Common criticisms and objections to Spiritualism

Mediums only tell you what you want to hear anyway. I could open a 900 line tomorrow, call myself a medium, and just say anything to whoever calls me up and make a fortune.
First - the medium conveys the information from the Spirit people around you. The medium is not personally interested in or involved in the content of the message. If the medium IS interested, then the message can get clouded by the medium and not received correctly or the message may be coming from the medium personally which can also lead to inaccuracies. If the medium is only "telling you what you want to hear" then you are being done a disservice. How can you tell? It's not that easy - through personal experience and the experiences of others.

Second - yes, unfortunately, you could open a 900 line and call yourself a medium. You don't have to be certified by any particular Spiritualist organization to call yourself a medium. As a result, you have plenty of good mediums who aren't certified, and you also have people who know absolutely nothing about mediumship but are claiming the title anyway. How do you tell the difference? It's not that easy - through personal experience and the personal experiences of others. Incidentally, you learn about your good mechanics, doctors, and lawyers the same way, regardless of their credentials (or lack of them).

As far as the psychic 900 lines themselves go, do people actually get good information from Spirit this way? Maybe. Is it an avenue that people can spend their whole paycheck on because they have made themselves dependent on readings for their every decision? Unfortunately. Is it right to be dependent on readings for every little thing that comes up in your life? NO. What's the difference between psychics and mediums? In order to appreciate the answer, you need more background. Read Spiritualist Basics.

Third - yes, unfortunately, you could "just say anything" to whoever calls. Will you make a fortune? Maybe. It's your conscience, not mine. Yes, you could set up a business with a 900 line and lie to people all day and probably make money at it. For your sake, I hope that none of them jump off a bridge because of something you told them. Genuine mediums take that kind of responsibility every time they give someone a message or a reading. And it is a BIG responsibility. Genuine mediums practice mediumship for a positive good, and part of that involves being honest and taking responsibility. If you decide that you want lie, cheat, and make money off the suggestible, that's up to you. Natural Law, however, has a way of handling repercussions that come from both good and not-so-good acts. To learn more about Natural Law, read Spiritualist Basics.

You are full of baloney - Spirit people don't exist, mediumship is a bunch of superstition, and when you die you die and that's it. Besides, you don't have any proof.
Come on now, this is Religion, not Geometry. Save your proofs for math class. Religions don't have to prove themselves, and most people believe in their religion without any proof at all. Christians believe in Jesus, but there is not much proof, if any, of his actual existence. A book saying that Jesus existed isn't proof, and a shroud isn't much more. This is not just picking on Christianity, it illustrates a point.

Some people are the first to demand proof from Spiritualism but never point the finger back at themselves and ask for proof of their own religion. To make matters worse, you can argue endlessly about what constitutes valid proof. Even so, Spiritualism provides proof. Is that proof going to be laboratory-grade, constantly reproducible the-same-way-every-time proof? No. Does it have to be? No. Spiritualism proves that people do continue living in the Spirit world - particularly when a medium gives you information about a "dead" person, something that only you would have known about that person. It's up to you to believe it or not.

Even if Spirit people do exist, you can't talk to them anyway. How could you do that?
People seem to have no problem at all believing that God talks to them, or that priests and similar spiritually learned people can talk to God. If you called it mediumship instead, these very same people would condemn it, even though it is mediumship. Communicating with others in the Spirit world is mediumship. GOD is the most important "other" in the Spirit world there is! Since you can communicate WITH GOD through mediumship, why not with anyone else living in the Spirit world?

This whole business is just to get "your fortune told" and tell you what will happen anyhow.
No, it is not. The response to this question is very involved. To find out why there is more to it than "getting your fortune told" read Spiritualist Basics.

Why do certain religions, such as Christian fundamentalists, react so violently to Spiritualism? They believe that it is the "devil's doing", and you're sure to go to Hell if you believe in Spiritualism, or anything even remotely like it. Why do they attack it so?
This is purely my personal opinion here. I have a few thoughts and conjectures. For the sake of discussion, I will refer to these people as extremists (whether they are Christian, fundamentalist, both, or other is another issue altogether). Irate attacks on Spiritualism and a belief that Spiritualism is of the Devil are their typical assertions.

Extremists condemn what they fear and do not understand. Fear and ignorance are very powerful motivators. Attacks generated by fear and ignorance has been a recurrent theme throughout history. Our country was founded by pioneers who fled from such attacks. Religion has always been a target. Of course, if you don't learn from history you are condemned to repeat it. .

Perhaps they attack because they don't see the presence of God in Spiritualism. A common extremists viewpoint is that people are "just going off and doing whatever they want" without believing in God, but believing in "fortune tellers" instead. The conclusion is that since you have no belief in God, you are therefore of the Devil or an open opportunity for the "Devil's handiwork."

I can see where this point of view comes from. Psychics on the street corner or at the local bar certainly do not project a presence of God, but one of parlor games instead. The same can be said of psychic fairs and 900 lines.

