Mediums

In 1964 James Randi offered $1 million prize to any medium who could prove they were genuine. That $1 million dollars remained safe and unclaimed until the offer was terminated in 2015. Nuff said.

A month after my father died, his sister (my aunt) asked my mum to accompany her to see a medium. Reluctantly, she went and took me and my brother with her. We were 17 and 15. Auntie went in alone and came out looking shaken but said nothing. When it was her turn, Mum took me in with her. She wasn't wearing mourning clothes or an arm band. I clearly remember the medium looking anxious and telling Mum that she had nothing to tell her, there was nothing that she could see in the future, all blank.
Mum wasn't perturbed by this pronouncement but she never had a life after dad died. She and he were both 45 and she always said that when you've had the best, nothing else will do. For the next 31 years she led a lonely blank life. Such sadness. To my knowledge, auntie never told mum what was said to her. I'm a real sceptic. Derek Acorah is just an amusing 'turn'.

It can happen among Family members or someone extremely close, yes I believe, but not with total strangers.
I knew when my Gran was about to die , and travelled more than 100 miles by bus and train to see her, arriving at the exact time she died . My mum and uncle arrived a couple of hours later ,and were shocked to see me , but we were extremely close .

Having always felt strongly that I didn't want to 'poke' any of the areas of Tarot cards, Ouija board or mediums , I was persuaded/bullied by a cousin to go to a medium with her. I told the woman literally nothing about myself; she could discern I was married by my ring I suppose, and she told me several things about my children (how did she know what family I had?) that were spot on, and then asked a question about my mother's death. She then told me something that only my OH and I knew, and I went cold. I wasn't afraid but thoroughly shaken that she must have had 'something' to be able to tell me what she had. I have never visited another, nor will I, and have heard of some real charlatans at work who are despicable, but it has to be said that .I have had a rather different experience .

There are more things in heaven and earth etc. I was sceptical too and think there are a lot of fraudulent people around. I did visit one man though who gave me pause for thought. He said he would just talk and if it didn't make any sense I was free to leave without payment. He told me small things about relatives and friends that were only known to the immediate family. He didn't discuss anything with me so no clues picked up. Other people who consulted him had the same experience.

And there was I, thinking OldMeg was Mystic Meg's mother!

Really OldMeg ? I disagree with you and will keep an open mind

Intuition can be amazing if you pay attention to it. Our unconscious mind picks up all kinds of information and stores and processes it. I believe there is a kind of survival after death, but I can't explain why or what. I think some kind of energy can persist after death and that we are able to receive messages, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. No, I am not a nutter: I've just had too many experiences that have forced me to adopt this view. Doris Stokes was a proven charlatan: I don't think psychics should charge either.

Definitely charlatans. You hear what you want to hear when you visit these people.
If I told people I could hear voices talking to me I would be classed as mentally ill, perhaps these mediums are.

jura2, I've come across charlatans and they should be hounded out and not be able to prey on vulnerable people.

However, the medium I saw definitely was not. How has he been able to teach at London Psychic School for 18 years if he was.

I'm a very down to earth skeptical woman,but I was amazed at the facts and validation he gave me. I also found it very comforting, so don't knock it. How can you prove there's a God? You just believe,and that can be enough.

Not misguided charlatans- but crooks who pray on people's insecurities and misfortune... and make a fortune out of it.

I don't see either, how the £1m challenge could work in artificial, scientific circumstances. In any case, how could it be tested?

I know it's not the same thing, but my mother (a hyper sensitive type, which could sometimes make her difficult to live with) was occasionally acutely telepathic. Just 2 or 3 times over many decades she dreamt exact details of some trauma or distress in a family member thousands of miles away.

This was not a case of being wise after the event. She would be worried enough to tell us all, and later (this was pre overseas calls being a usual thing, let alone email) it would transpire that whatever it was had occurred on the night when she'd had the dream.

In one such case, involving the birth of a baby we hadn't even known was on the way, we even knew the timings, since we later had a card with time and date, and my mother had said at the time that she'd had the dream between 6.30, when she'd woken to look at the clock, and the alarm going off at 7. A quick check of time differences - baby born in Canada - proved it.

However her ability could never have been proved under lab conditions, since it only ever happened (at least that I knew of) at times of trauma or distress in someone she was close to.

Maw the relevance links back to my post yesterday at 19:05 and the subsequent discussions about physics and our brains being particles like the dust in the Pullman books.

What on earth are people thinking? Are you really serious that you think people can contact the dead?

Come on. Think about this logically.

MawBroom and others are correct. You are deluding yourselves and playing into the hands of those who prey on the grieving.

The first book of The Book of Dust is La Belle Sauvage and is indeed a prequel to Northern Lights,. It was broadcast in full on Radio 4 one Saturday afternoon last November - an absolute treat.
I understand the second book is designed to round off the His Dark Materials trilogy.
That said, I will shut up now as I don’t see the relevance to the title of this thread.
In answer to which, my opinion for what it is worth is that they are self deluded or charlatans and basically exploit the feelings of the many bereaved who find it hard to accept that they can no longer communicate with someone they have lost.

I always wondered if there was some sort of contact with the electrical impulses in people's brains that made these connections, with some people being more efficient conductors, though this does not explain predicting future events.

Wilma I have been strangely drawn to 'His Dark Materials' since I first read the books but was more interested in the idea of parallel universes. I did not make the link with particles though which is strange as one of my favourite pictures is the one of every living, dead and not yet created living thing except Michael Collins, who took the photo from the moon.

I am still quite sceptical about mediums but perhaps should put one on my 'bucket list' purely for research purposes of course.

I would only go to see someone recommended to me and I don't know anyone to ask. Time for some ???????

Night night. I should go to bed too. x

Perhaps you could find someone through research MissA? Or a recommendation.

We have mentioned that those who have been bereaved are perhaps susceptible to the charlatans. I'd only want you to go if it was a positive experience for you. <hug> Oh I know we don't know each other, but the thought of the grieving being taken for a ride upsets me.

Thank you. very interesting.

Anyway, I shall be desperate for more time in bed tomorrow morning when I have to 'get up for school' so I better try and sleep.

The thing is though, for me, I couldn't take it with a pinch of salt anymore. I suppose I'm desperate for a tiny bit 'more time' and a medium seems to be the only way..

*Wouldn't I need to find a conduit, day6?
I somehow think I would be setting myself up for disappointment by seeing a medium.*

Obviously, I cannot speak for people who claim to be mediums and seemingly CAN summon up messages from beyond at will. They may have that gift, who knows? And yes, Miss Adventure, I imagine most people who visit mediums desperately want to feel their deceased loved ones are in touch. I know it can be done, but I am not sure how mediums can work for all-comers. My belief /experience is that you cannot summon up the spirits of the dead. They use the living when they want to without any fore-thought from the vehicle (living person) used as a receiver.

Only speaking from my own strange (but comforting) and limited experiences and I too hope the conversation is not upsetting anyone.

Maybe we should set up our own experiment? Each go and see a medium, and report back?

Look how many people on this thread have been to see someone.