Judy's thoughts on mediums

For me, the initial reading that I had was disastrous and I believe it led to deepen my feelings of despair and depression. You can’t imagine (unless it has happened to you personally) those feelings of somehow that it’s not true;  that a third party who is supposed to have this kind of "gift" is not getting what you are. And it really did send me into a tailspin of more grief and more depression.

However, from reading accounts of others – I can see that for some, it has actually helped their initial stages of grief. It has helped them to see that there is an Afterlife and has actually lifted them out of despair.  I also know a couple of people, who through their own experiences of grief who have been helped by occasionally seeing a medium. And because they were helped, they have now turned around and studied mediumship in order to help others. They do this free of charge – and it’s a gift of love. And I have been involved in two practice reading sessions where they did readings for me – and they did get my loved ones – and things that they would never have known.

So I am ambivalent about the whole topic. I can see where people can be helped, if they have a positive experience, but I have also been on the receiving end of a bad experience and know the depth of despair that a person in grief is likely to experience. For this reason, I neither encourage or discourage people to see a medium. I tell them to go to God in prayer – and to also trust their own experiences.

And for me that’s where faith and trust do come into this whole subject. Faith and Trust in God is a personal thing…you don’t need a third party to tell you that the spiritual experiences that you are having are real – that’s where there’s a stepping forth, towards God, saying that “I may not understand these experiences, but I know that I am growing closer to You. I am staying in prayer, meditating and reading the Scriptures - I know that You won’t hurt me and I am trusting in You to help bring answers to me.” With time, patience and effort, you will have your answers; that is very much what happened to me, and I know it will happen for anyone, if we are only patient.

I also want to stress that when Jim first started communicating to me, he told me to read the Bible daily and to NOT drink alcohol (because the first 10 days that Jim was talking to me, I was drinking very heavily to "ease" the pain). Jim also told me to read Swedenborg. These are NOT the things that an "evil" spirit would be telling a person to do. As Jesus said "a house divided against itself shall not stand" (Matthew 12:24-30) when he was accused of being Beelzebub because He performed miraculous healings. I can honestly state that I have a closer relationship with God because of the things that Jim has told and shown me. 

I have found a passage in Swedenborg's Love in Marriage, n. 321 that may help others to understand why a departed loved one stays around:

This new thing should be added to these observations: that these two are not even separated by the death of one, since the spirit of the deceased husband or wife continues to live with the husband or wife who is not yet deceased. And this continues until the other one's death, when they meet again and reunite themselves and love each other more tenderly than before because they are in the spiritual world.

What does the Bible say?

I have been asked about the Biblical passages of Leviticus 19:31 and 20:27 (among other passages in the Old Testament) about mediums ("Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. [19:19] /"A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads" [20:27].)  Because of Leviticus 19:19 – “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material,” it is apparent to me that there is a deeper meaning that just the mere words that we read. I can’t believe that God would actually command us not to wear different types of cloth at the same time! (Not to  mention that we are commanded to scourge  a woman (in Leviticus 19:20) who has had sexual relations with a man outside the bonds of marriage – and it apparently makes no provisions in cases of rape! - and only mentions that the woman is to be scourged).

When Jesus came into the world, it was clear that He made a distinction between the Ten Commandments (the Laws of God) and the law of men – or the Law of Moses as it was called – the Judaic ritual law that included rigorous observation of cleansing and dietary rules. And it is well known that Jesus did away with the law (keep in mind that the “law” he did away with was those laws of man [doctrine], but not the Divine Laws of the Ten Commandments (see Matthew 5:17-20 regarding this).

Reading I Corinthians 12:4-11, it suggests to me in verse 10, the “discerning of spirits” is a gift – and that of the same Spirit that gives the other gifts of faith, healing, working miracles, and prophecies.

So, being familiar with Swedenborg’s “inner [deeper or more spiritual] meaning” of the Bible, I looked up the correspondence for the word medium – and found that it meant “externals alone – not with internal” – in other words, the external of spirituality without any internal feeling. Now, I am not suggesting that mediums are into the externals alone – just what the word “medium” symbolizes.

For me it suggests this – that those who look to the answers that mediums supply as their sole supply for things spiritual are in trouble. They are in spiritual trouble in that there won’t be healing of their pain. They will wander from medium to medium always looking for the answers and getting some kind of a temporary respite from their pain – but there won’t be anything spiritual within themselves to sustain them. And isn’t that what addiction is all about? I believe that this passage is a warning against doing this – and the underlying reason why is for the real threat of becoming addicted to mediums and the answers that they provide. I am NOT suggesting that those who do go to mediums are all like this. But there are some that are – and it is a warning to all of us.

In addition, different mediums have different "truths" - thus confusing many people. One medium says one thing . . . and another one will contradict that. Basically, I have come to terms with it - mediums are accessing people on different levels on the other side. Just because a person has crossed into the next life doesn't necessarily make them knowledgeable, and the mediums are taking the information they are being given as fact. The reason I believe Swedenborg's writings over any medium or channeled material is for the rational and uplifting answers that they have provided, in addition to illuminating the confusing passages of the Bible that have troubled theologians for centuries. For more information, please read, "Why I Believe."

For your answers, I suggest what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 – “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

And as a “test” of whether you are truly in the “right” spiritual place, Galatians 5:22 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, humility, self-control; against such there is no law."

Music is The Prism (Colors of Love)
© 1999 Bruce DeBoer