Do you believe in Mediums

In my 20s I visited several mediums mostly very accurate. One told me details of DS1s birth that only myself, DH and delivery team would have known.

sook was that the only time you went to a medium

This is a very difficult question to answer.

It's like asking 'Do you believe in ghosts'. Most people would probably say no but who are we to say that. Only you know if you have seen one.

As with mediums they are probably conmen/women but if one told you things and you know they have no way of knowing anything about you life who are we to say they are lying.

They have been 'outed' so many times and their tactics exposed it is a worry to take much of it seriously, especially as they work on peoples emotional state.

I would love to be regressed and a video taken. Only I would know if it had been genuine, similar to ghosts and mediums actually. I am however beyond sceptical about mediums.

CHEELU No I visited several throughout my 20s. One medium in the beginning told me that I would move house (most people do eventually). She described the house as being situated between a church and a pub (it is) but the graveyard didn't belong to the church (it doesn't), she then went on to say it's at a strange angle, it slopes down.

Ten years later I did move to a house 40 miles away. I suppose a sceptic would say that I actively searched for a house that would fit the description that she gave me. My husband did all the house hunting and he rang me one day to tell me about this particular house. He said that I would hate the house but would love the area. He was right! The house was a run down 60s box it's only redeeming feature being a fabulous wood block floor, the location however was lovely. In the heart of a small Cheshire village next door but one to a Methodist Chapel and 4 doors away from a country pub. About 200 yards away is a church tower all that remains of the Church of St ***. The knave of the church was demolished in the mid 70s due to it being unsafe something due to shifting sands in the area. The church tower was leaning (6ft out) at the time (now been stabilised) and the graveyard slopes all around it. Before our time the locals have told me that heavy rains would wash the sandy earth down the sloping ground along with ancient remains. It was only after we had moved and settled in that I remembered what the medium had predicted years before. The church, the pub and the sloping ground.

It's a subject that fascinates me I do think that there are some people who have a genuine ability in that direction.

POGS I too would love to be regressed another fascinating subject.

I speak from my own experience when I was young, confused and looking everywhere I could for 'meaning' in my life. At the time I saw a psychic I was taken in by her apparent knowledge of me and my family. This was after the death of my beloved grandfather whose presence I believed I had felt and seen. With the benefit of hindsight and clearer thinking I was able to understand the unwitting clues and responses that I had given.
My belief is that some of these 'mediums' or 'psychics' are very perceptive, clever people who are able to 'read' people and draw responses from them. I'm also of the opinion that for the most part those who consult these people are possibly vulnerable, certainly unsure and searching for answers which they aren't able to find within themselves.
It is a massive industry these days and one to which I will never again be persuaded to pay into.

A friend reckons she is medium/psychic. In fact she is well known in the area and quite a few people visit for a reading. She doesn't charge much.

I don't think my friend is a con woman. She believes it herself.

I 95% do not but I'd like it to be true.

Baubles, I agree with your post completely. I think some may really believe they have psychic gifts but most are just charlatans preying on grieving people. If you google 'Doris Stokes exposed' you will see how this, the most famous at the time, was a complete fraud. Odd that she has not 'come back' to tell people how genuine she was!
I was accosted by a 'gypsy' in Chatham High Street, offering to read my palm. I told her I would read hers instead. I looked closely at her palm and then said 'You work very hard for your children, you are a wonderful mother and you are not appreciated for all that you do'. She said 'Oh, you really have the gift.' 'No, I just have common sense and some understanding of what most people want to hear', I told her.
I am amazed that some Christians believe this stuff - it appears to be diametrically opposed to the teaching of the Church.

You are correct. It is.

The fact that people believe in what they do, does not prove there is anything in it. Homeopaths, having invested time and money in the training, doggedly believe there is "something in it" despite a vast amount of evidence to the contrary.
There would seem to be 2 categories:
1. Fortune tellers I think people like Derren Brown have proved you can do this stuff if you learn how to read people. It is a skill that plays on the quirks of the human mind. To believe in it, you have to believe that someone can see into the future and that the future is somehow determined in advance. A belief in "the fates" perhaps like the ancient Greeks.
2. Mediums that claim they can contact the dead. In order to believe in them you have to first believe that there is a human soul that survives in some way after death. And that those souls sometimes want to contact the living. And that some people know how to contact them. Sounds like wishful thinking to me - and people praying on that wishful thinking to make money out of bereaved people.

Totally agree, Jess!

Oh well, if it makes them happy!

I suppose I was like you baubles looking for a meaning in life. I went to a medium to hopefully glimpse what lay ahead but not necessarily to contact the dead.

I would agree that there are many charlatans about who pray on bereaved people. But I do believe that some people have a gift of second sight. The fact that the first medium knew so many facts about DS1s birth sends shivers down my spine.

I have never handed out large sums of money to pay for a reading nor would I.

