In 2005 Hans King told me I am an inuitive healer, and a medium. The intuitive healer part made sense, as I regularly used intuition in my work, and had training in healing practices like Reiki and Jin Shin Do. The medium part, I wasn't sure about...

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a medium is "a person reputedly able to make contact with the world of spirits, especially while in a state of trance." Spirit does not necessarily mean disembodied spirit, it also refers to our own soul from which our current persona emerged, our spirit guides and other higher level beings. Therefore being a medium does not necessarily mean going into a trance and communicating with our deceased aunt Sally, it might be consciously getting information about a person or place.

So, is there a difference between being a medium, and being psychic? As Hans used to put it, psychics perceive, mediums receive. He also said that all mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums. It's worth noting that John Holland says the same thing, so it's not just one man's opinion. I will attempt to clarify what that means below, but first it's important to consider the context that this view emerges from.

Context Matters

Arthur Findlay College

Hans and John Holland both attended formal educational institutions in England that train mediums, you can think of them as a kind of Harry Potter school for the naturally gifted. Those insitutions have a certain set of standards that they adhere to, starting with the idea that some people are born with natural abilities, which can be developed. However, if you aren't born with them, there is a limit to the kind of abilities that one can develop. So, the idea that mediums are born, and psychics are made, comes from that basic set of assumptions. Considering the culture that these institutions have come from, this view is understandable.

In my personal opinion, that view is not entirely accurate. We are spiritual beings having a human experience, which implies that the spiritual component of our being will survive physical death. We all have different life experiences, and some of us have had more lifetimes worth of experience than others. So, for example, if we live many lifetimes pursuing various forms of spiritual development, we might be born into a new life with a level of spiritual awareness that is more developed than someone who may not have had as many liifetimes of experience, or perhaps focused on other things in the lives they have lived. In my case, I have learned about previous lifetimes where I was as a monk, a priest and a shaman, so it makes sense why I was born with certain abilities switched on by default. We all have the same potential, but how we direct and focus that potential varies.

In the past, it may have been more likely for an advanced soul to be born into a life of prominence, where their skills were useful and they could further their growth. What would be the point of someone with the life experience of an Einstein or Edison, being born into an Aboriginal tribe in a rainforest? One kind of life is not necessarily better than another, each serve a purpose. In fact, these days there likely are advanced souls choosing to live as Indigenous people, in order to preserve ancient wisdom that would otherwise be lost. However, it seems that once a soul reaches a certain level of spiritual development, the opportunity to live a life free from many of the social and cultural restraints that played an important part in older cultures, may be desirable for some, but may not be right for everyone.

Kublahi Khan

As an example, Chinese people have lived with Emperors and centralized bureaucracy for thousands of years, and are accustomed to the autocratic form of government. In fact, the current leader was a Mongul Emperor before. It's a comfortable and familiar way of life for many people.

And similarly, European history is deeply rooted in the idea of Nobility, so things like your family lineage and where you went to school play a more important role in a person's life, than it would to someone born in Texas or California. Context matters. There is no one right way of doing things, it's a matter of what we are comfortable with, and what best serves what we are doing in our current life.

So, all of that is a very wordy way of saying, mediums are born, but they can also be made. If a person were to spend their life working on their spiritual development, they can potentially develop the same capabilities as those who are born with them. It comes naturally to some, and others can work to attain it. There are no barriers to consciousness deveopment, other than those we impose on ourselves.

Psychics and Mediums

So, to go back to the difference between psychics and mediums, I will repeat what Hans said. Psychics perceive, mediums receive.

What he meant is that people who are considered psychic, pick up information from the environment, which includes sensing things at a distance. So as an example, looking at a picture of someone, a psychic can "sense" things about that person, or things that person has or will experience. And, by tuning into the world around them, they can get information about potential future events, or what may have happened in the past. There is a lot of information available to people with developed psychic abilities.

Mediums, however, often receive information from non-physical intelligences, such as spirit guides. They have the same ability to tune into people or places at a distance and get information, but there is another layer of information available, in the form of spirit communication. 

So, in a way being psychic is similar to picking up a book, reading a few chapters, and coming to your own conclusions, whereas being a medium is like having a professor explain the book to you. Psychics and Mediums often access the same information, but the way in which it's received and interpreted can vary greatly.

However, in my opinion, once you open the door to communication with the non-physcial, things can get a little tricky. That is why formal training, or at least some sort of mentorship, is a very good idea.

Below are some examples of phenomena, from my own experience, which demonstrate an enhanced perceptual abilty. But most importantly, they are things that many people have experienced to some degree. We are all spiritual beings having a human experience, so these things are available to us all.

Deceased Relatives

I will share one example about communicating with the deceased, which I promised someone I would write about someday.

Back in February of 2022 my 95 year old grandmother was in a hospital in Texas, and was not expected to live much longer. However, Sara and I were in Montana, and driving to Texas in the winter would take several days. On the second day of driving, we decided to drive thru the night rather than stopping at a hotel.

