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Most mediums are better prepared than Whoopi was. They have come to terms with their special ability to communicate with spirits. Their purpose is to relay or interpret messages between the currently living and the spirits of those who have gone before. They may hear the spirit speaking to them, or receive symbolic, emotional, or visual impressions of information. We call psychics who work in this way mental mediums. |
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Another kind of psychic who brings information from the next world to this one is called a channeler. These psychics achieve a relaxed, sometimes semiconscious or unconscious state (also known as a trance) so that a spirit can channel its own voice through the medium's body. Also known as physical mediums, channelers may fall into a light trance in which they are fully aware of their surroundings and the information they receive, or a full trance in which they have no awareness or memory of the experience. |
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Like psychics in any other area of expertise, each medium has his or her own unique way of tapping into psychic abilities and perceiving spirit messages. In most cases, only the medium perceives the spirits, but attendees at several seances in the first half of the 20th century (when the Spiritualist movement was hot!) reported seeing spirit materializationsand even took some photos to prove it! This is a far cry from most modern mediums, who often don't perform ritual seances or use any devices, such as crystal balls or Ouija boards. Although some still follow these traditions, others, such as James Van Praagh, author of the best-selling book Talking to Heaven (E.P. Dutton, 1997), channel messages through their minds. |
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Although psychics aren't mind readers, they're often called upon to provide information at crime scenes or to help find missing people. After following every available lead to no avail, police departments frequently try to unearth clues from beyond the physical world. In fact, a June 1998 article in Life magazine reports that 37 percent of police departments in large cities report that they've consulted psychics. Although they don't usually solve the crime quickly by pointing out the actual criminal, police psychics often offer information that contributes to the case's overall information. |
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Like all other types of intuitives, police psychics do not all receive information in the same way. Some receive mental pictures that they may not even understand themselves but which help lead the police in the right direction. For example, one police psychic envisioned the route a murderer followed to dispose of a body. Although she was not familiar with the local signs or turns in the roads, local police wereand found the body within hours. Other police psychics pick up on emotions experienced |
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