5 Ways To Challenge Your Paranormal Team's Psychic/Medium - and they are going to love it!

To each their own is my philosophy. Some teams in the para field are adamant that psychics have no place in the field and some have their own, in-house psychic. Some teams are comprised of psychics entirely. Some have sensitives, some have skeptics. Some have a mixture of all of the above. This article is not about telling you which one is the best combination. As far as I am concerned all that matters is that the team are happy and work well with eachother.

If you work with psychics or may be considering working with them in the future, you will find this article useful. Well, I hope anyway.

Here are five ways to engage them in your paranormal investigations, whether private cases, public investigations or commercial locations.

1            Prepare a kit for them to use prior to the investigation. Include items that relate to the location you're investigating. Include some "easter eggs", items that have nothing to do with the location. It can contain things like old photos, items that were used at that location or relate to activities being carried out at the location, even replicas of items, sound bytes or even paragraphs of stories. Get as creative as you like. This is also a good way to gauge how suggestible your psychic is as well as whether they use cold reading techniques to gather information. Disclose nothing of the location you're investigating but leave your psychic plenty of time to work on items from the kit. They may use all of the items or just some of them. Extra brownie points for those who can point out the easter eggs.

2              Obtain a floor plan to the location you're investigating. If a floor plan is not available, just draw one up yourself. Don't worry about it not being an architectural drawing as long as it represents the rough proportions of the property. Give it to your psychic in advance for them to get a "feel" for it. Ask them to give your information on things like, what type of activity they feel is occurring and where. What each room feels like or looks like. Who does what in each room. As in what the day to day use of a space is. Are there any significant items in any of the spaces that might relate to activity. Again, get creative but also allow them to come up with their own information. If you want to push them just a little bit further, ask them to draw the floor plan themselves based on the psychic information they are getting. Do not disclose any information about the location. Extra brownie points for those who can differentiate between the activity of the living and any supposed spirits that may haunt the place.

3              Many psychics read from photos. If you've researched your location, like a diligent paranormal investigator should, you would more than likely have come across some images from that property's past. Pick one that is not an obvious and popular image and get your psychic to read the image. Ask them to provide information on people that have associations with that property or historic events that might have happened there. For a private case, ask permission from the client to use a photo of people living in the house, including some that have passed. Your psychic should attempt to point out relationships between people in the photos as well as gain insight on whether any particular person has any paranormal activity happening around them and what that activity is. Of course for this, as any private case, you'll have to pay particular attention to the client's privacy. As in all of the previous suggestions, give no information to your psychic. Extra brownie points go to anyone that can give names or initials of persons of interest relating to the photos.

4              Re-enactments can be useful during investigations as era cues have been show to produce some great results by teams. Your psychic can help you with that. Tapping into time lines and events that happened at a location, be it indoors or outdoors, private case or commercial building can assist with determining how or where to focus effort during investigation. Get your psychic to help act out events they pick up, either by taking on the role of one of the perceived spirits during the re-enactment or the role of the director where they instruct members of the team what to do or say, how to act etc. Much like a film director. I suggest recording this part on video as well as a separate audio track (or even several) for the chance to gather any possible EVPs these era-cues may generate. Of course, keeping all details from your psychic in this instance is also imperative. Extra brownie points for those psychics who can come up with some scenes to act out prior to the investigation where the events can be verified by the investigator team.

5              Many investigations involve haunted items. Clients report items disappearing or moving or otherwise being involved in paranormal activity. You may want to get your psychic to concentrate on those particular items. If you have the opportunity to get your hands on an item like this prior to the investigation, let your psychic sit with it for a while to see if they will pick up on anything that might relate to the origin of the activity around that item. If that is not possible, a photo of the item might suffice. Or even during the investigation, let your psychic spend some time with the item. In this case don't tell them beforehand what the item that was reported have phenomena around it is. Challenge them further by, again, using the easter egg technique. Expect information from your psychic that is not outright obvious about an item. Eg, a shaving brush being used by a male. Restricting information for this challenge is as important as for the ones mentioned before. Extra brownie points to the psychic if they can pick out any easter eggs or if they can provide information of the origins of allegedly haunted items.

