According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language a Medium is that which lies in the middle, or between two things; from the Spiritist perspective a Medium is a person that is able to serve as a bridge between the physical and the spiritual world. Simply put, a Medium is a person in contact with the Spirits.
Allan Kardec studied more than one thousand Mediums and concluded in the Mediums’ Book that the mediumistic faculty or the ability to communicate with the Spirits it is not a privilege possessed by a few but rather a natural faculty that all human beings have, but in different degrees. To make it easier to understand allow me to use the analogy of intelligence. We know that everyone has the intellectual ability, or simply said the ability to learn. But we generally call intellectuals those who surpass the common knowledge of the masses. The same principle is used when referring to Mediums, everyone is a medium but the term Medium is generally used to describe only those individuals who have the mediumship faculty in a more developed degree than the general population. Let us explain why we are all mediums.
When someone feels the presence of people when there is no one physically present; or when you think about a friend and within seconds you receive their phone call; or for instance, when someone has a strong urge to make a particular choice and at the end their intuition was right; when you sleep and you have dreams with relatives who passed; these are evidence of the mediumistic ability that we all have. But then there are individuals who are able to see, hear and speak with the Spirits on a higher level of communication. In general only these individuals are called Mediums because their ability to communicate with the Spirits is on a higher level than the common person.
Let us be clear that Spiritism did not create Mediums or mediumship. It only formed these new terms to describe a natural law. In the past the history books gave names such as prophets, witches and sorcerers to those who were able to receive messages from the Spirits. With Allan Kardec’s studies in the Mediums’ Book one will learn that a Medium is a regular individual, just like everyone else, but who was born with this faculty.
Also it is very important to emphasize that since the person was born a Medium, the faculty was given freely as an innate faculty, thus mediumship should also be used freely. Additionally, mediumistic episodes can only happen with the collaboration and presence of Spirits, therefore the Medium cannot force Spirits to communicate. For these reasons, Spiritism teaches that Mediums should not use this ability for financial gain.
The Mediums’ Book is an incomparable source of knowledge if one wants to learn about the safe, and most importantly, the moral and ethical practice of mediumship.