On a lighter note on a visit to the Isle of Man DH decided he would seek his future from a lady offering to glimpse it through a crystal ball. It was inconvenient for us to stop at the time so he returned the following day to find she had posted a sign on her door it read CLOSED DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES

I have only been to a "psychic" once. DH and I were building our home and my sister in law thought she would treat me to a reading. When I arrived the "psychic" went into long descriptions of problems I was encountering, all centred around the house building. I was impressed until I asked my sister in law if she had told the "psychic" anything and she said she had mentioned it was a treat to give me a break from the stresses of the house build! the "psychic" also told me I would have two daughters - I am childless!

I do believe there is an afterlife but whether anyone can actually contact the dead is another matter. If a loved one has died and wants to contact living relatives why would they do so through a third party - surely they would contact direct.

Oh yes! I think watercolours, oils, acrylics etc are very real!

Do I believe in'em - no!

jeni

Just listen to Derren Brown, anyone who thinks mediums are not just tricksters. Admire their art by all means, but recognise it for what it is.

At best it is entertainment, at worst they prey on vulnerable people. I have never been tempted to visit a medium.

I have a husband and two very dear friends (sisters) who are psychic. Because I know them very well and know that they are all intelligent, educated and sincere people, I have to accept that they are genuine in their beliefs of contact with spirits from the other world. In my husband's case (it seems to be unusual for a man to possess this "gift"), this is something he does not seek and often finds distressing, though I think he has learned to cope with it over the years. The sisters tend to keep their spirit commuications to a small circle and would never, ever charge for a reading or seance.

While I would love to believe in all of this, I have never had even an inkling of anything resembling a message from the spirit world. . .so I just have to accept that I'll learn the truth of the matter one day.

Maybe psychic powers are like musical talent - or any exceptional gift. Some folks have it, some don't. If you have it, you can develop it, but if you don't, all the longing in the world is not going to make it happen.

Most mediums are con artists. I have a friend who is being conned and I can't do anything to stop it. My friend is desperate to talk to her mum and the medium keeps stringing her along and taking her money.

I think some people do have some sort of connection with those who have passed over but they're few and far between. Most are just very good at reading body language and building on any verbal cues the victim gives.

There are two kinds of 'psychic' - the deluded and the charlatan.

Neither can actually demonstrate any special ability under proper test conditions, even when the chance of a million US Dollars is on offer!

(See James Randi Educational Foundation for details, if you want to try.)

Spiritualism was invented by the Fox sisters in the 1840s, and by the time they owned up, the thing had 'gone viral', as they say now, and the Spiritualist Church was up and running...a nd still is.

Although a sceptic about most supernatural manifestations (fairies, angels, gods, ghosts) I do keep an open mind about the possible potential of the human mind to transmit messages, whilst alive. We are now seeing such advances in finding ways to help people 'think' movement into paralysed limbs that it appears the brain is more complex than was ever dreamed of. Perhaps some people can emit brain waves, or pick up those from others, when they are on 'the same wave length'. Perhaps some thought waves could even remain in the ether for a time after death. I find it much more likely, though, to think of the brain as electrical circuits, and once the dynamo stops charging, it just a lump of grey matter.
What I find amusing is that every medium claims to have such a bizarre 'spirit guide' - why do they all have Native Americans, instead of dead plumbers from Salford connecting them to the other world? And anybody who regresses finds they have been an Arabian princess. I am quite sure that I come from a long line of English and Irish working class losers.

My mother used to say she knew when thigs were going to happen. She used to lay the tea table on a saturday and put out two extra places, when questioned she would say that our aunty would come for tea and bring her friend. lo and behold said aunty would arrive with friend. I am talking 50s and 60s pre telephone. She used to predict cup final results, I regret now not taking her seriously, I could have been very rich.

By chance today I caught a bit of a vegetable TV programme called Most Haunted. It took place in a house, parts of which had been there for over 1000 years and was famous for being the place that Marguerite d'Anjou waited during the Battle of Tewkesbury. Her 18 year old son, Edward, was killed in that battle.

The medium with the help of his spirit guide felt the presence of a lady. Over the next few minutes with lots of gurning that suggested he was straining to hear and understand he added:
she was gentle
she was regal
she was called Margaret
she was upset because they had dragged her son away from her...this got him no response so then he changed it
she was upset because her son had been killed nearby...this got a response from the presenter....she has no control over her body language lol.

When asked about the son he said that the boy was a child aged no more than 8 years old. He realised that he'd got something wrong so quickly moved on.

He asked his spirt guide to repeat himself. He couldn't quite hear/understand. Then he said "Sam (the spirit guide) is saying something like Anjou....Anjoy....no Anjou....I don't know what that means but I'm sure that's what he's saying."

I thought the presenter was going to explode at that point lol

No one would have described Marguerite as gentle. She was a tough lady who was well aware of her position in society and made sure everyone treated her accordingly. She ran the country either through or as regent for her husband, the king, and was either admired or feared by the lords depending on which side they were on. Also why would she give her name in an English form. She came from France. Her husband was the king of Naples (albeit penniless) and she'd grown up at the French court.

Do I think he was in touch with Marguerite d'Anjou.....erm....not one bit.

I love the idea of a plumber from Salford as a spirit guide! 'Tap once for yes' perhaps?