Spirit Messenger.

One of my all-time favorite mediums and writers on the craft is Gordon Smith. His style of writing is very accessible and full of humor. 

Gordon’s honesty about the trials of developing mediumship rings true, and although I don’t favor holding the hand of the recipient in a private sitting, I find myself nodding and smiling often whenever I read his books.

I’ve just re-read his 2003 Hay House memoir Spirit Messenger. What a delight, I highly recommend it. 

The chapters on how he discovered his teachers Jean Primrose and the former postman Albert Best (whose ability to give home addresses was uncanny) made me very much appreciate how important mentors are to new mediums.

My intentional mediumship development began around 6 years ago. Even though there is a Spiritualist church in my town, American mediums rarely practice in the evidential style, so I was at a lost as to where to study. The church was helpful in encouraging psychic work; they had beginners focus on auras and psychometry and my novice brain soaked up everything teachers threw my way. Eventually, I kept what worked for me and discarded what didn’t resonate.

How lucky I was to find my mentor Margaret Challenger on SNUi who, like Gordon Smith, goes directly to her recipient in the audience. Apparently, going direct isn’t for everyone. She warned us that detractors would say going direct was working psychically, and poo-poo it because they couldn’t work that way themselves.

I recall Margaret’s glee when she returned from an Arthur Findlay College Open Week in the spring of 2015. Gordon Smith was presenting and during his Q&A, Margaret asked his opinion on the trend of mediums being taught to “give out streams of information and not to go direct because if so, they must be going psychic.”

Gordon replied, “Then I must’ve been working psychically all my life. To those that suggest going directly to the person is working on the psychic level, I can only say Margaret, they are not doing it themselves.”

Margaret was thrilled at his answer of Spirit direction. She told her students, “I did seven somersaults forward and ten somersaults back!”

“There are so many tutors teaching not to go direct,” she told us, “but it’s easier if you listen to what spirit is telling you. How much nicer it comes, how the tone of voice changes when you give the emotion.”

Along with the tale of Gordon’s development, the recounting of some of the more remarkable sittings in Spirit Messenger makes for tender, emotional reading. Any developing medium would enjoy this delightful book, as Gordon wraps up each chapter with helpful exercises to try at home.

Those mediums who work direct will especially enjoy the chapter titled “Prove It!” where Gordon demonstrates that the recipient doesn’t need to be in the room or even aware of the proceedings in order to get a meaningful message from Spirit.