When we watch mediums demonstrate, it can be easy to place the kudos for the information on them. As they deliver specific details about personalities, memories, dates, and sometimes even names, it’s natural to think “Wow! How do they do that!?” It’s a perception that the medium is doing all the heavy lifting.
This carries over into developing mediums, too. I get it, I’ve been there… You want to “get the information right.” You place loads of responsibility on your shoulders to be the conduit for spirits’ messages. And when those messages are excellent, it’s absolutely amazing and we tend to say “Look what *I* received!” In other words, “I did the heavy lifting and carried the load! Yaaayy!” Sometimes we’ll even add “I have no idea how I did it, but here was this amazing information!” and pat ourselves on the back for a job well-done.
There’s nothing wrong with being excited and congratulatory about the magnitude and intricacies of a message – especially if you’re the medium.
However, it’s important to note: The medium is not the message.
As much as we’d like to take the credit for “getting it,” the truth is: It’s not us (at least not wholly). Yes, we are present, we are aware, we are “receiving,” but the information is not ours … it is from those in spirit. So who is really doing the heavy lifting? If you recall last month’s blog, it actually takes a lot effort for those on the Other Side to get through.
This blog approaches things from a bit of a different perspective, again showing the importance of spirit’s role in the process – and how we sometimes often forget or don’t realize what they’re going through.
There have been so many ways this point has been driven home to me over the last several years. The most poignant came just two weeks ago. I was sitting comfortably on a large boulder overlooking the boat launch at a nearby beach park in my neighborhood. It was a warm and beautiful Sunday morning and all the boaters were pushing off from the docks. It’s during these times of tranquility that my mind loves to play. On this day, I decided to toy with the idea that this beach and dock was actually a location existing in the spirit world… and that these boaters were people who had passed away from earth, living their new lives in this spiritual environment; however, their boat ride today was not simply a joy ride. No, they were going to a special island in the middle of this great sea where – with effort – they might be able to pass a message through to an earthly medium in order to let their loved ones back on this plain know they have survived, are happy, and are still being loved by them.
Though the medium is incredibly important to the process, take a closer look at what’s happening.
Watching the people in the boats casting off on this hypothetical journey, it becomes glaringly obvious that the motivation for this journey has nothing to do with the medium, rather it is about these people’s undying LOVE for friends and family on earth. In other words, the medium really can’t take too much credit for what they bring through.
Think about it. The medium who is working to deliver the message is really a total stranger to those coming from the docks of the spirit world; the spirits really don’t know this person intimately – they only hope that they can get a message through to their loved ones back here on earth. They are placing a huge amount of trust with this stranger, and may actually be completely uncertain if the medium can “grab” all of the information they wish to pass through. Nonetheless, they are willing to TRY, because that’s how much they love us here. That is, your loved ones in spirit are willing to risk success and failure with a complete stranger in an effort to let you know they are there. The medium can only be of service to the process by being open to what gets impressed within them.
So, from this perspective: Who is doing the heavy lifting?
When those amazing messages come through, realize it’s not by the power of the medium alone, but rather the intensity of love and dedication from those in spirit along with that incredible bond that you share with them. Mediums are really only a tool, a mechanism, and should not be considered the focus. This is why we see spirits coming through all different types of people.
Some, dare I say, we might ask “Why them?”
Having been in this field for 19 years, though it is spiritual work, not every medium outside of their mediumship is truly a spiritual person (sad, but true), and we wonder why those in spirit would communicate through those who are more about self-centered egotism or who are otherwise “negative” or “destructive” people to begin with. Again, the answer is: because that’s how much they love us…
This is certainly not meant to diminish the value and importance of the mediumistic practitioner, but let’s face it – the impressions, the memories, the feelings, the names… they are not being produced BY the medium, but are only being BROUGHT THROUGH them. In all honesty, I feel that if those in spirit didn’t think a medium was necessary to get their messages across, they would bypass us without reservation.
So instead of making the great spirit links about us mediums “Look what *I* got! Look at me!” or “Look at them! How did they do that!” realize it is not (and should not) be about the medium, but rather the loved one in spirit. Yes, it’s fantastic that the medium was open enough to receive the message with what appears to be such clarity (the process of reception does require some knowledge and skill), but that clarity must also be attributed to the person in spirit who is transmitting it. Remember, it’s those in spirit who have made that journey across the celestial ocean to an island where a medium sits, and then work work WORK to impress their consciousness upon that stranger in the hopes that you – their earthly loved one – know that they have survived and that love never dies. They have to figure out what information to transmit, how to transmit it, and then hope that it is received by the medium and then acknowledged by their loved one who is listening just on the other side of that veil.
Now that’s some heavy lifting! And a huge amount of LOVE.