The Mind of the Medium: The Art and Science of Psychic Mediumship

Mediums are individuals that claim to have the ability to communicate with the spirits of the departed.  The popularity of television programs featuring Mediums such as “The Long Island Medium” and “The Haunting of…” clearly shows that American interest in this topic has not slowed down.  Unfortunately, the scientific community has largely dismissed Mediums as charlatans preying on grieving family members.  This viewpoint assumes that the abilities that are claimed are impossible.  Any information shared by a Medium that seems accurate are merely good guesses achieved through “cold reading” techniques.

Granted, there are many people out there claiming to have Mediumship abilities that are charlatans and do use cold reading techniques. And, there are others.

For the past 2 1/2 years I have been mapping the brains of Mediums and psychics while they engage in their skill.  During these experiments I have seen some incredibly accurate readings from Mediums that were careful NOT to gain any information from the sitter (the person receiving the reading).  The Mediums I have worked with have all been certified by one or more of the organizations that test Mediums (Veritas, Windbridge, Forever Family Foundation).  These organizations go to great lengths to test the accuracy of the Medium readings, including utilizing a quadruple blind method which removes the Medium several steps away from the sitter.  These Mediums consistently show unusual brainwave activity when they are engaged in their practice.  Many of them show activity that looks like seizure activity, or tremendous increases of slow brain activity in specific regions.  Another semi-consistent pattern relates to significant increases in fast activity in the back of the head-the areas of the brain associated with visual processing.

While this work is still preliminary and does not necessarily “prove” that Mediums are communicating with the dead, it does strongly suggest that Mediums are entering a very different state of consciousness when they are engaged in their work.  They do not simply appear to be faking-something interesting is definitely going on!