Spirtualism believes in God. There are several Spiritualist organizations in the United States and other countries around the world. Although Spiritualist groups may have some differences in their beliefs, it is organized, albeit loosely. While I have had experience with only one Spiritualist organization, I belive that can speak for all when I say that Spiritualism as a religion does not support psychic readings in bars! These activities actually cheapen the religion. More likely, the religious aspect gets clouded over entirely, which is sad. Indeed, many people, even those who have been to psychics/readers/mediums/healers/what have you don't know what Spiritualism is really about and don't know that Spiritualism is an organized religion.

Actually, Spiritualism doesn't really support psychics. There are two methods of receiving information from the Spirit world, psychically and mediumistically. Spiritualism supports the mediumistic method. Spiritualism recognizes the psychic method but does not depend on it because psychic methods can lead to more inaccuracies than the mediumistic method. Just to make it confusing, the two terms sometimes get used interchangeably (especially in older literature), although they are not the same. For more information on psychics and mediums, read the FAQ.

For some extremists, it's a Jesus issue. Spiritualism is not Jesus-as-savior, so therefore it must be worthless. Jesus saved everyone, you have to believe in Jesus to be saved, and if you don't, then you're off to Hell.

Maybe it's a control issue. Commonly, the religions of extremist individuals are extremely rigid. Such religions tell their followers "this is what you will believe" and expect you to follow it without question, because that is the way it has always been. God is a static being surrounded by a static religion.

Mediumship is not static - it's dynamic. Bringing God into the here and now (let alone your deceased grandmother or uncle) is a threat to that static rigidity, and that makes them very uncomfortable. Extremists also wouldn't want to hear that Spiritualism encourages you to think for yourself, ask questions, and even (heaven forbid) doubt. This can become very threatening to someone who needs to have everything spelled out and set in stone.

If extremists found out that Spiritualism doesn't dictate on moral issues, they wouldn't like that either. Spiritualism uses Natural Law and Declaration of Principles, neither of which spell out exactly what you should do in a given moral situation, but do provide guidance. This is very irritating and unthinkable to those who must follow the exact dictates of others and are afraid to look inside themselves for the answers. Extremists would turn this into a negative and use it as ammunition, but they usually don't find out because they are too close-minded to listen and learn.

Negative experiences in their early attempts at mediumship may turn someone into an extremist. If you have no training and no one to teach you, and you then decide to go off and explore, you could run into problems. Someone who just opens themselves up to Spirit without any protection or training may attract some undeveloped spirits from the spirit world, and if those spirits scare you, lie to you, or take advantage of you, I doubt that you will think fondly of Spiritualism for a long time afterward, if ever.

It may be more likely that hearing scary stories of other people's experiences could be enough to turn someone into an extremist. All the "evil spirit" stuff on TV and in the movies that scares (and thrills) people doesn't help matters either. Too many people have stronger beliefs in TV and movies than they do in God. It's a shame. The same energy focused in a positive spiritual direction could make life in this world far better.

Usually, the extremists' argument is just based on their own assertions, repeated over and over again. I'm sorry, but you can tell me I'm going to hell fifty times. I didn't believe it the first time you said it, and forty-nine times later, I still don't believe you. The arrogance of someone forcing their beliefs on me really bothers me. I'm willing to show you what I believe, ask you to accept certain assumptions temporarily so you can understand what I believe, but I won't ever force you to believe it for yourself. That is up to you.

Perhaps the worst of it is that the attack comes when I have provoked no such attack in the first place. I have never heard of Spiritualism attacking another religion. I wish I could say that about other religions. It saddens me to think of all the people throughout history who have died because their religion provoked unwarranted persecution. So unnecessary!

How do you know that the spirit you're communicating with is who they say they are? Couldn't an evil spirit pretend to be a good one and trick you?
I call this the deception argument. I hate to sound like I'm picking on Christianity again, but the deception argument is a common one amongst Christians, and generally speaking, the more dyed-in-the-wool Christian a person is, the more tightly they stick to that argument. The problem is that there some delicate points to make regarding this issue, and when discussing it with someone with an axe to grind, they usually miss those delicate points.

Let me start with some blunt points and then refine them:

1. Spirit people do good and bad things, just like people do on the earth plane.
2. You could call spirit people who do enough bad things "evil" just like you would if they were on the earth plane.
3. Excessive fear of spirits deceiving you is paranoia.
4. Not enough fear of spirits deceiving you is naivety.
5. Spirits can present themselves to you as someone else (which is called impersonation).
6. Impersonation is frequently used for positive benefits, although it is true that it can be used for negative ones.
7. When you get a message from a medium whose content only you and the deceased could have known, you have proof that you are talking to the deceased person (actually, you're as close to having absolute proof as you're ever going to get).

