What Is Mediumship?
Let us see just what is meant by the term "mediumship." The term
"medium" is defined as: "That which lies in the middle, or between other
things: hence, that through which anything is conveyed from one thing
to another." In a special sense, a "medium" is "a person serving as the
channel of communication between decarnate entities and human being
still in the flesh," in "spiritualistic phenomena." The suffix "ship,"
of
ourse, denotes state or office; and in the case of "mediumship" it
indicates that the designated person possesses the state or office of a
"medium," the latter term being used in the special meaning above
defined.
Of course, the term "mediumship," as above defined, lacks a clear
meaning unless the term "spiritualistic," or "spiritualism" be defined.
The term "spiritualism" (or as many of the best authorities prefer to
state it, "spiritism") is applied to "a system of communication with the
unseen world, or with the inhabitants thereof, the latter being usually
known as 'spirits,' through persons called 'mediums,' which has attained
popular favor in Europe and America since about 1850." Or, as another
authority states it, "Spiritualism is a term employed to indicate the
belief that departed spirits hold intercourse with mortals by means of
psychical phenomena, commonly through a person of special susceptibility
called a 'medium.'"