Many people become interested in mediumship after an experience they cannot easily explain: a sense of someone's presence, an unusually vivid dream, a demonstration that raised questions. Others begin with no unusual experiences at all, only a wish to understand. Sooner or later, both ask the same practical question: how do I actually begin?
Within Spiritualist teaching, mediumship development is a gradual process: spiritual awareness, attunement, learning to recognise and communicate impressions, and developing the ability to offer information another person may recognise. It is not simply learning to “see spirits” or “receive messages”. For evidential mediumship, it also means understanding the difference between psychic and mediumistic awareness, working towards specific information about a communicator, receiving feedback, and learning to conduct a sitting responsibly.
Some of this can begin in quiet personal practice. Some of it needs another person, and an experienced teacher. This guide maps the whole path: where to start, what you can practise alone, and how development grows towards supervised evidential work. Where our other articles go deeper, we link to them rather than repeat them.
The aim is not to become more convincing at describing extraordinary experiences. It is to become more discerning about what you experience, more accurate in what you communicate, and more responsible towards the person receiving it.
1. What Does It Mean to Develop Mediumship?
Within Spiritualist traditions, a medium is someone understood to communicate with people in the spirit world. The person believed to be communicating is the spirit communicator; the person receiving the communication is the sitter. In evidential mediumship, the medium tries to convey a communicator's personality, relationships, memories or experiences so that the sitter can recognise them, and the Spiritualists' National Union describes that purpose as offering evidence of survival, not predicting the future or giving advice1.
Developing mediumship is therefore more than becoming sensitive to unusual impressions. A student learns how to approach the practice, how impressions arise, how to describe them without adding assumptions, and how to evaluate what is offered. That includes learning the limits of personal experience: a vivid image or a strong feeling may seem significant, but the experience alone does not establish its source. Some impressions stay unclear. The aim is not certainty about every experience; it is becoming more capable of observing, communicating and evaluating what happens.
Do you need a natural gift to begin?
No. Childhood experiences and unusual sensitivity are meaningful to those who have them, but they are not a prerequisite. Arthur Findlay College describes its beginner courses as being for those with an interest in exploring the discipline, noting only that suitable students “may have some awareness of Spirit”; evidence of spirit communication is expected at intermediate level, not before2. Access to training does not mean everyone will develop the same ability. The willingness to practise, reflect and receive feedback can be cultivated; consistent evidential communication cannot be guaranteed. Our article Can Mediumship Be Learned? explores this in depth.
Know which kind of mediumship you want to develop
Mediumship covers several forms: mental and evidential mediumship, trance, healing, spirit art and public demonstration. They share foundations but have different aims, as our guide to the types of mediumship explains. A beginner interested in evidential communication does not need to start with trance exercises or attempts to produce dramatic phenomena. A better starting point is understanding what a private evidential sitting actually involves: attempting communication with an identifiable person who has died, while leaving the sitter free to recognise or question what is offered.
2. The Six Foundations, and Where Each Is Learned
A thoughtful beginner's path can be organised into six connected areas. They are educational stages, not a promise that everyone progresses at the same pace; students revisit early foundations long after they have begun working with sitters. Established colleges teach a similar progression: one beginners' course, for example, moves from awakening the senses, to sitting in your power, to beginning to communicate, to confidence and responsibility3.
| Foundation | What you are developing | Where it is learned |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Spiritual awareness | Stillness, presence and familiarity with your own inner experience | On your own |
| 2. Perception | Understanding images, words, feelings, sensations and knowing | On your own |
| 3. Discernment | Separating an original impression from the meaning given to it | Alone, then with feedback |
| 4. Mediumistic communication | Working, within the tradition, towards an identifiable communicator | Supervised |
| 5. Evidence and feedback | Offering information for recognition, without leading the sitter | Supervised |
| 6. Ethical practice | Consent, confidentiality, sitter care, boundaries and responsible closure | Supervised |
The table shows something important: the first foundations can be explored at home, but the ones that define evidential mediumship need another person and an experienced guide.
