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Down to Earth

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Down to Earth: Mediumship for Sceptics by Dr Teresa Parrott, BM,MRCPsych. & International Medium, Sue Brotherton   What the book is about Death is not the end of everything. We don’t just shuffle off and disappear. When our physical body dies, we are still alive; we have consciousness, we have experiences, and we can affect others, just not in quite the same way as when we’re here on earth. The spirit is the energy that makes up a person; the thoughts and feelings, the memories and experiences, the joys and sorrows that make each of us what we uniquely are. When we pass to the other world, the physical body is left behind, but the life force, the spirit or spark of life that we all have, continues to exist, and to be meaningful. Most of us here on earth cannot sense a person in spirit. That’s because when we leave this world to pass into the spirit world, our vibrational rate changes to a frequency that is outside of the normal range of the five senses. The spirit world is in fact constantly sending energy and thoughts and love out to us. It’s just that most of us are not at the right frequency to receive those messages. A medium not only senses that increased vibrational rate, but can also tune in to it to find out who the person in the spirit world is. By entering into an altered state of consciousness, or trance, and by raising his or her rate of vibration, a medium becomes open to direct communication from spirit. Mediumship gives people convincing personal proof of the existence of life after death - and often radically changes the way that they approach their life. The purpose of mediumship is to give people here on earth proof of the after-life, and to be of service to those in spirit; to let people know that they still exist, and to help them to give messages to their loved ones. It can be very difficult to say the things we need to say. But telling people what we feel can have a wonderfully healing effect, for them and for us, and sometimes just to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘I love you,’ makes a world of difference. That’s why it’s best to say it now, while you have the chance. Don’t wait till you’re in spirit because then it’s much harder to say. Or, rather, it’s much harder for it to be heard. The message of this book is that we are all spiritual beings already, here on earth, and our consciousness, or spiritual essence, continues to exist after the death of the physical body. We need therefore have no fear of death. There is always someone to meet us in the spirit world. Friends or family or people we have known will gather round and be ready to meet us when we pass to the other side. Even in spirit, there are those who still refuse to believe in the spirit world; even though they are experiencing it for themselves, they cannot accept it. But there will be those in spirit who will help them. Each individual has to come to his own realisation of the afterlife in his own time. Every person here on earth builds his own world through his own state of mind. In the spirit world, too, we create our own world, and the possibilities are limitless. When we pass to the spirit world we still have free will; we can send our consciousness wherever we want it to go - and we are still locked into whatever limitations we impose upon ourselves. Many people in spirit at first carry on living the same kind of life as they lived on earth. Their minds recreate their homes, their familiar surroundings, and they just go about their daily lives. Or they spend time doing things they always wanted to do and going to places they always wanted to visit. For those who were physically restricted or in pain, there is the delight of being pain-free, of being able to move again. There are many in the spirit world who still want to assist people on earth with their skills, and they may carry on doing this, working through the minds of people on earth to help them to expand their capabilities. People in the spirit world have the same feelings and memories and personality traits that they had on earth; they’re not all-knowing and all-seeing and they haven’t grown wings overnight. There is no sudden transformation of our personality or emotions or beliefs just because we’ve passed into the spirit world. We continue to learn at the rate that is appropriate for us, in ways that we determine for ourselves. Knowing that our spirit survives the transition of physical death, and that we are more than just our physical body should make us more aware of our spiritual side here and now, while we’re alive on earth. Our spirit is our consciousness; it drives us to question, to find meaning in our experiences. It is the life force that exists at the centre of our very being, which brings us love and healing, joy and compassion; the divine spark that connects us to every other living thing in this immense and beautiful universe. Becoming aware of our own spirit, we feel that we are loved, that our lives have purpose, that we are part of a forgiving world. We are always learning, and when we pass into the spirit world, we continue to learn. Our energy, our awareness and consciousness are constantly expanding as we go on our eternal journey towards the God force. Eventually, we will become pure spirit. We travel through many years and even many lifetimes learning and evolving, and eventually there is no longer personality, feelings or memories, but simply pure energy. Many people would like death to be the end, often because they have had a difficult or painful life and they have not managed to solve their problems or overcome their doubts and despair. Sometimes we forget that in being human, we have faults; accepting these faults, we can forgive ourselves and others far more easily. But the vast majority of people don’t do this. So when they reach the spirit world, they are still grappling with those same problems, they’re still struggling to accept themselves as they are. We all have a need to work on ourselves, to understand ourselves and to acknowledge and take responsibility for our own feelings. We have to work hard to resolve our inner conflicts, and the contradictions of our human