What is a Medium?

What is a Medium?
James Van Praagh

One of the most common questions I am asked is what is the difference between a medium and a psychic. The term ìpsychicî is often used as a catchall phrase for anyone who works in the paranormal. We know what our five senses are ó sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. But we have another sense that is equally as real as the other five. Often referred to as our sixth sense, psychic ability, or our intuition, is the gut feeling or hunch you have that you cannot logically explain. Everyone is psychic to some degree or another, but not everyone is a medium.

A medium is a psychic who has fine-tuned his or her extrasensory perception and can interface with the spirits in other dimensions. They are able to feel and/or hear thoughts, voices or mental impressions from the spirit world. A medium is able to become completely receptive to the higher frequency or energies on which spirit people vibrate.

Mediumship is much more involved than psychicism because a medium is opening him/herself to a discarnate energy. Mediumship itself can be broken down into two distinct categories. The first and most common type is mental mediumship, which is how I work with my abilities. I communicate with spirits while fully conscious. As the word mental denotes, this form of mediumship utilizes the mind ó the intuitive mind, not the rational or logical part. This type of mental mediumship falls into several distinct types which are described as:

Clairsentience ñ (clear feeling) Perceive information by way of strong, emphatic feelings and emotions from spirit.

Clairvoyant - (clear vision) See with the mindís eye objects, colors, symbols, people, spirits or scenes. These pictures are not visible to the naked eye and usually flash into the mediumís mind.

Clairaudient - (clear hearing) Perceive sounds or words from sources broadcasting from a spiritual realm.

Clairempathy - (clear emotion) Sense or "feel" within one's self the attitude or emotions of another person.

Clairgustance - (clear tasting") Discern the essence of a substance through taste from spirit.

Clairscent - (clear smelling). Smell a fragrance or odor coming from the spirit.

Clairtangency - (clear touching) This ability is commonly known as Psychometry. By holding an object or touching an area you perceive information about the article or its owner or history through the palms of your hands.

In my work I most often utilize the abilities of clairsentience and clairvoyance. In order to attune to the thoughts and feelings of spirit, I raise my vibrations higher through meditation and, in turn, spirit has to lower its vibrations somewhat.

The second type of mediumship is physical mediumship and it differs from mental mediumship. In physical mediumship the actually physical body is used to get information from spirit. In mental mediumship only the mind of the medium is utilized. Channeling is a well-known form of physical mediumship. A trance medium is another type of physical medium. A trance medium is someone who goes into a trance state to relay messages from the other side.

Certain individuals are more prone to mediumship than others. Usually they must develop mediumship skills over a period of time. In my book Heaven and Earth: Making the Psychic Connection I share personal techniques to help you develop your own natural psychic abilities. I also have 4 incredible mediation programs that are perfect for better understanding and strengthening your intuition. These programs are titled Divine Love, Meditation Tools, Spirit Speaks and Soul Discoveries. Each program includes 2 CDs, 2 cassettes, a workbook and features music by renowned new age composer Steven Halpern.

You may read excerpts from my book and hear audio samples of all my meditation programs by visiting the Store page of this web site.

For more information on intuition, psychic development, life after death, grief support, angels, guides, dreams and healing, I encourage you to visit the Chat Log page on this web site. The Chat Log page is part of the JVP Community. You will enjoy reading logs from past chat events that featured many wonderful spiritual teachers on a variety of topics.