Of course keep in mind that experimentation around psychic phenomena has many critics not to even mention the question that is in the most part and for a lot of people is yet to remain solidly unanswered. Is psychic phenomenon real?

I have had many experiences that I can't explain that led me to question and theorise for both for and against the validity of claims of psychic "powers" and mediumship. I never stop questioning and challenging myself in that regard and I look for answers on both ends of the spectrum. Pushing my own limits has become an obsession of sorts and I take great pleasure in guiding others to do the same. 

Top Tips For Psychics Who Want To Get Into The Paranormal Field

It usually creates grumbles in psychic circles when I say that you need some specialised skills to be efficient as a psychic/medium in the paranormal. I wouldn’t say it if it weren't for the years of experience I have working in the field. And by that I mean actual field. I am not someone who does one on one readings or stage mediumship, for good reasons that belong into a whole other blog article. From very early on in my run as a medium, I knew that those things weren't for me. I enjoyed the challenge of investigations too much, the questioning of the investigators, participating in experiments and even designing them. The more something or someone challenges me, the more I like it. I revel in seeing the paranormal field develop and grow year on year, something that really cannot be said for the spiritual field in general.

There are many distinct attributes that set aside a paranormal medium from stage mediums and those attributes will decide whether a medium will be efficient and effective in a paranormal investigation setting or not. I get asked a lot what those attributes are, how people can gain skills as mediums to be useful in the paranormal and what they need to do start working as a useful part of a team.

Here I am sharing some of my top tips regarding how you, as a psychic or medium can gain entry into the paranormal field and become an integral part of a team or even work as an independent medium investigator.

1              Just because you make claims that you're a psychic/medium it doesn't mean that anyone will employ your services as one.

You can write all the emails you want to teams out there. Chances are that if they even work with a medium they already have one. Someone who is tried and tested and with an established rapport with the other team members. Don't be disappointed if you get rejected. Many teams look for someone with some demonstrated experience in the paranormal field. The less training they have to give you on how an investigation works, the more time they can spend on investigating.

2              Make a name for yourself in the field.       

                                  

The paranormal community, anywhere in the world pretty much, is a pretty tight knit community with teams knowing eachother, independent investigators consulting with teams and eachother so when a name pop ups that they don't know, there is a degree of avoidance. Trust is imperative whether you're a solo investigator or a team so the best way to get started is to get involved in the community. If you just insert yourself from nowhere in the community and demand attention, I can tell you, all you will get are cold shoulders. People work extremely hard to establish themselves in this fringe field and they will expect, rightfully so, that newcomers will pay their dues so to speak. Go to events where those people hang out, there are plenty of them and the offerings are growing every year, talk to them, find out what they do, ask them lots of questions and make it known that you're looking at entering the field yourself. Investigators are social people, well most of them anyway, and they will be happy to introduce you to even more people in the field.

3              Learn about psychic research and paranormal research in general.

The paranormal scene has changed a lot in the last 5 years or so and teams are increasingly critical of mediumship and emphasis is now on using electronic devices to gather evidence. A medium's word is no longer taken at face value. And that is how it should be. The more familiar you are with investigative procedures, experimentation and what goes on during an investigation in general, the more useful you are going to be in the field. Forget about TV shows as a benchmark for good investigative practices and look at the work of reputable researchers. The field is diverse and there are plenty of great brains out there publishing about paranormal research. Seek them out and be an informed psychic/medium.

4              Have an impeccable record of integrity and professionalism.

Many a team has been brought down by an unscrupulous medium and their credibility lost due to shady conduct. It takes a long time to recover trust lost, not only with the clients but for the team as well. Same applies if you're a solo medium investigator. How you conduct yourself publicly, and that includes any sort of social media, will impact on your standing in the paranormal field as well as your ability to gain entry to a team.

