Everyone is a Medium - Part 1
Myth #1 – Seeing Spirit as a Child is a Prerequisite to Doing Mediumship
When I first became aware of mediumship, I presumed that mediumship was a gift given to a selected few. On his TV show Crossing Over with John Edward, John Edward would close his show by saying, “Communicate, appreciate and validate those that are with you here today, so someone like myself never has to be the one to do it for you." He would often tell the story about how when he was 15 years old, in an attempt to debunk a psychic, he was told he would be a well-known psychic medium. Thresa Caputo, from the Long Island Medium, would tell stories of seeing spirit as a child. I would also hear this from other well-known mediums. After hearing this in the culture and media interviews, I assumed that seeing spirit as a child or being told you were one or would be one was a prerequisite for being a medium.
My beliefs about mediumship were confirmed mainly when I explored mediumship and mediumship practitioners. People would have tales about seeing spirit as a child, how they always knew that mediumship was in their family, it was genetic, or that they were told they were a medium. These stories fascinated me. However, these tales also made mediumship appear out of reach for the rest of us mere mortals. I watched mediumship as a spectator, still thinking they must be so lucky to connect to loved ones, have access to that wisdom, and have life all figured out. There is a naivete in these beliefs in so many aspects.
My perceptions changed once I started studying hypnosis and becoming a hypnotherapist. I became interested in mediumship through this process, as well as being hypnotized myself. Thankfully, I was learning with a fantastic group of people who were open to what I was feeling and sensing and didn’t tell me I was making stuff up or that what I was perceiving was just my imagination. They were genuinely open to what I was receiving. This receptivity and openness was a permission slip of sorts and the key to allowing me to explore mediumship more.
In the following few blogs, I want to dispel some big myths about spirit communication. Many of these myths were a means to explain something that, for the most part, was unexplainable. However, we know too much now about consciousness studies, neuroscience, quantum mechanics, quantum biology, and the subconscious mind to continue perpetuating ultimately unprovable myths. I hope that if these myths are dispelled, more people will know that you don’t need a medium to connect to your loved ones. Everyone can communicate with spirit and, if they want to.
Seeing spirit as a child, as many mediums often express, explains how they knew they were medium. However, when you understand the developmental brain wave states of humans, it makes sense why some mediums have memories of spirit. There has not been much research done on mediums during readings, but the ones that have been done are functioning predominantly in an alpha brain wave state. Alpha is that light trance state. Alpha brain waves are a type of brain wave that occurs when people feel relaxed and when the brain is in an idle state without concentrating on anything. They measure between 8 and 12 Hz. Alpha waves are characterized by an alert yet calm mind. When your brain operates at the alpha frequency, you can easily absorb new information and be significantly more creative.
Children between two and twelve years of age remain in a receptive brain wave state of alpha and theta. This receptive state is why children have the ability, better than adults, to be aware of spirit. Adults primarily function in beta. When people go into development to perform spirit communication, it is sometimes a struggle not to get into the beta. Most mediumship development is getting it, so developing mediums stay receptive without problem-solving the information.
From birth to about two years of age, we are primarily in a delta brain wave state. Delta is the lowest brain wave in humans. Delta waves are typically generated in the brain's right hemisphere and are linked to our subconscious and unconscious processes. As we age, delta activity becomes increasingly sparse, even during sleep.
Theta waves are brain-predominant in children between two and six years old. Children operating in theta are very connected to their internal world. They live in the realm of imagination and daydreaming and can still not show signs of critical, rational thinking. Theta waves have also been linked to experiencing emotions, intuition, and relaxation and are connected to the subconscious mind.
Thus, children experiencing spirit would seem almost normal due to their receptive state (alpha/theta). However, why do only some people remember their spirit encounters while others presumably don't? This can be answered in terms of how memory works in the brain. Typically, memories placed through active recall are associated with emotions and strong emotions. From a neurological standpoint, emotional events are easier to remember because they activate your amygdala and hippocampus almost simultaneously. The emotion-focused amygdala helps the hippocampus store memories more effectively, resulting in stronger memories.
This is why we remember the surprise birthday, the birth of our child, the loss of a pet, the first time we drove a car, high school graduation, etc. However, if you ask people what they had for dinner five years ago today, they are unlikely to remember. Thus, for many mediums that say they have seen spirits since childhood, there was likely an emotion associated (fear, love, surprise, curiosity, etc.).
Thus, remembering a spirit experience as a child is not a prerequisite to being a medium. Nor does having a spirit experience as a child mean you must be a medium. Nor does another medium saying you are a medium or not a medium mean much. We all can develop mediumship.
Above all things, we have free will to do and create the lives we want, even outside the mediumship. If you desire or feel drawn to this work, that is wonderful! However, like any skill, anything that anyone does well, it does take learning, work, and personal development. Everyone has it in them to be their best and get into the receptive state necessary for spirit communication.
Thus, if mediumship is calling to you, please know you can do it. All you need is to be in the sweet spot of the alpha brain wave state, have your target, the spirit communicator, and not allow your extraordinary logical brain to talk you out of the experience you are having. We all have connections to our loved ones and to spirit without even knowing it, likely because our brain talks us out of the experience. Once you allow the rational thinking brain to step aside, then the magic happens.
In the next blog post, part two of this series, everyone is a Medium, the myth that connecting to your loved one is more challenging.