Compare and contrast mental and physical mediumship

In the last part of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth century Spiritualism has grown rapidly. Spiritualism was first brought to prominence in the nineteenth century when an American family by the name of Fox experienced paranormal occurrences in their house.

Consequently the daughters of the house were to be commercially exploited to the extent that they would give demonstrations to the public of their contact with the spiritual world; Kate Fox challenged the mysterious unseen power to repeat the snaps of her fingers. The idea that these girls could communicate with deceased persons effectively ‘captured the imagination of the American public.’ As a result, mediums began to ‘spring up’ in other parts of America and Europe.

In essence, mediums are people that claim to have a special gift that allows them to communicate with the dead. Fundamentally, a mediums objective is to show that the human personality does exist after death and that they are there to help the bereaved come to terms with their loss.

Throughout all times and cultures, mediums have existed. In the bible there is reference to a medium existing. The witch of endo

This amazed the Elmer family but more so Reverend Brittany. He was mystified as to how Home knew about Hannah Brittan. Hannah Brittan had suffered severe depression and her case had never been mentioned until now.

Daniel Douglas Home (1833-1886) was a classic example of a physical medium. After his mothers death Home began to hear the movement of furniture in his house. Familiar with the recent events in the Fox household he subsequently devised himself an alphabet that enabled him to communicate with the source of the spirit raps. As a result, the messages were being sent from his deceased mother.

Even so there are noticeable differences between mental and physical mediums. In essence mental mediums can only communicate with the dead through psychological means. On the other hand physical mediums can influence the ‘state of objects’. As you can imagine physical mediums are relatively unheard of in today’s day and age. At present it is mental mediums that form the backbone of the spiritualist movement and are recognized for practising their abilities throughout the world.

Essentially, parapsychologists recognise that there are two types of mediums; mental mediums and physical mediums.

Generally when mediums communicate they are in some type of trance. There are various stages of trance from slight ‘overshadowing’ to full deep trance where the medium appears to be asleep. While in trance the medium will be aware of the spirit and will try and communicate with it by not involving their personal thoughts.

Some topics in this essay:
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