A Note from the Author: These are the thoughts, preambles and hints offered purely as Spirit have taught me, not of any religious or other influence. It has been shown to me that one neither has to be spiritual or religious to communicate with those who have passed on, nor to as some would see it, improve themselves by opening up to the other possibilities of this world and others. It is not an improvement, more an acceptance of all that we are capable of and using those abilities. Society today seems to like us boxed into compartments with labels and structure to our lives, which does not always allow for the individualism that is within all of us. If one decides, we do not fit into those compartments or wish to participate in societies structured lives, then again, we are put into “New Age” or “Alternative” or, God forbid, and I use the term God Lightly, even locked away or drugged and coerced until we again ‘see the light’ and can return to what society deems as ‘normal.’ I could go on, but you will get the idea as we go through the simplest method I have been taught to see the world as a whole, and ourselves as not only part of it but as integral within it as are the elements, nature and the changes it all goes through. Yes, I have resorted to labels here, purely for simplicity and as a building block to then be able to say, we don’t need them, as you will find. I will add to this section as and when possible, so never think it’s finished, as in life we continually learn and grow, we are always developing our own awareness and abilities in that life. Awareness We are all aware of our surroundings from the minute of conception, the expectant mother knows the changes in her body and self, the unborn child is aware of the growth it experiences and the world outside the womb. I’m sure I don’t have to quote facts and figures of how both of these have been shown as true in science. This goes for every species, be it human, animal, mammal, fish, insect or fauna. Auto responses are born within us; senses become a life line and knowledge builds with every breath taken, every sight seen, every feeling, touch and sense used to find our way. It’s what we do with those emotions, feelings, senses and the knowledge that steers us through life. Sadly, most shut down a lot of those things which can bring us joy and experiences before we have even tried them. This is the only thing, then, that one has to reopen ourselves to in order to fully enjoy experience and move through life, not in the staid, structured existence society puts upon us. So we start with Awareness, becoming aware, not only of those around us but of our self, the changes, abilities, and senses we often take for granted and do not fully utilize. Now would be a good time to take a note book and pen and start making a record. It will help as we are going to use your thoughts, memories, and experiences as a base line. I can’t tell you or teach you to open yourself up without these being a central part of the following texts and your own development. As I said, we are all unique individuals so what one gets out of this will be totally different to another’s results. This is why development is so hard for many as they think it’s a class and as in school we are shown things, taught things, and each come out with 2 + 2 = 4. In this process there are no wrong answers… no right answers, only what you feel makes sense and works for you and you alone. Try it, you might surprise yourself. First Task Your first memory, that first thought that comes to your head when looking back, what was it? where was it? What did it mean to you? How did you feel? Who was with you? What does it bring to mind, regarding all those elements of that memory? For me, it’s a daft story, and again it changes every time I do this exercise. Today, I remember my dad trying to teach me the difference between the spelling and meaning of the two words which and Witch. Sat on his knee one Sunday morning, surrounded by the smell of mum’s baking and Sunday lunch cooking. All I wanted to do was go help her and raid the sausage rolls just out of the oven. For me this is one of the few happy memories of any kind of closeness with my dad. I couldn’t grasp the meanings of two words which sounded alike, and as for the spelling, I could see the words written down but I could not then visualize them and spell them out correctly. I knew that I knew it but it came out all wrong when I tried to impress dad with my ability. (Now I know why; it is because I’m dyslexic) which explains this early problem with grammar. Yet, back then it was frustrating and debilitating for me and yes showing myself up in front of a much brighter brother and sister was not where I wanted to be just at that moment. I wanted mum’s homemade sausage rolls. OK, a daft thought for an awareness group, but go back read it again. Within that story are hints to abilities and senses of the situation around me. I was aware I could do something, yet didn’t show it. I wanted that closeness with dad, he was paying me attention, sitting on his knee, helping me, yet I wanted to be elsewhere, torn between quality time with dad and the taste of a sausage roll. The smells are still with me today and my mouth is watering just at the thought. Yet for me the residing thought is, I sat on dad’s knee. So go back to your first task. Write it out and see what it brings to mind; things you’d forgotten