3. Three Practices to Begin With
Practice one: Sitting in the Power
Sitting in the Power is one of the first practices taught in Spiritualist development: sitting quietly, letting ordinary mental activity settle, and becoming more aware of your own spiritual nature and, within the tradition, the wider presence of spirit. It is a practice of stillness and awareness, not an attempt to receive a message. Five to ten minutes in a comfortable chair is a manageable start; you may feel calm, restless or entirely ordinary, and none of these tells you whether communication has occurred. Our guide What Is Sitting in the Power? gives a full step-by-step practice.
Practice two: notice before you interpret
Mediums describe impressions as inner seeing (clairvoyance), inner hearing (clairaudience), feelings and sensations (clairsentience) and knowing (claircognisance). These terms describe how something is experienced; they do not establish its source. Before assuming an impression is from spirit, become familiar with how ordinary images, thoughts and associations arise in your own mind. This simple exercise helps:
The same distinction matters in practice: a student who sees an image of a train should not announce that a communicator died in a railway accident. The image and that interpretation are different things.
Practice three: keep an honest development journal
A journal helps you understand your experiences more accurately over time, if it is kept honestly. Separate each entry into three parts:
What I noticed
A wooden walking stick.
What I thought it meant
It belonged to an elderly man.
What was established
In a supervised partner exercise, the sitter did not recognise it.
Keep all three, and never rewrite an entry later because another possible meaning occurred to you. Record the misses as faithfully as the hits; it is natural to remember the striking successes and forget the guesses that led to them4. And there is no need to turn every dream, coincidence or sensation into presumed communication: recording something does not require deciding its source.
4. Why Partner Practice Is Essential for Evidential Development
Quiet practice has its place, but evidential mediumship involves another person. Only the sitter can say whether what you describe resembles someone they knew. Without that feedback, a student may have a powerful private experience yet have no way of knowing whether it is recognisable to anyone else. Before attempting evidential work, it also helps to understand the difference between information about a living person and information about a communicator. If you sense that your partner is worried about changing jobs and they confirm it, that may be described as psychic awareness, but it does not establish anyone who has died. Our article Psychic vs Medium explains why this distinction matters so much.
What makes a good practice partner?
- Someone who has willingly agreed to a defined learning exercise, and understands that you are practising.
- Someone who knows no particular communication can be guaranteed.
- Someone who will answer truthfully (recognised, partly recognised, unsure or not recognised) without supplying private family details.
- An exercise with a clear beginning and end, where either person can pause or stop.
For beginners, evidential exercises belong in a supervised class or well-run development circle, not with strangers, and never with recently bereaved people who have not agreed to a practice exercise. Unsolicited readings, offered to people who have not asked for them, are discouraged in published ethics for mediums5. Consent and emotional sensitivity matter from the very first exercise.
5. How a Supervised Evidential Exercise Unfolds
This describes the broad structure of a beginner's supervised partner exercise. It is not a method for contacting the dead on your own, nor the School's complete classroom protocol.
Preparation. The teacher explains the purpose of the exercise. Student and practice sitter understand their roles, boundaries and the kind of feedback requested. The student settles their attention using the preparation being taught.
Beginning. Within the Spiritualist framework, the student attempts to become aware of a communicator, without inventing a person or deciding in advance who should come. Sometimes nothing clear develops, and the student must be able to say so.
Describing. The student shares what arose, keeping impression and interpretation apart. If a small brass whistle appears, they describe the whistle first, rather than deciding the communicator was a policeman or a sports teacher.
Developing a person. The student works towards personality, relationships, memories and experiences. The aim is not the most statements, but a coherent, recognisable account: several connected details are worth more than many unrelated guesses.
Feedback. The sitter responds truthfully and owes no explanations. The student accepts the response without arguing or reshaping the information to win agreement.
