Mediumship as TV genre

The cable tv we had at our old house was pretty basic, as we didn’t watch much. But I moved to a new house recently, and got more channels on my cable tv along with it. It took me about an hour (no exaggerating) to go through all the channels and mark the ones we might watch as favorites. I’m watching more often these days, and as I flip through the favorites, I am surprised to discover how many shows there are that relate to spiritual phenomena. There are shows about haunted houses, haunted places, orbs and photography, ghost hunters, other shows that have a psychic or spiritual component to them, and a new one that seems the closest to mediumship as a Spiritualist would see it, which is Long Island Medium. It seems that it has grown from the occasional show here-and-there to a valid genre of it’s own. Not as prominent as detective shows or sitcoms, but a genre nonetheless.

It’s the growth that surprises me. I’m not sure what to make of it. Perhaps it’s good because viewers are getting more and more opportunities to hear about spirit communication. Perhaps it’s not good, because the viewer’s opportunities may be featuring the scary and/or negative side as a means to draw an audience. And the opportunities may be coming via those who I would say are the blind leading the blind.

Nonetheless, it is what it is for now, and time will eventually show how it works out.

Speaking of time, it’s time to send my prayers out to all those who are the blind and are following the blind. Prayers that their exposure and learning about mediumship is a positive and beneficial experience, as opposed to a negative or “I like to be scared and here’s another way to be scared” experience.

I hope you send prayers out for them too.

Who you gonna call?

Spirits are like Earth plane people in that you don’t mind the ones you like hanging around, but there are others that you can’t stand and want no part of. When the latter are hanging around and causing problems, the subject of ghostbusting comes up.  The Ghostbusters movies put ghostbusting  on the map, but I don’t know whether it was good for ghostbusting or not. On the one hand, people now know what it is, beyond a doubt. All you have to do is ask “who you gonna call?” and they immediately respond with the answer. It has established the word over other choices such as “spirit removal”,  “spirit clearing” , or “spirit cleansing”, which are still used, but don’t convey meaning as quickly or precisely as “ghostbusting” does. But on the other hand, it makes it easy for the unaware/uneducated to think that the whole thing is just funny and ridiculous, and not real or possible.

Be that as it may, there are people who are sincerely involved in ghostbusting. For example, there is a group in Manila (Philipines) called the Spirit Questors. This is a long article, but overall, is a worthwhile read. If you don’t know their language, you have to skip over a few words here and there, but it’s no big deal, I don’t think you’re losing much. Of course, I don’t know their language, so I don’t really know if I’m missing much 😉

The Spirit Questors’ perspective is that spirits don’t necessarily have to be banished, and coexistence is possible. I agree. Peaceful coexistence doesn’t always work, but it’s a good place to start from. Generally speaking, it’s easier for the spirits to change or relocate than it is for the Earth plane people, so you usually start with them first. And Earth plane people need to know that typically, the only situations that warrant ghostbusting are ones in which people are getting scared, threatened, or having similar problems and unrest. It is not about removing spirits who aren’t causing problems in the first place.

Ghostbusting doesn’t often make it into my blog, but I find it interesting. I’ve done my share of it. It is rewarding, and I’ve discovered that I have a bit of a knack for it. Having said that, I maintain my view that it is not for the ego-driven, and not for the sensationalist, but it is worthwhile work. One of the best parts of it is that it presents opportunities to educate people about spirit existence and mediumship.