Introduction
Janet walked with speed and determination into my dining room, as if this would bring her closer to spirit more quickly. As we exchanged pleasantries, her words breathlessly spewed forth at a slightly elevated pitch, belying a heightened sense of eagerness and anticipation at what was to come. The twenty-four-year-old sat at the dining table where I conducted many of my mediumship readings and leaned forward as if those few inches might bring her closer to spirit. Her eyes stayed glued to mine, searching for someone else who might lie in wait behind my pupils. As I did before all my readings, I described the process for communicating with spirit, told Janet not to feed me any information, and limit her responses to yes, no, or maybe. We opened the session with a prayer.
I then cleared my mind and shifted my attention to the spirit world. On the dark, empty stage that filled my mind, a fuzzy image of a young man who looked like he was in his twenties or thirties slowly came into focus. A green Boston Celtics jersey cut off at the midsection fell loosely from his shoulders. Gray cotton shorts that came down to his knees didn’t hide the slight paunch of his stomach. Red high-top sneakers covered his feet and announced his presence. The short hair on the top of his head stood up like recently cut blades of grass on a neatly manicured lawn. The sides were cut extremely short, almost bald, like you might see in a styled crew cut. Stubble darkened his round face. As he grew closer to me and unfolded his essence, he shared with me the understanding and familiarity so common between friends and acquaintances rather than the family bond of a brother. I described everything I saw and felt.
“Janet, do you recognize this man?”
“Yes, but his hair was less of a crew cut and more closely trimmed.”
“Wow, is she getting picky,” I thought to myself.
As I encouraged this young man to blend his spirit with mine and overshadow me, the pace of my heartbeat increased and pulsations of excited energy flowed through my arms and torso, causing bouncy mannerisms and changing vocal intonations. A subtle smirk crossed my lips, and I tilted my head slightly to the right as my eyes narrowed. After I urged him to let me know his personality, I virtually inhaled a heightened degree of self-confidence mixed with street smarts, together with a certain swagger you might find in a rough neighborhood. Janet said this characterization of her friend’s personality and demeanor was quite accurate.
I asked him how he passed. Against a dark backdrop in my head, an empty orange pill bottle materialized, lying on its side with its opening pointing to the right. Its white cap lay off to the right. Where were the pills? Why would a pill bottle not have any pills in it … unless they’d all been taken already. To me, that’s often a symbol of an overdose.
“I’m seeing an empty pill bottle, but there are no pills anywhere. I feel like they were all consumed at once. The image makes me think this young man died from an overdose. Does that make sense to you?”
“Yes. He committed suicide.”
Small teardrops glistened in the light as they slowly formed in the corners of Janet’s eyes. I silently asked this young man to let me know his age when he passed. To ascertain someone’s age at passing, I normally move my hand along a timeline broken into decades until an overwhelming force in my mind compels me to stop. However, I didn’t even have enough time to use my typical method. Instead, I suddenly wanted to begin talking about the number twenty-four, though I didn’t know why initially.
“I just want to say the number twenty-four now, but I don’t know what it means. I’m beginning to feel that it has to do with someone’s age. Does the age twenty-four make sense to you in some way?” I blurted out.
“I’m twenty-four,” Janet offered.
“No, it’s for someone else, I think. It feels like someone’s age, and it’s just hitting me like a ton of bricks.”
Janet suddenly gasped. “Oh my God! My friend who you were describing was twenty-four when he died!”
We both thought about that for a moment.
I then asked Janet’s friend how I could best describe him in a way she would understand. In my mind, I saw her friend sitting on the floor of an empty basketball court that had a green emblem or logo on it, though I couldn’t make out what it was. A huge, empty stadium or arena surrounded this basketball court. This didn’t make any sense to me.
“I see your friend sitting on an empty basketball court that has a green logo on it, inside a big empty arena. Does this mean anything to you?”
Janet again drew in a short breath.
“Yes! This makes complete sense now. My friend was a die-hard Boston Celtics fan, so that’s why he is wearing that jersey. The basketball court he’s sitting on is in the stadium where the team plays. That’s TD Garden in Boston! That logo you saw on the floor of the basketball court is the Celtics logo.”
