I'll add recent experiences in developing mediumship to this journal. They run backward for a bit, from more recent to more distant. I won't bother recording absolute flops but there have been a couple, both of which I tried to conduct over Skype.

Due to an earlier work day, I stopped journaling anything but significant or lucid dreams.



Reading 7
Barbara
In the week after my birthday party, my friend T rang and asked for a reading. I was a bit challenged at first because I actually knew things about T’s mum and these were the things that initially came up. Her mother, Barbara, also came through as a mind link more than a true blending. Beyond the initial things I knew about (her appearance, love of horses and dying after a game of golf) she progressed to an image of slender pink ribbons, which was very significant to T at both a literal and symbolic level. There were other things, like the reference to her dog, which she showed me as a standard golden retriever, which was part of her dog’s breed and what she referred to it as, even though it was black. She also referenced T’s childhood dog by showing me an exaggeratedly, almost comically squashed dog face. I knew not to take this so literally, so when I asked Trish if she had a squashed face breed and she stated she did, I asked if her mum thought it was ugly and made fun of it. My intuition/interpretation was correct!

I don’t want to get too much into details here but rather what I’m learning as I practice. There were other specific details that arose, like a reference to an incident with a spider that T confirmed but this may also have been a reference to Barbara’s reaction to Huntsmen spiders when she visited T in Australia (she was an American). The comically exaggerated image of “spider” that she gave me suited both stories well. She had a number of things to say about jewellery, which proved valid and I also thought it was interesting that she commented on the pink skirt she was buried in. T said Barbara never wore pink, so it was a detail that impressed her memory at her mother’s funeral.

The really interesting thing about Barbara was her resourcefulness. She did things no other spirit has tried during a reading before. I felt her around at my right ear, trying to activate clairaudience. It even got my ear ringing briefly but was, unfortunately, ineffective. Still, I admired her effort. I also kept getting goosebumps with Barbara, which hasn’t occurred with other spirits during readings. I feel that she was trying some kind of tactile form of communication. This makes me aware that she wasn’t 100% happy with the way the communication was occurring and rightly so, as mind links entail a greater level of interpretation on the medium and sitter’s part.

T had had an experience where a medium in a shop had approached her shortly after Barbara’s death and told her there was important information her mother wanted her to know. T, therefore, asked me to ask her mum what that was about. When I did, she showed me a key and a lock. I reported this to T who then said she thought her mum had been trying to tell her about jewellery in a safety deposit box. I asked Barbara if she’d be prepared to communicate that to T in a dream and she agreed she’d do that - she did.

The other interesting thing about Barbara was she chose to stand on my left/T’s right, the place where I typically see males. T felt this was because she was undisputed head of the family. And why not?

Margaret:
We moved across to T’s mother-in-law, Margaret. While Barbara died 8 years ago, Margaret only died this year. Reading for Margaret was much easier than Barbara had been. I suspect it is because she was possibly more open and outgoing but it may have been because her death was more recent or she felt a strong need to make first contact or chatting with Barbara had honed my communication or I was more similar to Margaret than Barbara. All is speculation at this stage.

I described her as very thin, with a prominent, boney chin, grey haired, stooped back, which all checked out.

Margaret felt tremendous gratitude for what was done at her funeral. She showed me (I could feel it too) a bowl with a candle in it. T explained that they dried the petals from the flowers and put them in such bowls around a candle. Since Margaret blended easily I was able to feel and convey her strong gratitude. She also referenced the beautiful music (T sang Margaret’s favourite song at the funeral) and that she liked the patent leather shoes T wore (I thought she was saying they were hers at first). Apparently, Margaret was always complimenting T, something I picked up intuitively. When T told me that Margaret always said she loved T’s curly hair, I got a very strong sense of agreement. In fact, I could feel Margaret’s tremendous affection for T, which is always nice for the medium!

The really interesting thing Margaret did, however, was comment on a conversation T and her husband, P, had been having the previous evening. It appears P was outnumbered, two women to one man on that one! Then she talked about other family members, including mentioning a “James”. There is a James and the comment apparently made sense. Yay for getting names!

Margaret also seemed pretty pleased that she had found Alli, the little dog that she had given as a gift to P and T and that had passed over some years ago. She was also pretty cagey when T asked if she had interfered with the data projector when, against her express wishes, they had chosen to show photos at the funeral. Her response was, “That would be telling,” and a good deal of laughter.