5              Be prepared to be challenged in your skills and abilities.

This is a growing field and those who can't grow with it will be left behind. Growth happens when you are challenged, pushed to the very boundaries of your abilities and your beliefs. You have to have the strength to get up and keep going, the humility to say that you are wrong or don't know the answer to a question and the ability to recognise that you are not the centre of the universe at the investigation. A willingness to go anywhere you need to go and deal with whatever is at hand at a moment's notice is also a desirable skill that will stand you in good stead with investigators. I have climbed sand dunes and river banks in searing heat as well as spent nights in derelict buildings in the middle of the woods with no running water many a time to support an investigation. If you're not the type of person to do something like that, reconsider whether you really want to get into the field.

If after all the above you feel like you want to take the leap, I suggest you jump in with both feet or not at all. This field requires a high level of personal commitment and the diversity means that you never know what you'll get when you go out investigating so you'll have to think on your feet. If you like being challenged and to push yourself then don't hesitate. The rewards are well worth it!

Top Tips For Handling Kids' Paranormal Experiences

Children are a lot more open to the world of the unseen and if my own two (not so) little cherubs are anything to go by, there are plenty they experience. Because they have no framework at a young age to put the experiences in, they often get missed in the babble of talking about imaginary friends and storytelling games. Is there anything you can do to have those conversations with your child where they tell you about their unusual experiences? Of course there is.

1              Take your child seriously when they talk to you about their imaginary friends. Some of them may not be so imaginary. When our daughter spoke of seeing her grandmother in her bedroom a few days after she died, she was too young to understand the concept of death. She was perplexed by the fact that as far as she was concerned, her grandmother was living in a different country. Until one night she visited her granddaughter wearing her trademark polka dot blouse she loved so much. Michelle was adamant in the morning that she spoke with grandma in the night and the description she gave was a perfect likeness to what she looked like before she died.  The visit was a comfort not only to her but the rest of the family and we wouldn’t have known about it had we not taken the time and care to listen to her story.

2              Some spirits in your house or around your children may not come from your family tree. As it was the case with the house we live in. It's an old farmhouse and there are plenty of spirit shenanigans going on on a daily basis. As it turned out, the gentleman who built it was still around in his corporeal form after we have taken ownership of it and he took his cranky self to the kids room at night on occasion. Having not the heart to dispatch the old man from the house he built, we still wanted to take some steps to make the kids more comfortable sleeping in their own beds at night. We have put a sign on the door of their room that said loud and clear, "NO SPIRITS ARE ALLOWED!". That took care of that problem. They felt they have exerted their authority over their own room and who is allowed in and peace at night has returned once again. The old man was never felt or seen in that room again.

3              Sometimes it's hard for children to put into words what they see, especially if they have no concept of it, such as someone walking through a wall or hovering on the ceiling. In that case asking them to draw what they experienced will make it easier for them to recall the experience and getting them to talk about it. It also helps in getting the scale of what they experienced and some clues on how they feel about it.

4              Sometimes siblings will have shared experiences. Depending on their age and the age gap in between them, they might express their experiences differently. It's important to be supportive and listen to what they have to say and give them a platform that promotes trust and a feeling of not being alone with their experiences. Kids are naturally mediumistic and some will grow up keeping their ability and growing it, however some will push it into the background only for it to come out later in life in a higher intensity but with much less control.

5              Introducing concepts such as angels and spirit guides is all and well. However I would very much caution against labelling any sort of spirit or other paranormal experiences as evil. Apart from causing unnecessary stress for children, as they have no understanding of what it is other than it's bad, it can cause severe anxiety that will last for years and other disorders.

