Genuine Mediumship; or, The Invisible PowersAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
Genuine Mediumship; or, The Invisible Powers
Atkinson, William Walker
Mediums
At the present time we have too few mediums, and this fact is
attributable largely to the gradual discontinuance of the home circles.
Present time folks are too fond of having everything worked out and
presented to them, and they flock to the sensational public
demonstrations, some of which are undoubtedly "faked" in order to meet
the public demand for sensational features; and at the same time the
honest, careful, conscientious mediums are often overlooked, and the
home circles almost unknown. Many so-called investigators of
spiritualism are feverishly anxious to "see something," and are
impatient and the comparatively slow order of developments at the home
circle or at the careful mediumistic circles. Many earnest spiritualists
lament the present tendency, and predict that in time there will be an
almost complete dearth of honest, careful mediums, owing to the demand
for "quick action" and the temptation to furnish fraudulent counterfeits
of the genuine phenomena resulting from this feverish public demand.
Warning to Young Mediums.
Wallis says concerning this point: "After a time, as the development
progresses, the medium and his spirit friends may be strong enough to
undertake public work without the assistance and protection of a circle,
in the same manner as did D. Home, Slade, Eglinton, and other noted
public mediums; but they should be in no hurry about doing so, and they
need to be very self-possessed and level-headed to hold their own
against the 'phenomena hunters' on the one side (who sap the very life
of the sensitive), and the know-all, conceited sceptics on the other
side (who freeze up all the psychic conditions), and before whom it is
worse than foolish to cast these pearls of great price.
"The lot of the public 'physical,' 'test,' and 'clairvoyant' medium is
not to be envied or lightly chosen. Such sensitives frequently suffer a
martyrdom that none but sensitives can realize. What with foolish
flatterers; the sitters who are never content, but cry 'give, give,
give;' the injudicious friends, who seeing the exhaustion of the
worn-out mediums, in mistaken sympathy urge them to take stimulants
(instead of securing them rest and change of surroundings), they have a
hard road to travel, and our sincerest sympathy goes out to them all. We
plead for them. We bespeak kindly and human consideration. Too
frequently they are tried and condemned unheard. They are expected to
prove that they are NOT frauds, instead of, as in other cases, being
accepted as reputable people. So much has this been the case that some
mediums of unquestioned power have retired into private life and
business pursuits, where they meet with the respect and recognition
which were denied them while they were public workers in the ranks of
spiritualism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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