What's the point?!

What's the point in being able to speak to the dead?

Well, it's all very interesting and entertaining but what actual use does it have? I asked Eva (my wife) this question a few days ago. It was a serious question because I had just seen an advert for Colin Fry who is coming to Norway again, and I am trying to find my own place in this strange business of mediumship and working with the dead.

My working life in the UK was in finance, it was very ordered, organized and structured by a government that did their best to keep an eye on what I was doing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (still didn't stop the credit crunch though, did it!). Now, I am a full-time Healer and Medium where there are no guidelines to follow and government policy dictating what I do. I can understand what place financial services has in this world but what about being able to speak with dead people? I don't know. Healing has a very logical use and I am happy with it, but mediumship . . . I am a bit stuck.

When people go to see a medium for a public “demonstration”, they do it for entertainment purposes and so clearly mediumship has an entertaining value but I don't see myself as an entertainer, it's just not me. So what else is there? Ok, so people come to see me for personal readings, hoping to get some kind of information or closure from their dead people. This is good stuff, and it's what I enjoy most. But is that its main use?

Some come to ask their dead people for help with problems, others come because there are unresolved issues. There is an immense amount of satisfaction surrounding a reading for someone who is able to really connect with their dead loved one. When a reading is personal, specific and answers some questions that have long worried the living person, the moment becomes golden. Here is an example; a Mother and Father came to see me who's Son had died in an accident about a year before. Both parents were distraught as their Son, in his late teens, had been depressed leading up to the accident and had given hints to his best friend that he would not have long left in this world. The Son left no note and the police were unable to say whether the incident was an accident or suicide.

Clearly, the parents were in a delicate situation emotionally but we were able to get in touch with their Son, who gave wonderful evidence that it was him with us and he talked about the whole situation relating to his death openly. It appeared that although the Son had had suicidal thoughts and that night had intended to go out and kill himself, he didn't expect to actually go through with it. So, when he did and died there was a very big, “Oops” and he was as surprised as everyone else.

The whole reading was very emotional but the Son did very well in coming through with such clear information. In addition, he reminded his parents of some of the funny things he had done throughout his life and so brought some humour to the conversation.

To me, readings like these make everything worthwhile and I forget all the times where the dead people don't have much to say, don't really want to come through or simply something is wrong and my Helpers take me offline. But, are these moments the real reason I can speak to the dead? Is this the real use for it? If I were to just work with families of lost children, I too would be an emotional wreck and after a week I would be moving to the mountains to live in a cave.

The religious answer according to the Spiritualist movement would be that I am able to help people through their grief, give them closure and I can't disagree with that, it's logical and it's true. They would also say that it helps spread the word that life doesn't end at death, there is something beyond. Great, ok, I can work with that too but I'm not into the whole religious thing, it's simply not me. I don't tie myself to any particular religious belief and think that structured religion causes more problems than it solves. Thank goodness that I'm not Catholic or I would be considered evil and in need of the devil to be taken out of me. Wow, those guys really do live in fear!

Perhaps mediumship has a duel role of entertaining people and helping them through the ideas and issues surrounding death. I don't know and I don't have the answers. Eva thinks I should stop staring at my belly button and concentrate on getting on with it. She is right, there is no need to worry about these things . . . but I can't help it :-/

Maybe there is an opportunity to assist police in cases where a death is involved, help them get another perspective on the situation? Maybe I should consider what I do as simply a translation service, helping people who don't speak to the dead, do so? Perhaps I can help people recover lost information or forward ideas that the dead have to help the living solve practical issues? What about getting a number of Mediums together to offer a “think-tank” service? It would be nice to think that speaking to the dead can have a wider application than is currently being experienced.

Well, for the moment I shall do what Eva suggests and just get on with it. But, if those of you reading this have any clues, thought or ideas about what this gift could be used for, let me know. I am open to all manner of ideas, no matter how crazy they may seem.