7 phrases that precede a pratfall on the platform.

Earlier this month, I blogged on 5 reasons to surrender to Spirit. Now it’s time to look at its opposite: rigidity, the practice of which I find often leads to failure.

Recently I was reminded of what a great thing it is to fail. Without failure there is no learning. But no one likes to feel like a failure because we take it too personally. We feel it reflects poorly on our “gift” of mediumship. Failing glares a spotlight on our insecurities and we want to hide.

(I don’t believe there are gifted mediums. Everyone has latent mediumship abilities and those who develop them for the service of others feel it’s more of a duty to speak for Spirit than a flashy party trick that makes them feel special.)

Ideally, the time to experiment and not succeed is in the classroom setting, so be glad when it happens to you. Embrace failure as you can always work on what went wrong and transcend it the next time.

There is no growth however, if you’re rigid in your ways. Being inflexible...stuck in your old ways...stale...it feels cold. Dull. Lifeless. You know what I mean.

Being inflexible means you flop, you take a pratfall on the platform. I see a “pratfall” as something different from failure, and is completely avoidable.

A pratfall is defined as a humiliating action, doing something stupid that causes your face to blush and the audience to titter. It’s a theatrical term, often directed into burlesque sketches for comic relief. The “prat” is a buffoon who is knocked down a notch or two as he takes his inevitable fall.

No medium wants to look silly, no one wants to have a spirit go unclaimed, as much as everyone in the audience wants a message. But we learn from each fall, dust ourselves off to begin again.

But what about mediums who never seem to learn? What I’ve noticed is that they refuse to fall... they silently stick to their comfort zones, being rigid about “what works” without realizing that each communication with Spirit is unique. Usually they will blame Spirit or the recipient when things go wrong.

Dear, oh dear. Please don’t be that medium!

Here are seven phrases that may precede a medium’s pratfall on the platform. Notice them when you work, if you want to avoid a flop:

1. “I’m the star of the show!” Mediums who love the limelight fail when they believe themselves to be the most important part of the communication process. It’s all about them, and the recipient and Spirit simply get second and third billing.
2. “Alrighty, then. The recipient is the star of the show!” The recipient is there to accept Spirit’s message, but often what a recipient says can feed the medium or change a medium’s mind about what they’re receiving from Spirit. Hear the recipient, just don’t listen to them.
3. “I’m gonna give whatever, whenever it pops up!” This approach ends up with a medium spewing scattered information. Be curious, ask Spirit for more about that initial, crazy image, always go deeper when you can.
4. “To me, that always means….” The problem with applying your personal meaning to a symbol is that it may be blind to Spirit’s meaning of what is being symbolized. Oftentimes, it is what it is! The difference is when Spirit shows you your mother’s aunt, the communicator is likely a maternal great aunt to the recipient.
5. “I don’t know what this means, but…” Again, you’re not the star of the show. A medium doesn’t need to know what anything means in order to give an authentic message.
6. “Allow me to go back over the evidence…” This failure to stay in the moment where Spirit resides means the medium is filling her mind and not allowing Spirit to move forward with the communication.
7. “Take her love…” This cliched closing to a link should be banned from every platform. It’s a lazy way to say goodbye, and a fail because it assumes that every Spirit communicator had “love” to give to the recipient.

An experienced medium only gains experience from practicing new approaches in communication...and that means being open to challenges that arise in the moment.