For other meanings of "medium," see medium (disambiguation).
In spirituality, a medium or spirit medium (plural mediums) is an individual who claims the ability to receive messages from spirits, ghosts, or other discorporate entities, or claims that he or she can channel such entities -- that is, write or speak in the voice of these entities rather than in the medium's own voice. While skeptics believe such individuals are either self-deluded or simply charlatans, popular mediums often have many followers who believe strongly in their purported abilities. Examples of popular modern-day (mental) mediums include Sylvia Brown and John Edward.
Mina Crandon, Margery, was the last mental and physical medium,(the movement of objects and the production of ectoplasm) of note in the USA. Her prayers were read by the US Army. She was tested by the scientific community but did not win the award from Scientific American magazine. Houdini claimed she was a fraud and duplicated some of her feats, but not nearly all. There have been claims by conjurors examining sitting records that Mina hid and removed modified body parts, connected traceas, from her altered vagina; both made by her husband, who was a Boston surgeon to produce "ectoplasm."
Mina was the highlight of the evening. After a dinner with prominent invited guests, she did her performances in the nude, and never in full light. Only Houdini refused to dine and spend the night in the Crandon home. There are rumours of sexual favors between Mina and investigator Malcomb Bird. It is little known that Dr.J.B. Rhine refused to test her abilities. This last information can be found in the ASPR Journal.
Mediumistic automatism is the practice of a medium receiving supernatural messages from ghosts, spirits or the like, the expression of such messages (in speech, writing or drawings) lacking conscious control or intervention by the medium.
Spiritmediums have never felt that the phenomena of the seance room can be properly or fairly transferred to the sterile environment of the laboratory with any degree of success.
Spirit photography is one phenomenon of the seance room which seems to function as effectively in a spontaneous situation—such as snapping a photograph in a graveyard or a haunted house—as in the trappings of the sitting room.
Spiritmediums believe that while they are in an entranced state of consciousness, they fall under the control of a particular spirit that has become their special guide and who speaks through them and works all manner of mysterious phenomena on their behalf.
Spirit possession is a myth, what happens is that an ignorant medium sometimes gives permission for a spirit to communicate for long periods of time (obsession).
But such Spirits, being unable to disguise their shallowness are incapable of keeping up their false assumptions for any length of time; they soon betray their weak side if we continue to converse with them and ply them with questions which compel them to show their incompetence.
The good medium takes care to be vigilant of his/her thoughts and actions, recognizing the power they have to determine what kind of invisible beings accompany and influence him/her, and in the medium's case, communicate through him/her.
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