Closing and review. The exercise ends clearly. The teacher helps the student examine what was perceived, what was added, how it was communicated, and what was actually recognised. A student can learn a great deal even when little was recognised.
Our article What Counts as Evidence? explains how such information can be weighed, and offers a simple feedback record for students.
6. What Counts as Progress in Mediumship Development?
Students often judge progress by how extraordinary their experiences feel: more colours, stronger sensations, more vivid dreams. These may be meaningful, but they are not reliable measures of evidential competence. Learning research points to something more useful: skill grows through deliberate practice, meaning practice aimed at specific aspects of a task, with feedback and repetition, rather than accumulated experience alone6.
Signs of real progress
- Describing an impression without immediately adding a story
- Telling psychic information from a claim of communication
- Staying attentive when information is unclear
- Offering more specific, connected details in supervised exercises
- Acknowledging non-recognition calmly
- Respecting the sitter's boundaries and using feedback well
Not reliable measures
- How dramatic or vivid an experience felt
- Seeing colours or feeling strong sensations
- One unusually accurate sitting
- How confident a student appears in class
- Hours spent sitting, on their own
- Comparing experiences with other students
A student may improve in clarity and ethical judgement before offering consistent evidence; another may offer recognisable details but still need work on structure or boundaries. Development is better understood through sustained practice, observation and reflection than through any single experience.
7. Common Difficulties Beginners Experience
8. A Realistic Beginner's Practice Routine
There is no scientifically established schedule that guarantees mediumistic development. The most helpful routine is manageable, reflective and suited to where you are. Research on learning does offer one useful principle: practice spread out over time generally leads to better long-term learning than the same amount crammed together7. Short, regular practice usually serves better than occasional long sessions.
| Practice | Suggested approach | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Sitting in the Power | 5–10 minutes, several times a week | Familiarity with stillness and awareness |
| Observation exercises | Brief, whenever convenient | Separating what you notice from what you assume |
| Development journal | A short entry after practice | Honest reflection, including misses |
| Partner exercises | Within a supervised programme or circle | Communication and independent feedback |
| Rest and review | Time between exercises | Absorbing feedback without forcing experiences |
This is an educational rhythm, not a validated formula; there is no reason to sit longer because someone else does. And look after yourself: meditative practices are not comfortable for everyone, and a minority of people experience anxiety or other unpleasant effects8,9. If practice becomes frightening, disruptive or hard to manage, stop and seek guidance or professional support. Development should never require you to ignore your wellbeing.
9. Development Circles, Courses, and Practising Alone
Do you need a development circle?
A development circle is a regular group that practises together, traditionally under an experienced teacher, and circles have a long history in Spiritualist education. A well-run circle offers consistent practice, the chance to observe others, honest feedback and a return to the foundations. But groups differ: some focus mainly on meditation and fellowship, others on psychic exercises, evidential work or advanced mediumship.
A good signThe organiser can explain what the circle teaches, how exercises and feedback work, and what standards apply to confidentiality and consent. Questions are welcome, and support includes honest correction.
Be cautiousEvery impression is treated as spirit communication. Questions are discouraged through fear, spiritual authority or pressure. No one can explain how the group actually develops evidential skill.
Can you develop mediumship entirely on your own?
You can explore awareness, study the history and language of mediumship, practise stillness and observe your inner experience independently, and these are valuable foundations. But evidential mediumship involves information meant to be recognised by someone else, so it requires feedback; and the skills of a responsible sitting (consent, communication, boundaries, handling sensitive information) are hard to learn alone. Introductory workshops, circles, online courses and residential programmes all offer different kinds of learning; the question is whether the environment teaches the work you actually want to develop. Established colleges' beginner courses typically combine teaching with practical exercises and a discussion of ethics10. Our articles Residential or Online Mediumship Training? and How to Choose a Mediumship Teacher can help you decide.