6              If you're concerned and you feel that you need to discuss your child's experiences,  I suggest that you do that away from your child. Children are very perceptive and will pick up on your beliefs about their experiences. They will need you to be the one they look to for comfort and as a confidant that won't laugh at them. You might not be of the opinion that what they experiences was real but to them it was.

In any case, the most important to remember is that if you are concerned about the mental or physical wellbeing of your child, you need to see an appropriate health professional without delay. 

Basic Starting Guide To Paranormal Photos

Spirit photography has been popular almost since the dawn of spiritualism and coincided with the dawn of photography as well. Some savvy photographers worked out how to use double exposure to fudge photographs for the unsuspecting public. And the public lapped it up. Fake spirit photos are not a modern age thing only done by someone cluey enough to use Photoshop. Ghost apps by the dozen are available to download for free for smartphones and are unashamedly uploaded to social media. Surprisingly there are still people who fall for them. 

The story of the photo usually starts with something like, "a mate of mine took this photo and sent it to me and swears it's genuine". Even investigators are not immune to this folly. On more than once occasion, I have been shown photos on smartphones with the above story and was expected to be in awe. Of course it didn’t go down well with the owner of the photo when I revealed that I was an investigator and a photographer myself and what they were looking at was a fake. Some tried to convince me it wasn't as they took the photo themselves. It makes me a little sad.

I would like to share with you some very simple and easy to follow tips you can use to take great photos even with a compact camera while on ghost tours, investigations or just on a rogue Saturday midnight cemetery dash.

No handheld devices

Forget your smart phones and tablets. While most of them take pictures with excellent resolution, there is precious little you can do photographic settings wise to adjust to your environment. Not to mention that any self-respecting investigator worth their salt will just plain and simple refuse to give you an opinion on your image, should you decide to send it to them. Simple and fairly inexpensive compact and SLR digital cameras are perfectly fine for taking snaps. Some even have really good low light functions and that means you won't have to use your flash all the time. We all know that one person on a tour or an investigation who just can't help themselves but take hundreds of flash photos, ensuring that participants are all but completely blind by the conclusion of the event. Not cool.

Have the right equipment

A tripod is a must have staple in your spirit photography arsenal. It doesn't have to be super-duper, weight balanced titanium with an inbuilt spirit level, you're not photographing for National Geographics. Inexpensive ones can be acquired online and are lightweight aluminium and will easily fit into a small backpack alongside your rations for the night, your torches, spare batteries and holy water. When you take pictures in the dark, whether your camera is set to auto or you adjust the settings yourself a longer exposure will required if you don’t want the images to turn out completely black, if your camera even picks up objects at all. Most camera sensors need something to hook onto when focussing or measuring for autosettings. Longer exposure means that even if the camera moves the slightest, you will have a ghosting effect on your image. This may even be caused if you breathe while the lens is open or the subject in the frame moves. Yes, even if the movement is the slightest.

Common misidentifications

Moving lightsources, dust, insects, cigarette smoke, breath or condensation are often misidentified as spirits on photos. The great orb debate has raged for a long as digital cameras have been around. Even longer if you take into account sunflares and lens reflections. At least now, in the digital age, where images are no longer captured on film negatives, aberrations on the images caused by incorrect distribution of developing chemicals or a faulty film strip can be excluded. There are steps you can take to avoid the above listed artefacts from appearing on your images. Trailing can be avoided by making sure that there are no prominent light sources in your shot. Someone holding a torch, a candle, even street lights can be misleading once you manage to put your images on your computer days later. It's unlikely you will remember every single details about your environment on the night you took your photos. Insects are hard to avoid but they will be pretty obvious once you get the hang of spotting them in your photos. Exhaled breath and cigarette smoke will not necessarily be visible when you take your picture, but will produce a distinctive signature on the image. Condensation in or on the lens will occur if you move between areas of varying temperatures like getting out of a warm car where you kept your camera and start taking photos outdoors on a cold day or night.

