Note: The following article first appeared in the September 2014 subscriber e-newsletter. It has been modified and added as the next edition of the continuing Eclectic Horizons Psychic Medium FAQ blog series. Click here for more related posts.

Q: What is spirit communication “evidence”?

The purpose of spirit communication is to demonstrate a continuation of life. During your reading or on our blog we may reference “evidence “. What exactly IS evidence and evidential mediumship?

A: Evidential Mediumship is proof of the continuation of life.

“Evidential Mediumship” is the practice of a medium providing information to you to prove that he/she has connected with your loved one in spirit. A medium provides this proof through the use of evidence. Evidence is information that you can validate. Good evidence is specific enough to instill confidence that your loved one’s spirit has connected with the medium.

Examples of Spirit Communication Evidence

Examples of evidence include:

• Appearance and physical characteristics (e.g., she was a woman of medium height who walked bent over with a cane; he was bald and had hazel eyes)
• Personality traits (e.g., He had a dry wit. He would tell jokes with a straight face and sometimes it was hard to tell if he was joking or serious.)
• Distinctive clothes that indicate a job, interest, or typical attire for your loved one (e.g., he is wearing a football jersey; she is wearing an airline pilot’s cap)
• A shared memory (e.g., I am seeing you as a child with a professional baseball player.)

Literal & Symbolic Evidence

Evidence can either be literal or symbolic. Sometimes literal evidence requires no translation. However, some evidence (both literal and symbolic) requires the sitter or the medium to further translate the evidence the spirit is trying to communicate.

Translating Evidential Mediumship

This is an example of evidence that would require translation:

• I receive the word “checkers” claircognizantly.
• This could be either a literal or a symbolic piece of evidence.
• I may ask what “checkers” means to you as the sitter.
• When I ask you to connect with this evidence, I’m not asking for a lot of detail. In fact, if all you want to say is, “I understand.” That’s enough to connect you, me, and the spirit to this piece of evidence.
• However, if you say, “Checkers is the name of my cat who died last month.” then I will ask the spirit for more information about Checkers. The spirit might be your cat trying to share a message, or your Aunt coming forward to let you know she is taking care of Checkers in the spirit world, or some other message.
• Conversely, you may respond that you don’t know what “checkers” means.
• I would ask for a symbolic or literal translation of “checkers” from the spirit who provided the evidence.
• I may receive a literal translation such as, “You used to play checkers with your grandmother when you were a child and she would always let you win.”
• Or I may receive a symbolic translation such as, “You are feeling confused about the number of different choices you have in front of you, and you’re concerned that if you move too fast, you may become too vulnerable.”

What is the Message?

Many times a sitter will ask for his/her loved one to provide him/her with a message. A message from spirit is sometimes provided in words such as  “I’m sorry” or “I love you”, but sometimes the evidence IS the message. If your loved one recounts a memory of which you are fond, in that one piece of evidence, you know that 1) the spirit loves you, 2) your loved one is still with you, and 3) you can be comforted by the memory that your loved one has recounted.