Spirit Communication has always been present. It has been the basis and foundation of most religions worldwide since the beginning of time. It is universally accepted within most religions that there is a 'Spirit World', albeit called different things based on education, geography, and experience. Spiritualism is the only recognised religion that through mediumship offers this evidence.
Modern Spiritualism began in Hydesville, USA on March 31, 1848. Catherine and Margaritta Fox (sisters) established crude communication with the spirit of Mr Splitfoot (Charles B Rosna) who claimed to be a peddler who’d been killed and buried in the house. Communication was established using a ‘knock once for yes, and twice for no’ system.
Throughout the crude and basic communications between the Fox family and 'Mr Splitfoot', not only did he respond to the questions through the raps, it was quickly established that the intelligence of the Spirit World was also becoming evident. Verifiable information was obtained throughout these communications and the most striking piece of information was their mother being told information about a child who 'died' in infancy when not even her own family knew this. The signed affidavit written by Mrs. Fox on April 4, 1848, confirmed this to be true:
“I then thought I could put a test that no one in the place could answer. I asked the noise to rap my different children's ages, successively. Instantly, each one of my children's ages was given correctly, pausing between them sufficiently long to individualize them until the seventh, at which a longer pause was made, and then three more emphatic raps were given, corresponding to the age of the little one that died, which was my youngest child.”
Whilst I'm sure the rapping's, knocks, taps, and noises could have been falsely manufactured, this piece of 'personal proof' not only showed the presence and intelligence of the communicator but also ruled out the children’s' potential for fraud. The final, and definitive evidence of ‘Mr Splitfoots' existence (and story) came in 1904 when after removing the cellar walls of the house his body was recovered. It is this kind of proof where evidence can be substantiated that gives authenticity not only to the phenomenon experienced, but also to the intelligence behind it. The phenomena weren’t happening out of a desire to 'perform', or even to frighten the Fox family, but rather it demonstrated a clear need on the communicators behalf to bring a conclusion to his 'suffering’, in effect there was a personal reason behind it.
The significance of the rapping’s and in Hydesville on 31 March 1848 primarily offered evidence of the continuation of human life, but also that Spirit Communication wasn't exclusive to or limited by any religious belief system of its time. It indicated there was nothing 'special' about it, the people who do it, or the places in which it occurred, and could therefore be accessed by anyone and was available to all. It is also important to note that all Spirit Communication has a purpose to it, whether it occurs out of our need to receive it, or that of the communicator to deliver it.
Before understanding why it was necessary for the mediumship to present itself in a certain way it is necessary to also look at what was happening in the world at the time the phenomena was manifesting, to see whether in some way it was significant in its presentation.
Without question we are living in very different times now compared to life in the mid-1800's when mediumship started to manifest itself in a physical way. The world itself was going through great changes; many were experiencing huge amounts of grief due to the various wars and the subsequent loss of life. Many people turned to religion for comfort and whilst helpful for some, many were disillusioned by its inability to offer tangible evidence of the afterlife that so many spoke of as being real. Peoples grief drove them to seek a 'balm' for their pain, or even just hope of a better way and to a huge degree, this 'suffering' contributed to the seeking out of help from mediums. As an aside to the need for tangible, solid communication with the Spirit World, familial relationships, and the conditions of living greatly influenced the conditions necessary for Spirit Communication. People regularly engaged in activities such as singing, playing musical instruments, and artistic activities which were held in dimly lit rooms. The percussive, and emotional nature of the activities and the energy they produced may have been significant in contributing towards the physical nature of phenomena being manifested. Also, not only were there limited distractions in the form of TV and computers in those times, but there were not the widespread electromagnetic influences we are now being 'polluted' with from electrical based technology. Our physiology now, compared to the mid-1800's is largely unchanged and yet what is influencing and affecting it compared to then from our environment is massively different.
Dr George Carlo is a public health scientist who has studied electromagnetic radiation and its influence on our physical and emotional well-being found the following.
"A cellular phone is basically a radio that sends signals on waves to a base station. The carrier signal generates two types of radiation fields: a near-field plume and a far-field plume. Living organisms, too, generate electromagnetic fields at the cellular, tissue, organ, and organism level; this is called the biofield. Both the near-field and far-field plumes from cell phones and in the environment, can wreak havoc with the human biofield, and when the biofield is compromised in any way, so is metabolism and physiology”. (Dr George Carlo quoted in LE Magazine 2007)
The “biofield” Carlo speaks of can be likened to the human auric field. It would make sense that just as electromagnetic energy can influence the physiological working of the human body on a cellular level, then these energies also have the potential to also affect the production of ectoplasm and psychic energy which is often necessary in manifesting physical forms of mediumship. So, could this partly be the reason why certain forms of physical mediumship aren’t as prevalent now as before? Possibly the energetic makeup of the medium is different now, and therefore mediumship had to evolve in a different way, a way that was still responsive to the need for evidence, but without the need to have very specific conditions present for it to unfold.
Mediumship will always be responsive to the conditions in the present moment, and the evidence, and presentation of it will always be shaped by the mind, and experience of the medium of that time. In 1800’s mediumship there seemed to an absence of specific evidence other than basic information such as relationship of the communicator and cause of death, and maybe some crude form of physical phenomena. The resulting mediumship would most likely have been borne from the recipients need for tangible evidence of survival but was also impacted by some form of ‘generational privacy’ as ‘airing your dirty laundry’ in public was heavily discouraged and was seen to be shameful. After the war however, there was liberation, not just physically, but people became much more expressive, open, and it seemed that mediumship also evolved to be much more about the personality of the Spirit communicator. The individuality of the communicator, who they were, and the specifics of their lives lived became elements of evidence that mediums offered. Maybe as liberation, freedom, and more relaxed attitudes became the norm, through the mind of a liberated, and unrestricted medium it also created an openness to the Other World to present their evidence differently too? It’s interesting to note that external factors of life changed too. Life generally became busier, work lives changed, houses became bigger, living conditions altered, and time spent together with loved ones was affected, as was the activities they engaged in.
So given there does seem to be a link between the societal, biological, and environmental conditions, and the type, context, and content of mediumship, what’s next for mediumship, and for mediums?
Fast forward to now, many people are still searching for absolute proof of an afterlife, but they are no longer satisfied with the seemingly vague, general pieces of information that were prevalent in the early days. We now live in a world where there are a huge number of social media platforms available to use, combined with the increased need that people have to share intimate details of their lives for all to see. This means that the Spirit World and its mediums must still deliver evidence of an afterlife, but in a way that is much more reflective of the unique and individual relationship between communicator and sitter, rather than the generalised facts which apply to many. Evidence now should include information that has not been given out publicly, as well as things like the repeating of a private conversation that no-one else heard, the ‘code word’ agreed as evidence after death, and descriptions of shared experiences should now be the cornerstone of mediumship. The crude phenomena of the past would not be tolerated in the same way that it once was, and the ability to trick sitters, or fake phenomena can now be easily identified using technological advances. This may well by why there is a change to the prevalence of this type of phenomena and why physical mediumship as it was has been driven out of the public eye.
The Spirit World are responding to the present moment as they always have, but they require mediums to respond to them accordingly too. If mediums continue to deliver mediumship in the same way that they always have, looking for the same types of evidence, and presenting it in the same way as it was in the past, it is guaranteed to attract suspicion and ridicule. Mediumship, in content and expression is directly related to the inner and outer conditions of the medium and their life. A willingness for the medium to evolve is key because as the medium evolves, so does the phenomena of their mediumship.