Mediumship Made Easy

Introduction
Mediumship is something that has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. As a small child I suppose I could say that I was very sensitive, to the point that I would feel other people’s heavy emotions or pain; I could be lifted by their joy and happiness in just the same way. It’s easy for me now to recognize that I was a natural intuitive who was very often affected by the atmosphere around me.

The function of a medium is to be the conduit between this life and the afterlife or spirit world. Every medium is intuitive or psychic, but not every psychic is a medium. With the luxury of hindsight, I can clearly see that my sensitive nature as a child was part of what was to build to become the gift of mediumship, which I first experienced at the age of six, going on seven.

Even now I can say it is one of my most vivid memories from early childhood. I was playing on my own in the small garden at the front of my house when I saw a man coming towards me from the other end of the street. He looked familiar and I soon recognized him as a friend of my parents who had the very unusual nickname of Ummy. He was a frequent visitor to our home and every time he came he would bring presents or give us children a couple of pennies each, usually after he had won cash at the horse races. The racetrack was a big part of his life.

I remember feeling happy to see him and I wanted to run towards him, but my feet seemed to be rooted to the grassy ground beneath me. I also recall feeling that I was in a bubble or membrane of sorts, which felt safe and had a dreamy quality. It also had a sort of buzzing sensation that was pleasant.

Ummy smiled at me the way he always did and his eyes looked so alive and happy. He was singing softly, to a tune I’d never heard, ‘We will be buried in Dalbeth.’ I had no idea what this meant, but it was infectious, so I began to sing along.

I’ve no idea how long he was in front of me, but as he began to move steadily away in the direction he’d come from, I felt that the bubble I was in had burst and instinctively I ran into the house.

My mother was standing at the kitchen sink peeling potatoes.

‘Mammy, Ummy was here, Ummy was here!’ I blurted out in pure excitement.

My mother’s reaction was to drop what she was holding. Her eyes widened with fear as I sang the little song: ‘We will be buried in Dalbeth.’

The next thing I knew, I was being smacked and shouted at and I had no idea why my happy news had made my mother so scared or angry.

It wasn’t until many years later that my mother told me she’d been so stunned by what I was telling her that she’d completely freaked. Ummy had died in an accident, but my parents hadn’t felt that they needed to explain this to their younger children. Also, they had been left to pay for his burial and they had very little money, so they had him laid to rest in what was known as a pauper’s grave in a remote part of a cemetery outside Glasgow called Dalbeth. Both my mother and father were proud people and hadn’t spoken to anyone about it because they were ashamed that they couldn’t afford a proper funeral for their friend.

People have often asked me if I was ever frightened as a child when I encountered spirits from the other side, but I honestly didn’t ever feel fear of any kind. The reaction of the people around me gave me much more cause for concern than any spirit being.

Even though I came into this life with natural psychic abilities, I still had to learn how to hone and perfect my gift. I had to know how it all worked and why I had it, and also what purpose it could serve.

Now, looking at the combination of sensitivity and mediumship has allowed me to understand more about the mechanics of my gift and to simplify it and break it down, so I can explain it much more clearly to those who wish to learn how to develop their own abilities.

Most mediums I’ve encountered on my travels have at some point on their journey met a teacher, someone who could help them to come to terms with their spiritual gifts and direct them in how best to use them. I was very lucky in that I met my teacher when I was in my early twenties, a time when my mediumistic and psychic abilities had been reawakened after the death of a friend, who had appeared to me looking as real as Ummy had in my childhood experience. It was because of this incident that I found Mrs Jean Primrose, a great lady of spirit who would become my mentor and teach me the simple values and moral codes I would need in order to use my gift for the benefit of people all around the world.

The great thing about Mrs Primrose was that she provided a foundation for her students to grow from. Her teachings were simple and clear, and everyone who sat in her class was made to work on themselves first before extending their thoughts to the spirit world. She wanted us all to know that much of what happened in our mind came from us, and that with the correct mental exercises we would be able to know the difference between our own thoughts and imaginings and the impressions put into our mind by the spirits around us.

