MEDIUMSHIP: DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIUMSHIP

Intro | When and Where | Phases | Affinity and Control |
The Name vs. the Message |  Training of the Novice Medium | Constructive Criticism |
A Non-discriminating Faculty | Signs of Ostensive Mediumship
Lack of Ostensive Mediumship

A Non-discriminating Faculty

Part 1 of 2: Existence In Children 

There is no discrimination with regard to the appearance and manifestation of mediumship.  Mediums are found among people of every race, sex, religion, and age.  That said, we'd like to make these two points:

Though mediumship can be found naturally in some children, it is not advisable to work on developing the sense in them. A child's body is not completely developed; its organs and above all, its nervous system are still maturing.   We find the following questions posed to the superior spirits and their answers in "The Mediums' Book" (item 221):

Q. Is it imprudent to develop the medianimic faculty in children?

A. It is not only imprudent, but very dangerous to do so, for the frail and delicate organization of childhood would be too much shaken, and the youthful imagination too much excited by such attempts; parents should therefore keep these ideas from their children, or, at least should only speak of them in reference to their moral aspect.

Q. Yet there are children who are mediums by nature, not only for physical manifestations, but also for writing and for visions; is there danger for such as these?

A. No. Where a child's faculty is spontaneous, it belongs to his temperament, and his body is prepared for its exercise.  It is a very different thing when you attempt to develop medianimity artificially, and thus subject the child's nervous system to over-excitement.  It is also to be remarked that a child who is naturally subject to visions is generally but little impressed by them; they appear so natural to such a child, that he pays but little heed to them and easily forgets them, and in after-years, if these visions recur to his memory, he is not apt to be painfully affected by the remembrance of them.  

Q. At what age may we attempt to develop the faculty of medianimity without danger?

A. There is no rule in regard to age; it depends partly on the physical and still more on the moral development of the individual.  There are children of say, twelve years of age, who would be less affected by the attempt than many grown persons.  I am now speaking of medianimity in general; but physical medianimity is that which is most likely to cause fatigue to the organism.  Writing, however, in the case of a child, has another danger, owing to his inexperience, viz., the mischief which might result to his health if he took to writing when alone and thus made an amusement of it.