Mediumship & Hypnosis
ellistar and I spent this weekend at Arthur Findlay Spiritualist College at Stansted Hall doing a course.
We went this time last year to the same place to do Trance Week. This changed the direction of our mediumship from scrappy, ill-disciplined attempts at spirit contact via various churches and circles, to committed, determined regular sitting for Trance every Wednesday pretty much without fail. We even intended to sit when we were on honeymoon in Turkey, but realised too late that it was in fact late Wednesday night and we had missed it.
I also committed to trying to do at least one course every year, and this year we turned our backs on the wealth of Trance courses available in favour of doing something a bit different. So we plumped for Mediumship & Hypnosis - a weekend course run by Brian Gledhill, a fully Qualified Hypnotherapist, SNU Minister and working Medium of approximately 30 years or so. The aim of the course was to introduce us to the principles of Self-Hypnosis and show us how we could use this to enhance our mediumship.
Deciding not to do a Trance course seemed at the time to be a bit of a strange decision, as we have both been finding it a bit hard recently. It has been clear for some time that our regular spirit friend attendees are keen to speak, but we have not been able to take that step. It's incredibly difficult to explain why in descriptive text of this sort; but suffice to say that the relationship between medium and spirit speaker is very, very delicate and complex, and co-existing to the point where you can open your mouth and let someone else's words pour out is incredibly hard at first.
But, although we didn't see exactly how this course could help us, it felt like the right course to do and we trust our spirit friends and teachers to lead us right in such matters.
Oh boy, did they ever lead us right.
Two major things emerged from the weekend.
One is that although we knew that everything from the lightest meditation to the deepest trance is an altered state, we didn't realise just how far down you can go before inviting spirit in. When we usually sit we close our eyes and spirit are there waiting for us - it's like opening the door to a party when all your friends are already in the room waiting for you. We invite them in and then seek to drift deeper. What Brian showed us is a hypnosis technique that allows you to go deep while retaining full clarity of mind. This is an altered state that you can use for self-improvement, but from here you can also invite spirit in and sit for Trance mediumship. This is massively more effective - by the time you are inviting spirit in, you have already raised your vibration considerably, which helps them to connect with you without having to lower their vibration as much.
The other thing we did not know when we booked the course is that Brian is an accomplished trance medium. He did a demonstration for us on Saturday night, one and a half hours with various speakers coming through to advise or answer questions. Very smooth demonstration, obviously genuine and very inspiring.
Five out of eleven of us on the course were sitting for Trance - we were at all levels of experience. Brian took the five of us into a separate group for one of the lessons and led us into trance using his techniques. He then implanted the suggestion while we were in the altered state that we can easily return to that state merely by counting 1 to 10 quickly (I look forward to testing that). He then led each one of us individually to speak. For two of the experienced ladies present this was nothing new - they spoke without difficulty and he discussed with their speakers what they felt the medium needed to do to improve further, which he helped them to implement.
But for the rest of us? Ye gods, it was hard. By the time it got to my turn, tears were already pouring down my face from the presence of spirit. The sensation of being touched by a close spirit helper is like meeting family at the airport after years of separation. You know the moment when you hug them for the first time, and the tears rise? It's just like that. And then, while feeling that way, you need to feel the words of this person rise within you, and open your own mouth and begin to express them. They can't just take control off you and do it for you. They don't yet have good enough control of your lungs, mouth, larynx. You have to speak for them at first - let them get used to what it feels like, and how all the mechanical bits work. And all the time my body was fighting it - presumably trying to tell me that the request for speech hadn't come from me, error, error. My breath came in gulps, the tears streamed, words poured through my brain, and all that came out was "yes" to the questions Brian asked. Although an experienced trance medium will express only what the speaker wishes to say, with none of their own impressions included, I couldn't manage to express anything that I didn't totally agree with; we were speaking by committee. Even when Brian told my speaker that I would make a fine instrument for him, we couldn't manage to say "yes". I couldn't be sure I agreed; a nod was the most my speaker could manage to get past me.
ellistar managed better that I did. Each syllable came out in a tortured breath, but it came clearly. When Brian told the speaker that practice would improve their collaberation, he even managed a whole sentence "That - would - be - des-ir-a-ble"
I was so proud of him.
So now we get to sit at home and see how much this course has helped us. We accept that Brian dragged us to the point of speech, and also that Stansted is an incredibly powerful environment. We may therefore find that we cannot do so well at first on our own. But we shall use the new lessons to best effect and see where it takes us.