It takes quite a time to develop enough to use your gifts of psychic awareness or mediumship and that is because you need to learn to be responsible for everything you say to people who come asking for your help. I remember thinking that because I had had psychic experiences in my early life, I would be able to learn all this stuff very quickly, especially now that I had a teacher like Mrs Primrose. How wrong I was.

Mrs Primrose started by teaching me to still my mind during meditation sessions. She would allow new students like myself to meditate for a while, and when she brought me out of the quiet state, she would ask me to describe what had been going on in my mind. I would always do this in great detail and be surprised when she dismissed my ramblings with a nod. I naturally assumed they were brilliant. Inevitably I was left wondering about what went on in my mind during my meditation sessions.

One night after our session Mrs Primrose took me aside and asked me if I would sit with my eyes open during the next session. She wanted me just to observe the other students and try not to think about them or what was going on with them.

I always did what Mrs Primrose asked of me and so the following week I did just sit quietly and observe the other students. After a while, as I looked at them, I began to wonder what was going on in this person’s mind or that person’s, but then I remembered that my purpose was to observe rather than assess or judge. I found this quite difficult at first, but then I began to be still and not follow my own thinking. I believe this was the first time that I separated my awareness from my actual thoughts.

I soon realized that my thoughts only passed through my awareness like leaves floating on top of a stream and if I chose not to pay attention to them, they would float on by. It dawned on me that this was something I’d have to bring into my meditation when I was sitting with my eyes closed.

I’d no sooner had this realization than my teacher looked in my direction and nodded. It was the end of the session and people were being brought out of the meditation. I couldn’t wait to talk to Mrs Primrose and tell her of this great Eureka moment.

I must have been sitting in that class for more than a year by then, and all that time my teacher had been listening to the nonsense that I’d been coming out with at the end of my meditation and never actually commenting on it. Now I understood that she’d been monitoring my progress all along and instinctively working out just where I was in my development.

How exciting it was back then to be guided by a very experienced person through the corridors of my mind and learn about the psyche and the world of spirit. It was amazing, especially as until then I hadn’t been able to talk to people about my gift or my thoughts on life after death. I’d always assumed that people would laugh at me or think I was some kind of freak. It had never occurred to me that what some saw as freak, others saw as unique…

I am so grateful to Mrs Primrose for teaching me to stay grounded in my work and my understanding of spiritual practices. Without her down-to-earth teachings and guidance, I wouldn’t have been able to advance to where I am today. The foundation she gave me has allowed me to travel around the world lecturing and demonstrating my gift to thousands of people, as well as to explore further and come to some amazing new realizations about mediumship and the spirit world. It also gave me the confidence to allow psychical researchers at Glasgow University to test my abilities and publish scientific papers based on their findings.

I find that today I tend to work more with the teaching of mediumship because so many people are waking up to the fact that they are having mediumistic or intuitive experiences and are seeking explanations for them, along with the opportunity to develop their abilities to the highest level possible. Everyone who has spiritual gifts deserves the opportunity to be gently directed through the maze that is the human mind by the steady hand of an experienced teacher. Also, having a plan for the development of your gift makes the road ahead so much clearer and a lot less congested.

Some years ago I was asked to take my teaching out to Germany, where many students wanted to put together a course for developing mediumship that would be easily understood and serve as a template for others to follow in the years to come. I thought this was a wonderful idea, so I put together the course of spiritual development that I am now sharing with you in this book.

I would like to use this opportunity to clear up some of the misconceptions about mediumship and simplify the process of developing it, but more than this, I truly want you to know that it is more than okay to explore your spiritual gifts and share them with those who have need of them. After all, something is only really a gift when you can share it with others.

I’d also like you to know that as a medium you should be responsible for what you give to others. I see so many people who call themselves mediums and psychics who upset people with their work. There are even those who frighten people with off-the-cuff comments about their future or personal details.

It’s a huge responsibility to work with the public, especially when you’re seen as someone who might bring hope or healing to another person. You should therefore have a clear understanding of the process of mediumship before you start to use it on the public. This means you have to be clear and balanced both mentally and emotionally. It is for this reason that we will start by looking at the highs and lows of the mind.