personalities. It’s only when we’re at one with ourselves that we can find the real joy in life and within people, and become forgiving and compassionate beings. The power of thought is amazing and immense; using that power, we can create anything we want. We all have tremendous capabilities of what we can do with our minds. The joy of spirit, and of life itself, is open to everyone. The greatest challenge we face is to find within ourselves the divine spark; to find our own unique connection to the source of all life and of all love. This book explores some of the myths about mediumship, and describes how it feels to contact the spirit world and what spirits do once they have left our physical world. It explains how a medium works, in both private sittings and public demonstrations, giving examples of the different types of mediumship, including clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, physical mediumship, transfiguration, trance mediumship and psychic art. It discusses the characteristics of a good medium, the factors that affect a medium’s sensitivity, and the dangers of mediumship. The book covers the principles of Spiritualism, and gives examples of spiritual healing. It examines the relationship between mediumship and spirituality, and discusses reincarnation, non-human intelligence and realms of consciousness beyond our own. It defines the different levels of consciousness within the human mind, and explores symbols, signs and the language of the soul. It shows how a medium can work either psychically or mediumistically, and explains the important differences between the two methods, giving examples of each. The final section of the book describes how mediums can be trained to develop their mediumship, and how they can work with spirit guides for personal guidance, connecting with higher consciousnesses and channelling information from more highly evolved spirit beings. It discusses psychic attack and explains how we can protect ourselves, using simple mind exercises to combat negativity – both our own and that of others. The book concludes with final comments about how mediumship can help us all on our journey of self-understanding and spiritual growth   Who will be interested in the book? ‘Down to Earth: Mediumship for Sceptics’ is exactly that. It combines the logical, organised left brain of a psychiatrist with the creative, volatile right brain of a medium. Written in a feet-on-the-ground, no-nonsense style, it talks about difficult subjects in an easy manner. Many people are fascinated by mediumship and psychic phenomena. They know that more exists than just the material side of life, and they may themselves have experienced happenings that they cannot explain. This book, drawing upon one medium’s experiences over thirty years of working with mediumship, will reassure them that they are not alone! Many people today are actively seeking a spiritual pathway. One which is not limited by rules and dogma, but which fits their own intuitive knowledge about life and death and their own experiences. They are searching and wondering and asking questions: this book will answer many of those questions. It will be of interest to those involved in personal development, alternative therapies, and many different areas of self-growth and spiritual awareness. It will also be useful to those already working with their psychic abilities and mediumship.   Unique aspects of the book Mediumship is an extremely popular subject today. However, many of the existing books on mediumship are still written after the old fashion of ‘minute by minute memoirs of a medium,’ or ‘how to be a medium in three easy steps.’ Books about mediumship should never be dull or formulaic. Mediumship is a complex, fascinating and compelling subject, which deserves to be treated with intelligence, honesty, humour - and the utmost respect. ‘Down to Earth: Mediumship for Sceptics’ does just that. This book is unique in that it explains in depth the different levels of consciousness and the importance of understanding transpersonal psychology in working with mediumship and the psyche. When people are developing their mediumship, they start to become aware of something which they naturally assume to be the spirit world. But it isn’t always, because, as all mediums are psychic too, it may be that instead they are picking up the thoughts, feelings and energy of people here on earth. One of the problems that mediums face is determining whether the vibration they are sensing is coming from the spirit world, or from the physical world. In order to be able to fully trust what you are sensing, and to know that it is coming from the spirit world and not from your own psyche or that of other people, you have to understand these different levels of consciousness. Also, through your own personal work, you have to understand a great deal about yourself. Many mediums simply don’t know this. Being psychic, they can literally read your mind, and the information they give you may have come straight from your unconscious mind rather than from spirit, yet they won’t realise this, and will present it as bona fide information from the spirit world. This book defines the different levels of consciousness within the human mind, and explores the symbols of the unconscious mind. It describes some of the techniques of transpersonal psychology, which, using images from meditations or from a person’s dreams, identifies personal symbols and works with representations of sup-personalities from the unconscious mind. It shows how a medium needs to understand the workings of the human psyche in order to be able to tell the difference between projected images and personified energies coming from the unconscious mind of a person here on earth, and those truly originating in the spirit world. This book describes a unique method which combines working with personal symbols and sub-personalities derived psychically from the person’s unconscious mind; using clairsentience to blend with those images and symbols; working directly with them at an energetic level; travelling deeper into the person’s psyche to obtain information from his higher self, or intuitive mind; and finding tools and mind exercises for the person himself to work with to bring about emotional healing.