It was about 3:30 am and we had just entered Texas, when I started feeling a lot of energy. There was tingling up my spine and I started to feel a loving presence, almost like getting a big hug. Sara was sleeping heavily and we were in the middle of nowhere, so I kept driving, feeling this incredibly overwhelming feeling of love. There was the very clear impression that it was my Grandmother, and that she was thanking me for making the trip to visit her. There was a little communication, and when I acknowledged her presence and thanked her, the energy level increased, which removed any doubt about what I was experiencing.

At the time I thought that could only mean one thing, she had died before we made it to the hospital. Before noon we checked in to a hotel near the hospital, and as it turned out she was alive and alert. That afternoon and the next day we were able to spend some time with her in the hospital, and we talked about the marathon roadtrip to come see her. She went unconscious a few days later, and died shortly after.

What I later realized, is that after she died, she remembered what I told her about driving thru the night to see her, and she came back in time to see the event. The story about people having life reviews is real, and the recently deceased can return to the past and interact with us, before they died. Time appears to be linear, but consciousness exists outside of time and space, therefore it's not limited by the constraints of physical material reality.

Many people have had dreams of interaction with the deceased, that is something available to everyone, especially when there is a connection with the person. The question is, do we dismiss it as our overactive imagination, or do we accept it as real?

Ghosts

TV and Radio

My experience has been, for the most part, a positive one. However, there are occasionally unpleasant interactions when visiting certain places, in fact it happened just recently. Sara and I visited a museum which is housed in a rather large historical building dating back to the late 1800's. We only had an hour before they closed, so we took our maps and went our separate ways, to make sure we could each see what we were interested in.

There were several times that I felt a presence nearby, similar to the feeling you get when someone is standing behind you. It is a familiar feeling that I do not dismiss anymore, but at the same time I know it's not anything to worry about. I simply mentally intend that my space is my space, and that whatever is there needs to honor that, which is usually all it takes. I do not make an effort to engage or communicate in those circumstances, so the interactions are usually brief and aren't scary at all. 

However, when I started to enter the room dedicated to old military weapons and uniforms and such, there was an oppresive heaviness that compelled me to turn and leave. Again, nothing scary, I simply chose to avoid that area and went on to the next exhibit.

Artist impression of Ghosts

A few minutes before closing time I was back at the entrance, chatting with the elderly lady who was at the front desk that day. A little while into the chat, completely spontaneously, she mentioned that the building was haunted. They have hosted several paranormal investigation groups, the kind you see on TV that walk thru old buildings at night with various electronic instruments and infrared cameras, and all of them recorded various phenomena. When I asked where, she mentioned the places where I felt something was present, including the military exhibit.

A lot of people experience that type of phenomena, and it's important to remember that there is nothing to be afraid of. There is a lot going on in this world that is beyond what our 5 senses can perceive, so when our extra sensory perception picks up on something that isn't physically there, we just need to pay attention, because sometimes it's not simply our imagination.

Inspiration

For most of my life I have regularly taken time for reflection and meditation, and very often get ideas and insights on how best to handle situations. In fact, that is the reason I was able to navigate my work life, having learned at an early age to listen to what I considered to be intuitive hunches.

It's different for everyone, but I am claircognizant and a little clairvoyant, which means I get impressions about people and situations, and sometimes have visions or see things around people or objects. Primarily I just know things without having any reason to know, and it's often correct. Sometimes I "hear" other people's thoughts, but that is rare, and when it has happened was spontaneous.

So, the way being a medium has affected my life, for the most part, is that I get ideas and inspiration. Sometimes it comes in the form of directions on practical things, and other times it's more philosophical. In the early years they were like daydreams, floating thru my awareness, leaving as fast as they came. When talking with Hans about the insights, he suggested I carry a notebook or voice recorder with me. Ever since, writing and recording the more notable insights has become a habit.

Back in February of 2007, while staying at the North Vancover Holiday Inn, I had a very scary dream. After waking up and turning on the light, I read some of A Course in Miracles to get a handle on my fear. In very short order there was tingling in my spine out thru my head, and I felt compelled to write this:

There is nothing to fear, ever, anyone.  Evil is ignorance, the absence of understanding.  There is light, and the absence of light in varying degrees.  It is not a matter of evil overcoming good, for that is impossible as it can't exist in the presence of understanding.  There is no power in darkness, only absence of light, which causes misunderstanding.  Just as it is impossible to shine darkness into the light, it is impossible for ignorance to overcome understanding, for once understanding is present, ignorance cannot remain.  Fear not, now that this understanding is present, ignorance hath no power, therefore evil cannot exist in the presence of your light.

Obviously that language is similar to the style in which A Course in Miracles is written, but the content itself was not from the text. That kind of thing has happened often enough, that I no longer question if it's coming from my own subconscious. There is a very noticable difference between thinking and inspiration.

Everyone receives inspiration of some sort, and often the source is from outside of our monkey mind. When we develop the practice of meditation and reflection, those experiences often become a regular part of our lives.

In Summary...

Hopefully the examples above make it clear that having psychic abilities, and being a medium, aren't necessarily mysterious or scary. We are all psychic to some extent, because we are eternal conscious beings who are simply interfacing with a human avatar. And, the more we exercise and nourish our connection to the larger reality from which consciousness emerges, the more of it we experience. It's really pretty simple.