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About Spirit Communication
While the contents of these messages provide plenty of controversy on their own, the method in which they came to us is equally subject to discussion and debate. Much of the controversy surrounding spirit communication or "mediumship" is due to the fact that the entire subject has been all but unmentionable in the Christian world for many centuries—often under penalty of death. And although the practice of burning mediums and witches at the stake has thankfully stopped, Christian churches continue to misrepresent the Bible as being "anti-mediumship," and continue to instruct their members that spirit communication is a “tool of the devil.” Small wonder that many people in Western society recoil at the very mention of the word mediumship. Only in the last hundred fifty years have people been able to (more) freely discuss and research spirit communication, and as a result, it is a field of research still very much in its infancy. Even as we enjoy some of its wonderful blessings, and begin to acknowledge it as a provision of God for the happiness of His children, we are acutely aware of how much we don't yet know about spirit communication. Much more could be said, but for now it might be helpful to explain one basic fact: In the form of mediumship utilized in these writings, the contents of the communication is always influenced or “flavored” by the mind of the mortal medium. The reason for this is simple: these spirit-authors maintain complete respect for the freewill and autonomy of the mortal medium, and so never completely “take control” of the medium. So, when we read a message from Jesus delivered through James Padgett, it will be readily apparent that the thoughts of Jesus have been "filtered" through the mind, vocabulary, and thought patterns of James Padgett. And the same can be said of any “good” (i.e. respectful) spirit, writing or speaking through any mortal. It might seem that this principle would produce an unacceptable element of unreliability in mediumship, since one could never be sure which thoughts came from the spirit and which from the mortal, but there is a remedy: If the same spirit were to write through a number of different mediums (as Jesus has), one would be able to detect which parts of the communication stay unchanged regardless of the medium being used, and conversely, which parts seem to be peculiar to only one medium. This same strategy of redundancy was also used while delivering messages through Padgett, a single concept being repeated many times over the course of years, so that even if it was not perfectly expressed in one message, through repetition the meaning was eventually made clear. After reading some of the Padgett channelings, it may be helpful to compare them with some of the writings in the "Contemporary Mediumship" section. There one can see how, while the "flavoring" of the medium changes, the message remains the same...
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