or not realized at the time were precious about it. And think if that were today, would you have those same responses and senses in a given situation, or is it one of those things you’d take for granted and pass over in a second because other things get in the way. Spiritual Ok once again, forget religion or faiths or paths or walks. Spiritual is as unique to each of us as are our genes. Yes, we can conform to any of those which might meet our needs and ideas if we wish, however, I have yet to meet people who think and react exactly the same way or can explain their faith or religion in the same way. So, for this purpose, put away those ideas and teachings of anything but what you believe in yourself as true. I have said many times I live by a set of principles which work for me. Yes, the teachings of life, parents, school, and the laws and society around me contributed to those principles, but I didn’t have to once understanding and awareness showed me that I do not wish to harm another being on this earth, and yes, have probably done so inadvertently, or even using a fly spray or such done so, but to go out and harm another for the greed and ego of having what is not mine is not something I need to be told. To love and respect others again is something natural to me. There have been very few people, things or such, that I have ever cut out of my life for any reason. I’m still best of mates with all ex-boyfriends, mates and such who have come into and out of my life. If I have cut something or someone out, then a reason has shown me it’s for the best for all concerned. Yet, often, to my own surprise or disgust, I’ve sometimes fallen into the trap of returning to a situation or friendship which has again resulted in a confrontation or lesson learned. If we didn’t do this, we’d not experience those aspects of life which are there to help us and others in some understanding of ourselves. Events, experiences, people we meet, lessons we learn, and choices we make in life come not from some teaching; parents, friends, family or great belief or God, or even wholly ourselves, but as a mixture of those things. The human mind is continually analyzing, changing and developing ideas and thoughts, beliefs and choices as we take in the information we gather from all sources; be it a lecture in collage or the whisper of a breeze that tells us it’s going to rain, the fall of the first spring shower or the meeting of a dear friend after twenty years and finding that bond still exists. Spiritual does not always mean we are God fearing or live according to some Bible or text, it simply means to me that we are aware of the wholeness, oneness, links between ourselves and the world around us. Taking everything for what it is, not what it portrays or seems to be, being open to the possibilities of everything and everyone around us. I see not a disabled child but a being as any other; I see not a pest or rodent destroying a crop, but another creature surviving in the way nature has taught. I see a storm as a cleansing of nature not a disaster for mankind. Why must everything be to man’s best interests? We don’t like one thing so we change it, we don’t care for a certain person so we kill them. No, we are all of this world, and as such are able to share in it; no one has rights over another human or species. Psychic OK, we come to the Psychic within us all, and note, no mention of this was made in the spiritual section purely because one does not have to be psychic. Note the Psychic within US All. Yes, we all have this ability, it is merely the degree in which we use it that separates those who use it as a tool and those who mostly unconsciously use it. Everyone can feel a change in others or know when a loved one needs a shoulder without having to be asked, or sense when a new direction is needed. Not all use these abilities as part and parcel of their being. Not all listen to the inner voices or feelings, which can predict an event as simple as a phone call to let you know the job is yours or that a loved one is about to pass over. To be psychic is no more a gift as is sight, touch, or hearing. It is a sixth sense we all are born with but rarely developed as is with the better part of our brain, and is as similarly unexplained as to why some develop easily, others have to work at it, and a rare few don’t have to try. So we come to your second task, Note books ready. Second Task Think back to a time you just knew something for no reason; i.e. having tried to solve a problem for ages and the answer comes at 3 am with no prompting. Or when you’ve jokingly thought the phone was going to ring and it did. Or maybe even you’ve been torn in two directions and after having chosen one, find out the second would have been disaster… or vice versa because, as I said, it works both ways. Not everything is for man’s best interests, but to teach us to listen and to work with the signs which points us in the right direction. Write these experiences down; you’ll become aware of just how many times your own psyche has been at work. The thing now is to learn to recognize them in the future and be able to act on them. How to know when to listen and when to act, how you know when to step into a situation and when to back off and let it happen for others to learn. The simplest way I can say to do this is through experience, knowing one’s own psyche and how it effects you will help you know when it will help or hinder others to say, act, or do something. So the lesson for today is go back, think of times you’ve been helped in this way and times you did not listen, what it meant and the results of both actions; responding and not responding. Now think of times others have been brought into the event, dreams of someone ill or something about to happen. A right turn taken and found a friend in need or met a partner. Again, analyze these times and what you could have done to change the outcome, what you did to make it as it came out. Think of the times you’ve been in a situation for no other reason than it happened. Were you there at the right place right time to help someone, or in contrast someone helped you when you didn’t know you needed it.  