I’m always heartened to learn that science helps to prove the benefits of mediumship. Even though I know my work is valuable, research that validates my feelings empowers me to want to try that much harder to help people connect with their loved ones in spirit.
A recent edition of the Friday Afterlife Report described a research study on mediumship and grief compiled by Dr. Julie Beischel. The study collected data about the potential therapeutic benefits of mediumship, and Beischel’s conclusion suggested that a mediumship reading can be a great treatment option for grief.
Beischel is a cofounder and the research director at the Windbridge Research Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conducting scientific research and creating educational materials focused on dying, death, and what comes next.
Her latest study provides evidence that indicates that spontaneous (i.e., a manifestation) or even induced (a mediumship session) after-death communication has a great effect on personal grief: She points to research performed at the University of Memphis, where 64 case studies demonstrated that traditional grief counseling wasn’t benefiting patients any better than the passage of time, and the resources of support a person already had.
“An effective grief therapy is not currently out there,” Beischel stated. However, “people who have had a mediumship meeting report some miraculous, instantaneous changes” in their emotional state.
While I can’t brag that every one of my sessions has produced a miraculous and instantaneous change in my client, I can be proud of bringing solace and relief to many people who have sought my help.
For example: Estelle was referred to me by a grief counsellor (thank you!) who often suggests me to her clients. Estelle’s grandson had completed suicide eight months previously, and she was having a harder time coming to grips with Juan’s passing than Juan’s mother. We had a Zoom session and when she signed on, I saw a stony face that could’ve been chiselled from granite. Estelle was a complete skeptic, and her doubts about my work radiated off her like invisible waves.
We began making some pleasant chit-chat to put her at ease, and I felt her warm up to the idea of speaking with me. As she told me about making preparations for a coming family get-together, I felt the presence of a young man who seemed to insist that he would be at that gathering. I described my image of him and Estelle’s expression began to soften, and when I said I felt colourful arms and – inexplicably, to me – something like a nail in my bottom lip, she burst into tears.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “He had a silver stud in his lip. These younger people, with their piercings and tattoos – I don’t understand it.”
Juan had a few messages for his grandmother that she accepted, and she showed relief when he told her that did not feel the pressure in his head anymore. “He was very depressed, and had stopped taking his pills,” Estelle said.
At the end of our session, Estelle thanked me and said she felt lighter, more relieved. I wished her well, and when she signed off, she even had a smile.
I’m always gratified to help in someone’s healing process, and while I like Dr. Beischel’s suggestion that mediumship can give comfort in the grieving process, I differ from her opinion that grief counselling seems to have less value than mediumship.
I believe grief counselling and mediumship go hand in hand, and the goal is to support people in their time of need. Both modes of healing are necessary; in fact, I have in my desk the telephone numbers of grief counsellors, ready to give clients who seem deep in depression over their loss. Just as there are several grief counsellors who recommend my services to those clients they feel might be open to my work.
The key to healing from a loss – and I’m sure my colleagues in bereavement counselling will agree with me – is listening with compassion and providing hope for the future.
If you have any questions or comments on this subject or on any other spiritual matter, feel free to write me at mail @ carolynmolnar.com. And please visit me again!