By Dawn G. Crist
Everyone has heard of the illustrious Trance Medium. Hollywood has certainly done a fine job in sensationalizing the image of the "Gypsy" who rolls her eyes and then lapses into a stupor as the spirits take possesion of her body. Suddenly, she raises her head and speaks, and Uncle Joe's mannerisms, speech patterns and memories have taken hold of her.
In fact, it IS Uncle Joe, temporarily taking control of the medium' body and voice. His loved ones are overjoyed that they can speak with Joe once last time, and that hopefully he will reveal the name of the person who murdered him.
Actually, the previous scenario is not overdramatized. Hans Holzer's famous trance medium Sybil Leek performed the same tasks in a state of unconsciousness, with the same breath-taking drama. I have a compilation of his writings, and there are some truly inspiring cases where Holzer spoke, through Ms. Leek, with seeming derelict madmen, who, after much Afterlife Psychology, were raised out of their fugue states, to become the lucid people they were before the tragedies in their lives and deaths had unbalanced them.
One such madman was Aaron Burr, a prominant figure in American history, another was a genteel and well-spoken former Southern General of the U.S. Civil War. Eventually, both of these men were released from their nightmares, and they have since passed over.
I had always had a desire to work with a trance medium, but never did I expect to meet one on a well-known paranormal message board. This particular medium, Celtic Witch, had never channeled anyone over the internet, before, even though one of the spirits inadvertantly came through briefly in a post she was writing, amidst her low-key plea for help.
The few lines that were written showed a totally different personality with a totally different style of speaking. It was obvious, to me, that the author of this blurb, in the middle of her post, had not been Celtic Witch, but someone who was traumatized, and who was either an infant, or had been regressed to an infantile state due to her death trauma.
I offered to help CW and to speak with her spirits, but since she is in Fargo, ND, and I am in Philadelphia, PA, this proved difficult unless we decided to take advantage, as the spirit had, of the wonders of modern technology. As a result, we began to channel in IM discussions because they are real time and the next best thing to a tape recorder.
In the following article about Maple Sheyenne Lutheran Cemetery, CW and I have quite a few IM channeling sessions. One of her skills that readily enables her to do this, is a well-honed ability to type. These kinds of skills, once learned, become almost automatic. There were a few spirits whom she channeled from the 19th Century, before typewriters had come into common usage. They were apparently able to step into her body without having to worry too much about the hunt-and-peck method, or even that they were at a keyboard at all! One of the spirits, who died in 1904, whose IM session is not included in the upcoming article, became suddenly confused at the fact that she could not see me. I tried to explain the computer to her, that we were talking over a machine. Suddenly she seemed to get it and cried "Oh! Edison Machine!".
I asked CW once, how deeply under she goes when she channels. She told me that she is not completely out, as some mediums are, but rather she "steps to the side". While the spirits speak through her, on the computer keyboard, she is aware, but she has no idea of what is being typed, or what is really going on around her. Therefore, enough of her brain is still in gear to be able to handle the unconscious act of typing.
After the spirit would leave her, it was as if she had just awoken from a nap. She would be ignorant of the session that had just transpired, and she would have to scroll up, within the instant message box, and read over what had just been said.
In the upcoming article, the spirits who spoke through CW to me, apparently just came into her apartment, would speak their piece and would leave, unlike JN and Jane McQualley, who had taken up residence in Celtic Witch's house for about four years! The others weren't hanging around her house all the time. I have no idea how these spirits knew what I/we were trying to accomplish or where CW lived, so I won't even speculate on that.
One thing is for certain: Mediumship is exhausting business, no matter what method of technology is recording the conversation. So, too, is the act of doing psychology on a stuck spirit. On the days after channeling sessions, CW would sleep virtually all day. I would sleep late and then feel blown-away for most of the day. It is tough work but the return one gets for the trouble is, in my estimation, definitely worth it!
And without Instant Message capability, and indeed computers, what we eventually accomplished would not have been possible.