So You Want to be a Medium? A down-to-Earth Guide by Rose Vanden Eynden. Llewellyn Publications: St. Paul, MN. 2006.

I feel deceived.

I do, I really do. Although this title does fit this book, it does leave out one very important aspect which is spelled out more when you read the back cover. This book is written from the point of view of a Spiritualist, which in itself isn’t a problem, but shouldn’t the title reflect the point of view this book is being written?

On the back it is stated:

Informative and positive, this book is respectful of all religious
and spiritual belief systems.

Yet the author writes on page 211:

If they are afraid because of their belief system, assure them
you are doing nothing that in any way undermines the
teachings of the Bible and other sacred texts. Many Christian
denominations get upset about the idea of mediumship and
after-death communications.

And then goes on to explain that Spiritualist believe Jesus was the ultimate medium. Well Spiritualist might, but I found this statement to be just plain wrong. I talked to several Christians on whether or not they found this statement offensive or not, and yes, every single one did. It goes totally against what they were taught. Just because you tell someone you are being respectful, doesn’t mean they will take your words in that matter.


I had one other problem. Something rubbed me the wrong way throughout this entire book, part of that being the way the terms “spirit”, “god”, and “creator” were used --- throughout the entire book they are all capitalized and used as proper nouns. This just didn’t sit well with me, it’s difficult to explain why but I will attempt to using the word “spirit” as an example. I’ve been known to talk with spirits myself, and that’s exactly how I would say it. “I’ve talked with spirits.” It may be a spirit I don’t know, or the spirit of a relative, but I have talked with spirits. Now, the author uses the term a little bit differently. In her style, the above would have said, “I’ve talked with Spirit”. Do you see the difference? As I said I don’t even know really why this bothered me so much, but it just left me with an uncomfortable feeling. I am assuming the terms are used the way they are because of the Spiritualist point of view.

The author also stated, that she didn’t believe mediumship was a gift, but an ability we all have and just need to learn how to use it. I have a hard time with that concept too. I know plenty of people who have tried mightily to commune with spirits while others have never tried – yet hear them all the time. If mediumship is not a gift, how can this be explained?

The author does explain a lot about finding your guides and learning to work with them, and gives these guides different categorical names. Overall the book would probably be extremely beneficial to someone wanting to learn to be a medium in the Spiritualist view, however I think the subtitle to this book should have been “A Spiritualist Guide”.

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Created Dec 27, 2009 at 12:00am • Submit your own review...