10. Ethics, Readiness and What Research Can Say
Ethics must develop alongside ability
Mediumship is never practised in isolation from its effect on others. A sitter may be grieving, uncertain or hoping to hear from someone deeply important to them. From the beginning, students need to learn consent and confidentiality; not to offer readings to people who have not agreed; never to use claimed communication to make medical, legal or financial claims; and never to frighten, guarantee contact or encourage dependence. Above all, the sitter has the right to disagree: an unrecognised statement stays unrecognised. A 2025 peer-reviewed code of ethics for mediums sets out these same principles5, and our article Mediumship, Grief and Responsibility explores them in depth.
When is a student ready to offer sittings to the public?
That is a different question from whether someone has begun to give recognisable information. A student may offer accurate details in a supervised exercise and still need substantial development. Working independently means explaining the nature of the service, managing consent, handling uncertainty, responding if a sitter becomes distressed, and understanding confidentiality, fees and boundaries. No number of practice sittings automatically establishes readiness, and completing an introductory course does not prove consistent ability. Established colleges expect evidential communication to be shown, and then to become consistent and accurate, before intermediate and advanced study2. An experienced teacher can help a student judge their readiness, but professional practice needs ongoing ethical judgement, not only confidence.
What research can and cannot say
Controlled studies of mediumship have reported mixed findings, and the source of apparently accurate information remains contested; our article What Counts as Evidence? summarises them. No study has established a training method that guarantees mediumistic development. Within Spiritualist traditions, practices such as Sitting in the Power, attunement, blending and evidential exercises have established educational roles; their traditional use should not be confused with scientific proof that they produce communication with the dead. We can describe how these practices are taught and what skills they develop. We should not promise results the research does not support.
11. How We Teach Mediumship Development at The School of Mediumship
At The School of Mediumship, established by Soul Consciousness Lab®, evidential mediumship is taught as a discipline that needs practical learning, close observation and ethical responsibility.
- Open to beginners: Evidential Mediumship Level 1 welcomes adult beginners as well as those who have explored spiritual awareness or related practices. Previous training in shamanism, hypnotherapy or other Soul Consciousness Lab® disciplines is not required.
- The six foundations: preparation and Sitting in the Power, modes of perception, psychic and mediumistic information, recognisable evidence, the structure of private sittings, and ethics.
- Supervised practice: students work with fellow participants and receive observation and constructive feedback from Dr. Rashhi Sharma and Prabhat Sharma, who teach the six residential days together, with no more than twelve students.
- Honest review: students learn to separate impression from interpretation and to consider what the sitter actually recognised, rather than treating every statement as a success.
- After the course: eligible graduates can continue through monthly online group sessions and peer practice, under the training terms, because development continues long after any foundation.
Attending a course or receiving a Certificate of Completion does not establish professional competence or guarantee ability. The School regards mediumship development as an ongoing process of learning, practice and responsibility, never something completed by a certificate.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I start developing mediumship as a beginner?
Learn what mediumship means in the tradition you want to study. Begin with quiet awareness practice such as Sitting in the Power, learn to separate an impression from its interpretation, and keep an honest journal. If your goal is evidential mediumship, look for structured beginner training with supervised practice and sitter feedback.
Can I develop mediumship at home?
You can begin at home with Sitting in the Power, observation exercises, reading and a reflective journal. These build awareness and discernment, but they cannot by themselves develop evidential ability, which needs feedback from sitters and practical guidance.
How long does it take to develop mediumship?
There is no reliable timetable. People begin with different experiences and develop at different rates, and no course length can guarantee a particular level of evidential ability. Regular practice spread over time, with feedback, tends to serve learning best.
Do I need to see spirits to become a medium?
No. Mediums often describe impressions experienced inwardly, as images, words, feelings or knowing. Literal external visions are not required in mental mediumship, and the form of an experience does not establish its source.
Should I practise mediumship every day?