Again, you’ll realize how often your psychic abilities helped others, without having ever given them a hint or message to do so. Mediumship Now to mediumship, natural or learned, again it’s simply because those who need to learn have forgotten, unconsciously or through a religion or faith, which denies what we were born with. Natural mediums are those who’ve always worked with their awareness, and psyche. This is something we do not develop as we do our speech and hearing, etc. through life. Everyone has the potential to become a working medium or even an unconscious medium, and yes, there are those who help others in ways only explained by their ability to gain knowledge and share information from the spirit realm without ever knowing it’s an ability of mediumship. From the saying ‘hey Mum would have said that,’ in response to a question answered, or even the ‘oh heck I’ve become my mother.’ Each are a message that has helped you and come as a hint from those in spirit, or indeed from the psyche, as it works human to human, too. When you’ve seen an event and just knew the outcome or seen it before, Deja vu etc. are all messages from spirit guides and helpers to send you on your way. Again, most would not recognize these little hints as spirit messages and most would flat out deny it. Many of our great philosophers and inventors were given ideas, thoughts etc. from spirit, not all accepted or proclaimed this. Would you when you’d be locked away as insane if you did? It is more acceptable for people to say I talk to God in my prayers than to say ‘my mum told me I’d need an operation, but she’s been dead for five years.’ Why do we talk to some great so called power or being we don’t know or even try to understand rather than those who know us best and are in a position to help than our family? When things go nicely and happy times are abroad we take credit for it, when things are wrong and not going our way we say God works in mysterious ways. Contrarily, when something great happens in the face of disaster we say ‘Thank GOD,’ or when things are going wrong and take a turn for the better we say ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ When it’s actually ourselves, our psyche and spirit friends who are working in ways to help and should get the praise for doing so. So, you don’t believe in spirit, when we are dead that’s it? Which does not explain the amount of near death experiences when people have seen loved ones and talked to them before returning to complete their life tasks, or the reincarnation cases of people correctly recounting lives led in past times. Families accepting, once again, a returned loved one into their fold just knowing and accepting that they have met up once again. The vast abilities included in the term mediumship means no two work the same and there is no one way of teaching or learning to regain the ability. So this section could take some doing, but to start with, and I know this is getting monotonous, think back to a time you’ve given a shoulder to someone in need, yet not known why you knew they needed it, or to a time when you’ve dreamt an event or meeting or occurrence that has come to pass. Not as we did in the awareness exercise or the psychic exercise but when knowledge or information you’ve gained from no other source has helped you or another. Or a time of experiencing deja vu. Think of the event, the outcome, the change it made to you or others and where that all came from. For those of you already experiencing spirit; orbs, lights, apparitions or giving spirit messages regularly, go back to how it began. Think of the first time you felt or experienced this and how you came to know its meaning and what you were supposed to do with it, and yes, go back to basics, forget the rituals of meditation and tuning in, but that first time when you knew spirit were with you. Now, start thinking if it came to you that easy, or it developed without reason. Do you really need those rituals and such most talk about to communicate with what are simply our fellow beings in another realm? Keys to Communication Spirit communication recognition, I.e. keys we feel, sense, hear, see, etc. within the messages and links with spirit. All, of course, develop their own keys as all spirit are on different vibrations and work with each medium in their own way First are the initial link keys that tells us it is spirit working and not as many fear or think our own imagination or feelings. These can range from the tingles down the spine to the heat of hands. Or a sense of a presence around us from a cold sensation or a light seen etc. The main thing to remember is that it is spirit