Mediumship

Mediumship (or channelling) is the art and practice of the medium, an individual who acts as the host body, willingly or not, through which a force, such as a spirit or outside intelligence, acts to produce an effect. The three general classes of mediumship are trance mediumship, mental mediumship, and physical mediumship.

Trance

Trance mediumship is a form of mediumship that involves the medium entering into a trance state, becoming a passive receiver through which an outside control is enabled to write, speak, or otherwise transmit an effect. This is distinguished from mental mediumship, where the medium is alert and awake, and engages with the entity or phenomena directly via clairvoyance or some other means.

Trance mediums

Babbitt, Elwood (The Medium of Massachusetts)
Buddington, Thomas Cushman (The Faraday Medium)
Ford, Arthur
Hill, Ethel P.
Lee, Gloria
Mansfield, Henry
Matteson, Antonette
Muller, Catherine Elise (a.k.a. Hélène Smith)
Norman, Ernest
O'Hare, Elizabeth (Elizabeth the Transcriber)
Probert, Mark
Randolph, Paschal Beverly
Scott, Cora L.V. (Hatch, Daniels, Tappan, Richmond)
Sherman, M. L.
Van Duzee, C. C.

Mental

Mental mediumship involves the medium retaining full awareness and utilising their own psychical abilities, including clairvoyance or clairaudience, to engage with an outside force, such as a spirit or psychic communicator.

Clairvoyants and other mental mediums

See also: Clairvoyants for Hire. It is worth noting that many clairvoyants and the like similarly boasted their abilities as trance mediums and physical mediums, such that it may be difficult to entirely split the groups neatly or evenly.

Physical

Physical mediumship involves the medium acting as a conduit for physical manifestations of psychic phenomena, as is seen in demonstrations of the spirit trumpet voice, ghost lights, levitation, apportation and materialization of objects, among others.

Physical mediums

Sambor, S. F.