As the author of a book on psychic mediums, I think it is important that I tell you a little secret about the “people” behind the gift. Well, there I go giving the secret away already: psychic mediums are people, not enlightened beings from beyond. It is important for the public to know this, and it is important for mediums that the public knows this, too.

Out of the twenty-five or so top psychic mediums I know from around the world, a few smoke cigarettes and are trying to quit, a couple struggle with their weight, a couple suffer with anxiety, some are threatened by the success of other mediums, a few of them wrestle with money issues, several have physical ailments or conditions, one suffers with depression, and almost every one of them has fears and insecurities that are no different than your average person’s.

Apparently, mediums are human too. They also need to learn as they go—just like us. Although we may associate their gift as existing to help others, that is partly our selfish perspective. It is selfish because we want to believe they are here to help us, to provide us with messages from the other side. It is selfish because that perspective does not allow mediums to also be human. Their gift is helpful to others, but that is not their only purpose for living. They also exist to be sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, grandparents, friends, coworkers and so on. The public needs to allow mediums to be human.

Mediums are souls that have come into this world to learn and grow just like the rest of us. If they were all-knowing, they would be God. But they are not all-knowing. They lose their keys. They get in car accidents. They get lost in strange places. They make mistakes. They have needs. And they get worried and nervous just like every other human being on this earth. They even grieve when someone they know crosses-over to the spirit world.

Yes, they grieve the loss of loved-ones. Sure they have the ability to communicate with the other side, but they can’t conjure up anyone anytime they choose. Their loved-one’s spirit may visit them sometime, but there is no guarantee. Some mediums go years without contact from a parent, spouse or child. Why? Who knows? Perhaps they needed time to grieve. The point I want to make is that mediums also grieve the earthly death of people they know and love. They grieve the physical loss—the hugs, their physical presence and for lovers, the lovemaking—and they grieve the companionship of their loved-ones.

Many mediums need to see another medium if they wish to communicate with their deceased loved-ones. Strangely, most mediums I know do not consult with other mediums. I know only a few who do. But many have told me it is something they would like to do if they could find more time. Gee, that sounds like something every other human being would say.

Generally, from my experience knowing mediums and studying mediums, they know as little about themselves as we do. In other words, mediums can guide us by communicating with our spirit-guides; but when it comes to their own personal matters, they have about as much insight as any other human being. A few get a little guidance from communicating with their own spirit-guides, but they don’t get all the answers. In fact, they don’t get much more than you and I can get using our own intuition.

To enhance your understanding of why mediums are as limited in their insight concerning themselves as we are, let me explain an important point. We come to this place called earth to learn and experience things. This leads to growth—spiritual growth. If mediums knew everything about themselves, they wouldn’t make mistakes and they wouldn’t fail. Without failure and mistakes, they wouldn’t learn and grow. So what would be the point? Do you think mediums are only here to assist other people through life? They are here to help us, but that is not their only purpose. They are also here to learn their own lessons before returning home to the spirit world.

The truth is that we can’t learn everything from our spirit-guides. My own guides have explained to me (through mediums) that if they told me everything there would be no point to it all. We learn from our successes and failures. We learn from our good and bad choices—often in hindsight, unfortunately. If someone told us exactly what we should do every step of the way, there would be no successes and no failures in our relationships, in business or in our personal development. There would be no successes because we couldn’t take credit for doing something that we were told or guided to do, something that was sure to lead us to success. And there would be no failures because our guides would always be telling us how to succeed. How boring and uneducational would that be?

Imagine going to a casino in Las Vegas and knowing you could not lose. You would win playing the slot machines. You would win playing craps. You would win playing poker. You would win playing Keno. What fun would that be? How much money do you really need? I can assure you that after a while you would just get bored with the winning and go home. The only reason it might sound great to you now is because you have not had that experience, you actually know what it is like to lose at the casino. But if all you ever did was win, how often would you go to the casino? You would have all the money you could spend. So winning would lose its novelty.

Our spirit-guides communicate to us through mediums for a variety of reasons. One reason is to get us on track if we have fallen off our path. But they won’t tell us everything. You could visit a medium every day of your life, but you will still meet with obstacles, tragedies and hardships.

Some people question with anger, “Why didn’t my spirit-guides warn me about this?” The answer is simple: because you needed to go through the experience to learn and grow. You might not understand it today or while you are going through it, but it is not always for us to understand. When we finally “know” that we do move on beyond death, that there is an afterlife, and that we come to this earthly existence to learn and grow, we begin to trust that these learning experiences are important even if they suck while we are experiencing them.

Mediums are people too. And they need to grow, and they need to learn from their mistakes, failures and successes. Think of a mouse in a maze. If you place a mouse in a maze, the mouse will slowly find its way to the food using trial and error. After a few times using the same maze, the mouse will quickly find its way to the food. If the maze doesn’t change, the mouse will grow fat and lazy. It will be bored. It will be overfed. The mouse’s life will be absent of challenges.

Life is no different than a maze. Sometimes we are seeking food. Sometimes we are seeking love, companionship, security, health, happiness or abundance. If we knew the exact route to each of these things, life would get boring very quickly just like at the casino. But instead, life provides us with a new maze and new goals often. It keeps our existence interesting. It keeps us learning, stretching and growing.

What happens to a lot of people when they retire, lose their immobility or go into a nursing home? They get bored. Some even die from that boredom. They lose their reason to get out of bed in the morning. What went wrong? They stopped growing. They had no new goals to achieve. They made no mistakes and never failed because it was the same maze day after day. The food was in the same spot every time they got hungry. Just like the casino, it got boring. Some of these people get so bored that they lose their will to live. All their needs are met at every moment—that is, their physical needs are met; not their psychological and emotional needs to learn, grow and be challenged in life.

Just like you and me, mediums have their own individual mazes. Mediums are no different than the rest of us. They have a gift but so do pianists and painters and teachers and hairdressers and accountants. We all have something we are good at, something that sets us apart from the crowd. Just because a medium’s gift seems to fall within the spiritual realm of human abilities, that does not make them any more enlightened or spiritual than you or me. The artist’s and musician’s gifts are also incredibly spiritual, but we don’t hold them up as enlightened beings. And we don’t expect them to be all-knowing or perfect. We shouldn’t place these expectations upon mediums either. Mediums are people too. And as someone who knows many gifted mediums, I must admit that it is their human qualities that make them most special.

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For more articles by Bob Olson, visit www.ofspirit.com/bobolson.htm 

BOB OLSON is a former skeptic and private investigator who has researched evidence of life after death for approximately seven years. He now shares the spiritual insights, extraordinary experiences and gifted practitioners he has met along his journey to assist others with their own spiritual growth. Bob is the author of Win The Battle, How To Beat Depression, and co-author of Understanding Spirit, Understanding Yourself. He is also the editor of OfSpirit.com Magazine, GriefAndBelief.com, BestPsychicMediums.com & HowToBeatDepression.com.