5 Fluff Free Meditating Tips For The Superbusy

According to Webster Online Dictionary, mediation is continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature. Yawn! This explanation is likely to put the most devout Buddhists off mediating, let alone a mum who's desperately looking forward the kids to go to bed so she can at least have 5 uninterrupted minutes in the bathroom. Or the busy professional who even works on the train on their way home from work after a 10 hour day.

When you hear the word meditation, what comes into your mind? Incense smoke filled yoga room with dreadlock and drawstring pants wearing people? A stack of never opened CDs you bought ages ago thinking you will have the time and dedication one day to "really get into it"? Or maybe an idyllic picture from your Facebook newsfeed showing a person sitting on a mountain top looking mighty serene and kind of full of inner peace smugness? I hear you!

Don't let all this dissuade you from at least trying it on for size. Bringing meditation into your every day is easier than it might seem. Let me share with you some ideas that I think will grow on you faster than you can say Namaste. These 5 top tips will not only help you get into meditation but will enhance your experience with psychic development.

1              Relaxation and Mindfulness

If you haven't done any meditation before, I suggest you try relaxation first and some mindfulness meditations or visualisations. These types of meditations are guided and on top of the soothing soundtrack of ocean waves, bird sounds and the like and you will have a person's voice taking you through a landscape of some kind usually. Sandy beaches, cool caves, lush forests are all popular choices. To start off with, choose something that is not too long. About 10-15 minutes will do. Choose a time when you won't be disturbed, turn your phone off and find a comfortable place to sit. I prefer a sitting position as it's just too easy to fall asleep during a relaxing meditation. As much as you want to enjoy it, unless it's bedtime, you want to get on with the rest of your day once you're finished.

2              Noise is Good

If guided meditations are not your cup of tea, I found that just a track of plain sounds is very effective. I have tried various background noises such as white noise, wind blowing, the sound of rain, drums, even whale songs. There is plenty of free material available online or inexpensive tracks on iTunes even. This type of meditation will allow you to be in the driver's seat and go wherever you want to go in your head.

3              Your Happy Place

You will be much more inclined to spend time meditating if you have a comfortable, inviting, cozy place to go to in your head if you're not using guided meditation. You can create the space you want in your head, even the path you get there on. Lack of imagination is not an excuse here as you can also go back to physical places in your thoughts where you really enjoyed yourself in the past or felt peace and calmness. I have a temple space I visualise, where I go to in regular meditations.

4              Thoughts Be Gone

I used to think that meditating means to be completely thought free until I met a yoga teacher who taught me something invaluable and I pass it onto everyone I teach. Don't fight your thoughts when they come into your head. It's natural to have those floating through your mind, even when meditating. If you're focused on keeping them out and fighting to push them out of your head once they enter, your focus is not on your meditation but your mental processes. Imagine that those thoughts that come into your head during meditations are like lithe leaves, being blown into your mindscape during meditation and see them float out of your head as effortlessly as they floated in. Acknowledge each thought and let it drift on and the next one and the next one until there aren't any more. Most of all, don't give yourself a hard time if you're not successful right away. Meditation is called a practice for a reason.

5              Keep It Simple If You Go Off Track

One of my issues during meditation used to be that I often "came out of it" really suddenly and was unable to go back into that relaxed state. Or during guided meditations I would drift away and completely off the path that the guidance was, especially during psychic development classes. I would find it difficult to re-focus once that happened and I would spend the rest of meditation time either with my eyes closed, fully aware and trying not to fall asleep in front of everyone in the circle or beating myself up in my thoughts for not keeping on task. Another technique I learnt from my yoga teacher helped me overcome that issue as well. Whenever I felt myself drifting or coming out of meditation, I would re-focus my thoughts on my breath. As I was inhaling and exhaling, very deliberately, I would feel the rise and fall of my chest and continue with that practice until I was back on track. Some people in my circles found that focusing on their heartbeat works better for them and that is perfectly fine. This is also helpful at the beginning of a meditation session as it helps centring and balancing the mind, priming it for a great meditation.