who call us, not us who call them. We can ask till we’re blue in the face, but if they don’t or are not ready to answer, they wont So sudden or unexpected feelings, senses or such can be from spirit when all other things, a draft or open door or such, is not present. We intuitively just know some times it is not our doing. As you work more and more, the keys are an auto response thing you’ll get to know and recognize immediately. Working regularly with spirit friends/guides etc. can heighten the awareness of these keys, i.e. in meditation and in asking friends from spirit is the easiest way to associate certain feelings with the different spirits. Remember, communication is a two-way track. Then we come to the keys of messages; symbols of items, sights or smells etc. that are not in the messages but point to other things, i.e. a symbol or a ring can mean a wedding (obvious) or a togetherness like a married couple, or even a circular effect of an event. Or the rainbow not only means fair-weather or a financial change of circumstances but the colours within can be seen and read as part of the message. Also keys are things such as visualizations, seeing a holiday seen as a memory. A date as a remembrance of a birthday or anniversary, though these are often given, involve a message alongside it. Also in closing messages, there are keys to know the feeling of pulling back, saying they are leaving, and the items or symbols of love some send to loved ones, which can be their favourite flower, no message with it but just that flower the recipient would associate with that spirit.  Songs whether heard or named are also a key to part of a message, again linking something to do with either the title or the meaning or association with that song. The obvious symbols of crosses, prayer beads, etc. denote a religious link, so getting to know these as what Spirit have shared are, as they work for me, an important part of spirit work in knowing you have spirit with you and in interpreting messages. Whether in actual communication, dreams, trance, meditation, or any personal communication, or in a session of work, these can be invaluable in giving personal evidence to the recipient and or to self. The Responsibilities of the Medium Yes, as with any other job or profession, the medium is bound by certain codes of ethics and responsibilities. It is not merely a case of giving messages and leaving it at that, but one should always remain conscious of the effect and ability such has on the recipient. Be aware of the need to provide the evidence and confirmation within any message alongside the language and terms used. Mediumship is held in extremes of thought, from the downright nonbeliever to those who come to live by the word of a medium or the spirit message they give. Both of these cases should be handled sensitively. One cannot ever force your thoughts or a message on another, permission to give the message should always be sought and gained. Trying to give a message to one who flat out denies any connection nor validation is not advised. If you gave them name rank and serial number they will not accept it is from spirit, so one can only offer the information and move on if they won’t accept asking spirit to return at another time if and when the recipient is ready to accept them. The recipient who returns again and again seeking advice and life answers from spirit should be discouraged from doing so, while it is always good to pass on spirit messages. It is also not ethical to encourage or allow another to live by the word of spirit or rely upon your connections to give them the support or balance in their lives. Ethics come into every part of a mediums work, from the language used within a message, i.e. avoid the use of predictions, spirit will guide and give hints as to certain future events but very rarely do they actually predict a major event. When predictions are part of a message one must make it clear this is for personal knowledge and preparation. Many expect dates, times, and repercussions or consequences to be laid out. Spirit will only give advice and that which they see we are ready to accept. When dealing with the grieving, one should always remember Spirit are with us to prove ongoing afterlife. It is therefore inadvisable to concentrate on dealing with information such as the passing of spirit other than as a confirmation, so don’t get drawn into did they suffer or was it painful, or describing a car accident or the details of a murder victim’s passing. Such things are given very briefly by spirit who have since moved on and past such things. Recipients do not need to know every detail but seek mainly the reassurance all is now healed and well with their loved ones. Any medium who reduces a recipient to tears, or allows a reading to go on when it is obviously distressing, needs to rethink their methods. While yes, some sessions can become very emotional, it is not the wish of Spirit to cause distress through communication. Most tears I’ve seen in messages are of actual joy at the communication and relief to hear from them. Again, this should not be hyped or played upon to show your abilities or milk the situation. As Mediums, we are only ever the messenger, be it in Spirit communication or Spiritual Healing. The credit for all such work should be accepted and acknowledged as Spirits, without them we would be simply talking to ourselves. Views:]]>