Regular practice helps, but there is no validated daily schedule. A comfortable routine, such as a short sitting several times a week with time for reflection and rest, is a sound start.
Can I develop mediumship without a teacher?
You can explore the foundations independently. But evidential mediumship involves another person recognising or questioning information, so a teacher or well-run development circle is important for appropriate practice, understanding feedback and learning ethical boundaries.
Do I need to work with spirit guides?
Some teachers include work with spirit guides; others emphasise Sitting in the Power, attunement and evidential communication. Experiences of a guide are not a prerequisite for learning the foundations.
How do I know whether an impression is from spirit or my imagination?
The experience alone does not settle it. Learning to separate perception from interpretation is the starting point. In evidential practice, specific information independently recognised by a sitter may be meaningful, but even accuracy does not scientifically establish where information came from.
What if my exercises don't seem to work?
An unclear exercise is not a personal failure. Record what happened honestly, accept the feedback, and discuss it with a tutor. Never manufacture impressions or change statements to win agreement.
Can I practise mediumship on friends and family?
Only with their genuine consent, as a clearly defined practice exercise they understand. Be especially careful with anyone who is grieving, and never offer unsolicited readings. For beginners, evidential exercises are best done in a supervised class or circle.
When can I start giving readings to other people?
Consent-based practice with fellow students is part of supervised training. Offering independent sittings to the public is a separate responsibility, to be judged through practical experience, quality of communication, ethical judgement and tutor feedback, not confidence or a certificate alone.
Development Begins with Learning to Observe
When people first explore mediumship, they often want to know when the messages will start. It is an understandable question. But focusing on the arrival of an unusual experience can distract from the foundations that meaningful practice requires: becoming quiet without forcing an impression, noticing the difference between an inner image and the story built around it, being comfortable saying that something was not recognised, and understanding how your words affect the person in front of you.
These are not secondary skills. They are the heart of responsible evidential mediumship. Within Spiritualist traditions, development is an unfolding process of awareness, attunement, practice and experience; the School adds a clear emphasis on observation, feedback and the honest handling of uncertainty.
Development begins not with extraordinary experiences, but with learning to observe honestly. That is a foundation worth building, whatever your present level of experience.
About the authors
Dr. Rashhi Sharma, PhDFounder and Lead Trainer of The School of Mediumship. She studied mediumship with Suzanne Giesemann in the United States and in person at Arthur Findlay College and The College of Psychic Studies in the United Kingdom. Full profile
Prabhat SharmaTrainer at The School of Mediumship. He studied mediumship in person at Arthur Findlay College and The College of Psychic Studies in the United Kingdom, and co-teaches every day of Level 1. Full profile
Continue Exploring
- What Is Sitting in the Power?A full, gentle step-by-step guide to the first practice of mediumship development.Read the article →
- What Counts as Evidence?Impression, interpretation, sitter recognition and how to review a practice sitting.Read the article →
- Evidential Mediumship Level 1The School's residential foundation: supervised practice, feedback and ethics.Explore Level 1 →
References
- Spiritualists' National Union. Mediumship: the traditional understanding and purpose of mediumship.
- Arthur Findlay College. Our Courses: beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
- The College of Psychic Studies. The Medium's Path for Beginners: course outline.
- Roe, C. A. Cold Reading. Psi Encyclopedia, Society for Psychical Research.
- Zemel, S. K. and Wahbeh, H. (2025). Code of ethics for mediums and trance channelers. EXPLORE, 21(3), 103159. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2025.103159
- Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T. and Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T. and Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (US). Meditation and Mindfulness: Effectiveness and Safety.
- Farias, M. et al. (2020). Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 142(5), 374–393.
- Arthur Findlay College. Foundations for Your Mediumship 2027: beginner/intermediate course description.
Organisations and studies are cited so readers can examine the claims for themselves; citation does not imply endorsement of the School. The exercises here are introductory and develop attention and discernment; they are not methods for verified spirit communication.
