When people think of Mediums they usually envisage mainly woman wearing long flowing gowns in a séance, sat round a table wait for the Toffee Crisp wrapper to land. 

Mediums are just ordinary people both men and women who usually have everyday jobs and families. 

A Medium is a link between this world and the spirit world, and everybody alive has Mediumistic capabilities of some kind.

There are a number of different forms of Mediumship but mainly these can be divided into two types, Mental Mediumship and Physical Mediumship. 

Mental Mediumship can be split into three more categories, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience and Clairsentience.

Mental Mediumship uses mediumistic abilities for communication between the two worlds.  The Three different types of Mental Mediumship are:

Clairvoyance:  A person who is Clairvoyant can see Spirit.  This usually means they see the person communicating in their minds eye, which can be in the form of a picture in the mind's eye or like watching a television screen.  Some Mediums can see Spirits with their Physical eyes as if there is another person in the same room as themselves.  The Medium will then describe what they see to whoever the spirit is communicating with.  It is not always people that Mediums see sometimes it can also be animals or even objects and symbols.  Some objects will be given to the Medium to be interpreted symbolically.

Clairaudience: With this form of Mediumship the person hears the spirit communicating with them.  Again this can be voices in the Mediums head or thoughts running through the mind.  Sometimes a Medium will actually hear someone talking to them with their physical ears.  The medium will not only "hear" voices but can also be given music or singing.

Clairsentience:  This type of Mediumship is the most common form and experienced very often by people just beginning to understand the gift that they have.  This type of Mediumship takes the form of the Medium sensing a spirit presence, usually through feelings.  Mediums often feel as if they are being touched, feelings of cold or slight breezes wafting past them.  Sometimes they can have the feeling of cobwebs on their face or can even smell fragrances associated with the spirit presence of their time on earth.

Mediums will use one or more of these forms of communication in order to convey messages from the spirit world.

Physical Mediumship is not as common today as it was in Victorian times and the early twentieth century.  The types of Physical phenomenon usually encountered are Transfiguration, Ectoplasm, Voice Trumpets, Materialisation and Apports. .

Physical Mediumship really took off in the mid 1800's up to the 1960's, although it is still practiced today.  Physical mediumship should only be practised in properly controlled environments with the correct supervision and safeguards in place to ensure the safety of the medium.

Physical mediumship usually takes more time and patience to practice.  The conditions have to be right for spirit to appear in whatever form.  The energy used by spirit is a lot greater in this form of communication than with mental mediumship.

Here are some other types of physical Mediumship.

Materialisation can also occur where the spirit can be seen, and sometimes touched, by those present.  This type of communication is very rare and should not be confused with ghosts or apparitions, as the spirit will use the energy built up in the room by those present to "appear".

Transfiguration:  Here the face of a spirit person can be seen on formed over the mediums face.  The correct use of lighting is necessary as shadows can appear making people think they have seen someone that really isn't there. The faces can be very clear at times, with the mediums face completely disappearing.

Direct Voice.  This sounds very strange, but objects called trumpets are used for this type of communication, they are conical shaped objects with holes at both ends.  The trumpet is placed in the centre of the circle of people present, when the atmosphere is right for spirit they will make the trumpet float in the air and use it for communication.  This sounds far fetched I know, but it does happen.  The sound is created from an artificial throat box formed from ectoplasm and comes from the pointed end of the trumpet.  

Trance: This form of mediumship allows the spirit to control the mediums body for communication.  This could mean using not only the voice box but also moving various parts of the body.  There are various stages of trance from slight over shadowing to full deep trance where the medium seems to be asleep.  Whilst in trance the medium will be aware of spirit around them, and will communicate all that is told to them without interaction of their own thoughts.  Deep trance is obviously better for this as the medium is not aware of what is being said by the spirit to those present.  The medium should be in no danger if the session is correctly overseen and controlled.

Apports.  An Apport is a physical object bought through by spirit usually to the group of people sitting for communication.   The objects can be almost anything from flowers, books, People do not usually sit for the purpose of bringing apports through, they just happen during a séance or closed circle if the spirit wishes to do so for what ever reason.