We went this time last year to the same place to do Trance Week. This changed the direction of our mediumship from scrappy, ill-disciplined attempts at spirit contact via various churches and circles, to committed, determined regular sitting for Trance every Wednesday pretty much without fail. We even intended to sit when we were on honeymoon in Turkey, but realised too late that it was in fact late Wednesday night and we had missed it.
I also committed to trying to do at least one course every year, and this year we turned our backs on the wealth of Trance courses available in favour of doing something a bit different. So we plumped for Mediumship & Hypnosis - a weekend course run by Brian Gledhill, a fully Qualified Hypnotherapist, SNU Minister and working Medium of approximately 30 years or so. The aim of the course was to introduce us to the principles of Self-Hypnosis and show us how we could use this to enhance our mediumship.
Deciding not to do a Trance course seemed at the time to be a bit of a strange decision, as we have both been finding it a bit hard recently. It has been clear for some time that our regular spirit friend attendees are keen to speak, but we have not been able to take that step. It's incredibly difficult to explain why in descriptive text of this sort; but suffice to say that the relationship between medium and spirit speaker is very, very delicate and complex, and co-existing to the point where you can open your mouth and let someone else's words pour out is incredibly hard at first.
But, although we didn't see exactly how this course could help us, it felt like the right course to do and we trust our spirit friends and teachers to lead us right in such matters.
Oh boy, did they ever lead us right.
Two major things emerged from the weekend.
One is that although we knew that everything from the lightest meditation to the deepest trance is an altered state, we didn't realise just how far down you can go before inviting spirit in. When we usually sit we close our eyes and spirit are there waiting for us - it's like opening the door to a party when all your friends are already in the room waiting for you. We invite them in and then seek to drift deeper. What Brian showed us is a hypnosis technique that allows you to go deep while retaining full clarity of mind. This is an altered state that you can use for self-improvement, but from here you can also invite spirit in and sit for Trance mediumship. This is massively more effective - by the time you are inviting spirit in, you have already raised your vibration considerably, which helps them to connect with you without having to lower their vibration as much.
The other thing we did not know when we booked the course is that Brian is an accomplished trance medium. He did a demonstration for us on Saturday night, one and a half hours with various speakers coming through to advise or answer questions. Very smooth demonstration, obviously genuine and very inspiring.
Five out of eleven of us on the course were sitting for Trance - we were at all levels of experience. Brian took the five of us into a separate group for one of the lessons and led us into trance using his techniques. He then implanted the suggestion while we were in the altered state that we can easily return to that state merely by counting 1 to 10 quickly (I look forward to testing that). He then led each one of us individually to speak. For two of the experienced ladies present this was nothing new - they spoke without difficulty and he discussed with their speakers what they felt the medium needed to do to improve further, which he helped them to implement.
But for the rest of us? Ye gods, it was hard. By the time it got to my turn, tears were already pouring down my face from the presence of spirit. The sensation of being touched by a close spirit helper is like meeting family at the airport after years of separation. You know the moment when you hug them for the first time, and the tears rise? It's just like that. And then, while feeling that way, you need to feel the words of this person rise within you, and open your own mouth and begin to express them. They can't just take control off you and do it for you. They don't yet have good enough control of your lungs, mouth, larynx. You have to speak for them at first - let them get used to what it feels like, and how all the mechanical bits work. And all the time my body was fighting it - presumably trying to tell me that the request for speech hadn't come from me, error, error. My breath came in gulps, the tears streamed, words poured through my brain, and all that came out was "yes" to the questions Brian asked. Although an experienced trance medium will express only what the speaker wishes to say, with none of their own impressions included, I couldn't manage to express anything that I didn't totally agree with; we were speaking by committee. Even when Brian told my speaker that I would make a fine instrument for him, we couldn't manage to say "yes". I couldn't be sure I agreed; a nod was the most my speaker could manage to get past me.
ellistar managed better that I did. Each syllable came out in a tortured breath, but it came clearly. When Brian told the speaker that practice would improve their collaberation, he even managed a whole sentence "That - would - be - des-ir-a-ble"
I was so proud of him.
So now we get to sit at home and see how much this course has helped us. We accept that Brian dragged us to the point of speech, and also that Stansted is an incredibly powerful environment. We may therefore find that we cannot do so well at first on our own. But we shall use the new lessons to best effect and see where it takes us.