The young man got up and began moving in what at first looked like strange jerking motions. The closer I looked, the more I realized he was doing some kind of unique dance step or maybe some hip-hop dance. As he continued to overshadow me, I just wanted to start doing the same moves. I started laughing and swaying from side to side and dragging my index and middle fingers together across my eyes, one hand after the other, in opposite directions out to the sides. It looked like I was rhythmically sashaying to some imaginary dance beat. When Janet saw me doing this, she burst out laughing at how ridiculous I looked.
After she calmed down, Janet said, “That’s one of my friend’s favorite dance moves. He always did that at clubs when we went out dancing. It’s called ‘raving.’ ”
What did I know? At least Janet confirmed another piece of evidence from her friend in spirit.
The young man soon began giving Janet messages, which came in small bursts.
“You know I’m with you all the time.”
“I’m always watching over you.”
“I’m sorry I left the way I did. It was stupid, and I’m responsible for it, not you.”
As she wiped a tear from her eye, Janet just nodded her head.
He pantomimed the idea, “Listen to your heart” as he pointed to his ear, then his heart, and then repeatedly back and forth.
“I totally understand that. My friend was trying to tell me to open up my heart again, since I completely shut down after he died.
We closed the session with a prayer.
“Chris, thank you so much. That was incredible hearing from him again.”
“Thank your friend. He’s the one who did all the hard work. It’s pretty clear he’s still a very close friend to you. He’s watching you closely and not leaving your side.”
Janet’s wonderful reading yet again affirmed my faith in spirit’s love for us and the fact that our loved ones in spirit are always with us and watching over us.
* * *
If you’re reading this, you may have felt compelled to investigate spirit communication after the passing of a loved one, or maybe you’re interested in it as a result of personal curiosity. Either way, I’m thrilled to share with you all the knowledge I’ve gained over the years about the spirit world and the ability to communicate with spirit. Together, we’ll share a wonderful journey.
In this book I’ll cover what spirit is, our relation to spirit, what spirit tells us about their world, the fundamentals of spirit communication, and what spirit is trying to tell us. I’ll also relay the stories of some remarkable readings and how sitters’ lives have changed when they reconnect with their loved ones in spirit. You’ll also learn the journey of how I became a medium, how the experience has shaped me, and much more.
As you read this book, you may begin to feel closer to spirit, come to understand that spirit is actually much closer than you previously imagined, and start gaining a different perspective on this life and the next. You may begin to feel more spiritual and closer to Divine Source Energy that loves us and guides us all. Throughout this book I try to use terms like Divine Source Energy, Source, the Divine, or any combination of those in addition to “God” to avoid sounding overly religious, for that occasionally turns off some people.
Religion versus Spirituality
Please recognize that spirituality references our personal and internal relation with a higher power, whereas religion is more outside of our self, less personal, and institutional. Religion includes a set of belief systems, creeds, and dogma, unlike spirituality, which is one’s own beliefs and quite personal. Please don’t think I’m trying to put down any religions or people who feel religious—on the contrary. I think religion can be very supportive. However, I do feel it’s important to highlight the difference between spirituality and religion as we begin our quest for spirit.
Martin Twycross, CSNU, has described spiritual development as “A process by which a person achieves greater awareness of their true spiritual nature and a greater connection to all things, including the Divine.”1Before I began my journey to become a medium, I certainly wasn’t spiritual or religious, but now I’ve learned so much I can’t help but be significantly more spiritual. I think you may grow in a similar way. You may, in fact, begin to learn how to communicate with spirit by yourself!
Now what do you think of when you hear the phrase psychic medium? Do you envision a person with a crystal ball on their table or a purple neon sign hanging in their shop window that reads “Psychic,” or a sandwich board on the street advertising a five-dollar reading? Perhaps you might be skeptical and question that person’s validity, honesty, and ability to communicate with spirit. You may even question their sanity.
The Difference Between Psychics and Mediums
People often confuse the differences between psychics and mediums, and they lump them all together. Psychics receive most of their information from people on earth (spirit incarnate) and their aura, whereas mediums receive information from people in the spirit world (spirit discarnate). Both use their psychic senses to receive the information, but a medium needs to link with spirit to get information, while a psychic links with people still here on earth. Importantly, a medium uses spiritual power to create that link, unlike a psychic, who does not. Power is essentially the fuel to create a good connection with spirit. In short, a medium equals a psychic plus power to receive a connection with spirit. As the saying goes, all mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums.