1. & 2. Spirit people do good and bad things, just like people do on the earth plane. You could call spirit people who do enough bad things "evil" just like you would if they were on the earth plane.
Spirit people are people, just like us here on the earth plane. Some of us are "real good", others are "not so good", and there are all shades of gray in between. When you first get over there, you are the same person as when you left. Over time, you might change, but some things like your basic personality will pretty much stay the same indefinitely. You have to deal with spirit people just like you do with people on the earth plane - some you like, others you don't.

3. & 4. Excessive fear of spirits deceiving you is paranoia. Not enough fear of spirits deceiving you is naivety.
This is the delicate part. 3 & 4 are the two extremes of the same issue - trust. The place to be is somewhere in the middle - nott paranoid, not niave, but eyes open and critically thinking for yourself. Real objectivity requires that you are willing to listen to what you hear and willing to make your own judgements about it. Actually, the best way is to not judge at all initially, but to keep your eyes open and draw conclusions from what you see happen over time. Dyed-in-the-wool Christians have a very hard time with this because they want to jump up and down and say "you could be deceived!". In an absolute sense, they are right, but realistically, I don't think of it as a big deal. For example, if some "evil" spirit appeared to me as someone of notoriety such as God or Jesus and told me to jump off a bridge, I'm not about to do it - I decide things for myself, it's against my moral code, and it doesn't matter who's telling me to do such a foolish thing. The bottom line is that I'm not going to let somebody lead me someplace where I don't want to go.

5. & 6. Spirits can present themselves to you as someone else (which is called impersonation). Impersonation is frequently used for positive benefits, although it is true that it can be used for negative ones.
People get very upset at the idea of impersonation because they immediately thing of the negative aspects of it. There more than enough of the negative - there's no need to explain it, many of the movies will do that for you.

Let's drop that for a minute and focus on a positive example. Let's say that we have a woman who is very dyed-in-the-wool Christian, and there is a spirit person who wants to work her for healing purposes. The spirit person is truly on the up-and-up. The woman isn't going to accept anyone who isn't Christian, and the spirit person really wants to work with her because of the positive benefits that their teamwork can bring. The spirit essentially has three choices - appear as Jesus, God, or the Holy Ghost. Jesus is the best choice because the woman expects Jesus to look like a man, which is easy for her to accept. The spirit person chooses Jesus, the woman finds this acceptable, and the two of them to get right to the real work, which is healing.

Why is Jesus the best choice? If the choice was God or the Holy Ghost, the spirit person would have to appear as something that meant God or the Holy Ghost to the woman. A king on a throne is a common Christian image of God, and a flame is a common Christian image for the Holy Ghost. The spirit person could appear as either one of these to her. But Jesus is the best choice because he looks like a common man, which is easy for her to relate to. Also, the Bible is full of accounts of Jesus healing the sick.

Remember that the spirit person is NOT God or the Holy Ghost, but has to appear as if they are because that's what the woman is predisposed to seeing. Due to lmitations at the woman's end, impersonation is required if any healing is to be done.

Impersonation of this kind is very common because the spirit people want to accomplish good things and they don't want their identity to get in the way of the good work. In the example, if the spirit person was actually a Hindu or a Wiccan, and appeared that way to the woman, she'd probably never accept it, no matter how capable or well intended the spirit person was. The spirit person's identity just became a roadblock in the path of the healing, and it will be a never-ending battle trying to gain credibility with her. It is more efficient to take the woman's limitations into account and appear as someone she will accept so that the healing can take place.

Healing is beautiful, and that's the positive benefit. The impersonation is a side step on the way to the positive benefit. How do you know that the person is on the up-and-up? Well, in an absolute sense, you don't, but, someone who wants to do healing through you is probably a better person than someone who wants you to jump off a bridge. It's a matter of trust. Not blind trust, but trust with open ears and eyes. If you're looking for absolutes, you're going to have a hard time dealing with this. They're not there. We are talking about relationships - in this case between you and your spirit people, and there are few absolutes in any relationships.

7. When you get a message from a medium whose content only you and the deceased could have known, you have proof that you are talking to the deceased person (actually, you're as close to having absolute proof as you're ever going to get).
The proof is in the pudding. It's not going to be absolute proof because you just can't get that - it's a one way trip from here to there, so you don't get to come back with the answers. The question becomes one of reasonableness and trust.

Realistically, there's no way that I can tell you with absolute certainty that the spirit people are who they say they are, and that they aren't deceiving you. The sad part is that some people drop the whole thing right there and call it worthless. Often they use less kind terms.

Honestly, I can't convince people that the spirits are who they say they are, nor do I want to. Besides, why should you take my word for it? For that matter, why should you take anyone's word for it? Experience things for yourself and make up your own mind - it is the best way. What you learn will be truly yours, and it will be worth much more to you than the words of others or attempts by others to prove it to you. Far too many people are willing to be led by what others tell them, instead of thinking for themselves. Thinking for yourself is more work, but it is infinitely worth it. Be sure to keep an open mind.