).
If it turned out that most/all mediums used the same process and felt/experienced the same thing when they were claiming to communicate with the deceased as to when they were doing psychic readings with the living, this would tell me that mediums use psi to obtain info they think they are obtaining from the deceased, and that inj actuality there is no communication going on with the deceased, but info is being obtained from those living (via the subconscious).

Here is a short abstract of the study being undertaken at the Windbride Institute:
Beischel, J., & Rock, A. J. (2009). Addressing the survival vs. psi debate through process-focused mediumship research. Journal of Parapsychology, 73, 71-90.
The fact that certain mediums can report accurate and specific information about the deceased under blinded conditions does not demonstrate where that information comes from. Two main explanations are possible: (1) survival (mediums are talking to the dead) and (2) psi (mediums are using telepathy, clairvoyance, or precognition to get information about the deceased). The continued examination of mediums’ experiences may help us better determine which one of those two explanations is correct. [In a recent article, philosopher Michael Sudduth proposed the term “survival psi” to describe the reality that if mediums are communicating with the dead, they are using telepathy. In this paper, we proposed the term “somatic psi” to describe the phenomenon of mediums using psi to get information from anywhere but the dead. Thus, the debate once termed “survival vs. psi” is now called “survival psi vs. somatic psi.”]

 

lithiania, mediumship is a form of telepathy as the medium and spirit communicate via a 2 way mind to mind link. I doubt individual mediums or psychics will have identical experiences when performing mediumship because each person has their own personality (obviously) and will work in their own particular way. Some mediums work with clairvoyance, some with clairaudience and others will receive the information using clairsentience. There's also a possibilty some will just know the information but not know how they received it - this is known as clairknowing or claircognisance.

I think it's good that science are trying to understand the workings of psychics and mediums. As to whether science will get the results they seek is debatable, some things in life may not have an answer. But if the conducted tests are fair and just, then I'm sure their results will be most welcome to organisations such as the Spiritualist National Union.

 

Another point which may be worth considering is that not all mediums and psychics work on the same level. Some will be more or less experienced than another. This is likely to affect a communication. Also the spirit communicator may not be adept in communicating. Personally I suspect there's a number of different variables that must be taken into consideration, but I wish the science community akk the best in their quest.

 

Thank you for your comments Roberta, and thank you for your warm welcome.

 

Skye, it does not matter whether different mediums/psychics have different experiences when compared to one another. The important point is whether a specific medium/psychic experiences something different or knowingly uses a different process when communicating with the deceased as compared to doing psychic work with the living. If you have 10 mediums/psychics and each of them says that they use the same process and pretty much experience the same sensations regardless of whether they are doing medium or psychic work, then they are likely using psi to retrriev info from the living and not communicating with the deceased. Do you understand my point?

 

Skye, it sounds to me that you exprience something different and use a different process when you communicate with the deceased in comparison to when you do psychic work with the living correct?


Also, Windbridge Institute first tests their mediums to see how good they are in terms of accuracy before using them for any other scientific tests so they are not going to use mediums with high accuracy rates AND mediums who are very poor in terms of being able to validate information.

 

lithuania, I do understand your point. I don't agree with it, but yes, I can understand.

 

May I ask why you do not agree? Thanks.

 

Skye, have the deceased ever told you their first and last name? I cannot understand why I have never come across a medium (while listening to the radio) who says "Joe Smith is here to talk to Sally Smith, his daughter, who is 44 years old). Why are most messages so vague and often trivial in nature? Would a deceased person not be able to pass on very specific info such as their name, their loved one's name, age of loved one, etc.?
Thanks again for your input-it is really an honor to be able to ask a medium/psychic such questions as you, more so than most, can actually answer such questions.

 

When conversing with a spirit, the information is coming from them. I am not using my psychic ability, at least not as I understand psychic to be. Does this make sense?