5 Things Your Psychic Development Teacher Hasn't Taught You About Trance Mediumship - Part 1/5

 

When I made a more serious commitment to my psychic development back in 2006, sitting in a circle of beginners week after week, I started from the same level as everyone else. It wasn't long before it became obvious to me that my development was to be somewhat off the beaten track. I soon began to experience physical changes in my body during the meditation that introduced each session. While my circle peers have come out of meditation with recounts of meeting guides, angels and loved ones who have passed and the like, my experiences were mostly of images of people and energies that didn't seem to fit into any of those categories. I often kept those to myself, fearing that I was being left behind in the development or that there was something wrong with me and guides didn't find me worthy of communicating with.

When I mentioned some of what I was going through during those meditations to my teacher at the time, I was told that I needed to ignore what was happening as this was a beginners class and what I was doing  sounded like trance mediumship and that didn't fit the curriculum. I considered the advice reluctantly but decided to listen to my teacher who had a decade of experience with mediumship by that time. Unable to get instruction on how exactly that could be done, I had to find my own way through the experiences I was having, not knowing at the time, that very process will give me the knowhow to assist people going through the same rites of passage in my own circles years later.

It is my view that people who embark on the road to psychic development and mediumship will have as many different paths of getting there as there are reason for them stepping on it. Therefore the way they learn will be different and the utilisation of this skill and ability will be different as well. That is completely OK! People shouldn't feel that they need to fit the mould their teacher picked out for them, especially that this form of development is very deeply personal for many who participate in it.

In this article I write about some of the knowledge that I wished was passed down to me from some of my teachers about trancemediumship. I hope that there are those out there who will read this and will recognise the learning opportunity and will go forward with their individual psychic development without fear of judgement and with the knowledge that what they are experiencing is real. The below are all based on my personal experiences as a student, teacher and practitioner of trancemediumship. We are all individuals however so you might have a different experience and that is perfectly fine.

Physical Effects of Trancing

• Sudden change in heart rate. This has been happening to me since the very beginning. One moment my heart was beating fine, the next it was almost jumping out of my chest. Very scary to experience it if you don’t know what is going on. It used to last for minutes while I was fighting what was happening to my body and used to exhaust me. It took me about a year of practicing to get it under control. The secret for me was to stop fighting within my body and try to slow my heart down by shear will. I realised that it was just a temporary bodily reaction and the more I let it flow through my body, the easier and quicker it passed.
• Unable to move body. The entry into a trance state is via meditation and the brain goes into an altered state. This, as well as the heart rate change is a temporary condition and passes the same way. As scary as this also is in an in between state, while you're still aware of what you are doing and where you are, if you suddenly want to move your arm for example, you may have some difficulty as your brain is busy putting your body in a relaxed state so that you can get on with your meditation. This was also something I had to learn to overcome myself. What works best for me is that imagine that I am inside my body but am very small, in the centre and I am wearing my physical body as a suit. If I move my tiny body inside the suit then I am able to move the corresponding part of my physical body. This takes some practice too.
• The Fall. This is a sensation that I feel directly before trance state sets in and soon after the above two that I mentioned. I call it The Fall as not matter what position I am in, standing, sitting, reclining, I have the sensation of plummeting down in a never ending 3 dimensional space, rotating in all directions. This too was something I was trying to fight at the beginning of my trance mediumship development. Sometimes I would come out of it by jolting myself awake from this state. I would sit in my chair completely stunned and unable to move, with my heart racing, almost as if the jolt would take me back through the stages of trance within seconds and my body felt like it was going to tear apart. It took me awhile to not get freaked out by the physical sensation of falling. What helped me was the affirmation just before it was happening that I was in a safe place and it too just had to pass.

