How can we trust a medium? That will be our topic today. In most of my videos I describe the afterlife. These descriptions are based on what deceased people speaking through mediums tell us about their world—the world they live in and will be our home after we die. How can we be sure the medium is really in touch with the spirit they seem to be channeling? What is the evidence?
Bear in mind what channeling requires: the medium must suspend her own mind and allow the spirit entry. Channeling is successful when the medium’s thoughts and emotions are at rest and the spirit comes through clean and unbuffered. If the medium’s mind “wakes up” and becomes active, her mind can reassert itself, and the spirit’s message will be colored by the subconscious clutter, biases, and predispositions of the medium. The best mediums are those who are especially skilled at stilling their own minds and keeping them still. The great Irish medium Geraldine Cummins describes what it feels like when the spirit takes over and uses her mind, and hand, to write the message.
“I am a mere listener, and through my stillness and passivity I lend my aid to the stranger who is speaking. It is hard to put such a psychological condition into words. I have the consciousness that my brain is being used by a stranger all the time. It is just as if an endless telegram is being tapped out on it. The great speed of the writing suggests actual dictation, as though some already prepared essay were being read out to my brain.”
Just as revealing is the process described by the communicating spirit. On his second visit to Miss Cummins, Frederic Myers described (using her hand) how it worked:
“We communicate an impression through the inner mind of the medium. It receives the impression in a curious way. It has to contribute to the body of the message. We furnish the spirit of it. In other words, we send the thoughts and the words in which they must be framed, but the actual letters or spelling of the words are drawn from the medium’s memory.”
The question now arises: How do we know that a spirit is really being channeled? How do we know the medium, even when we have every reason to trust her, isn’t being deceived?
Let’s look more closely at Cummins. In her lifetime she channeled over fifty different spirits, and each had their own unique handwriting, none the same as hers. In addition, she wrote rapidly, so rapidly that someone had to “sit beside her in order to remove each sheet of paper as it was filled up.” When one page was filled, her assistant lifted her hand and placed it at the top of the next page, “and the writing continued without a break.” The skeptic could argue, however, that her unconscious mind is the real author. From what I have said so far, there is no way to prove it’s not.
So we need still better evidence for claiming that spirits are behind these writings. The hunt for it leads to the concept of “evidential.” Here is an example.
Suppose you are sitting in the company of several others at a séance conducted by a medium you have heard good things about. You have been “putting out a call” to your deceased father off and on all day; you hope the medium might put you in contact with him when the seance begins. After a centering process in which the medium quiets her mind so spirits can come through, she goes into a light trance; she feels she is receptive. At this point her spirit control announces that a man who claims he is the father of one of the sitters has shown up. After a few minutes the control, using the medium’s voice, reports that the man wants to speak to his daughter. You are excited and hopeful, but you are also dubious. How can you be sure it’s your father who is coming through? This is where evidential becomes crucial.
Speaking through the medium’s voice, the control asks if there is anyone present who might be this man’s daughter. You immediately answer in the affirmative. The medium relays the following: she addresses you by the nickname he has always used for you, describes the games he played with you when you were a child, reminds you of a fall from a bicycle when you broke your wrist, mentions in passing the name of the pet dog the family loved, asks about your favorite uncle and aunt whom he names, and ensures you he is alive and well. These and other intimate details known only to you and your father are shared. He makes no mistakes. You are quite sure the medium had no way of knowing all this correct information. She didn’t know you and didn’t know you would be showing up at the séance. You are certain you have contacted your father. You are elated.
This case and others are developed in my book When Did You Ever Become Less by Dying? In it I show the nine different types of evidence for an afterlife, mediumistic communication being only one of them. For those of you who are skeptical, this short book would be eye-opening. It should quiet your doubts and remove your fear of dying.
Stafford Betty, Professor of Religious Studies, CSUB, (ret) is the author of When Did You Ever Become Less by Dying?, Heaven and Hell Unveiled and his novel, Guardians of the Afterworld. His latest book, The Hell Dwellers: A Novel about the Dark Side of the Afterlife is coming in 2026. Stafford can be found at staffordbetty.com.