Types of Mediums
Mediums practice two fundamental types of mediumship: mental mediumship and physical mediumship. Mental mediumship is the most common form of mediumship and is, in most cases, subjective. This includes evidential mediumship (the majority of the reading is evidence, the balance is messages), trance mediumship (where the medium goes into a trance, allowing the spirit communicator to speak), spirit art (where the medium allows the spirit to draw or paint, even if the medium himself has no talent) and automatic writing (where spirit overshadows the author and writes its desired text, typically without the human instrument knowing what is being written).
Physical mediumship, quite rare in modern times, is objective. This includes materialization/dematerialization, percussion/raps, apports (where spirit brings objects from the other side to the physical plane), transfiguration (where the spirit marks its face over the face of the medium), levitation, telekinesis (such as table tipping) and electronic voice phenomena (EVP). Physical mediumship was quite popular in the later part of the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century. However, this lost popularity due to cases of fraudulent activities and the increasing pace of life in modern times that left physical mediums less able to focus on their craft.
Most mental mediums are quite honest, deeply caring, and truly capable. They have carefully developed their ability to communicate with spirit over a number of years and are quite sane, despite the protestations of some skeptics. Most are quite spiritual and seek ways they can serve others, for mediumship at its core is a calling to help others, both in spirit and in the flesh. Mediums come from all walks of life. They have different backgrounds, diverse personalities, and are of different religions. In fact, we all have psychic abilities. But like many things, some people have developed their capabilities while others have let them lie dormant. The vast majority of mediums are regular people who have simply developed their psychic senses and unfolded their spiritual nature so they are able to communicate with spirit.
For example, I’m the last thing you’d imagine if you thought of the word medium. I look more like the average middle-aged man who might be coming home from a day at the office. I’ve got a beautiful wife and a fantastic teenage son; I live in a busy New Jersey suburb close to New York City, and I live life like everyone else. I certainly don’t seem to fit many people’s preconceived notion of a medium—if such a thing even exists anymore. Even some of my friends don’t know I communicate with those who are no longer in the physical realm … or are quite surprised when I tell them. “You’re the lastperson I would’ve guessed would be a medium!” they exclaim.
How I Came to Mediumship
I never went looking for spirit; they found me. I was led by the nose to mediumship by spirit that had a very different agenda than I did. Looking back on my childhood, it occurs to me now that I was quite aware of spirit; I just never fully realized what spirit was trying to do. Back then I perceived spirit more like a Hollywood ghost story or an invasion of monsters. As a child, I was scared to death when spirit tried to contact me. Consequently, I suppressed my abilities for nearly three decades.
Eventually spirit realized I was ready to become reacquainted with it and began slowly placing enticing nuggets of information before me, kind of like breadcrumbs, which I eagerly followed. It started with interesting book titles that caught my attention over the course of twenty years of reading. Then it slowly evolved into a growing fascination with metaphysics, spirituality, and the afterlife. Soon, key events in my life changed me, and I experienced a spiritual reawakening that brought spirit fully into my life for good.
No matter how much I avoided it or had trouble believing it, the spirit world chose me as one of their ambassadors because it saw something in me that was helpful in their quest to raise human consciousness. Never in a million years would I ever have seen myself as a medium. Yet here I am, happily communicating with people in the spirit world who are just like they were when they were with us on earth. Now, it takes just a bit more effort to hear and communicate with them.
I absolutely love communicating with spirit. Their messages are based on love, caring, concern for others, regret for what they might have done while on earth or how they might have hurt others, and how they might have lived a better life. They frequently express their love to their family and friends and encourage them to live their life to the fullest. What’s notable about spirit is their lack of ego, for they leave behind their ego and retain only their loving consciousness.
Spirit truly does see life from “the other side” and gives us great perspective on how we can live better lives ourselves. We really can learn a thing or two from those that have gone before us and are now trying to teach us lessons. In fact, there’s a Divine reason you picked up this book, and spirit may be trying to reach you with a message already. Always remember, there’s never any such thing as a coincidence. So ready or not, let’s get started!
—Chris Lippincott