~End of Part 1/5~

5 Easy Ways to Practice Your Paranormal Mediumship In the Field

Paranormal Investigators Series

 

How does paranormal mediumship differ from stage mediumship? What special skills and experience would someone need if they want to get into paranormal investigations? Allow me to share with you some of my experience of working in the field as a paranormal medium.



 

1.       Get someone else to pick a spot on a map for you. Preferably not a well known location but not in the middle of a desert or a jungle either. Somewhere where there are recognisable structures or landscape that can be verified. Can even use a different state or country. Meditate on the location and take note of any features (sights, sounds, smells etc) that you experience. Visit the location after this exercise if you can and take your notes along to compare. Take photos if you can, bearing in mind any privacy issues with private property and individuals. If you are not able to visit the place, just hop on Google Maps and check it out. This exercise will help with your remote viewing skills.

 

2.       While at investigations, can be indoors or outdoors, spend some time absorbing the location. Here is a little exercise you may find useful. Pick a place where you can connect with the location by yourself.  Make sure you are safe, of course. Centre and ground before you continue. Use some music from your mp3 player if you like. Imagine that you project hundreds of little strands of energy tentacles from your body. They stroke the floor, the walls, the objects around you. Let them feed any information back to you. You can do this with just one room or a whole building or only with individual objects where touching is them is not possible for whatever reason. This exercise will help with your extra-sensory perception.

3.       Some locations, by their purpose built nature will give away their nature. Popular places for paranormal investigators are asylums, hospitals, prisons etc. There are very obvious types of information that can be derived just by knowing the purpose of the building that do not require any special psychic or mediumistic skills. While we do pick up on these types of information, we, as field investigators cannot stop at just that. You don't have to be psychic to feel a criminal personality while investigating dank cells of prison blocks. It would be easy to just stop at that level. However as field mediums you want to strive for a lot more. Locations have many levels of activity, let's not limit yourself to describing and only connecting with the purpose of a structure. There are many many human stories to be derived and told. To help achieve that, you should write down your physical observations before you start your spirit connection, just to get that out of the way. It will also help deciphering later on what was actual psychic/spirit information and what was obvious observation.  This will help with strengthening your ability to be critical of your own work and make a distinction between intellectually received information and psychic information

 

4.       Get someone to film you (cheap handycams are easily accessible nowadays) or if that's not possible, take a voice recorder with you and record your findings. Talk about what you experience, not just psychically but physically as well. Look back on the recording after your investigation as you may find information you received that didn't seem relevant beforehand but gained importance and relevance after and in light of the investigation. This will help you to see where your strengths are as well as allow you to make observation on your accuracy. Who doesn't want to give themselves little brownie points for good information produced psychically?

 

5.       There is no need to have your medium hat on for hours on end during an investigation or even if you are out and about alone, doing field work. Make sure you give yourself a break and ground every once in a while. Mix with the team of people you're with, have something to eat, listen to some music, participate in other experiments and activities that don't require your psychic skills. This will give you an opportunity to learn more about team work and how investigations work from a non-psychic point of view. Being a more integral part of a team and learning other skills means that, just like other participants, you can utilise multiple skills and learn how to better incorporate your mediumship with other areas of research.

These are only some basic tips but will highlight the differences between stage mediumship and field mediumship. If your passion is to work as a paranormal medium and want to know how to make the switch, the above is a good way to start. Enjoy and grow! Oh and always have latex gloves and hand sanitiser handy in your kit! Trust me on that one.

To Ouija or Not to Ouija

Much controversy surrounds the use of psychic/ouija boards in spiritual and paranormal circles. Instead of debating its perceived (or not) hazards or even validity and usefulness, here are some suggestions to try while using it. I have carried out all of the below experiments with various results. As much as I get annoyed when people publish research they have done but without having the gumption to add their own conclusion, I have to admit that while I have encountered some astounding results on occasion, the jury is still out for me due to lack of hard evidence on this tool. So here we go, try some or all of the suggestions by themselves or in combination with eachother and see how you go. I would suggest this to those who have at least some experience using this tool. 

