Managing the unconscious – about possession and mediumship

I’m working on a post about channeling and mediumship, but it’s a hard delivery. One of the topics it relates to though is that of managing the unconscious.

Our psychologists are learning a lot about this topic. For instance, in learning anything we’ve always been told repetition is important. What we now know is that rest is important too. A good night’s sleep will give the brain time to integrate what’s been learned today. This is why when learning a language it’s so important to spend an hour a day, instead of 7 hours on one day and then nothing. This helps the unconscious brain – the brain that goes on working while we busy ourselves with other things – have the time in between sessions to get organized.

In the field of anthropology possession is one of the topics that can’t be reduced to ‘culture’. The general pattern is that someone who is of low social status gets ‘possessed’ and brings messages from spirits. The people around that person have to figure out whether the spirits possessing that person are ‘good’ or ‘bad’. In that process the result is usually that the low status person gets more of what she needs, and then the spirit attacks stop. Some people graduate from being possessed to being able to control the spirits. These are called shamans in the anthropological discourse on the topic.

Shamans use their connection to the spirit world to serve their whole tribe. When social structure is changing, you will often find that the culture of possession changes as well. In Sri Lanka for instance more women are finding a position of status through becoming possessed at will. These priestesses have no place in the traditional order, but instead find a niche in the new city scape.

I think what this is partly about is that when someone learns to delve into the subconscious, into states of consciousness that ordinarily we don’t have access to, and learn to control that process, the result is a more integrated personality. That is: such a person has conscious access to cultural forces and emotional aspects of life that other people get guided by unconsciously. This is also one of the values of psychotherapy and one of the reasons people who come out of hard times stronger than before are worshiped in US culture.

People like that transcend the ordinary limits of life, and go on to create something new. Something better. Society rewards them by giving them status and listening to what they have to say. Though honestly, sometimes the message is no more than: ‘you too can overcome adversity’. Which is not always true after all, because part of the reason we’re so in awe, is that it IS hard to transcend what IS.

The debate about mediumship is hard – because the question is: is this person at the mercy of their subconscious, or have they integrated and transcended it? In other words: is what they bring merely emotionally comforting, or do they have something new to add? Have wise insights to add, or are they dressing a poisoned wound without cleaning it?

7 thoughts on “Managing the unconscious – about possession and mediumship”

  1. The debate about mediumship is hard – because the question is: is this person at the mercy of their subconscious, or have they integrated and transcended it? In other words: is what they bring merely emotionally comforting, or do they have something new to add?

    This is a very good question. How many times do we come across books by mediums in the New Age section of the book store that claim to be channeling the Archangel Michael, for example? Michael seems to be a very busy angel. I have some questions for the mediums: how do they know that it is, indeed, the Archangel Michael? Just skimming the surface of some of the channeled work, Michael comes across as a pretty tame and flowery angel. That doesn’t add up.

    This brings up the issue of deeper inner discernment. Can the person doing the channeling discuss their discernment tools, or do they resort to a position of saying, “I just let go. I don’t know anything. Spirit knows all.”

    While there can be arguments made for ‘just letting go’, there are times where letting go is not necessarily the wisest thing to do. I don’t just want to let go of a child’s hand in a crowd and ‘trust Spirit’. Who knows who’s going to come along and ‘befriend’ the innocent child. Similarly, I will ask anyone channeling, “How do you know who or what you are channeling?”

  2. Yes – that’s one of the issues: checking what ‘comes through’ – not just about the source, but also about the value of it. Which is partly why I stressed being aware or conscious as much as possible.

  3. Which is partly why I stressed being aware or conscious as much as possible.

    Unfortunately, most people don’t have a deeply enough developed sense of discernment or awareness to be able to distinguish or ‘know’ what is coming through during channeling. That bothers me. And it also bothers me that they promote and sell their ‘work’, not because I am against their making money, but because they are promoting it as something that it may not, in fact, actually be.

  4. Yes, but that’s true for our ordinary lives as well, isn’t it? What’s the difference with what comes through there – and what we perceive in our ordinary lives?

  5. Consciousness is a deep topic. Yet, as a person moves to detach from theories and heresay, and separates from ego and the conditioned judge, then practical experience is ones most profound teacher. One questions things when resistance is preferred over surrender.

  6. Interesting post. I have encountered a number of mediums and channelers and quite frankly have not be very impressed. The only exception is a channeler called Rene Gaudette who channels an entity called The Wonders (www.thewonders.com). It sounds sort of cheezy but the wisdom that comes out of this guy is quite profound, most of the time. He may not appeal to most people though since the message is more about personal responsibility and choice than about talking to dead people or spirit guides. Cheers

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