“Evidential” Mediumship Explained
By Bob Olson
An evidential mediumistic reading usually begins with messages that give you evidence that your loved one in spirit is truly communicating with the medium (sometimes referred to as a psychic medium). A reading with the psychic medium generally starts with a presentation of physical evidence, such as her appearance, cause of death, age, and sex. The messages then describe your loved one’s personality, including what she liked and disliked, identifying speech patterns, and unique characteristics about her that serve as evidence that it is truly her who is coming through in the reading. The psychic medium will likely even use words or phrases that your loved one would typically use. Then there will be some messages to describe your loved one’s history growing up, her family situation, her marital status, and if she has had any children or pets.
The Purpose of Evidential Mediumship
The purpose of evidential mediumship is to help you overcome any skepticism you might have about spirit communication. Evidential messages are the messages that people often describe as follows: “The psychic medium knew things about her that he could never have known unless he was in direct contact with her.” When you’re getting a reading from a psychic medium who is a stranger to you and knows nothing about you—which I recommend—then this evidence is even more powerful. Then after all the evidential messages have been delivered, the medium will present the messages that are meaningful and loving, though nonevidential.
For example, most British psychic mediums give evidential readings. While a medium is a medium regardless of where in the world they live, most British mediums are trained to give evidence-based readings, as described above, which provide evidence that the messages the psychic medium is giving you are legitimate. This isn’t to say there aren’t psychic mediums in England who don’t practice evidential mediumship, but I’ve found most British mediums tend to follow a formula that gives evidence first and then other messages and guidance second.
Different Training And Styles
You never really know what you’re going to get with psychic mediums from the United States unless they have been trained in evidential mediumship. If they’ve been trained at a Spiritualist church by another evidential medium or by teachers at the Arthur Findlay College in England, they are likely trained in evidential spirit communication. I’ve also noticed that psychic mediums from the United States (including evidential mediums) tend to read at a faster pace than most British psychic mediums, which I personally prefer. The slower, formulaic pace of British mediumship leaves me slightly impatient. This is probably indicative of our fast-paced society in the United States, at least in Massachusetts, where I grew up. Nonetheless, I’m not the only person to have commented on the slow, relaxed style of British mediumship, which some people like better because it’s easier to follow.
Everyone has their preferences when it comes to psychic mediums and it’s impossible to say which style of reading is better. It’s more about which style is better for you. From my perspective, however, I like evidential spirit communication because it gives us evidence that the messages are really coming from our loved ones in spirit. The way my mind works, if the psychic medium has given me extraordinary evidence that they could not have possibly known without getting it from my deceased loved one, then it helps me to believe the other nonevidential messages. But without the evidential messages, there’s really no way to know if anything the psych medium is saying is true. So because I always begin with skepticism first, I prefer the evidence before I feel confident believing in the nonspecific messages.
This article is an excerpt from Bob Olson’s book, Answers About The Afterlife.
©2014 Written by Bob Olson