1) use it at a location that is not known or considered to be haunted

2) have all the participants blindfolded

3) turn the board face down

4) have a designated person who isn't touching the board to ask the questions

5) ask open ended questions that require a reply with which the rest of the participants are not familiar with

6) utilize the knowledge of a person in the circle who speaks a foreign language

7) use a voice recorder to record the session and listen back later for possible EVPs

8) get everyone to write names of people they might like to contact during a particular session on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope without showing anyone else in the circle

9) nominate someone to be the scribe and jot down all questions and any responses that are presented on the board, this person can also move around the location in case instructions come through while using the board 

10) use two boards at the same time at the same location 

No Fluff Paranormal Mediumship

There are many types of spirits I have encountered during my years of being in the paranormal field. From the cheeky to the sad, the impostor to the flaky. I found that to get the most out of a communication it's best to match the energy of the spirit that I am interacting with. Similarly, if I want to make contact with a particular entity, I adjust my approach to the vibration of the one I want to connect with.

It was the case last Saturday when the plan was to contact an entity at a location that we have been investigating since 2007. I knew its energy and I knew its tactic so the communication and language I used was commensurate to that. This is something primordial, something dense and heavy, and in my mediumship experience barely human . A collection of lingering energies perhaps, it has amazed us time and time again before with its intensity and uncanning ability to connect with and draw out the darkness from within those it chooses to encounter.

I raised my voice while attempting to awaken it and we could feel the energy rising and the atmosphere changing. Our chosen primary instrument for communication this time was a talking board, a tool we have  used many times before. I was leading the séance, so to adhere to protocol I didn't have my hand on the planchette but was standing by. Without debating the pros and cons or the validity of this method in this article I'd like to write about what had happened.

After some general information being conveyed via the board, the tone changed and became threatening. Phrases of "heathen go to hell", "burn in hell heathen" and "get f&*#ed" were thrown around, we knew we weren't dealing with the elemental type entity we were aiming for. This was human. We let the tirade continue for a short time while I was assessing the situation and where to go next with this session. There were a number of people in the team that were working with us at the time that are pagan and follow the Old Ways of Witchcraft, including myself so the remark of "heathen" was not a surprise. We decided to play the religion card, as it were, and went back with equal force. We questioned the state and belief of the one who was communicating with us through the board and we did that aggressively. It was spewing hate at us and we were not going to just take it with love and light. If it was a living person we would have done the same, so didn't see why we would have to treat this one any different.

Now, in a decent paranormal movie, this is the point where objects start to fly and someone starts talking with the voice of the Devil while talking board catches fire and people fall to the ground in fits. You will be able to see in one of the episodes of In Tenebris what happened. Let me just say that the "throw some love at it" approach is the weakest argument and doesn't stand up as it doesn't stand up real life either. I don't believe in turning the other cheek. I don't believe in worshipping the dead as if they had some sort of magickal power. I believe that there are those who are decent human beings and they remain so once they pass to the Other Side. At the same time though I believe that there are bigots and egotists that remain that way even after death. I don't believe in sending spirits to the light with force and I don't believe people change into enlightened and almighty holy beings as soon as they die. I do, however believe in personal responsibility and accountability on this side as well as the Other Side and if anyone from the spiritworld is as judgemental as the one we have encountered as above they should be met with an equal force of reckoning and accountability from me and my team. "Calling out" I believe the term is. There are enough wishy washy people around who preach love to all on the surface but deep down are hateful and false. Dealing with them is the same as dealing with those types of spirits in the spiritworld. Facing them head on and with equal force to expose their hate and falseness. I found that with this approach either one of two things happen. One, they pull their heads in and realise that at the soul level we are all equal or two, they continue with their hate even more. Why that is, I don't know. One things is for sure though, I haven't encountered any fire and brimstones yet.