There are so many cautions and predictions on the Internet and in books advising novice mediums of the dangers of mediumship and its unfoldment, that I am surprised anyone has the courage to take up the reins of communication.

There are many and varied instructions given on ‘How to Ground’ and what you will suffer if you don’t and most of them encourage a ‘rooting visualisation’ plus the purchase of ‘grounding crystals’.  I do not intend to copy these lists as that would only add credence to them and they are an absolute nonsense.

If, as a developing medium, you have been told how to control your mediumship, then the need to ground has been removed. Controlling our mediumship is the ability to switch from a conscious level of awareness to an altered state of awareness in order to enable us to utilise our psychic energies and eventually to enhance these energies thereby enabling us to blend our minds with spirit. Once these states of awareness have been reached then it is necessary to be able to switch back to our normal state of consciousness and it is as mysterious as that. Grounding is all part of this process; having knowledge of where our consciousness lies when working either psychically or mediumistically and being able to control movement through the various levels of awareness.

Unfortunately that explanation is not very mystical or magical so it is far better if we remove it from the natural and make it supernatural and enhance it with hidden dangers, potential illnesses and debilitating after-effects.

Mediums walk a very fine line between two worlds of existence and need to have a well balanced personality and attitude to life. Mediums have developed their sensitivity to such a degree that they can attune to the higher vibrations of the spiritual realms and this in itself, can affect their daily lives. Novice mediums can become very touchy and temperamental during the early days of development because of this ultra-sensitivity and need to keep their feet firmly on the ground and deal with these emotions and the ‘knee-jerk’ reactions they will experience. Mediums learn to recognise these over-reactions for what they are and as their mediumship becomes stronger so does their ability to distance themselves from them.

Mediums do not have special gifts; they develop the gifts that everyone has to some greater or lesser degree. Communication with spirit, while giving the medium a very great sense of personal fulfilment, does not give them a quality which elevates them spiritually above anyone else and this fact should be remembered.

So what actually is grounding?  Having, and using, basic commonsense! Living life in this world and having the ability to link to other levels of consciousness without getting muddled or trying to stay permanently in an altered state, as unfortunately, many do and see themselves as being on call 24/7 for spirit. A sad reflection on their knowledge, development and training.