The SNU

Although based on ancient roots, modern American Spiritualism began as late as 1848, with two young sisters, only 11 and 8 years old at the time, claiming to hear rapping noises and consequently working out complex codes and implementing them to contact and communicate with beings from the afterlife. As news spread, many were caught up in the spell.

As church attendances fell, spiritualist seances took over in evey town and city across the country. Before long, Spiritualist churches were formed all over the place, usually around a person with psychic abilities - the Spiritualist Mediums.

Spiritualist mediums work based on the concept that the spirit, the true essence of life, lives on even after the body has died. They also firmly believe that the spirits of those who have passed away wish to be involved in the lives of those they have left behind and pass all of their wisdom on to them. Many of them believe that spirits will frequently make use of rapping noises or the levitaton of objects in order to get the attention of the living. Others still claim to have paranatural healing powers

Some may hold meetings - or seances - in smaller groups, while others operate in spiritualist churches, where they "listen for voices"  from various planes of existence during services, thus making their services available to all present at the time. Here the guiding spirit will pass on messages from any spirit wishing to contact or advise a living person - as opposed to individual readings, where usually only one spirit is contacted at a time. There are also some who will perform individual readings.

As with other psychic mediums, they attempt to make contact with residents of the spirit world in order to provide comfort to those who have lost a loved one and are trying to cope with their grief, as well as providing advice and answers to specific questions. Obviously a personal session would be much more detailed and specifically suited to a single individual, whereas meetings, especially larger ones such as a whole congretation, will be much more general and although messages may be conveyed to anyone, it is unlikely that they will be as specific. 

Often this is done with the medium entering a light trance and allowing a controlling, or guiding, spirit to take over.  Any messages that are received are conveyed and the members of the congregation for whom the message was meant will take the message and try to act upon it. 

The particular value of spiritualist mediums lies thus in the fact that they not only provide services to people particularly seeking consultation, but are able to convey messages from spirits who may not otherwise have been contacted for a range of people. For instance a spirit may wish to warn a loved one regarding a future outcome or event and is able to do so at a large meeting, whereas he/ she may not have been contacted in a private, individual meeting